He’s right.
My body has started to crave him. And even though it makes no sense, there’s a sense of security I feel when his arms are around me.
I’ve got to snap out of this. What the fuck is wrong with me?
Kai is the farthest thing from safe.
He opens the nightstand drawer and pulls out a key, actually uncuffing me from the bed. I wince, then squeal as he throws me over his shoulder, my bare ass in the air. I scream.
“For fucks sake, Kai. What now?”
He chuckles and then sets me down, facing me in front of his full length mirror.
There’s a black choker around my neck.
My fingers trace it lightly. Somehow, it seems delicate.
“Told you I’d put a collar around your pretty neck,” Kai whispers in my ear, his nose skimming the side of my face.
“So this was just another way of you proving your control?” I ask, trying to hide my disappointment because, for whatever reason, I wanted this to be a gift.
God, he’s given me a few orgasms and I’ve slept in his bed and it’s like my brain thinks he’s Prince Charming all of a sudden.
Kai stands behind me, his long fingers resting at my hips. He’s a full head taller than me, and he watches me with his head cocked to the side.
“It means you’re mine now,” he says seductively, fingering the piece around my neck. “When people see this, they’ll know.”
His fingertip travels down the valley between my breasts, and I shiver.
“There’s no escaping me, Desiree,” he whispers.
His hand wraps around my throat, squeezing lightly. Both of our eyes are heavily lidded with desire.
“I don’t know anything about Chad,” I tell him breathily. “I’m not the one you should be interrogating.”
His hand tightens around my neck. “But what I have here is what Chad desires most,” says Kai sinisterly. “And I’m gonna do whatever I want with it.”
And with that, his hand dives to the spot between my thighs. “Aw, look how ready for me you are, love.”
My head falls back against his chest while a soft moan escapes my lips. He gathers my wetness with his finger before circling my clit.
My hips instantly start rocking. God, I want this so bad. My eyes close when he adds more pressure.
“Open your eyes,” he commands. “Watch my finger fuck your tight little pussy.”
My eyes pop open and the air leaves my lungs in a rush at the sight of us in the mirror. I look and feel so small in his hold. And I’m completely under his control. The reminder has me eyeing the collar around my neck.
I’d never admit it aloud, but he’s right. He could own me if he wanted. Look at me now—putty in his hands.
He moves his fingers faster and harder against my clit and I cry out, my eyes narrowing, wanting to close.
But I keep them trained on his eyes, which are filled with such a visceral need that it’s almost tangible.
I feel a deep need curl in my lower belly, alerting me that my climax is near.
Then, Kai suddenly stops.
“Don’t stop,” I whimper, but he doesn’t continue and clenches his jaw.
“Tell me,” Kai growls, his eyes burning with anger, lust, contempt. “Do you know what Anderson’s next move is?” he asks.
“Kai,” I whisper, bucking my hips and on the verge of begging for him to let me come. “Please.”
He growls. “Desiree. Tell me.”
“I don’t know!” my voice raises. “He doesn’t trust me. If he was planning something, he’d never tell me.”
He starts moving his finger again, and I moan. I bite my lip hard, my hand falling on top of his, adding more pressure. I arch my back, my mouth falling open as my orgasm bursts through me.
“Kai,” I gasp his name as if he’s the only thing tethering me to Earth, and I guess in this moment, he is.
When the tremors of my orgasm fade, Kai flips me around, setting me on the sink, and unzips his pants roughly.
“What are you doing?!” I ask, panicked.
“What does it look like?” he rasps. “I’m about to fuck you until your throat’s raw from screaming my name.”
“I’m a virgin,” I whisper.
He laughs. “Yeah, okay. I’ll believe that you dated fucking Chad Anderson and never fucked him. Weren’t you just taunting me earlier, saying how good he was?”
Then my eyes zero in on the bullet would on his stomach that he showed me the first day. My fingers trace it next. “Did Chad give you this?” I ask.
A knock on the door interrupts him from replying.
