by Sofia Daniel
My stomach dropped, and I took a step back. “You love him.”
“I was protecting you,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Then why were you in his room, wearing a black negligée?”
“Miss Evergreen, I’m warning you… One more offensive comment and you will be expelled!”
“Maybe you planted those naked pictures in the prospectuses to make me look bad in front of the board.”
“That’s it!” Miss Claymore yanked open a drawer.
I stiffened, hoping she wouldn’t pull out a gun. “Sebastian’s behind the door, listening. If you do anything weird, he’ll charge inside.”
“Then let him listen to this,” Miss Claymore snarled. “From this moment, you are expelled. Expelled to preserve your sanity. Brittas Academy has twisted your mind in ways that no young woman should experience.”
She pulled out a packet of ginger mints and pushed them across the table. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to protect you.”
I stared at the innocuous tube of candies. They had been a symbol of our camaraderie, but now, all I saw was a cheap bribe she’d used to appear as though she’d cared.
“That’s your answer?” she spat. “Expelling me?”
“According to your contract, your bursary is immediately repayable if you give us cause to expel you.”
My mouth opened and closed. Most of that money had been eaten up by monthly direct debits and pre-authorized payments. I couldn’t afford to pay back the academy.
Miss Claymore sat and typed a few rapid sentences into her computer. “If you resign, I will offer you a payment plan to reimburse what you’ve already received.”
Her words were like a claw, not only squeezing my heart but digging its talons into the flesh. I clenched my teeth and clamped my lips together. I’d bet my entire bursary that Miss Claymore had done something to Mrs. Benazir, so she could now act as headmistress, expel me, and harass Sebastian as much as she liked.
What choice did I have? The woman knew my weak points. I had no income apart from the bursary, and no means of paying back a lump sum.
Her printer whirred into action and spewed out a letter with a schedule of payments. Then she slid the printout and a pen across the table and waited.
My gaze dropped to the hateful words in bold print:
LETTER OF RESIGNATION
Tears burned in my eyes, and rage shook my heart. Pride told me to ball up her piece of paper and hurl it in her face, but my survival instinct told me to leave.
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. Everyone who had warned me so far had been right. Bullies always escalated. With my enemy being a grown woman strong enough to throw me down mountainside caves or into tumbling cars, I couldn’t afford to be defiant.
After signing the bottom of my resignation letter, I pushed it across the desk.
She lowered her gaze into its contents and murmured, “This is for your own good.”
“There’s no future with him,” I whispered.
Miss Claymore pursed her lips. “Ridiculous accusations like this are exactly why it’s best for you to leave. The pressure of the elite environment is too much for a delicate soul like yours. I should have noticed it earlier.”
I backed away from the desk. She had won for now. But if she thought that getting me to leave this shit hole of sociopaths would make her more attractive to a boy young enough to be her son, she was deluded.
“Miss Evergreen?” she said.
I turned around and folded my arms across my chest.
Her eyes softened. Most likely due to relief at having finally gotten rid of me. “If anyone drove Corrine Gibbons to her death, it was the boy who seduced her and broke her heart. She was never the same after that.”
“I’ve heard the pull-a-pig game affects women of all ages,” I snapped.
Her face hardened. “And I wish to protect you from the game’s harmful effects.”
I curled my lip. Who was she trying to fool with the faux concern?
“One more thing,” said Miss Claymore.
“What?”
“Corrine confided in me before she died. At the time, I thought it was an exaggeration, but with hindsight, I believe in the truth of her words.”
I waited for Miss Claymore to get to the point.
“She said she had become a nuisance to the wrong person, and because of that, she would die.”
“It wasn’t Prakash.”
“The further you are away from this institution, the more likely you will reach eighteen.”
“Is that a threat?” I asked.
Her dark brow arched. “An observation.”
With a shake of my head, I opened the door, stepped into the hallway, and slammed the door shut.
All three of the kings jumped back at my sudden movement, but Leopold was the first to approach.
“What happened?” he whispered. “Did you get a juicy confession?”
My shoulders slumped, and a lump formed in my throat. How could I phrase my total and utter defeat? It was so unlike me to act rashly. If I waited for Mrs. Benazir’s return, Miss Claymore might have been the one leaving the school in handcuffs.
“I got expelled,” I whispered.
“You—“ Leopold glanced at Sebastian and Prakash, who kept a respectful distance. “What?”
“She just made up a bunch of crap about worrying for my sanity and forced me me resign for my own good.”
His face blanked. “Maybe it’s for the best.”
“What?”
“I want you here, but not if it’s at the cost of your life.”
“But—”
Leopold placed his fingertips on my lips. “Think about it.” His gaze darted to the door of Miss Claymore’s office. “Someone wants you out of the way, and she probably won’t stop coming after you until you’re gone.”
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Let’s help you pack.”
Chapter 16
That night, Leopold and I returned to my room and packed my things. He borrowed the jeep, and we traveled back to Cummersdale in defeated silence. It was probably for the best. Miss Claymore would only strike back harder if I stayed, but it still rankled that she was now free to harass and assault Sebastian.
Leopold parked the jeep outside the cottage, and I rummaged through my pockets for the house keys. After helping me with my bags, he stretched and yawned.
