Page 70 of Cruel Prep (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 1)

I want to lick her skin and taste her. I want to take a bite of that lower lip and slide my hands down her lean legs. I want to slip inside of her to the hilt and watch her shudder beneath me.

It’s more than getting my rocks off. I want to see her smile … and that is the scariest part of all.

Thatis definitely not part of the plan.

“Has anyone asked you about the collar?”

“No.” She answers quickly and sits up in her seat, her fingers drumming on her bare thigh. “Why? Should they be? I mean, do people around here know what this means?”

“The collar?”

“The necklace,” she corrects. “The lock.”

I wish they did. If people did know, I wouldn’t have to worry about Lily as much as I do. A lot of the scum in this town know not to mess with my family and not to touch what is mine.

Though, it could also be a danger. I don’t exactly have enemies, but there are plenty of people who don’t like me enough that they’d want to fuck with me through Lily.

The Hell Princes being one such group.

“No. No one knows what it means.”

She reaches up and strokes the locket between her thumb and forefinger, her brow furrowed. “So, you’ve never given anyone something like this before? I’m the first?”

I realize suddenly that I should have lied.

“I just don’t broadcast my private shit. That’s all I meant.”

“Cora told me you don’t date,” Lily says. “She told me I was different. I thought it was all bullshit after she turned on me, but … was it? Or was she telling the truth about that? About us?”

Shit, shit, shit.

Alarm bells are ringing in my head, warning me that my next words matter. A lot.

My goal is to wear Lily down. To make her question her own actions and choices. To make her an unreliable source for all information regarding me and my family and my friends.

If she takes information about me to the police, I want her to look like a woman scorned. But more than that, I want her to be so beaten down and confused by everything that she is too afraid to go to the police. I want her to question whether she is guilty in some way, and ultimately, leave.

That’s what I’m supposed to want, anyway.

That’s what my dad wants.

I take the next turn hard, making Lily grip the door to keep from slamming into it, and snort. “You aren’t special if that’s what you’re suggesting.”

“I wasn’t,” she says quickly, her voice high, betraying her. That’s exactly what she thought.

“I’ve told you that I’m no hero, Lily. I’m not the good guy, and I’m not going to become the good guy if you simply love me hard enough.”

“I don’t love you!”

I wave a hand and continue, ignoring her. “What we have is physical. It benefits me, and when it doesn’t do that anymore, it’s over. This isn’t a relationship.”

“That isn’t what I want,” she snaps, arms crossed over her chest. “That isn’t what I’m saying.”

We are in the industrial portion of downtown, and I pull into a lot between two buildings and park in the dark of the alley.

When I turn the ignition off and turn towards Lily, she refuses to meet my eyes.

“Isn’t it, though?”

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