“Not now,” Kai bellows as his intense eyes are trained on mine.
“I’m coming in so you better get dressed if you’re naked,” Killian says.
Kai grabs a fancy towel hanging on a silver rod in the bathroom and wraps it around me as his bedroom door opens.
Killian smirks at me when he sees me, but Kai steps in front of me. I roll my eyes.
“Wow, I feel so safe,” I mumble.
They ignore me. “The world better be fucking burning, Killian,” says Kai.
“We gotta go to school, bro,” Killian says, shaking his head at Kai as if he’s an idiot.
“Fuck,” Kai curses, swiping a hand down his face.
“We’re already late,” I say.
“Doesn’t matter,” Kai says absently. “They won’t care if we’re late. We have business to conduct and a basketball game tonight.”
I can’t help but let out a little laugh.
Kai looks at me over his shoulder. “Find something funny?”
“I just can’t help but laugh at two seniors in high school saying they’ve gotta go to school because they have ‘business to conduct.’”
“You need to show some respect,” Killian says.
Kai’s fist clenches. “Whatever the fuck is going on between you and Ava has you fucking wound up, bro. You need to take care of that and I’ll handle what’s mine.”
Killian rolls his eyes. “Whatever. See you at school.”
The crowd roars as Kai shoots another three-pointer. His body looks powerful. All sharp angles and muscle, his tattoos peeking out of his basketball jersey. With his ruffled blonde hair and glistening tan skin, he looks like an adonis.
The day at school was hard. People kept staring at me once again, but this time the whispers were about my mom. I’m still processing the fact that she’s gone. My top emotion is anger right now. Anger, then numbness, then anger again. It’s a vicious cycle and I wish I could push all feelings away. Would I be peaceful then? Every night in my dreams, my mom's face appears bright and beautiful without the stress lines and sadness. She’s like a literal angel. I’m not sure if I’m to be comforted by this or not.
My stomach growls as the smell of fried food wafts into my nostrils. God, what I’d give to be able to get some fucking nachos at the concession stand.
Kai had been glued to my hip once again, and there was almost something comfortable about it.
River and Damon are sitting with Ava and me in the front row so that everyone can still keep an eye on us.
“How are you holding up?” Ava asks, leaning forward to talk closer to my ear so she can be heard over the loud crowd.
“Shitty,” I say. “Everything sucks. I wanna scream and pull my hair out.”
She nods understandingly. “That must be so hard. I’ve never met my real mother. I can’t imagine if I had one having her ripped away so suddenly. God, I’m so sorry,” she says.
I blink rapidly before changing the subject. I can’t talk about this here. “Were you in foster care?” I ask. “Sorry if that's too personal of a question.”
Pain flashes in her eyes for a brief moment. “No, it’s okay.” She starts fidgeting with her hands. “I used to live with Killian and Kai and their grandmother. She took me in at a really young age. I don’t have many memories before living with her. She was an awful woman.”
“Was?”<
br />
“She died,” she says, shrugging. “The world is a better place because of it, too. She used to beat all three of us. Eventually, I ran away because she tried selling me to an old man who was in the market for underage virgins.”
“Oh my God!”
“Yeah.” Ava tucks a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear. “After that, Killian was sent away, but no one knows the real reason. When he came back, he turned on me. Kai and him have treated me like a cockroach ever since.”
“Fucking bastards,” I say, fuming. “We could try and plan to get away from them together, you think?”
She sighs, smiling. “Maybe? It’d have to be a foolproof plan.”
We stay quiet for a moment after that, both lost in our thoughts.
“So what’s up with you and Kai?” River asks, bringing me out of my reverie.
“Nothing. He just likes to torment me, I guess.”
She laughs. “Seems like much more than that to me,” she says. “I’ve never seen him so obsessed with a girl. He’s usually one to hit it and quit it. He’s not one to bring a girl home and let her sleep in his bed.”
“Wow, lucky me,” I say sarcastically.
