Page 12 of Cruel Academy (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 2)

We’ve reached the corner where I left Red.

Fuck.I was right. She’s gone.

“Thanks a fucking lot,” I scowl under my breath.

Haley quickly deduces why I’m frowning. Her eyes narrow, the blue turning electric, bright enough I almost don’t need a light.

“Oh, dear, Caleb Wilson won’t get to stick his cock in another card girl,” she sasses. “Pity. How ever will the world continue to spin?”

I clench my fist, but I’m not sure if it’s because I’m annoyed or because the way she said ‘cock’ makes mine twitch.

“You don’t know the first thing about where I stick my cock.”

She laughs bitterly. “The way I hear it, you stick your cock in half the girls who come to this shithole.” She waves her hand at the building behind us to indicate the underground fights.

She’s not wrong. But I’m getting pissed off anyways.

I saved her from that shitheel Hell Prince—the second time in a year I’ve bailed the irritating Miss Cochran out of a bad situation—and she’s rewarded me by scaring off tonight’s piece of ass and refusing to leave me alone.

More importantly, I want to tell her to stop saying ‘cock.’ It is becoming a distraction.

Because as much as I wish it was true, Haley isn’t bad-looking herself.

She’s wearing a black hoodie pulled over her head, but it’s cropped short so I can see a slice of tan belly just above her ripped, skintight jeans.

She’s got curves in all the right places. And the way she’s jutting her hip out to the side shows enough of her ass to stir my cock to serious attention.

But if I had one word to respond to the invitation her body is throwing me right now, it would be “no.”

If I had two words, they’d be “fuck no.”

I put my neck out for Haley Cochran once before.

She repaid me with fuck-all.

So I’m done. Done with her. Done with damsels in distress.

And most of all, done with this conversation.

“You’ve ruined my night already. Do we really need to continue ruining it further?”

She rolls her eyes. “You think you’re such hot shit. Go ahead, strut off into the night and go cruising for some other brainless bimbo to fuck.”

“I’d like to do exactly that, but last I checked, there was an irritating girl standing in my way.”

I move to take a step around her, but she cuts me off again.

Jesus fucking Christ.I’m about a millisecond away from picking this girl up and launching her into the stratosphere.

“What the hell do you want from me?” I snarl.

“You could act like a human being for literally one second. It wouldn’t kill you, you know.”

I lean in close. Really close. Close enough for her face to take up my whole field of vision. For her to smell my sweat, my testosterone, and to see how fully done I am with talking to her.

“But I’m not a human being, Haley Cochran. I’m a fucking animal. And if you don’t get out of my way right this second, I’ll show you exactly what that means.”

I don’t touch her, but there is a current moving between us. Half an inch separates our bodies. I can feel heat coming off her in waves. The air seems to tremble around her, radiating her every emotion.

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