Defiant Princess: A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance (Boys of Oak Park Prep Book 2)

by Callie Rose

  I was surprised he’d asked, that he’d openly acknowledged that awful moment in our history. We didn’t talk about it often, although it colored almost every interaction I had with the Princes.

  “That depends,” I said evenly. “Are you planning to wreck my life again?”

  “No, Tal.” His gaze was serious, his voice even more so. “I told you. That’s over. Never again.”

  He had told me that. And I had told him to prove it, to try to win back my trust by demonstrating over and over that I could trust him.

  And he had. He’d done exactly that ever since the day I’d broken his phone.

  But I’d also told him it might never be enough. That I might never stop waiting for the other shoe to drop, for them to twist everything that had once seemed beautiful and good into something awful and destructive. And as he took in my expression, I could tell he knew I was still waiting. That I still didn’t trust.

  A flash of sadness passed over his features, but then he squared his broad shoulders. He leaned across the table and pressed a kiss to my cheek, his breath warm against my skin as he murmured in a low voice, “It’s okay. I’ll keep trying.”

  Then he pulled back and picked up one of the brochures on the table, making an exaggerated show of studying it intently as he walked away. I shook my head, smiling in spite of myself at the goofball. It was moments like those that made me want to pretend this could all be okay, that there really could be a reset button, a chance for me and the Princes to start over.

  I glanced over the crowd again as Finn walked away, catching sight of Cole and his family. His little sister had come too, and my heart jumped with a strange sort of recognition. After hearing Cole talk about her and what I’d read about her, I felt like I knew her already. Penny was holding tightly onto their mom’s hand—the petite, almost frail-looking woman I’d seen at the awards ceremony.

  As they moved through the crowd closer to my table, my stomach dipped. There was a purple mark on Cole’s face that I was sure hadn’t been there when I’d seen him earlier in the day.

  He hadn’t gotten it from the royals’ fight club, and I was sure he hadn’t walked into a fucking door.

  His dad had hit him.

  It was ballsy, in a sick-as-fuck way, to go for the face like that—especially before “Parent Appreciation Night”. My dad had generally kept his targets where no one else would see them, only going for the face when he was really drunk or lost control.

  My hands started to shake as the four of them made their way past me, as I watched Mr. Mercer lean down and speak in a low voice into Cole’s ear, his face a stony mask. I tried to reorganize the pamphlets in front of me, tapping a stack of them against the table, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Cole and his family.

  His mom kept her gaze cast down, gripping Penny’s hand tightly, and I wanted to yell at her to stand up for her son, but the petite woman looked like she’d blow over in a strong breeze. No wonder Cole was on his own.

  The black-haired boy glanced over at me as he passed, and I saw a blank look in his eyes as his gaze slid over me without stopping. His dad reached up, grabbing the back of Cole’s neck in a hard grip, and I felt like I was going to barf.

  I knew all of this.

  Recognized every bit of it.

  The restraint his dad showed because they were in public, the subtle warning of a punishment owed that would be delivered as soon as they were alone again.

  Cole flinched at his father’s touch, even though I was sure he’d experienced worse—even though he was big enough that if he fought back, his dad wouldn’t have an easy time of it.

  That wasn’t the point. My dad had only been two inches taller than me, and he’d been in terrible shape. But the question hadn’t been whether I could fight back, it’d been what the fallout would be if I did. Whether I could keep fighting back every day.

  And I hadn’t even had siblings to worry about. Just myself.

  With one more low word delivered into his son’s ear, Mr. Mercer released Cole roughly, leaving a red handprint on the back of his neck. I saw the raven-haired boy stiffen, and his steps slowed as his parents moved toward a couple in the crowd they obviously knew. Mr. Mercer held up his hands jovially, greeting them with a broad smile and a loud voice.

  Lies. Lies. So many lies.

  As his mom stood silently and his dad put on a show, Cole pivoted on his heel and headed for a side door in the large space. It led to a hallway that passed by the locker rooms.

