Kings of Quarantine: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  “What will?”

  “They figured out the source of this fucking virus,” he growled.

  “Oh, right.” I suppressed a sigh. Dad had been determined to blame someone ever since Mom had died. He’d been suckered in by a bunch of conspiracy theorists about government cover ups and bio weapons. I was pretty sure they were just after his money to fund their nonsense research, but I hadn’t tried to stop him. He had plenty of money if he wanted to waste some of it, and if it gave him some kind of peace to believe in that bullshit then he could have it.

  “I’m not talking about some theory, Blake. I’m talking about confirmed information. That virus was a fucking bio weapon, but it was supposed to be on strict lockdown because they don’t have a cure for the fucking thing.”

  “You’re saying the government are admitting this?” I asked, my interest piqued.

  “Yes! They are because they’ve also figured out where the leak came from.”

  “Really? Where?”

  “This asshole disgruntled scientist who worked in the labs. He stole it and sold it to god knows who, or maybe he released it himself, I don’t fucking know but it clearly got out into the world.”

  “So they’ve arrested him?” I asked hopefully. I hoped they’d gotten hold of him in a state with the death penalty so that fucker could fry.

  “No,” Dad ground out. “Unfortunately the asshole realised they were onto him and he’s gone on the run.”

  “Fuck,” I cursed, pacing up and down as I tried to process this.

  Someone, some fucking, pathetic, worthless, money grabbing shrew of a man had done this. Had infected the world with this poison. Had killed my fucking mom! I wanted his head. I wanted him dead and bloody at my feet. I didn’t know how I’d manage such a thing, but I wanted it more than I could possibly put into words. More than I’d ever wanted anything.

  I couldn’t hear anything beyond the ringing in my ears and all I could see was black. No…red. Because rage was red and I was full up to bursting with it. Fucking exploding with it.

  Dad was saying something else, but I couldn’t hear him above the pulse pounding in my ears.

  “Did you hear what I just said?” he demanded.

  “No. What was it?” I ground out.

  “I said that they haven’t released his name to the public yet, but I used my sources to get my hands on it. And my guys tore through every scrap of information there is on him out there.”

  “And?” I asked.

  “And. His name is Donovan Rivers, he’s a scientist, obviously, but he’s also a prepper, into all kinds of shit, but that’s not what matters because I found his weakness. He tried to hide her away when he realised this would all come out, but he chose the wrong goddamn place to do it.”

  “Hide who away?” I asked with a frown.

  “His daughter. Tatum Rivers. She’s at your school!” He kept talking but I couldn’t hear him anymore because my skin was crawling, my head was pounding and my heart was beating to a beat so powerful it fucking hurt.

  No! No, no, no, no NO!

  How the fuck had this happened? She wasn’t just at my school, she was in my bed! I’d just made her come. She’d been looking at me like the world began and ended with me. But it didn’t end with me…it ended with her.

  Rage clawed at me, burrowing its way out of my heart and working its way through my veins, poisoning each and every part of me, consuming me. This was her father’s fault. Which meant it might as well be her fault. This whole fucking thing, the sickness, people dying, my mom…shit.

  “Make her life hell, son,” Dad growled in my ear.

  “You can count on it,” I snarled in reply before ending the call.

  I turned away from the dorms and ran to the far end of the path where there was a sign for a lookout point with a view over the lake to the mountain beyond. I raced up to the top, my feet falling still at the very peak of the cliff.

  I clawed my hands into my hair and roared my grief to the sky. My voice echoed on and on endlessly and I stumbled back, falling to my knees as I gripped my cellphone almost hard enough to break the damn thing.

  I needed to do something about this, but I couldn’t think clearly through the fog of rage and grief that consumed me.

  I needed Saint. He’d know how to deal with this. He could think it through properly. I dialled his number with trembling fingers and put the phone to my ear as it started ringing and I waited.

  He answered on the fifth ring and I just hoped he had the answers I needed.

  ***

  I headed back to my dorm over two hours later, wondering if fate was shining on me and the daughter of the man I’d sworn to kill would still be in my bed. I’d done a good job of wearing her out last night so I had to hope that she’d just fallen asleep again while waiting for me to come back.

  I’d spent the last two hours at The Temple with Saint and Kyan and we had a damn good plan for how we were going to play this now. I just needed to keep my cool for a while longer. Play the game. Keep her sweet.

  And despite the bitter taste it left sitting on my tongue, I was willing to swallow it down for the sake of what we needed to do.

  This part of the plan was all mine. I hadn’t even told the other Night Keepers. I just told them I was going for a walk and I’d be back. And that was in part because I still wasn’t entirely sure I could stomach it. But there was only one way to find out.

  I headed into Hazel House and took the stairs two at a time before walking to the far end of the corridor where my room sat. It wasn’t much of a personal space. My real room was in The Temple, but Saint didn’t want us bringing girls back there so that was pretty much the sole purpose of my room. Just a place to take girls and fuck them. Nothing more.

  My heart hammered to a war beat as I lingered outside the door, wondering if I could really play this part while so much hatred warred beneath my flesh.

  But there was only one way to find out.

