Page 121 of Kings & Corruption

It’s me.

Against all odds, the words had made me feel safe. I remembered the way his arms had felt around me when I’d woken up from the nightmare, when he’d saved me in the woods.

And then, I thought of something else, the thread that had been bugging me earlier, the worry I couldn’t quite grasp.

How had Neo known I was in the trees? There was no trail there, no way for him to stumble upon me racing through the dense trees in that part of the forest.

Which meant it had either been a coincidence… or he’d been looking for me in a place I shouldn’t have been.

I thought back to that night, picturing him, and saw him in black jeans and a black sweater.

Had he brought a ski mask?

My heart thudded in my chest. Had Neo broken through the trees to lap me because I’d been getting closer to the party?

Because he’d been the one chasing me?

Chapter55

Willa

“You sure you don’t want to come sit with us?” Oscar asked in the cafeteria the following week.

“I’m sure,” I grumbled.

They were back to walking me to class, and since Rock had exams, Oscar had been my private security detail that day. I was itching to put some distance between us, if only to prove to myself that I hadn’t been totally converted by the Kings.

Sitting at another lunch table was starting to feel like my final stand.

“Suit yourself,” Oscar said, casually dropping a kiss on my lips. “Offer’s always open.”

“Thanks.” I watched him take a seat next to a petite redhead who blushed when he glanced her way and I started to second-guess myself, then pushed back the impulse to join them.

I didn’t need to piss all over the Kings to let everyone know they were mine. They weren’t mine, and I didn’t even want them to be mine.

Well, I didn’t want Neo anyway.

Liar.

I ignored the whisper in my head, but I couldn’t keep myself from looking for him at the table. I found him right away, his dark head a few inches taller than the other guys at the table, a navy T-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders

I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t happy to see that the blonde wasn’t there today.

“Willa!”

I followed Claire’s voice to our table and slid in next to her.

“It’s okay, you know,” she said.

“What is?” I asked.

“If you want to sit with the Kings,” she said. “I wouldn’t blame you, and it looks like you’re definitely on the guest list.”

“What do you mean?” I turned to the Kings’ table and saw that Neo was staring at me across the cafeteria. I had a flash of memory: his arms around me in my bed, the smooth skin of his bare chest, the smell of cologne and smoke.

It would have been so easy to pull him back onto the mattress with me, to —

Nope. Not going there. My stupid cunt was begging for him, but my brain was in charge.

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