  Letting out a breath, I glanced down at the table in front of me, then scanned the crowd for Mr. Baldree. I didn’t see him—and fuck it, the only person who’d taken a pamphlet from me so far was Finn, and that was just as a prop for a joke. I was sure he’d thrown it away as soon as he was out of sight. Slipping out from behind the large table, I threaded my way through the sea of bodies and shoved open the same door Cole had vanished through.

  I wasn’t sure how long he’d have before his dad came looking for him, or whether Mr. Mercer would come at all. Maybe he’d just count up all the minutes Cole was missing and add them to the punishment he doled out later.

  My skin crawled at the thought, and I walked faster down the hallway. I passed the locker rooms but still didn’t see any sign of Cole. So I headed up the stairs to the second level.

  He wasn’t in the dance studio. He was in the second-story hallway just outside of it, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. I didn’t try to quiet my footsteps, not wanting to startle him, and his blue gaze flashed to me when I was still several yards away.

  Then he looked away again, barely even acknowledging he’d seen me.

  I recognized this part too.

  The shame. The anger. The shutting down.

  I know you! I wanted to scream at him. I know a part of you better than I wish I did.

  There were so many things I wanted to say to him, but I wasn’t sure he’d listen to any of them. I wasn’t sure I would have when I’d been in his shoes.

  “What?” he grunted when I got closer, a note of defensiveness in his voice.

  I didn’t rise to it. I just leaned against the wall beside him, focusing on the same spot across the hall that he was staring at.

  “You were there the day Adena pushed me down the steps outside Craydon, right?” I asked quietly.

  His head turned, sharp blue eyes staring down at me. That hadn’t been what he’d expected me to say. “Yes. We showed up after she did it. When you were on the ground.”

  Acid rose in my throat at the memory, but I focused on what I needed Cole to know, forcing down the churning in my gut. “I don’t have super clear memories of it, but I’m sure I must’ve looked like a mess. It… scared me. Gave me a panic attack.”

  Even as I spoke, I could feel myself wanting to do what Cole had just done.

  Shut down.

  Deny.

  Don’t talk about it.

  But I took another deep inhale, and on the exhale, I said, “It reminded me of when my dad pushed me down the stairs at our old apartment complex.”

  In my periphery, I could see Cole turn to face me, his stare burning into me.

  “I was twelve,” I continued simply. “It was the worst he ever hurt me. Although ironically, I don’t even think he meant to that time. It was an accident. Not that that makes it forgivable.”

  The heat of his gaze on me was like fire, like a laser aimed directly at my skin, and I shifted a little.

  “Most the time, he used his fists. Sometimes his feet. Sometimes he’d stop for a while, and I never knew what made him start back up again.” Moisture tried to well in my eyes, but I blinked it back. I hadn’t cried about my dad in months, and I didn’t want to start now. But talking about what he’d done, putting words to it, made my chest ache in an unfamiliar way. I was used to keeping it all inside, hiding it. “I guess that was one of the worst parts. I never knew why.”

  “He hit you?” Cole’s voice was a low growl, so full of protective anger it made a shi
ver run up my spine.

  I finally wrenched my gaze away from the wall to face the blue-eyed boy beside me. His breathing had picked up, and his entire body had seemed to grow larger, barely contained by the fabric of his Oak Park uniform. He was staring down at me like he’d never seen me before in his life, like I had just snapped my fingers and inverted all the colors of the world.

  Then he moved so fast I barely tracked the motion, pressing off the wall and pivoting toward me so we were face-to-face, our bodies almost touching. His palms landed on the white-painted wall on either side of my head, and I had a sudden memory of the day he’d trapped me in the locker room downstairs.

  Just like that day, his eyes blazed and his body shook with barely suppressed anger.

  Just like that day, his ginger and pine scent surrounded me, creeping into my nostrils like a drug.

  But unlike that day, none of his anger was directed at me.