“Don’t drive back tonight,” I said.
His gaze flicked down to my lips. “You want me to stay the night?”
“Only if you keep your hands to yourself.”
Leopold placed his palm on the center of his chest. “I swear on everything that’s holy I will not rub against you during the night.”
“Thanks.”
A smile curled around the edges of his lips. “But I make no promises once the sun rises.”
The next morning, Leopold’s erection ground into my ass. He snaked his hands under my arms, cupped my breasts, and rolled my nipples between his fingers. Sparks of pleasure shot down to my core, making the pulse between my legs pound.
My first day of being expelled was starting well. I pushed my ass into his hardness.
“Wills, keep rubbing against me like that, and I’ll cum like a hose.”
A laugh huffed out from between my lips. “Is that a medical condition?”
“Category six hypertensive ejaculation.” He groaned as his erection settled between my ass-cheeks. “It’s no laughing matter.”
“Is there anything I can do to relieve the pressure?”
One of his hands traveled down my belly and between my legs. He dipped a finger between my slick folds and rubbed the moisture over my throbbing clit. A breath caught in my throat, and I arched back into Leopold’s warm, hard body.
If I’d known that leaving Brittas Academy would result in these kinds of pleasures, I would have quit the morning the boys had first brought me back from the hideout.
He stroked a path of sensation around
my sensitive bundle of nerves. “I want to pleasure you with my fingers until you come apart, then you can straddle me and smother my face with your breasts.”
A wave of ecstasy shot through my insides and had my teeth worrying my bottom lip. “You really want me to suffocate you with my boobs?”
“Show no mercy.” He dipped two fingers into my core, stretching me open and rubbed the heel of my hand against my clit. “Then, grip my cock and milk me dry.”
He circled his hips and rubbed his erection against my ass. I reached back and wrapped my fingers around his thick organ, making him hiss. “Carry on like that, and I’ll be the one coming apart at your hands.”
“You want me to let go?”
“Don’t pump it until your breasts are in my face.
I chuckled. “You’re obsessed.”
“Guilty and proud of it.”
The hand pumping its fingers in and out of my core sped up, and he pulled and tweaked my nipples, adding to my pleasure. I rocked my hips against the heel of his hand, enjoying the feel of my clit sliding against his flesh. It was just like the bed baths, when he’d given me so much attention with his tongue. Only this time, he wasn’t so gentle on my nipples.
I cried out with the intensity of the sensations and squeezed my eyes shut as the pleasure mounted, filling my belly, chest, and throat until I thought it would spill out of my ears.
Leopold’s fingers continued that delicious back and forth movement, and I pictured him being less of a gentleman and sticking that hot, thick, pulsing erection into my hungry core.
I was ready for it—ready for anything, and I opened my mouth to tell him I needed more than just fingers when a tidal wave of pleasure knocked the words out of my head.
A powerful spasm made my hips stiffen, and I drew in a shard breath through my teeth. Heartbeats later, my muscles released the most intense sensations. Pulse after pulse of pleasure rippled through my core, and I threw my head back onto Leopold’s shoulder and cried out.
His lips crashed onto mine, and he swallowed my howls and moans of ecstasy in a dizzying kiss.
Afterward, as I caught my breath, Leopold sucked on his fingers and moaned out his pleasure. “Fuck, you taste so good.”
I let out a long, satisfied breath. “That was amazing.”
“Wait until you ride the big dipper.” He gave me a gentle pat on the hip. “Someone owes me a pair of tits in the face. Up you get.”
With a giggle, I got on my hands and knees and straddled Leopold. As soon as I sat upright, my head spun, and I steadied my hands on his gorgeous, hard pecs. “One second.”
He placed both hands on my breasts and gave them a gentle squeeze. “Take your time. There’s plenty to occupy me while I wait.”
I tried to blink my eyes back into focus, but he was a blur. My head spun, and all the pleasurable feelings ebbed away, leaving me panicked and shaky and bewildered. Orgasms weren’t supposed to have such detrimental effects.
“Wills?” he asked.
My eyes crossed, and I collapsed onto his chest.
The world felt like it was spinning out of control, and I couldn’t make it stop. I vaguely wondered if this was some unheard-of side effect of hypothermia because it was the first murder attempt that hadn’t resulted in my hospitalization.
Leopold kept stroking my back and my hair, assuring me that I would be alright, but the words faded into a blur of sound that added to my twisting and dizzying surroundings. I had to squeeze my eyes shut, but there was little I could do to block out his words delivered with the rapidity of a machine gun.
Each beat of my heart resounded through my body like a shockwave. A groan slipped from my lips. Something was deathly wrong with me. Grape-sized beads of sweat rolled down my brow and soaked into the mattress, and my limbs wouldn’t stop trembling.
“Leo.” The word came out as an incoherent groan. “Stop talking for a minute.”
A wave of darkness enveloped me, occasionally ebbing with new sounds and sensations.
“Does she have any allergies?” a woman asked.
“None that she’s mentioned.” Leopold sounded panicked.
Someone moved and jostled my body, and all the while, Leopold’s hand remained in mine, rooting me to reality.
