by V. L. Silva
“I know.”
“And I’d still be doing this even if you hadn’t put my name on it.”
“I know.”
I turned back to the front. “You don’t know. You don’t know me.”
“Oh, but I do.” He reached out and placed his hand on the back of my neck while he looked in his blind spot before switching lanes.
My blood boiled. Just because he’d given my former school a million bucks didn’t mean I owed him anything. “Do you have to touch me?”
“Yes.”
The blunt answer startled me but not enough to back down. “While I’m flattered that you think I’m worth a million dollars, I hope you’re not expecting anything more from me than this little care ride.”
“More.”
“What?”
“You’re worth so much more than that.” He sighed deeply. “A number that can’t be counted.”
A message was sent to my brain that my lungs required oxygen. My brain messaged back. None available. “I should have told you to give them more money,” I said.
“You should have,” he agreed.
Would he have really done it? There was a place inside me that screamed yes. It was that silly little tender part of my heart that still had a thing for Axel. I was trying to toughen it up but nothing worked.
* * *
He stroked his thumb over my pulse and I felt it in my pussy.
I didn’t take another breath until he had both hands on the wheel again.
“What do you want from me?”
“I already told you.”
I want to fuck you.
I cringed. “I’m not having sex with you.”
“No, not yet.”
“Listen—”
“Hope.” His voice changed. He didn’t shout but the ominous tone made me stiffen. If he thought he was about to bully me, he was wrong.
“Don’t talk to me like that. I’m a grown woman.”
“You think I don’t know that?” He glanced at my legs and I covered them with my hands. He didn’t get to look. He didn’t deserve it.
He turned back to the road. “Where was I?”
“You’d decided to be civilized.”
“That’s right.” I had a feeling he wasn’t agreeing with me. “You already have two punishments coming your way. Don’t upset me further.”
My mouth fell open. “Who do you think you are?”
“Question me again and I’ll make it three.”
“Three? What did I do to deserve two?” I wasn’t going along with his idea. I was just curious.
The California seaside slipped past in the distance at breathtaking speed but I didn’t think it was fast enough. I needed to get out of his car.
“You went to the school even though I forbade it.”
I knew that. I opened the window and pulled in air that didn’t smell like him. “What else?”
His hand landed on my bare thigh. “This. What the fuck are you wearing?”
“What? I’m wearing clothes.” I grabbed his wrist even as I struggled to breathe. His pinky was very close to my crotch. I wondered if he could feel the heat coming from inside my panties. I was wet and I hated him for that.
“Do you always dress like this?” He rubbed higher.
Desire bloomed between my legs. “Get your hand off me!” Before I ask you to touch me like you did at your house.
I pushed him off and he let me. I knew he let me do it because I could feel the strength in his bones. If Axel wanted to hurt me he could.
So why had I got in the car with this lunatic?
I was trembling.
We rode up the mountain and I saw the school’s welcome sign. The walls of Barnet would be my sanctuary and my doom.
“I don’t like these shorts,” he murmured.
I pressed my lips together. We were almost there. Just a few more minutes and I’d be free.
The road to the school curved. Why was it so twisted? If it was a straight road we’d already be there.
“Did you hear me?” he asked.
“I’m not changing the way I dress just to please you.”
“Is it the money? I could buy—”
“It’s not the money!” I gave deep consideration to the idea of bashing him in the head with something. His only saving grace was that he was driving and I wasn’t ready to die. “I’m Hope Malonie. I’m a person. I’m not your dog or your servant. You’re not my boss.”
“I don’t like the way guys were looking at you in them.”
“No one was looking at me.”
“Everyone was looking at you, including Mr. Parker, who I happen to admire. I got to know him before you arrived.”
“He’s awesome.”
I felt the tension in the car rise and stuck my head outside of it.
Axel drove around to the student parking lot and parked in a reserved spot that said his name on it. Literally. The sign over the parking spot said his name.
Who is this guy?
The moment the car stopped I reached for my seatbelt, but he was there.
He unlatched the clip and then grabbed me, pulling me onto his lap as if I was a doll.
His cock was cushioned against my bottom. I tried to move but his arm kept me anchored in place. The car was small so I had to lean to keep from hitting my head.
He grabbed the back of my head and forced me against his chest.
“Let me go!”
He ignored me as he rolled the window up.
I regretted the moment I’d become the focus of his attention again. “What do you want from me?”
“I already told you,” he grumbled. Why was he so frustrated? I was the one being bullied.
“Why me?”
The moment his task was finished I resumed being the victim of his attention. “You’re going to change my life.”
“What?”
“‘I’m Hope and I’m here to change your life.’” He fed my words back to me like they were a poem or his favorite lyric.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I wasn’t talking about me. I meant Laved Cleaner.”
“You didn’t say the cleaner was going to change my life. You said you’d change my life.”
“It’s just a marketing strategy,” I shouted. “I was trying to earn your trust.”
