Boys of King Academy

by Rose, Louise

  “Why did I agree to do this?” I wail. “I should have told Mr Metcalf I lost my voice.”

  “Don’t be silly. This is what you were born to do, Ivy. Everyone else can see it. You just need to relax.”

  He comes around behind me and massages my shoulders. I close my eyes and lean back into him. He certainly knows what he is doing, I can feel some of the tension melting away under his touch. My nerves aren’t completely gone, but he certainly helped.

  His hands move down my front, lightly caressing my breasts.

  “Mmmm.” I moan, loving the way he is making me feel.

  “Does this take away the stress?” he asks.

  “You know it does!”

  I can sense Declan’s grin as he fondles my breasts, lightly running his thumbs over my nipples, teasing them into being erect.

  “Oh, god…”

  I arch my back, leaning into him to give him easier access as he continues to play with me through my clothes. There is something incredibly erotic about the thought that anyone could walk into the room at any time and catch us like this.

  “Feeling better?”

  I pout with disappointment, as Declan stops touching me and comes back around to take another sip of his wine.

  “Why did you stop? I’m all frustrated now.”

  “Exactly.” Declan clicks his fingers and points at me. “You’re frustrated, not nervous. Your mind is a million miles away from the audience waiting for you and your channelling the sentiment of our lyrics. You’re in the best possible place to give the audience what they want.”

  “But I’m really horny.” I wriggle about in my chair, desperate for him to come back and finish what he started.

  “Sorry, Ivy. I can’t help you with that.” Declan grins wickedly, clearly enjoying the fact I am desperate to be with him. “Or at least, not right now. There’s nothing to say we can’t hook up later…”

  “I like the thought of that.”

  Yes, it is wrong. Yes, I have a fiancé and it should have been him I turned to when I needed my physical needs fulfilling. But I still haven’t seen Declan naked. He has a hold over me that makes me want to know what it feels like to have him inside, filling me completely, sending me to ecstasy as he enjoys himself over and over…

  “Ivy! Ivy!”

  I snap myself out of it, having lost myself in a daydream where Declan and I spend all day in bed together.

  “Sorry, Declan. What is it?”

  “We need to go stage side. We’re on soon.”

  I gulp down the last of my wine and grab my guitar while Declan fetches his. A little rush of nerves runs through me, but it isn’t as bad as it was, thanks to Declan’s unusual relaxation technique.

  We take our places by the side of the stage, listening as Nate, one of the other students finishes up a dramatic monologue. He is actually pretty good, which is a change given how bad some of the acts have been.

  When he is done, he takes a deep, dramatic bow before walking off stage towards us.

  “I warmed them up for you,” he grins. “You’re welcome!”

  “Nothing like an actor’s ego to fill the room,” laughs Declan.

  He gives my hand a final reassuring squeeze as Pilkington announces us.

  “We’ve saved the best for last,” the Head says. “As you’ve seen, we’ve got a number of very talented students in our midst, but these two are something special. I have absolutely no doubt that we’ll see them at the top of the charts someday very soon. Please put your hands together and give a big round of applause for Ivy Archaic and Declan Dauphin!”

  “This is it,” Declan whispers to me. “We’ve got this!”

  We walk out together, guitars in hand, to where the stagehands have put a couple of stools out for us. We each sit down and the stagehands put mic stands in front of us. I reach up to adjust the mic so it is in the right position for me to sing.

  “Good evening, everyone.” Declan speaks into his mic, waving to the crowd. “Are you all having a good time?”

  The crowd roars their response.

  “Glad to hear it. This is a song Ivy and I wrote together. It’s called All That You Knew.”

  He nods at me and I start playing the chords to the introduction. He pick out a little riff over them, taking the lead while I establish the rhythm.

  I close my eyes, letting the music take control. Declan is right. Now that I‘m on stage and doing what I do best, I didn’t care about anything else.

  I have the first line to sing, and I put my heart and soul into it.

