by Sofia Daniel
I bucked my hips in reply.
Blake mouthed at the fabric, applying the smallest amount of pressure against my throbbing nub. A frustrated groan resounded in the back of my throat, making him chuckle. “Impatient? I like that in a woman.”
“Get on with it, or we’ll swap places,” snapped Henry.
Blake pulled my panties to the side, and a gust of air hit my wet folds. “Oh fuck,” he moaned. “She’s just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.”
A laugh huffed out from my throat. “Th-that phrase refers to personality.”
“Not the way I use it.” He moved in with a slow, sensual slide of his tongue that traveled up from my core to my throbbing bundle of nerves.
I cried out and shuddered under his ministrations. Blake showed no mercy and continued those wonderful, dizzying licks. Heat and moisture gathered in my core, which ached and twitched and throbbed. I’d never had sex before, but I had used toys, and right now, I needed to be filled.
Edward placed a fingertip on my lips and with his other hand, gave my nipple an admonishing squeeze. “We’re next door to the common room. If you scream the house down, you’ll have everyone at our door.”
With a whimper, I nodded.
Henry rubbed a finger along my wet folds. I bucked my hips as he skimmed my core, and he slid it inside. Sparks of pleasure pulsed out from where his digit pushed and stretched my inner muscles. Then he slipped in another finger, and my mouth opened in a silent scream.
Blake quickened his licks into rapid flicks that made my eyes roll to the back of my head. What the hell were these three doing to me? At that moment, with Henry pumping his fingers in and out of me, Edward tweaking and teasing my nipples to the point of distraction, and Blake torturing me with that clever tongue, I couldn’t think about my plans, couldn’t think of resentment or revenge. The triumvirate had me writhing like a trollop, suspended in pleasure on the leather armchair.
Ecstasy built and built until I thought my insides would implode. My mind blanked, and I became a sensitive ball of need, shaking, gasping and keening at their command. Blake continued the relentless lapping, making the muscles of my core clamp around Henry’s finger in anticipation of an explosive climax.
Then he stopped.
My eyes flew open and I stared down at his smirking face, eyes wide with disbelief. “What?”
“Will you come back to us?” Blake’s breath puffed against my quivering flesh.
I clenched my teeth. “Why?”
“What?” asked Henry.
“Why do you want me back?” I pressed my lips together and let out a shaky breath.
“We told you in the back of the limo that time we took you shopping.” Henry slid another thick finger inside me, making my eyes roll to the back of my head. “We all want you equally, and we’re going to share.”
Edward sucked on the side of my neck. His fingers circled my nipples over my shirt. “It’s just as I explained as you left the academy. We were serious about you becoming our fourth,” he whispered. “Say yes, and they’ll let you come.”
I scrunched every muscle in my face and shook my head. They wouldn’t get me so easily. Why had they framed someone they wanted so much? I was about to speak, but Henry scissored his thick fingers, making me clutch the leather of the Chesterfield.
Blake blew on my wet folds, and I gasped. Sweat beaded at my brow, and my breath came in panting, shuddering breaths. This was more than I could bear. No one had ever teased me so mercilessly. Blake held me at that knife-edge of pleasure and frustration with the gentlest of caresses, giving me the barest amount of sensation to stoke the flames of my desire but not enough to give me that sweet relief.
Sweat poured down my brow, and I squeezed around Henry’s thick fingers and bucked my hips, trying to create some friction.
Henry placed a heavy hand on my pelvis, pinning me in place. “No cheating. Either Blake finishes you, or you continue to whimper.”
“Well?” Edward pinched a nipple, and pulses of electricity shot down to my core. “Will you come back to us?”
“N-n-not until I find out why—”
Blake drew back, and I cried out with frustration.
“It’s a simple decision,” he said from between my legs. “Say yes. Say you forgive us, and come back.”
I clamped down hard on Henry’s fingers. If they were withholding my orgasm, I would do it on my own.