She laughs. “He’s definitely jaded and rough around the edges, but he has his reasons. Me and the rest of the gang trust him with our lives.”
“Tell me more about the gang. Everyone keeps talking about it, but I have no idea what that actually entails.”
She purses her lips. “Sorry. I’m afraid if Kai hasn’t told you yet, then none of us can.”
I roll my eyes.
She pats me on the back. “I know it sounds cliché, but things will get better. I promise.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” I say.
My eyes fall back to the court, and Kai stares at me before dribbling down the center and shooting another basket. God, why couldn’t he have been bad at sports, huh? He just has to be one of those good looking guys who are good at everything.
“I need to use the bathroom,” I say.
“No,” Damon and River both say in unison.
“Do you guys want me to piss my pants right here in the stands?” I ask. I stare into River’s eyes. “Please. You can come with me.”
We have a stare down for a moment before she sighs. “I’ll go with her, Damon. It’ll be fine.”
“Whatever. Face Kai’s wrath then,” he says, but he kisses her cheek as if to soften the blow.
We stand to go to the bathroom right as the halftime bell sounds off.
Yes.
This was my plan all along.
Tons of people rise from the stands to go to the restrooms, concession stand, etc.
In no time, I lose River to the giant crowd, and run outside the school.
It’s dark outside, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. “Good” because it’s less likely they’ll see me. “Bad” because monsters are out at night. They see a young girl walking alone and they’ll pounce.
No sooner than the thought enters my mind, and I’m being pulled back and thrown into the side of a dumpster.
I scream, and then Chad's furious face comes into view. His hands wrap around my throat against the black collar Kai gave me today and squeezes tightly.
I claw at his hands and try hitting him in the face, but he doesn’t let up. He's going to do it this time. He’s actually going to do it. As black spots start in my vision, my last thought is, I’m going to die, before everything goes dark.
Gravel digs into my back as I come to. Kai’s hovering over me, still in his jersey, and actually looks a bit worried.
I groan, trying to sit up quickly. “Chad—” I start, and my voice comes out hoarse. “He tried to kill me.”
Kai gently touches my chin and tilts my head from side to side and I wince a bit. His eyes darken when he stares at my neck. There’s likely bruising there.
He shoves a paper into my hand, and I stare at it in confusion before seeing what it says.
“I know her pussy’s tight, but you can’t trust her. She’ll fuck you over the first chance she gets and then come crawling back to me.”
Fucking Chad.
Kai looks absolutely murderous.
“He’s lying, ya know,” I say quietly, staring at the note in my shaking hands.
Wait. That’s not Chad’s writing.
“Well then, I guess we better get home and find out. You said you were a virgin earlier. Let’s see if you were lying.”
“Kai,” I say tersely. “This note isn’t from Chad. The handwriting doesn’t match.”
He roughly grabs the paper from my hand, crinkling it into a tiny ball, and without a word, grabs my hand and stalks off with me toward his car.
10
Ava
As I reach Kai and Desiree, I know that I’ve only made it this far because Killian allowed it. He could have caught me and scooped me up without much effort. I see Desiree wince in pain as Kai grabs her by the face and snaps at her.
“Let her go, Kai. Why are you doing this? Just stop!” I scream at him. It’s different between Killian and me. We have history. He thinks I abandoned him or something worse. It doesn’t give him the right to treat me the way he does, but this girl doesn’t even know the boys or the things they’ve been through. She’s walked right into Kai’s web, and I don’t think she’ll make it out unbroken.
Kai laughs, but there is no humor in it. He’s disgusted by me and he wants me to know it. “Don’t fucking talk to me, after what you…”
I feel Killian standing behind me, silent, and I lose my mind.
