“Killian.” Ava barely gets the words out before he grabs her arm and yanks her toward him. She gasps as she slams into his chest.
“Hey!” I say, stepping forward as if I’m about to defend her honor or something equally laughable, but he stops me with a vicious glare. He curls his lip as if he’s tasted something bad and I furrow my brow. Why do the guys here keep looking at me like this?
He looks like he wants to say something, then thinks better of it.
“You’re coming with me,” he says to Ava. “Now.”
Then, they’re off. Around the next corner and out of sight within seconds.
What the fuck?
Well, guess I’m screwed.
I stare at my schedule. English is next, room 212. Shouldn’t be too hard to find, right?
Wrong!
It took me fifteen minutes to find the class and now that I’m here, I can barely concentrate because there's a prickly awareness spread over my body and I know exactly what it is. There's a pair of icy blue eyes burning a hole in my back. The boy I saw when I first walked in. He’s stared at me the entire class and my cheeks are scalding hot. He’s got this Jax Teller thing going on. Dirty blonde hair, long on the top, and short on the sides. Golden skin, sharp jawline, and cheekbones. Dressed in all black, he looks like the school’s bad boy. Like the guy you see on your jog at night and run in the opposite direction.
Tattoos run up the length of both of his arms in his fitted black tee, and I’m willing to bet there's even more ink underneath his clothes.
When the bell rings, I jump up and race out of there like the building is on fire. It takes a moment, but eventually, I find the bathroom and run inside.
I drop my books on the floor and lean over the sink. The dirty mirror shows my flushed, pale skin, long black hair, parted on the side with a widow's peak in the middle. My blue eyes are lost, though. Wide and panicked. Afraid.
I turn on the cold water and am about to splash my face with it when I remember I put on makeup this morning.
The toilet flushes and I straighten.
Shit, I didn’t know someone was in here.
Just as the stall door opens, heavy boot steps echo just outside the bathroom.
And then he’s there. Standing inside the girl’s bathroom.
The mini Jax Teller that’s been staring at me all day.
I tense, staring up at him.
His icy eyes bore into mine as he says, “Out” in a velvety British accent, like the one I heard speaking to Ava earlier.
The girl who was in the stall rushes out, and I realize he was talking to her. He wants to be alone with me. I go to pick up my books, pretending like I’m not a nervous wreck.
He beats me to it, pushing the books out of my hands and back onto the floor. I flinch at the sound echoing as they hit the ground.
He crowds me, towering over me before gripping my hips and lifting me to sit on the bathroom sink. Some of the cold drops of water seep into the fabric of my dress and I gasp. He places his big, tattooed hand over my mouth. Even sitting on the sink, he still has to crouch a bit so that we’re eye to eye. His scent envelops me, like a heady cologne. Leather and spice.
His full lips lift into a vicious snarl. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
I go to kick his legs, but he grabs mine, his hand engulfing my calf and squeezing.
“I’m going to take my hand from your mouth. Just know, if you scream, no one will come to help you,” he says with an evil smirk.
When his hand falls away, I inhale a deep breath. “Fuck you!” My voice vibrates with rage. Then, my hand comes up to slap him and he catches it.
“Nice try, love,” he says, reminding me of Claus from The Vampire Diaries. His hand roams up my legs. “Such soft skin,” he murmurs. “Be a shame if it were to get tarnished,” he taunts.
“What the fuck do you want from me?” I spit.
His eyes narrow into slits, and his jaw clenches. “Alright, love,” he says softly yet lethally. “You had your fun, but speak to me like that again and I will spank the fuck out of you.”
Heat coils in my gut in anger, frustration, and maybe something else.
Mostly, it’s just my fear.
“Just let me go,” I say for the second time today, only this time to a totally different person.
He glowers down at me menacingly before taking my hand and placing it under his shirt.
I stiffen. “What?” My voice is shrill.
Then, I feel this small divot in his skin and he’s using his other hand to lift his shirt.
And I was right. He’s completely covered in tats. What high schooler is covered in tattoos like this?