  I pushed the door open and was equally relieved and infuriated to find Tatum still sleeping in my bed.

  Her golden hair spilled all around her and she’d rolled onto her front, pulling the covers over her body, though the curve of her ass still drew my gaze through them.

  Damn her. Damn her for being so fucking tempting. It was like she’d been specifically designed with my cock in mind. Everything about her drew me in. From the sexy, rough edge on her voice to the perfection of her body and those fucking blue eyes which saw into my soul.

  I’d never known a girl who I even wanted to see again the next day, let alone fuck again. And yet despite everything, the sight of her laying there, waiting for me, naked in my bed had me hard as stone already. Even knowing who she was. And I hated myself for that weakness. But I could use it too.

  I moved across the room to the chest of drawers which held nothing more than a few spare clothes for the odd nights I stayed here. The brilliance of it was that I could literally leave the next morning once I was done with a girl and I didn’t even have to kick her out. I just went back to my real room.

  But that wasn’t an option now. Tatum Rivers was a thorn in my side which I fully intended to pull out.

  And though I may have left this room last with my balls aching with need and a promise on her lips, I refused to admit that that was what had drawn me back.

  I wasn’t here because I was longing to sink into her body again. I was here because her father owed me a life. And if he wasn’t going to pay with his own then I’d take his daughter’s instead.

  I took my cellphone from my pocket and placed it on the chest of drawers, wedging in against my wallet and quickly checking that the camera could see the bed.

  Tatum murmured something behind me and I stilled, my finger hesitating over the record button.

  “Blake?” she breathed and my gut twisted at the sound of my name on those lips. Why the fuck did that have to sound so good? So right?

  “Yeah?” I asked without turning to her.

  �
��Where did you go? I had to get myself off while I was waiting…”

  I wasn’t sure if that was a joke or not, but my dick twitched at the mere suggestion of it.

  “Oh yeah?” I asked, trying to school my features before I had to turn to her. “And what were you thinking about when you did that?”

  “Of how much I want you inside me again,” she said in a husky tone which had my mind made up.

  My body needed this release. And everyone knew that hate sex was the best kind of sex anyway. It just so happened that I was the only one of us in on the hate part for now.

  But was I really going to film it? I pushed my tongue into my cheek. It wasn’t like I had to do that for our plan to work…

  “What was so important that you walked out on me for half the night?” she asked sleepily.

  Ice slid through my veins as I thought about exactly why I’d been called from my bed. It was because I’d found out that her lowlife father had killed my mother and then gone on the run for it without paying the consequences. And it was clearly planned, too. Saint had paid off one of the school secretaries in our first year and he had access to all of the student’s personal files. Tatum’s entire school year had been paid up and there were legal documents filed giving custody of her over to her aunt. He’d known he was going to run. He just hadn’t known he was leaving his daughter in such capable hands.

  I hit record and turned my back on the phone as I looked at her.

  She’d moved onto her knees in the centre of the bed and she held a sheet up to cover her body. As I watched, she released her hold on the sheet and it slid down her curves like melting butter.

  A growl escaped me as I looked at her. I still wanted her just as much as I had last night. I couldn’t deny it. But that didn’t mean I had to give her what she’d taken before. I didn’t even want to think about that. About the way it had felt to possess her entire being and for her to possess mine. But then I’d always known that the devil made the sweetest promises and wore the finest skin. She’d tempted me alright. Clearly still was. But if she wanted me mind, body and soul then she was out of luck. Because this time I was only offering her my body.

  “Do you wanna try a little roleplay?” I asked her as I moved forward like a predator closing in on its prey.

  “Umm…I don’t know,” she said, tilting her head so that her golden hair hid her left nipple from me.

  “Do you wanna call me Daddy?” I purred.

  “Daddy? Erm, no, that’s creepy.” She wrinkled her nose and I refused to consider it cute as I snorted a laugh.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right about that…when you first saw me, did you know we’d end up here? Was it a foregone conclusion?” I asked, leading her on a merry dance to get her to say the things I wanted.

  Tatum raised her chin, owning her actions in a move so fucking hot that it was a wonder I wasn’t already taking claim of her body. “I knew,” she breathed.

  “This whole time?” I pushed.

  “Yeah. I knew this whole time,” she agreed, watching me closely as the snare tightened around her neck and she didn’t even realise it.

  I had what I needed. I could have stopped there. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. The heat and desire in her eyes might as well have been my own.

  Besides, fuck wanting this, I needed it. Needed to feel every inch of her skin against mine again.

  “Tell me what you want,” I said darkly, moving closer as I dropped my sweatpants and her eyes instantly dipped to admire my body.

  “I want you,” she panted, her knees widening where she knelt before me like she could almost feel it already. “I want you inside me, Blake.”

  And maybe a better man would have said no. But I’d never claimed to be a better man.

  I closed the distance between us and she reached for me instantly, her lips pressing to mine and the heavenly taste of her washing over my tongue as she kissed me like she had last night. But this wasn’t like last night. I didn’t feel any of those things I’d imagined in my drunken stupor and I wasn’t going to let her trick me into feeling them again now.