“Willow?” asked a strange man.
My throat was so swollen, I couldn’t even reply. I couldn’t even breathe. My heartbeat sped up, the force of its contractions making my limbs twitch.
“Willow?” Leopold’s voice broke.
His hand slipped from mine, and a tube went into my mouth and down my throat. I sucked in a breath of clean air and fell unconscious.
The next time I awoke, it was in a hospital room in a row of beds.
“Willow Evergreen?” A doctor stood over me and said a bunch of sentences my mind couldn’t parse. I caught the words, poisoned, charcoal, ECG, and toxicology. Everything else faded into a blur, and I closed my eyes to stop him from talking.
The next time I awoke, it was in a different room, and all three of the kings sat at my bedside. I blinked and let my gaze wander to Leopold, who sat the closest. His blond hair hung over his face, and dark circles ringed his eyes. Warmth filled my heart. Sometimes it was hard to believe that the boy I saw as a sexy bonus to my relationship with Sebastian had stepped up and become such a reliable boyfriend.
Next to him sat Prakash, who stared directly at me. When I blinked, he tilted his head to the side and blinked back, reminding me of a curious cat. Every instinct told me that he was a sensitive, caring guy, who had probably rescued me on the night of Ashley’s initiation, but I still hadn’t finished decoding Corrine’s diary.
At the far end, Sebastian hunched over his lap and rested his head in his hands. Pain pierced my heart, and I squeezed my eyes shut. He had been protecting Miss Claymore all this time, not knowing I’d seen the woman twice a week for private tutoring, drank cups of tea she had prepared, and eaten countless numbers of her ginger mints.
I’d been such a fool to think she would help me out of guilt for Corrine’s suicide. She had just wanted to get rid of a rival.
“Willow?” asked Prakash. “Are you awake?”
I opened my eyes to find all three boys staring at me. “Why didn’t you say something about Miss Claymore?”
Sebastian’s eyes were red-rimmed. He turned his gaze to the jug of water on the over bed table. “I believed in her good heart and didn’t think her capable of hurting you.”
“But she hurt you,” I whispered.
A muscle in his jaw flexed. “What I did to her was unforgivable.”
“But she was an adult, and you were a grieving child.”
“Age isn’t an excuser of cruelty.” He swallowed. “What I did was completely premeditated, and she resisted me the entire year until I took her back to the cabin and told her I’d built it in her honor. S-she’d been a virgin.”
I turned my head away from his sad, green eyes and blew out a long breath. No wonder the woman had become obsessed. “She tried to kill me again.”
“I know.”
The hospital kept me for another day, as the toxicology report was inconclusive. A combination of antidepressants, paracetamol, and beta-blockers was found in my blood, but I’d only ever taken paracetamol and hadn’t taken any since waking up in that cave.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have any of Miss Claymore’s ginger mints to hand over to the doctors for testing, and they didn’t believe that I would be able to eat large quantities of those candies without tasting the bitter drugs. My mind briefly wandered to the box of Chinese herbs in my room, but I dismissed the possibility. I’d stopped taking them the day I’d started throwing up.
The boys helped me settle into my house, filled the refrigerator with groceries, and promised to return for the weekend. There was no sign of Ashley anywhere in the village of Cummersdale. Uncle Trevor hadn’t heard from her. Neither had two of her friends who had knocked on the door when they’d spotted the lights in my window.
On my first night back, I lay on my sprung mattress, entertaining a swirl of worries. If I didn’t find a job or a company to sponsor my studies, I wouldn’t be able to pay the bills, and then I really would have to sell the house. And what would I do to get the police to take the two latest murder attempts seriously? I was beginning to wonder if everyone thought I had some form of Munchausen syndrome.
The letterbox rattled.
My eyes snapped open, and a breath caught in the back of my throat. Heart rattling against my chest, I crept out of bed, through my bedroom, and out into the hallway. I crouched at the top of the stairs and waited.
Through the stained glass windows, I caught sight of a man standing at the door, peering inside through the letterbox. A moment later, he straightened, revealing a tall, broad-shouldered figure backlit against the street light.
“Pssst, psst!” he made the kind of noise people used when trying to catch a cat’s attention.
I bit down hard on my bottom lip. Was he a burglar, casing the house for occupants, or something else? The man fiddled with the front door, which was locked and bolted shut.
“Shit,” he hissed and walked away.
I rushed back to my bedroom and peeped through the gap in the curtains. The man wore black and covered his face with a balaclava. I rushed to the cordless phone and called nine-nine-nine.
“Hello, emergency service operator,” said the cheery voice at the end of the other line. “Which service do you require? fire, police, or ambulance?”
“Police,” I whispered.
“I’ll just connect you now.”
After a barely audible click, another voice said, “Hello, this is the police.”
“I’m at fifty-six Appletree Road, Cummersdale, in Cumbria. A man is lurking around my house, and I’m home alone.”
“Your name, please?”
“W-Willow Evergreen.”
A loud click from the kitchen indicated that he had forced open the door. My heart exploded across my chest. I rushed into Mom and Dad’s room, wriggled under the bed between the suitcases they kept there.