The more skin he reveals, the more uncomfortable I become. Toned, hard muscles and golden skin...and then I see it. A jagged little circular scar. Is that a bullet wound?
When I look back up at his face, his jaw is tight, and his eyes are hard. He looks even more sinister than before.
“You need to leave Blackcrown Falls immediately,” he says.
“What?” I ask, genuinely confused. “I can’t just up and move. I don’t know what world you’re living in, but that’s not how things work in the real world.”
Suddenly, his hands are wrapped around my throat, slightly blocking my airway. “Fucking leave or I’ll make you,” he says. “And you don’t want to see me when I’m angry.”
“So what?” I gasp. “This is you happy? Wow, I feel so safe and protected right now. Please keep acting this way. It’s so nice. I love it,” I say sarcastically.
“Ah, you’ve got a mouth on you, I see,” he says, rubbing my lip with his finger. “But if I see you show up here tomorrow, you will regret it, love.”
And with that, he walks out of the bathroom, leaving me more confused than I was when he first followed me in the women’s restroom.
2
Ava
Killian Pierce hasn’t spoken a word to me since Freshman year when our whole world fell apart. His grandmother took me in as a foster child when I was eight. Right around the same time, Killian and Kai moved from London to live with her as well. To say she was awful was an understatement. She realized she could make more money by selling my virginity to a creepy old man than she would ever get from the state for caring for me. That had backfired on her though. I wasn’t a virgin, thanks to Killian, and I managed to escape the night I was to be sold. I’d always been closer to Killian than Kai, and I always felt a little guilty for that. Like I somehow intruded on their relationship. They’re half brothers, and don’t look too much alike, other than the dimples when they sport that cold, wicked smile. They weren’t always like that, though. No matter how bad living with their grandmother was, Killian was always kind to me. He looked after me, even when Kai told him I couldn’t be trusted. Until the night I ran away. I’ve spent the last couple of years couch surfing and trying to balance a shitty part-time job with classwork to ensure I have a ticket out of Blackcrown Falls the moment that diploma is in my hands. Kai made sure no one talked about why Killian was sent away, and when he returned, he made sure I was a social pariah. It hurt at first, but I’ve gotten used to being the outcast, unwanted, unworthy of the Pierce brothers or anyone else who wants to have a semblance of a social life. One more year, and I’ll be free of this place.
I’ll be free of Killian.
“Why were you talking to the new girl?” Killian’s voice is stiff, harder than I remember, and still warms me from the inside out. I don’t answer him because I’m not sure what to say. Anything I do say will only make him angrier. I know him and his reputation. He doesn’t really want to know why I was talking to her. He wants me to know that he has the ability to tell me, or anyone for that matter, who I can or can’t speak to. He’s angry at me, and has been for a long time. I used to think it was because he thought I up and left him and Kai. I know their grandmother didn’t tell them what she tried to do. I didn’t have any other choice other than to bite the guy, push past Mrs. Pierce and ru
n out the backdoor. I went looking for Killian a few days later, but he was gone. Neither of the Pierce brothers were in school for a week. Then Kai returned and wouldn’t say where Killian was. He made it clear that I wasn’t one of them anymore, and without Killian as a buffer, I’d simply kept my head down and tried to avoid Kai and his crew at all costs. Before long, Killian was back and rumors were swirling about him being in jail, their grandmother dying, and about me being the town whore. I was almost positive Killian started those rumors about me, and I was even more sure that he didn’t believe them. I don’t think he’s ever forgiven me for abandoning him.
“Why do you suddenly care what I’m doing and who I’m talking to?” I use my free hand to hit him in the arm, which does absolutely nothing besides make my knuckles burn and incite his temper more than I already have. I haven’t been alone with Killian in so long, and I’m not mentally prepared to have a one on one encounter with him now. I need to make him angry out here in the hallway. No one will help me. But at least I won’t lose myself in him. That’s my biggest fear.
