Page 17 of Princess of Hawthorne Prep

Maybe I should have.

All the telltale signs were there, and I turned a blind eye and ignored them. Jasper wants to break me. He won’t be happy until I crawl back and beg his forgiveness. Then, he’ll put a collar around my neck so that everyone knows I’m his pet.

I straighten my shoulders and stand a little straighter.

I’ll be damned if that happens.

A slow smile spreads across his lips as he lounges against the locker next to mine and folds his arms across his chest. Once upon a time, such a smile aimed in my direction would have had my belly stirring with butterflies.

Now, it makes me sick to my stomach.

“To see how you’re doing.”

That’s all it takes for my temper to explode. My hands clench uselessly at my sides as I whirl around. “How do you think I’m doing? You took pictures of me in compromising situations and made sure everyone at school saw them.” I step closer before stabbing a finger into his hard chest. “I don’t even remember talking to you Friday night.” My eyes narrow as my mind spins, trying to latch onto a plausible explanation. “What did you do? Drug me?”

With a loud snort, he rolls his eyes. “Please, you were totally trashed. It’s not my fault you can’t hold your liquor and blacked out. You were hanging all over me, begging for my forgiveness.” He throws an arm wide. “Ask anyone who was there and they’ll tell you.” He leans closer until his warm breath can feather across my lips. “What was I supposed to do when you begged to suck my cock? Turn you down?”

He’s lying.

He has to be.

There’s no way in hell I’d go anywhere near Jasper after everything he’s put me through. After I spent weeks contemplating how to escape our relationship. And he wants me to believe that I begged to give him a blow job?

The thought is enough to have bile rising in my throat.

“No,” I whisper, refusing to consider one word that comes out of his mouth.

He shoots me a wounded look. “And here I thought we were back together. How disappointing.”

I suppress a shudder. “That’s never going to happen.”

“I’d be careful about making promises you can’t keep,” he singsongs.

When he reaches out and trails a finger along the curve of my jaw, I bat his hand away and take a swift step in retreat.

Even though it’s dangerous to turn my back on him, I swing toward my locker and grab a stack of books that will get me through my morning classes before slamming the door shut.

Just as I attempt to dart around him, he slides in front of me, blocking my escape and pushing me in the chest. Not expecting the shove, I stumble backward. His hand slices through the air, hits my books, and knocks them to the floor where they scatter at my feet. Papers fly into the flow of traffic before being trampled. My eyes widen when he advances, pressing me into the cold metal until I’m left with no other choice but to flatten against the locker.

A nasty glint lights up his gray eyes as if he’s enjoying this interaction.

“You know what I can’t figure out?” he rasps.

My heart slams painfully into my ribcage. It doesn’t escape me that there are dozens of witnesses, and not one damn person can be bothered to step in and stop Jasper from accosting me.

Instead of responding, my lips stay pressed together in a thin, tight line. We both know it’s a rhetorical question.

“Why do you think you’re so much better than me? You live in a fucking dump, drive a piece of shit, and don’t have two nickels to rub together. You wouldn’t be here without your precious scholarship.”

His growled-out words turn my blood to ice.

He presses closer until my breasts are smashed against the hard lines of his chest. “You walk around here like you’re some kind of princess, when in reality, you’re not good enough to lick my shoes.”

My tongue darts out to moisten my lips. “That’s not true.”

It takes effort to tamp down the fear rampaging through my system. The scent of it will incite further violence. It’s only now that we’re broken up that I realize what Jasper Morgan is fully capable of.

And that’s anything.

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