“She’s trying to cheat again,” said Henry. “I’d better slide my fingers out.”
“N-no!” I couldn’t stand more loss of contact. “I-I forgive you.”
“That’s all we wanted to hear,” murmured Edward.
Blake repositioned himself between my legs and lapped at my sensitive nub with extra vigor. Henry pumped his fingers in and out of my aching core. Edward slipped his fingers under my sweater, into my bra and toyed with my nipples. I lay back on that armchair, eyes closed, submitting to the sensations. This time, when the pressure reached a feverish pitch, they continued pleasuring me until I splintered.
Just before I could cry out, Edward clamped his lips on mine and swallowed my scream. He explored my mouth with deep strokes, while I bucked and shuddered on the leather armchair. When my spasms ebbed to gentle ripples and my breathing calmed, he drew back.
“You’re back in the fold,” said Edward. “Any regrets?”
I shook my head.
Blake nipped at my inner thigh. “If there’s anything you need. A friendly word. A hug. A pleasuring by the fireplace. We’re here.”
My throat went dry, and I stared down at Blake and Henry’s crotches. Each man sported a huge erection. I swallowed hard. It was one thing to sit like a queen while the three of them pleasured me, but nothing had changed between us. I hadn’t forgotten their betrayal, and I still resented them for trying to get between me and Sergei with their dirty tricks.
“W-what do you want from me?” I asked.
Edward squeezed my shoulder. “We’ll take care of ourselves,” he murmured. “Don’t worry about us.”
Henry helped me to my feet and held me steady while I slipped on my loafers. “Will you be alright going up the stairs?”
“Y-yes.” I stuffed my tights in my pocket and backed toward the door. “Good night.”
I hurried out of the room, down the hallway and up the stairs. That had been unbelievable. Now that they thought they’d persuaded me back into their inner circle, I needed to form a plan. The first of the triumvirate I wanted to destroy was Henry, but to do that, I needed to rid myself of the biggest obstacle: Charlotte.
Chapter 6
On Monday morning, I sat at the head table between Blake and Edward. Even though Henry’s fingers had taken me to ecstasy and back, I still couldn’t act like things were perfect between us. To make my deception real, I had to appear to hold on to a little resentment. Only a liar would forgive being abducted for nine days, framed for kidnapping, and the subsequent seven days I’d spent in the basement. As I was buttering my toast, Charlotte stepped into the dining room. She locked gazing with me and turned around, taking Patricia with her.
I narrowed my eyes. Someone as desperate as Charlotte would probably scheme something to match that ghastly goodbye gauntlet to get me out of the way. I had to strike before she could, and to do that, I would need more information on her.
Rita walked into the dining room, took one look at me, and jerked her head away. The tightening of her lips said it all. I was playing with gunpowder and the fall-out would be explosive. I lowered my gaze to my plate of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon and tried not to think about her warning. Even if I wanted to walk away, Rudolph still held the threat of military school over my head, and Jackie had sent a text, asking when I would be able to install all the cameras.
“Problems with Yelverton?” asked Edward.
“We’re fine,” I replied. “She didn’t know we were all friends again.”
He stared after her, lips pressed together. Rita settled hersel
f at a table full of the scholarship students who had approached her last term with their theories that I’d been murdered by Henry. I was glad she was able to connect with them, but the hard look in Edward’s eyes lined my stomach with dread. Was he so desperate to screw up people’s lives that he was looking to rekindle a fresh round of bullying?
“If you act against her, we’re finished.”
“Of course,” he said a little too smoothly. “Although it seems that you might be drifting apart.”
“What do you expect her to do?” I picked up a slice of toast from the silver rack. “Sit around waiting for me to spare her a crumb of time between my three boyfriends?”
“I like the sound of that,” murmured Blake. “Maybe you can see us tonight and finish what you started last night?”
I patted him on the knee. “Tempting… If only I hadn’t missed so much prep and classwork from getting expelled.”