He stops abruptly, and when he turns to glower at me, I run into his hard chest. He grips my jaw painfully and I’m forced to look up at him. “Just because I’d rather you didn’t exist in my world, doesn’t mean I don’t know every time you blink. I’m always watching, Ava.” He studies my face for a moment, and I will myself to not shed any more tears for Killian Pierce.
He doesn’t deserve my tears.
When he’s satisfied that he has my attention, he roughly drags me down the hallway, not caring if my short legs can’t keep up with his long strides. He’s not the same boy who held me when I cried. He’s not the same boy who I gave my virginity to just days before I ran away.
My face flushes as we pass by students in the hallway, and they openly stare at us. I'm used to flying under the radar. Aside from him calling me some names loud enough for me to hear, but not directly to me his first day back in school, Killian hasn’t spoken to me. I heard the rumors though, that he said I was a dirty slut. That I ran off with some man old enough to be my father. None of that is true, but I don’t correct anyone anymore or stand up for myself. There’s no point. The Pierce brothers run Blackcrown High school, and what they say is scripture.
He swings open the door to an empty classroom and slams the door behind him. I take a few steps back, adjusting my top nervously. I’ve seen him angry before. I’ve seen him do a lot of unsavory things. The boys taught me how to drive way before I was old enough to legally do so. I was their fucking getaway driver. That’s how close we’d been.
“Why were you talking to that girl?”
“I was showing her around because…” I start, but he advances on me, stepping so close to me that I have to tilt my head back to look up at him. I jut my chin out in defiance. He may have told the whole school I was a dirty whore he threw away. He might’ve turned everyone against me, but I won’t let him see that he’s hurt me.
“Still a liar, Ava?” he sneers, reaching down and running his fingers over my long, blonde braid. I see something cross his features, like he’s remembering something, but it only lasts a moment before he lifts me up and sets me on the teacher’s desk with a thud. I wince because my floral skirt does little to soften the blow. I reach out and grab onto his biceps to prevent myself from falling backward with the momentum, but he slaps my hands away.
“Don’t fucking touch me.” He steps back almost as if my touch burned him.
“Why do you hate me so much? Do you honestly think I would run away with some old guy?” I snap, pushing forward to get off the desk. But he’s there before I can move, clamping his fingers down on my thighs and pushing me to lie back on the desk.
He expertly spreads my legs and leans over top of me, his cold eyes gleaming down at me. He’s so much bigger than I remember since the last, and only time, he had me in this position. His arms and shoulders are huge, intimidating, and in this moment I can barely remember the times being wrapped so close to him was a comfort. He presses his hips into my spread thighs and I try and fail to stifle a gasp when I feel his hard cock pressing into my panties. The power he holds over me must turn him on because he’s made it very clear that I disgust him.
“Don’t play stupid, sweetheart,” he sneers, and that English accent that seems to have only gotten thicker over the years doesn’t soften the condescension in his tone. “Even after everything you took from me, I left you alone. “ He laughs coldly, grabbing both of my hands in one of his and holding them above my head. “I made sure everyone left you alone.” Abandonment. One of the worst feelings, especially given the fact that my birth parents abandoned me moments after I was born. But he doesn’t know that losing him was worse than a life of solitude. Nothing else anyone tried to do to me for the rest of my life would ever trump that heart splintering feeling of losing my best friend.
It’s true. Killian and Kai are the kings of Blackcrown high. What they say goes. They have the money and reputations to back it up. They started young, and I was with them every step of the way for the street fights, drug dealing, and street racing. All the gossip and whispering about what the boys may have done are true. There’s even a rumor going around that their grandmother didn’t move back to England and the boys killed her when Killian came back from wherever he disappeared to. A lot of students speculated he went to juvie, but that never added up for me. No one who wanted to live would have snitched on one of the Pierce brothers.
I feel the panic rise in my chest when Killian’s free hand slides up my thigh and swiftly up my hip. I’m ashamed that the way his fingers dig into my skin causes my pussy to pulse with excitement.
“Killian, please stop.” I attempt to sit up and he smirks when all I manage to do is wriggle my soaked panties against his jeans.