He stiffened and for a moment I thought he’d seen the light. “I don’t care.”
My hope dimmed. “Axel…”
He closed his eyes and pulled me until my head rested against his.
I stared at his pensive expression and fought the need to touch his face. My fingers could almost remember the feel of the muscles in his face during the one time I’d held him and told him “happy birthday.”
There was no one in the parking lot. Everything was quiet except for our mingled breathing.
“You’ve never said my name like that before.”
“What? Axel? I said your name yesterday in the gym.”
“Yeah, but not like that.” He opened his eyes. It was a mistake being this close to him. “You didn’t even ask me my name that first night. Was that part of your marketing strategy as well?”
It was part of a different strategy. Part of a plan to keep some distance between us that failed miserably. I didn’t have to wonder what would have happened if Diana hadn’t interrupted our little petting session that night.
He’d have taken me on the bed, just like he promised. I would have given myself to a stranger who with a single smile had made me feel at home.
I reached out to his jaw cautiously, almost like I was reaching out toward a wolf. He stilled as I touched him. He was a feral thing. I was tempted to try and tame him but wolves couldn’t be tamed. That would be like domesticating death.
“What do you want to change about your life?”
He didn’t answer my question. “This is how I’m going to punish you.”
“I didn’t know about the shorts. You can’t punish me for that.”
“I can an
d I will.” His hand was on my thigh again. “It will drive my point home.”
“And what’s the point?”
He growled and his hand inched up, his fingers dipping under the shorts. “You don’t wear this in public.”
I grabbed his wrist and I tried another way. “I’m already being punished by having to attend Barnet. I have none of my friends and I’m all alone.” And was totally going to wear the shorts again. He’d have to get over it.
His breath rattled. “Fine. One punishment.”
I had to fight down the happiness that bubbled up within me. Maybe he could be tamed.
Don’t be stupid, Hope. I didn’t want him. All I wanted was to get away. At least, that’s what I tried to convince myself of. I leaned back and he dropped his hand. “We’re late for our first class.”
“Don’t remind me.” He opened his door and helped me out. He kept my hand as he grabbed our bags and straightened.
He passed me my backpack and then pressed me against the car.
“Diana might see,” I said.
He stopped and let go of my hand. Then he backed up.
I fought the impulse to smile. Perhaps, that was my secret weapon. He was worried about what Diana would think more than he wanted me. That truth stung but it was whatever. I wasn’t in love with Axel and I knew he didn’t love me. This was about control and now I had something over him.
But I knew better than to use it all the time. I’d have to wield it only when I really needed it.
His eyes did a full sweep of my body. I flushed. Then he met my eye and said nothing.
We were wasting more time. My first class was probably over but I didn’t tell him. It would only give him another reason to punish me. It annoyed me that he thought he could punish me at all.
“Go to the office. Get another ID. Be at my house after school and let yourself in. Keys are on the ring. Security knows who you are.”
“How am I supposed to get here? I don’t have a car.” I leaned back as he got close again.
He slipped his keys in my hand. I looked down at them in disbelief. He was going to let me drive his car? He didn’t even know me. He didn’t even ask me if I could drive much less ask me if I was good at it.
“Don’t be late.” He was already yards away when the command came.
I shouted at his back, “I have to work.”
“Call off.”
I wasn’t about to call off. I wasn’t sure if I would take his car either. Around lunch time I decided I wouldn’t. As I sat at the stone bench under the honeysuckle tunnel, I thought about the many ways he could punish me and realized the situation I was putting myself in by driving off in his car.
What if he called the police and got me arrested? While I didn’t think he’d hurt me that way, I’d be a fool if I didn’t think he was capable of it. It was probability versus possibility. Remembering how he’d almost cost me my summer job was the decision maker for me.
I wasn’t going to his house. He was crazy if he thought I would.
After my final class I approached Silas and tossed the keys at him. Instincts forced him to catch it. His dark gaze fell to the metal in his hand before rotating back up to me. “What’s this?”
“Those belong to Axel. Could you make sure he gets them?” I assumed they were friends since they’d basically tag teamed me the other day.
Silas’s eyes darkened as he clenched his fist. “Yeah, I’ll give them to him.”
“Great!” I was rushing off to the bus stop like the coward I was when Carolyn stopped me.
“Hey, are you coming to the meeting?”
“Huh?” I glanced around. My need to hide before Axel could find me had me trembling.
“The PR meeting. It’s happening right now.”
That gave me pause. “I’m still on the team.”
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “You said you were involved at your last school. I’m heading to The Alpine. I’m driving over. You can come with me.”
I had no idea where or what The Alpine was but I was in so long as it took me away from here. “Let’s go.”
Carolyn didn’t speak on the way over. I didn’t have to ask why she was no longer the overly friendly woman I’d met yesterday. The Clique had control of her just like they had control of the board.