  “You thought you had it sorted. You thought you had it made.”

  Declan takes over the next line.

  “But if only you had known you were the one who’s being played.”

  We continue to take it in turn, singing a line until we come together for the chorus.

  “For all that you knew, I really loved you. For all that you knew, I’d given you my heart. But now you know it’s not like that and you were wrong from the start. I was the one in charge all along, and all that you knew is gone.”

  We sing that song the best we ever had, but as the last notes fade away, we are greeted with silence. I look over at Declan anxiously, but then the hall explodes into raucous cheers and whistles.

  “I told you they’d love you.” I read on Declan’s lips. It’s impossible to hear him over the standing ovation.

  “More! More! More!” People are stomping the floor, pounding away as they demand we sing another song.

  “New School, New Start?” Declan suggests. I shrug my shoulders and nod at the suggestion of one of my songs.

  “Thank you, guys, thank you.” Declan has to raise his hands to gesture for silence as the audience continues to yell their praises. “If you want another song, we’ll give it to you, but you need to be quiet to hear it!”

  At last the crowd calms down. Declan looks at me and smiles.

  We start strumming together, an upbeat rhythm that soon has everyone clapping along. In contrast to the beautiful ballad of our first song, this is a fast-pace rock number, and I always love singing it because it is so much fun.

  I don’t think it’s possible for the audience to get any louder, but I am wrong. Their cheers are deafening to the point I wish I’d worn earplugs.

  I scan the front row. Just as I thought, my father has a smug grin on his face and I knew he’d be taking credit for my performance later. On the other hand, Romy looks so proud he could burst. Seeing me catch his eye, he mouths I love you, pointing to himself, drawing a heart in the air and then pointing to me. I smile and blow him a kiss.

  “Okay, everyone, I’ve got one more song for you.”

  My head whips around to look at Declan.

  “Don’t worry, Ivy.” He put his hand over the mic to address me directly. “I’m going to do this one solo.” He turns back to speak to the audience. “This is a little number I’ve been working on by myself and I figured tonight would be a good change to test it out in front of an audience. It’s called Loving You From Afar.”

  He closes his eyes as he plays a delicate little tune. He sways from side to side as he weaves notes together in an interesting chord progression, moving from minor to major and back again.

  And then he sings, and I wish the floor would open and swallow me up. The lyrics were about me. Nobody else would possibly know what the references to ‘stolen kisses’ and ‘kidnapped sighs’ could mean, but it is clear that Declan is telling me that he loved me in front of a crowded hall–with my fiancé watching!

  My heart aches with the beauty of the music. I’m always the one to write the songs. Nobody has ever written one about me. It is gutting me that I can’t throw myself at Declan and kiss him thank you. But how can I possibly acknowledge this thoughtful gift he’s given me? Nobody knew about that time in the music room. Nobody could ever know about it.

  I feel myself pale as I realise that after this, there is every chance Romy will guess what happened.

  Declan loo
ks over at me and winks. I realise he knows exactly what he is doing. He is probably hoping Romy would guess.

  I’m not sure how I feel about that. If things were different, I’d leave Romy and see how things went with Declan. But they weren’t different. I’m under House Navarre protection. Declan and I never seriously discussed relations between our Houses. I have no idea if his family would take me in the way Romy’s has. I can’t take that risk.

  My mind in a whirl, I want to leave the stage and lose myself in the rest of that bottle of wine, but I know that would be the most suspicious thing I could possibly do. All I can do is sit here, a sick smile on my face, as I wait for the final chords.

  “Thank you very much.” Declan nods and waves to the crowd when he finishes singing. “I want to dedicate that song to a very special lady. It’s early days in our relationship, so I don’t want to name names, but she knows who she is.”

  As Declan walks backstage, I can only stare at him. His words, his song running over and over in my mind.

  “Your song was beautiful,” I say.