Henry made a choking sound and turned his head away. I clamped my lips together to stop them from curling with disdain. He wasn’t fooling anyone with that fake display of guilt.
Blake took a large bite of his toast and continued wolfing it down until he muttered something about going to classes early. Then he left. I narrowed my eyes at Edward, who was still staring at the table of scholarship students. What the hell was he planning? He might be thinking of cornering Rita to ask about my motives. But she had told me not to tell her my plans, and I had respected her request and kept our conversations away from the triumvirate.
My first class of the day was Creative Writing. Alice lowered herself into the seat next to mine and hissed, “What do you think you’re doing with that wanker?”
“Edward?” I asked.
“Yes. And the other two. They’re trouble.”
I shrugged. “You saw what happened to me last term when I left. Befriending them is the only way I can survive here.”
Alice had the decency to glance away. “T-that wasn’t me.” She swallowed. “I mean… I knew they would form lines and watch you leave, but I didn’t think things would go out of control.”
A furnace of resentment burned in my stomach, and I had to reach down and pull my satchel on the table to give myself time to smooth out my expression. Breathing hard to stop my hands from shaking, I asked, “What did you expect from the other students?”
Her tongue darted out to lick her lips. “Like I said, I didn’t organize it. That was Charlotte. She’s still paying off her debts to Carbuncle for all the work he did behind the scenes.”
I was about to ask what she meant when Mr. Weatherford strolled into the room and told everyone to turn to a page in our textbooks and dissect a poem. I tried to focus on my work, but my thoughts kept rocking back to Charlotte. I owed that bitch for the gauntlet. Mr. Carbuncle, too. My hands balled into fists. If there was a way I could prove he was taking cash from students, I would expose him first.
Alice was the key to getting to Charlotte, and I had to be careful not to scare her away. I turned to her and whispered, “Sergei’s playing in a concert hall in Sussex. He sent me two tickets. Do you want to come with me?”
Her eyes gleamed. “When?”
“This coming Sunday,” I replied.
“I’d love to!”
“Great.” I made a mental note to contact Jackie and ask her to authorize the purchase of alcohol. Alice was Charlotte’s former friend and could tell me a lot about her father, the current Secretary of State for the Supreme Court.
At the end of the week, Jackie sent a limo to pick us up and take us to Sergei’s concert. Alice drank copious glasses of champagne and was already tipsy by the time we reached the small, Victorian concert hall. I bought us some drinks and snacks for the show.
Sergei walked onto the stage to a round of applause, dressed in the most elegant tuxedo with a white waistcoat and a white bowtie.
Alice leaned into my side and whispered, “He’s so dashing.”
I smiled and leaned back in my seat. If only she knew the truth. “Thank you.”
She took several sips of champagne before refilling her glass from the bottle I’d left in the ice bucket by our feet.
Sergei played one of his father’s concertos, a tumultuous piece that roused my blood. I closed my eyes and surrendered myself to the emotional intensity of his playing. It was as though he was translating my thirst for revenge into music.
During the interval, Alice’s eyes drooped, and she let out a pained sigh. “The girls all gather in my room in the evenings, talking loudly about how you’ve taken away their boys.”
“Who do you room with?”
“Wendy. She wasn’t even serious with any of them, but she goes along with Charlotte and Patricia just to see me cringe. It’s like they don’t care that they pushed me out of their group when I gave Edward that ultimatum.”
While she poured herself another glass of champagne, I turned on the voice recorder app on my smartphone. “Why do they want Edward and Henry so much?”
Alice raised her brows. “You’ve seen them, haven’t you? They’re the hottest guys in the school, and that’s counting the upper-sixth years.”
“There must be something else,” I said. “Charlotte’s really into Henry.”
She swirled her glass, and I topped it up with champagne. After taking a few delicate sips, she said. “She’s after the Bourneville fortune.”
“Why’s that?”