“WHAT!?” I scream. “What the fuck did I do to the two of you? I left, I’m fucking sorry that the old bitch was trying to sell me and…”
Kai doesn’t let Desiree go, and instead, he drags her over in front of me and grabs me roughly by the arm. I wasn’t nearly as close to him as I was to Killian when we were younger, and in the beginning, when they first started the Vipers, he told Killian I was a liability for the two of them. But as time went on, and I proved myself by bailing them out of some sticky situations, we understood each other. Because we had something in common. We both loved Killian more than anything, and if it came down to it, we’d both take a bullet for him. It stings when he growls, “Shut your fucking mouth, slut.” I don’t back down. I glare up at him despite the fact it feels like his fingers are going to crush the bone of my arm.
I don’t see it coming, but I hear Desiree scream when she’s dropped to the ground and Killian lunges at Kai, shoving him so hard he stumbles and falls to the ground. They wrestle around for a moment, evenly matched.
I start to move forward and try to pull Killian off of his own brother. I know the risk, one blow and either one of them could kill me. But I don’t get the chance. Damon rushes past me and, with the help of two other guys, pulls Killian off of Kai.“Don’t fucking touch her again.” Killian spits the words at Kai and shoves Damon off of him.
Before I realize what is happening, Killian is grabbing me by the arm just like he fought his brother for doing. The difference is, I’m his property. In his mind, he’s the only one who can touch me this way.
“You’re back to being twisted up over some stupid bitch who fucked you over!” Kai yells as Killian swings open the passenger door of his car, fully prepared to shove me inside. I twist in his hold, something he wasn’t anticipating. Rage fills my chest as my eyes zero in on Kai.
“Fuck you!” I scream, years of frustration bubbling out of my chest. “I don’t know what you think you know, Kai, but you’re a fucking liar if you say I didn’t love your brother with my whole heart. You know I was always down for him, whatever he needed, whenever. For both of you.”
For the first time since we were kids, I see the hardened expression that seems to be permanently fixed on Kai’s face ease up a smidge. His eyes are wide, and I don’t know if it’s because I had the audacity to yell at him or if it’s because he knows what I’m saying is the truth.
I don’t remember a
time when I haven’t loved Killian and Kai isn’t going to muddy those memories for me.
“Get in the car,” Killian demands, grabbing me by the back of the neck and pushing me into the seat before slamming the door shut. I hear him exchange words with Kai as he rounds the car, but I can’t make out what they’re saying.
We drive most of the way in angry silence. It’s mutual. I’m angry at him, at Kai, and mostly at myself for still caring about someone who could treat me like I’m nothing but a filthy doll he fucks when it’s convenient for him.
When we’re turning on our street he says, “You’re a good liar. You almost had me convinced that you don’t know what you did.
“You’re ridiculous!” Before I think about what I’m doing, I’m punching Killian in the arm over and over, until I’m exhausted. In the end, the only thing I manage to accomplish is hurting my knuckles and exacerbating his already boiling temper.
He swiftly parks the car, but as I start to unhook my seatbelt he grabs both of my hands in one of his. He uses his other hand to grip my jaw.
“Don’t fucking lie to me again.” I can see the pain flash in his eyes and it cuts me deep. He really thinks I’ve done something to betray him, and that alone is like a punch to the gut.
Later that night I’m getting ready for the party the guys are hosting, and I'm thankful that Killian didn’t shackle me to the bed when he left the room and gave me some privacy to freshen up because my arm is still throbbing from the way Kai manhandled me. It’s a different kind of ache than when Killian grips my thighs and neck during sex. Everything is always just different with Killian in general and I chastise myself for feeling that way on the daily. As I make my way downstairs, I realize that there’s already crappy music blaring and smoke swirling around all levels of the mansion. I don’t know what the occasion is, but there are a lot of people already drinking, laughing, and dancing. Killian insisted that I attend, even though I’d put up a fight, asking him to let me just stay in his bedroom alone for the night. He wasn’t in the mood to argue or negotiate, and I wasn’t in the mood to get jerked around, so I conceded and he allowed me to be a little late.
Vicious Savage: A Dark High School Bully Romance (The Brutal Boys of Blackcrown Falls Book 1) Page 9
