Page 29 of Cruel Academy (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 2)

Her hair is bound into a thick ponytail at the back of her head, but wild curls spill free around her temples and the base of her neck.

“We’re only seeing a lot of each other because you seem to be under the impression that you can blackmail me.”

“Blackmail is a strong word. It’s more like … encouragement.”

My body is sticky with sweat from practice, and I don’t want to be doing this.

Not with her. Not here.

I tip forward onto my toes, towering over her. Her throat bobs with nervousness. “In that case, I ‘encourage’ you to get out of my face before you get hurt.”

I turn to go back into the house, but Haley jogs around me, her chest bouncing with the movement.

This girl honestly has no sense of self-preservation. If she was smart, she’d be running in the opposite direction.

“Don’t do that,” I growl.

Haley takes a step forward, her blue eyes wide. “You won’t hurt me.”

Refusing to back down, I take a step forward, too. I can feel the heat rolling off her body, and I can smell the fruity musk of her sweat. It should be disgusting, but annoyingly, it is anything but.

“You’ve never been more wrong.”

Her tongue darts out to wet her lower lip. “Any guy who steps up to protect a girl he doesn’t know from a handsy guy—twice—is not the kind of guy who puts his hands on women in his spare time.”

“You don’t know me.”

Haley takes a deep breath, and her chest brushes against mine. “Yes, I do.”

She barely finishes the sentence before my hand is wrapped around her wrist. I spin her around, ignoring her yelp of surprise, twist her arm behind her back, and wrap my other arm around her bare stomach to pull her back tightly against my front.

“No,” I hiss in her ear, “you don’t.”

Her body is trembling against mine, and it’s doing nothing for the problem in my shorts, but I can’t think about that now.

Haley thinks she knows me.

She thinks she understands what she is getting herself into.

But she has no idea.

I’ve kept my secrets safe for this long. She sure as fuck isn’t going to be the one to mess that up.

Haley’s breaths come in ragged gasps. She tries to pull her arm free, but I tighten my hold.

It doesn’t take much strength. She really is weak.

I feel the moment her surprise shifts to panic. Her entire body goes rigid with fear. She freezes up, and her breathing turns frantic.

Before I can really think about what I’m doing, I spin her around and look into her eyes. The black of her pupils has eaten away at the bright blue. She is an animal trapped in a cage, a mouse caught in a trap. Helpless and terrified.

“Is all of this because of Bumper?”

Bumper.That’s what her ex-boyfriend went by. I could spend the next hundred years thinking of idiotic nicknames and still not come up with anything stupider.

The question seems to break through the fog of her fear. She swallows and nods, slight color coming back into her cheeks.

“It’s a little late for that, don’t you think? You two aren’t even dating anymore.”

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