  The muscles in his jaw jumped as he clenched his teeth, and when he repeated his question, his voice was like sandpaper.

  “He. Hit. You?”

  I nodded, my gaze trapped by the ice-blue of his. When he lifted one hand away from the wall to run his fingertips down the side of my face, I grabbed a fistful of his blazer, like I was falling off a cliff and that would save me.

  “I know, Cole,” I whispered. “I know what it’s like. I know.”

  Maybe it was stupid. I was giving away another piece of myself that the Princes could use against me if they turned on me. Handing over a piece of my heart for him to crush under his boot if he chose.

  But in that moment, I didn’t care. In that moment, it was more important to me to make sure Cole knew he wasn’t alone than to hide behind the barriers I’d erected around myself.

  His nostrils flared as he breathed hard and fast like a wounded animal in a cage.

  Then he pressed his body against mine, pinning me to the wall—

  And kissed me.

  My hand flattened against his chest, and his heart crashed against my palm as his mouth moved against mine.

  It was fierce, protective, and possessive, and like everything he did, there was a harsh roughness to it, reminding me once again how infused with violence this boy was.

  But this violence wasn’t dangerous. It wouldn’t hurt me.

  It would just consume me.

  I gasped into his mouth, trying to catch my breath as he kissed me like the ocean buffeting a rocky shore over and over again. Slick wetness gathered in my core, and I wrapped my free arm around his back, trying to bring us closer together, to put out the fire burning inside me.

  This wasn’t what I’d come up here for.

  But maybe it was what we had both needed.

  I could feel his hips pressing against me, the hardness growing there, and I made a plaintive noise that he swallowed up with his next kiss.

  He rocked against me, an answering sound rumbling in his chest, even as his desperate kisses slowed and deepened. His tongue swept through my mouth, and his large hands clasped the sides of my face as he finally stepped back, tugging me away from the wall.

  A fraction of space opened up between our bodies, and I could tell he was trying to slow this down, to stop it—even though neither of us wanted to.

  He broke away from me after a while, taking another small step back. But before I could mourn the loss, he kissed me again.

  And again.

  Every time he tried to stop, I watched him cave. Like he kept trying to convince himself it was enough, but he never believed that lie.

  I didn’t either.

  Because every time his lips were on mine, it felt like I could breathe, and when he pulled away, oxygen seemed to vanish.

  Finally, the space between our kisses drew out, like he was teaching himself to live without my touch. We hadn’t spoken since he first pressed his lips to mine, and he still didn’t say anything. He just gazed at me with burning blue eyes before dipping his head again, taking one last kiss. His hands slipped from my face, fingertips trailing down my jaw before finally dropping away, as if that too took effort.

  When we stood a foot apart, no longer touching at all, he nodded slowly.

  “You know.”

  Then he ripped his gaze away from mine and walked back down the hall, turning and disappearing down the stairs.

  My hand reached up to ghost over my lips, which felt tingly and swollen and… desolate without his.

  I had recognized myself in Cole from the minute I’d heard the crack of his dad’s knuckles against his face while I hid under the couch in his dorm, and in a million other ways since then.

  And in this empty hallway on the second floor of the gym, he had recognized me.

  He had seen me.

  Just like I had seen him.

  My pulse pounded hard with that knowledge as I moved slowly after him, heading back to take up my abandoned post at the table downstairs.

  I had done it.

  I had opened the Princes’ hearts just like they’d opened mine last year. I had found their secrets and their lies, uncovered their weaknesses.

  You have to get close to stick the knife in, Talia.

  Those were the words I had repeated to myself over and over since I’d gotten here. The mission I had given myself, the purpose.

  I had accomplished the first part.

  But I no longer wanted to do the second.

  Chapter 23

  I still wasn’t sure it was the right decision.

  But at least I had made a decision.

  The internal conflict had raged so long inside me that making a choice felt like getting off an endlessly spinning ride, like I could breathe properly for the first time in weeks.

