Page 14 of Revenge of a Queen

He’s right. Marcus isn’t touching her. She’s in his lap, stroking her hand up and down his chest but his hands aren’t on her. One hangs down by his side and the other grips the table and his eyes are solely focused on me.

“That could mean anything,” I say weakly.

“Care to test that theory, princess?” Jace replies with a gleeful tone.

“What do you mean?” I ask, turning to focus on him and without warning he pulls me close and tucks my hair behind my ear. My eyes shoot wide in panic until Marcus’ voice booms across the cafeteria before I can even take another breath.

“Hurry up and sit down,” he shouts, sounding pissed.

Jace smirks at me and I can’t help but return it.

“Hear that tone, princess? I can feel his jaw tensing from all the way over here and all I did was touch your hair,” he laughs, as he puts his arm fully around my shoulders and starts towards the table, “Come on, this is gonna be fun.”

We approach the table slowly; I feel every eye on us as we take our seats. I choose the seat directly across from Marcus and both Jace and Lincoln forego the chairs next to him and sit on either side of me instead. It feels like a bold statement.

Marcus snorts a laugh, “Asher not enough for you, you had to take Jace too? You already got your claws into one of my brothers, now, you’ve got both I see,” he says, cocking his head to the side like he is trying to assess the new dynamic here. Good fucking luck with that, I have barely worked it out myself.

“You’re the one who left us without a word, Marcus,” I say trying to stay calm while also imagining breaking every one of Cherry’s fingers. She is still lazily dragging her fingertips up and down his torso and I squash down the feeling of snapping each one.

“Oh, and you’d know all about leaving, wouldn’t you?” he replies with a smirk “I just took a page from the Elle King playbook.”

“You're being ridiculous,” I say in exasperation, as I rub circles on the ever-increasing pounding in my temples.

“You three are the ones acting all cosy,” he snaps, finally losing a bit of his cool.

“Because we are friends,” I sound out the words slowly to insinuate how dumb he is being before adding, “And that's really rich considering you are practically getting a fucking lap dance from little miss porno here,” I grit back.

“It’s Cherry,” the girl in question pipes up, like the worst thing I just did was not get her name right. I am not usually one for tearing into other girls but right now I am too mad to care about female solidarity.

“I literally couldn't care less,” I snap back at her.

But before she can even defend herself Marcus cuts in, “She’s hardly a pornstar, just because you opened your legs at fourteen doesn’t mean everyone else does!”

Bang. His words hit me like a fucking gun shot as they smack me right in the gut. I feel both the guys tense next to me at his words, but I feel nothing. I stand up so quick, my chair falls backwards and the clang of it hitting the floor halts the entire cafeteria, until every eye is on us.

“I’m done,” I say simply, I can’t sit here and play nice with him, not if he is going to spout shit like that. Anyone else would receive a knife in the fucking crotch for those kinds of comments. One more word like that and he will be lucky if he’s even got a dick to get up for fucking Cherry here. I am ready to get fucking stabby.

“Well, that was easier than you are,” he replies smugly.

Before I can even respond Jace jumps out of his seat and drags Marcus across the table by the collar of his jacket.

Unphased by him Marcus adds, “Woah, King, that pussy must really be good, if it can get a reaction from our resident playboy here,” a devilish smirk curving his lips. The punch is so fast I barely see it coming, Marcus definitely didn’t. The force of it causes his head to swing to the side and blood to spit out of his mouth.

“You can be a real fucking asshole, Marcus,” Jace seethes at him but Marcus just laughs and that’s when it hits me.

I bend down getting close enough to smell his breath, “Are you drunk?” I ask him in a low tone so only me and the guys can hear.

“None of your fucking business,” he spits back at me, only enhancing the whiskey on his breath. Fuck. I huff out a breath as I stand and look to Lincoln, “Take him home, he needs to rest.”

Lincoln nods and leans down to help him up, ignoring Marcus’ attempts to push him away as he mutters traitor under his breath. Once he is on his feet, he goes to lead him away when Jace stops him with a firm grip on his arm.

“One day, you will learn what that was for and you’ll wish I would have done worse to you,” he says, through gritted teeth before he looks at me and nods as he walks away.

I watch as they leave with Cherry running after them. Fuck this Monday!

Chapter 8

JACE

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