And control of me.
That was fine. I was still getting the opportunity to work for the school’s website so that was all that mattered.
The answer to whether or not Barnet’s campus went into the trees was answered when we pulled in the thick of gray pines and I got my first glimpse of The Alpine. The structure looked like a large cabin and there were already other students sitting on the front porch or on the log chairs by the parking lot.
Carolyn’s jeep crushed over the gravel as she drove to the back of the building and into a free parking spot.
We got out and I followed her.
The back door swung open as two guys left. She grabbed it and held it out for me. “Thanks.”
“Are you hungry? They serve some pretty good sandwiches and lattes.”
“I’m good.”
She shrugged and led me past a lobby that was packed with oak furniture and people and then toward a winding staircase. Carved into the wood were the words THE CLIQUE. My feet stopped. “Is this where The Clique meets up or something?”
“Yeah.” She looked back at me. “Don’t worry. They probably won’t be here today.”
“Wait. Why does PR meet up here if The Clique meets up here?”
She rolled her eyes. “You think The Clique is going to let just any story get out? They own the PR department. That’s why I struggle to find people willing to work with me.”
I backed away and she turned around with her hands on her hips. “Look. I’m not a part of them either. I’m as much of a grunt as you. In fact, I’m pretty sure I have it worse than you.”
From her hollowed expression I could see she believed her words, but I doubted they were true. I bet she didn’t have a man trying to punish her for no reason. I was almost sure of that. I definitely had it worse.
“I don’t know if I can do this.”
She stared at me and shrugged. “Fine. I’ll do it myself. I did it last year.” She turned away and walked up the steps the rest of the way.
I stayed behind and looked around the cabin-styled cafe.
There were people in groups at tables and others sitting alone with laptops and headphones on. Everyone around me seemed to be living a normal life. Was Axel out to destroy anyone else’s life or just mine? I got in line for coffee as I thought about the hike it would take me to get back to the other side of campus so I could catch the bus.
I had to work today but not until later. I was on the late shift since I had no early classes tomorrow.
The girl behind the counter smiled and I assumed she didn’t know who I was. No one had told her that The Clique forbade anyone of being my friend. I ordered my vanilla frappuccino and skipped the extra shot. No more extra shots for me. The last time I’d had the extra expresso I slipped into a neighborhood I didn’t belong in and found myself at the devil’s front door.
No thanks.
The kind girl rang up my purchase and I moved to the side to wait. Knowing I needed to take advantage of my spare time, I pulled out my business law notes and started reading.
My head was down when someone called me, “Hope Malonie?”
I looked up and watched a gray-haired gentleman head my way. His gaze was cautious. “Are you Hope Malonie?”
“I am.” I clutched my notes to my chest as he approached.
“I’m Doug Chandler,” he said with excitement. “I knew your dad. I knew John. Man, when I heard you enrolled I knew I had to find you.”
My eyes widened. I hadn’t seen anyone who’d known my dad in a long time. “Hi.”
We shook hands.
Doug was a lanky guy with a bald patch in the middle of his head and with a very muted style of dress, but his smile wa
s nice and his eyes held child-like youth.
“Your dad was amazing. He was so awesome. I could tell you so many stories.” He laughed and I saw memories play across his mind. “So many good times.”
My face split in two. No one ever talked about my dad anymore, not even Mom, though I knew she thought about him.
My order was called and I grabbed it.
“Are you heading up?” Doug asked.
“Up where?”
“Upstairs? That’s where public relations is meeting.” He tilted his head and gave me this intimate look.
It was a look that said he knew me, when that couldn’t be the case. I’d never met Doug in my life. “I’m sure you signed up for public relations, didn’t you? I refuse to think this is a coincidence.”
He was assuming he knew me based on his relationship with my father. I conceded. “I did come for PR but—”
“Great! I’m the faculty member over it. Come on. I’ll walk you up and you can tell me what your plans are for after you graduate.”
“I’m not going anymore.”
“Oh? Why not?” His casual tone slipped into something more professional. He became a professor in a blink. “It’s a great opportunity. Most of the students in the business and communications department avoid it but honestly, that’s to their own peril.
“We not only work with the school but local businesses. We form partnerships across San Diego and the students are heavily involved in the contract process.”
It sounded like a marketing dream come true but I knew the boogieman waited in the shadows and apparently, so did everyone else.
Carolyn had tricked me. I’d been bamboozled into signing up. I should have read the fine print.
There was no avoiding the guilt in my decision. “I can’t go up there.”
“Why not?” He narrowed his eyes and I felt like I was being slipped under a microscope. “Those were an interesting choice of words, Ms. Malonie. You can’t go upstairs? Why? Is there someone you’re trying to avoid?”
I wanted to ask the professor if he’d been a detective in another life but detection was also part of marketing. When pitching an idea you needed to know your audience. Otherwise, you might as well be talking to a wall.