  The little black notebook sitting in the side pocket of my backpack no longer felt like a block of cement tied around my ankles, dragging me down into murky waters. The knot of tension in my stomach that I’d grown used to living with eased a little.

  My mother had made her own decisions, and I might never understand why.

  Mason and the rest of the Princes had made theirs.

  And I had made mine.

  Tuesday was the first day of finals, and I had exams in Trigonometry and Spanish in the morning. Both went well, thankfully. Trig, I had studied for; Spanish, not so much. But languages came easily to me, so even though I was slightly underprepared, the test didn’t kick my ass.

  Another bit of tension dissolved from my body as I walked out of Craydon Hall and headed across the quad for lunch. But as I approached Astor Hall, Adena stepped up in front of me, cutting off my path. She had a little posse of underclassmen with her, and they closed ranks around me, jostling me roughly as she pushed my shoulder. “Watch where you’re going, bitch!”

  “You watch it!” I shot back, elbowing a girl with light brown hair as Adena stepped even closer, crowding me. “You’re the one who got in my fucking way.”

  She sneered, tilting her head. “No, you’re the one who got in my way.”

  “Then make me move.” I didn’t budge, glaring at her through slitted eyes.

  When she realized I wasn’t going to step aside, she shot me a withering look and snapped her fingers, walking away from me with her posse trailing after her like a school of fish.

  I sat with Leah, Maggie, and Dan at lunch, and when I mentioned my run-in with Adena to the Princes on the way to the gym, Elijah shook his head. “I don’t like it. She and Preston are making a play for the school. She’s fucking with you to make a point. And we know what happened last time she tried to make a point.”

  “Not just the stairs.” Mason’s voice was hard. “Last year too.”

  A burst of anger seemed to gather around the boys like a storm cloud, and Finn scrubbed a hand through his hair. “She’s obviously not getting the fucking message—back off of Talia.” He turned to look down at me. “Let us know if anything else happens, okay? We’ll try to deal with it.”

  My nose wrinkled. “Is she really that untouchable?”

&
nbsp; I’d seen what the Princes could do—hell, I’d experienced it firsthand. The fact that Adena had been able to get away with what she had for so long was kind of baffling to me.

  Unless they never actually tried to stop her, a little voice whispered in the back of my mind. But I shook the suspicion off.

  I was still wary of these four boys, but that theory made no sense. Adena was going up against them in an obvious way. She’d made her alliance with Preston, and the two of them were challenging the Princes for control of the school. Why would she be working with them at the same time? How could she be?

  Cole grunted, his intense blue gaze blazing into me. “There’s a reason she’s always been the queen of Oak Park. Her family is one of the wealthiest in Roseland.”

  “So, yeah.” Finn sighed. “She kinda is untouchable.”

  “Okay.” I shook my head, glad the semester was almost over—ready for a reprieve from all of this. “I’ll watch out. And I’ll let you know.”

  I watched my back for the rest of the day, and I could tell all of the Princes did too. But Adena managed to catch me alone later that afternoon, when I was sitting by a tree in the quad waiting for Leah to get out of her last final. She was missing her usual posse this time, and instead of even pretending I’d barged into her space, she invaded mine, shoving my backpack out of the way to kneel on the grass beside me.

  Her voice was a low hiss in my ear, furious and dangerous.

  “You really think your little boyfriends can protect you, Idaho trash? You think because you seduced the fucking Princes of Oak Park, that’ll keep you safe? It won’t. They can’t stop me.”

  I jerked away. She had leaned so close to me I could feel her breath on the side of my face, and I hated it.

  “Are you still that bitter about Mason dumping you?” I asked, my blood running hot in my veins. “What, Preston isn’t working out as a substitute? Is his dick that tiny?”

  Her lips pressed into a line, and she stood quickly, scowling down at me. “Keep talking, trailer trash. ’Cause I’ll remember everything you say, and I’ll make you pay for every single one of them.”