  “And true,” he replies, making my heart beat so fast. Everything hurts as I stare at Declan, wondering at what point he snuck into my soul and made himself home. The song just made everything so much clearer. I realise I don’t know how to be away from Declan.

  Romy walks around Declan to me, and I have to snap out of it.

  “Hey.” I say, clearing my throat. “I was just telling Declan how much I liked his song. What did you think of it?”

  “It’s all right,” says Romy, casting a cold glance at Declan. “Not really my kind of music.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s still a work in progress.” Declan shrugs. “It needs a bit of tweaking to get it to where I really want, but the audience seemed to like it.”

  “Whatever.” Romy turns to me. “Are you ready to go, Ivy? There’s a party at Archer’s if you want to check it out.”

  “I’d love to, but I think I’ve got a migraine coming on.” I put a hand against my forehead. I’m not completely lying. The adrenaline rush from performing is wearing off and combined with the stress of the situation, my head is pounding. “If it’s okay with you, I just want to go home and go to bed. You can go if you like. I wouldn’t mind.”

  “You think I’d abandon you to party when you’re not feeling well? I don’t think so.” Romy says. “You don’t look too hot. Let’s get you home. I’ll get Johnson to make up one of his famous headache remedies. They really work.”

  “Okay.” Romy puts his arm around me and we turn to leave.

  “You were great tonight, Ivy,” Declan calls after me. “See you on Monday.”

  Of course. I have music first thing on a Monday morning with a guy who just sang the most hauntingly beautiful love song to me.

  A song I will never, ever forget because it stole my heart.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  I spend the whole weekend locked up in my apartment, ignoring Romy’s attempts to talk. I know he knows something is up, but I’m not in the mood to deal with his reaction, not when I am still trying to work through my own complicated emotions.

  No wonder I spent a couple of days in bed with my duvet pulled over my head. I barely emerged for long enough to make myself a bowl of cereal when I was hungry.

  Romy knocked on my door a couple of times to see if I was okay, but he left me alone after I rang his mobile and treated him to a few cut words about being bothered when I’d locked myself away. After that, he took the hint.

  But now it’s Monday morning and I don’t have any choice. I have to face the world and pretend everything is okay.

  Putting on my makeup, I feel like I’m putting on war paint. The look is more aggressive than usual, with dark purple lipstick and heavy eye makeup. By the time I’m done, I know that nobody is going to mess with me today. Not if they don’t want their head bitten off.

  As I walk out to the car to take us to school, I see Romy is already there waiting for me.

  “Wow, Ivy.” He does a double take. “You look…”

  “What?” I ask.

  “A-amazing,” he says with a grin. “Definitely amazing.”

  “Thanks.”

  I get into the car and Romy climbs in after me. “How are you feeling?” he asks. “I’ve been really worried about you.”

  “I told you. I had a migraine,” I say. “I’m sorry if I was short with you. I just needed to be alone.”

  “Did I upset you?”

  “You didn’t do anything.” I sigh. “I’m the one who should be apologising. I told you I get really bad stage fright. What I didn’t mention is that after I come off stage, I always feel like crap because I’ve wound myself up so much. It takes a few days for me to recover, but I’m fine now.”

  God, I’m such a liar. But how can I tell him that I’m struggling with my feelings for him and two other guys?

  “You can always talk to me, you know?”

  Romy puts his arm around me. I stiffen a little, then allow myself to relax into his embrace.

  “You should have told me. I’d have arranged for a massage for you. We’ve got an amazing masseur who comes to the house. He could have set up the table in your room and helped you relax. Or, if you don’t like that idea, I could give you a massage…”

  I laugh. “Any excuse to get your hands on my naked body.”

  “Can you blame me? It is pretty incredible.”

  “That’s very sweet of you, but honestly, I am much better off in bed on my own, sleeping away the weekend.”

  “You certainly seem better now,” Romy says. “But if you need a massage anyway, I’d be more than happy to oblige.”

  “I may well need one after the day I’ve got,” I told him. “Mondays are bad enough at the best of times, but I’ve got double politics. Dull with a double dose of dull.”