  I pulled back, gazing into the endless ocean of her eyes and she frowned slightly, reaching up to cup my cheek.

  “Did something happen, Blake?” she breathed like she could see right into my soul and feel all of my grief just by looking into my eyes. “Did your dad give you bad news, or-”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” I said firmly.

  Fuck those eyes. She was still holding me captive in them. Still shifting through the bullshit for the nugget of pain I’d buried away deep inside me. But she would have a whole lot of fury to dig through first if she expected to find that.

  “What can I do?” she asked and for a moment the question caught me off guard. It was so…sincere. Like she really wanted to help. But there was only one thing that could help me. Revenge. And it just so happened that she was the one who could offer that to me anyway.

  “I want to screw you like there’s no tomorrow,” I growled. “I want to wring all of the pain and heartache and fucking rage right out of my body and yours.”

  She stared at me for a long moment before drawing her bottom lip into her mouth in a way that made me need her even more.

  If we could just stop talking and start fucking, I knew I could forget about this shit. Even if it was only for a little while.

  “Okay then, Blake,” she breathed, a dare dancing in her eyes. “Give me your worst.”

  I growled with pure hunger as I lurched forward, pressing my mouth to hers as I pushed her down onto the bed beneath me and she moaned in encouragement.

  Her tongue tasted of the sweetest poison and the most bitter of lies.

  Her thighs parted for me as she kissed me harder, but I could feel myself falling headfirst into her honey trap again. This felt too good, too right. And it was wrong.

  I pulled back with a determined snarl and flipped her over beneath me so that she was face down on the bed and I didn’t have to face the ache she awoke with her kisses.

  Of course she didn’t flinch, pushing her ass up hungrily as she offered me everything I could take and more.

  I groaned as I lined myself up behind her, feeling how wet she was against the tip of my cock a moment before I drove myself inside her. One hard thrust right up to the base had her screaming into the pillow beneath her.

  “More,” she gasped as I slid back out before thrusting in again and again and again.

  She felt so fucking good. Her body seemed made for mine and her cries of pleasure only told me she agreed.

  My fingers bit into her hips as I pounded into her savagely, angrily, hungrily. And I cursed her beneath my breath because I needed more of her, all of her. I never wanted this feeling to end. And the rage in me fed and fed on each and every thrust, my anger growing and hardening as I fought against the way I wanted her.

  “Yes!” she cried, her hands fisting in the sheets. “More!”

  Harder and harder. Harder than I’d ever fucked anybody before and she met me thrust for thrust, crying out for even more as I drove myself into the perfect tightness of her body.

  I slid my hand around her hips until I was riding her clit with my fingers, stroking it in time with every thrust.

  Her begging gave way to screaming as I worked her over and my own voice joined hers as I couldn’t help but groan in pleasure too.

  I’d never felt anything like this. Like her. The girl I hated more than words could ever convey.

  She screamed as she came for me and I followed her into oblivion instantly as she tightened around my length, her body trembling for what I’d just done to her. My heart was pounding, limbs trembling and my entire being felt like it had just been shattered and stitched back together by her. I’d never felt anything that came even close to that. To her.

  She dropped her hips flat to the bed and I fell over her, the scent of vanilla and honey blossom engulfing me as I breathed her in.

  I stayed there for a long moment
, our bodies still joined and her limbs still shaking.

  Perfection. There was no other word for her.

  But I wasn’t going to let that fool me.

  I shoved off of her and got to my feet as she rolled over, pushing her hair out of her face.

  “That was…” she blew out a laugh like she couldn’t find words for it and I had to agree. I’d been there. I knew what it was. But I knew what she was too.

  I stepped back, my jaw ticking as I pulled my sweatpants back on. I drew in a deep breath, focusing everything I had on the grief, rage and pain which darkened my soul as I forced my gaze to harden and any softness I might have been tempted to feel towards her whither and die.

  “Well, thanks,” I said, turning my back on her as I moved to retrieve my shit from the chest of drawers.

  “Thanks?” she laughed. “Is that it then? No breakfast in bed?”

  “We have breakfast in the Redwood Dining Hall,” I said in a flat tone with my back to her. “And you might wanna hurry unless you plan on turning up for it in last night’s dress.”

  I stopped the recording and pushed the cellphone into my pocket with my wallet. Tatum was silent as I gathered my shit and I turned back, expecting to find her pouting from the bed, looking like she might just cry. But no. Of course she wasn’t. She was on her feet and in her dress, fighting to pull the zipper up.

  My jaw ticked as I watched her and after several long seconds I strode across the room to help. I pulled it up and she tossed her hair back before kicking her shoes back on.

  “Are you on the pill?” I asked before she could step away from me. I’d been so caught up in her last night that I hadn’t even thought of a condom until this moment, but I was starting to realise what an absolute fuck up that had been. If I got this girl pregnant, how the hell was I supposed to cope with that? Her dad had killed my mom.

  “Yes,” she said in a forced light tone. “No need to worry about that. Should I be getting myself an STI test though?” She stepped away from me and gave me an analytical look which said she thought she probably should.

  “No,” I growled. “I’ve never forgotten a condom before.”