“No matter how many men you give your body to, none of them will own your pussy like I do.” I open my mouth to protest, tell him that he’s the only one who’s ever touched me, but I’m cut off by him letting my hands go and ripping my panties off. “Do you still want me to stop, Ava? Beg me.” His voice is low, and he sounds like he’s ready to snap at any moment.
When one thick finger slides from my clit to my wet entrance, I prop myself up on my elbows, but I’m unable to move. My head falls back and my pulse quickens when he moves in, sliding his finger all the way inside me. He groans, grabbing my throat with his free hand, forcing me to look him in the eyes. For a moment, Killian looks less like the hardened gang leader I’ve come to fear and more like the boy I used to love.
“Fuck, you’re so tight,” he says, and there’s no malice in his voice. He slides his finger in and out of me quickly. Tears spring to my eyes because I shouldn’t be enjoying this, it shouldn’t feel so good. I shouldn’t miss him, I shouldn’t still want him. He inserts another finger inside me and the softness I’d seen in his eyes and heard in his voice is gone, not a trace left. “I guess I should have said, for a dirty little whore, you’re still tight.” He grins, slamming his fingers inside me, causing me to cry out from a mixture of pain and pleasure.
“I fucking hate you,” I spit the words at him and he only laughs, quirking an eyebrow as if to call my bluff. He can see right through my angry words. He’s always been able to do that. I hate what he’s become, but I could never hate who he used to be. That version of him will always be a part of me. He slides his fingers out of my aching pussy, and that’s the only reason I’m able to articulate these words, “You might’ve started all those lies about me being a dirty whore, but you don’t believe them. When I catch you looking at me, just before you realize I’ve noticed, you look at me like I’m still yours. Like you know you’re the only one who’s ever been inside me.” I moan when he shoves his fingers back inside me roughly. I curl my fingers into my palms, hoping the bite of pain will keep me from moaning his name or something equally as humiliating.
A loud bang in the hallway brings me out of my fog and I feel my heart slam in my stomach at the thought of being
caught by other students, or worse, a teacher, spread eagle on his desk while Killian Pierce has his way with me. “Class is starting soon, please just finish whatever you’re going to do and let me go,” I breathe out the words, my eyes flashing to the door.
He pulls his fingers out of me and grabs my chin, anger etched over every inch of his perfect face. “You don’t make the rules. I do. If I want to fuck you on the basketball court in front of the entire school, that’s what I’ll do.”
I nod in agreement because I know if I push him any further that’s exactly what he’ll do. He eyes me suspiciously for a moment as if to gauge if I’m going to argue with him. He used to love my spunky attitude when we were young, but now it makes him angry.
His eyes don’t leave mine as he lifts his fingers that were just inside me to his lips and licks them clean. “Stay away from the new girl. I won’t ask you again.” He picks my panties up off the floor and shoves them in his pocket. Embarrassment rushes through my entire body and quickly turns to anger.
“This is you asking?” I hop off the desk and smooth my skirt in hopes that it might make me feel like my dignity has been restored. I try to pretend that my pussy isn’t still clenching, waiting for release only he knows how to give me. “I told you I don’t know her. That chirpy bitch in the office forced me to show her around when all I try to do in this goddamn school is blend in and get through until I can get the hell out of this town and out from under your shadow.” I wipe angry tears off my cheeks as he advances on me, towering over me like the bully he is.
“I own you. If you think that stops after graduation, you’re delusional.” He lifts a hand to my throat, squeezing gently as if he just enjoys feeling the delicate slope of my neck beneath his fingers. His hand leaves my throat, slides down my chest, tugging my top down just enough to see the healed burn mark above my left breast. His thumb rubs over the raised skin of the brand he gave me when we were fourteen. The same one that matches his and Kai’s. A constant reminder that at a point in time I was one of them. “I forgot how much fun you were to play with. I think I’m done ignoring you.”
Vicious Savage: A Dark High School Bully Romance (The Brutal Boys of Blackcrown Falls Book 1) Page 2