  “At least you’re not in pure maths with Dr Clyde,” Romy reminds me. “His voice is so monotonous it’s almost impossible to keep my eyes open.”

  “Looks like we could both do with a pick-me-up after school,” I say. “Maybe we could go to that ice cream place? They’d be open this time.”

  “I like that idea. We’ve got a date.”

  When we arrive at the Academy, Romy takes my hand, and we walk up the stairs together. Maybe everything is going to be all right after all. Whatever the truth is about Declan, it’s pretty clear he wants to pretend like he doesn’t have any feelings for me, and that’s just fine. I’m pretty good at faking being okay. We could both lie about our feelings and everything would go back to normal.

  The bell rang to warn us that our first class is about to start, and Romy kisses me. “You’ve got music first thing, right?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Say hi to Declan for me.”

  “Okay.” I frown as Romy turns and goes off in the direction of the economics department. What did he mean by that? Has he seen something happen between me and Declan after all?

  I don’t have time to think about it too deeply, as a second bell rings to let us know that we have five minutes to get to the classroom or risk a late penalty.

  I hurry to the music department, getting to my seat next to Declan moments before Mr Metcalf walks through the door–and he isn’t alone.

  “Good morning, everyone. I’d like to introduce you to a latecomer to our class.” Mr Metcalf indicates the youth standing next to him. “Lucas Donatello, would you like to tell everyone a bit about yourself and why you’re here?”

  My jaw drops as the angry stranger who’d competed in the bike race speaks. Looking around the class, I’m not the only one who is surprised by his being here.

  “As Mr Metcalf says, my name’s Lucas Donatello,” Lucas began. “Some of you may remember me from when we met a week or so ago. I’m staying with Solomon Archaic, who is an old friend of my mother’s.”

  I gasp at the mention of my father’s name. Declan kicks me under the table, warning me not to make too big a deal out of it. He is right. I nee
d to wait and find out more information before I open my mouth big enough to put my foot in it.

  “My mother wanted me to experience the very best education for my final years of school and the Academy’s reputation is renowned throughout the world. When Solomon said he could get me a place here, it was an offer too good to refuse. I’d been studying at a conservatory back home in Italy so Mr Metcalf here kindly agreed to let me audition for him to see whether I’d be able to enter his class at such a late stage. Luckily I was able to impress him enough to be able to study alongside you all. I feel very honoured to be here and I look forward to studying with you.”

  “Thank you, Lucas. Here’s hoping you maintain the same standard of excellence you displayed at your audition. Ivy and Declan, you’ve got some real competition now. You’re going to have to work hard if you’re going to maintain your position at the top of the class. Lucas, why don’t you go sit in that spare seat next to Ivy?”

  “Yes sir.” Lucas nods and comes to the back of the class to take the seat next to me.

  “We meet again.” He reaches his hand out to me and I reluctantly shake it. “It’s nice to be formally introduced, Ivy. Your father’s told me a lot about you.”

  “I wish I could say the same about you,” I reply. “I’ve never heard of you, let alone anyone with the name Donatello other than a dead artist. For someone who is such a good friend of my father’s, don’t you think it’s strange he never mentioned you?”

  “From what I heard, you didn’t exactly see much of your father growing up,” Lucas replies smoothly. “I’m sure there’s lots of things he hasn’t mentioned to you. It doesn’t mean they didn’t happen or that his friends don’t exist. But he did ask me to tell you that he hopes we become as close as he and my mother are. And I have to say I hope so too.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Quiet at the back!” Mr Metcalf barks. “We’ve got a class to get through. Don’t think you can get away with disrupting my lessons, Mr Donatello. I have every right to withdraw your place if you fail to maintain the standards I require.”

  “Sorry, sir. Won’t happen again.”

  Lucas slinks down in his seat, a smug grin on his face. I get the feeling he is getting a real kick out of making me feel wrongfooted.