“Her family is spiraling into debt. Peter—that’s Charlotte’s older brother—he has a gambling problem, and Mr. Underwood keeps bailing him out. Charlotte’s livid about it because she doesn’t even know if her father can afford to pay next year’s fees.” Alice shook her head.
Sergei walked back on the stage to tremendous applause, and I shut off the voice recorder. Alice’s story was consistent with what Rita had told me the previous term, but I needed a few more bits of information: the name of the casinos Peter owed, and any hints of illegal behavior on the part of Charlotte’s father.
At the end of the concert, we went backstage, and I introduced Sergei to a drunken, star-struck Alice. We took a few publicity photos, then Alice and I headed back to the car.
As she stepped through the doors and out into the cold evening, I pulled my phone out of my coat pocket and turned on the recording app. “It’s a bit unfair that these casinos let Charlotte’s brother gamble, even though they know he’s an addict.”
She sipped a can of diet coke. “They’ve completely ruined the family.”
I made a show of pursing my lips. “I’d like to avoid those casinos. Can you remember which ones he visited?”
As the limo pulled out from the front of the concert hall, Alice rattled off a list of names and then added that Mr. Underwood’s secretary had resigned due to spending more time negotiating with them than doing government work, leaving Charlotte’s father scrambling for a new assistant.
I leaned back into the leather seat and smiled. This had been a very productive evening. The car sped along a seafront road lit by iron street lamps connected by long strings of bright lights that reflected on the surface of the sea. A drunken flush on Alice’s face stood out in the reflection of the artificial illumination.
“Hey, if Charlotte’s family is in such financial trouble, how can she afford to pay Mr. Carbuncle?”
Alice clapped her hands over her mouth and giggled. “He doesn’t take money from girls.”
“What does he want from them?” I cracked an eye open as if the answer wasn’t obvious.
“He loves going down on them.”
I twisted in my seat and gaped at Alice, who gave me a knowing smirk. “With that big, bristly mustache? No!”
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”
My eyes bulged. “You did?”
“Just once. It was after the girls gave me the cold shoulder.”
“What did you want?”
She shrugged. “Company, I suppose.”
I sucked in a breath. “You need to report him for
taking advantage of school girls.”
Alice’s face hardened, and she reached into the open drinks cabinet for a miniature bottle of vodka and poured its contents into her coke. “He never goes further than fingers and oral, and he doesn’t approach us. We approach him.”
I clenched my teeth. Even if the girls did instigate these encounters, Mr. Carbuncle was the adult and should have turned them away. “How long has he been offering this… service?”
Alice shrugged. “I’m not sure. All the girls know about him. It’s an open secret.” She grabbed my arm. “You look angry. Don’t get him into trouble. He’s a decent sort.”
I made a long, theatrical sigh. Alice was still useful for gathering information. There was no point in antagonizing her by letting her know I wanted her precious Mr. Carbuncle fired.
No, I wouldn’t report Mr. Carbuncle yet. He had access to all the buildings in the academy and would be well-positioned to put up the cameras with the right motivation. I’d ask Jackie to use the knowledge of his extra-curricular activities to blackmail him into putting up those cameras. Alice’s recording and the video of him letting Charlotte into my room would be enough evidence to convince him to work for the paper.
“Wasn’t it an ordeal?” I made my voice as perky as I could. “That mustache has to be scratchy.”
Alice’s eyes sparkled. “Charlotte doesn’t think so, and neither do some of the others.”
“But it looks like a broom!”
Alice recited a list of girls who had offered themselves to Mr. Carbuncle. A few had just done it for the experience and others had requested favors, such as access to someone else’s room. Each name and funny anecdote Alice told me became a nail in the janitor’s coffin. He would be a useful person to blame in case anyone suspected me of spying or of passing information onto the Correspondent. Not only would he install those cameras, but I would ask Jackie to transfer small payments to his bank account and send thank you letters every time she published an article related to the academy… Just in case I needed someone to frame if everything went wrong.
