Hate Me: A Dark Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Weissmore Academy Book 2)

by Nora Cobb

  He rested his arm on my seat. “You’re welcome, pauper. I enjoyed myself too.”

  I felt like he was being sincere. “I should go in.”

  “We could go to my place.”

  It was a silent invitation for more between us and while I thought about caving, I knew I would be making a mistake if I did so. “I can’t, Royce.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, I thought so. You aren’t jumping my bones after two glasses of wine, so I figured my chances were slim to none.”

  I turned to look at him, giving him a soft smile. “At least you didn’t have your hopes up.”

  Royce lifted his finger, tracing my cheek. “I always have my hopes up, pauper.”

  When he leaned over and pressed his lips to mine, I didn’t pull away, savoring the soft kiss compared to the others we had shared. I wouldn’t allow him to take it any further, but one kiss wasn’t going to hurt.

  Royce made a sound low in his throat before he broke the kiss, pressing his forehead to mine briefly. “I’m going to need for you to get out of the car, pauper, before I drive us both away.”

  I grinned, pressing a quick kiss to his lips before opening the door. “Thank you, Royce, really.”

  “Good night, pauper.”

  I climbed out of the car and shut the door, watching as he pulled away. Why couldn’t we be different people? Why couldn’t we just forget who we were and enjoy each other without the pressures of our lives?

  Because we couldn’t, that’s why.

  Sighing, I walked into the warm interior of the academy. There was nothing in my life that was normal right now. Not the men I was associating with, not the family I potentially belonged to.

  Not even the way I conducted my college education.

  When would my life return to normal? What was normal anyway? I wasn’t really sure at this point. I had to, however, figure out what I was going to do next before someone else figured it out for me.

  **

  Royce

  I drove like a bat out of hell back home, cursing myself as I did so. While I had enjoyed myself tonight with Anna, I hated the fact that I was going home alone. I thought that maybe I could wear her down, bring her back to my place, and take her in my bed until we both couldn’t see straight. I craved her, not only her body, but damn, her company as well.

  But she had turned me down. I couldn’t blame her. The three of us were all over her and I imagined she was starting to question everything we were doing.

  She should. Hell, she shouldn’t trust any of us.

  “Bloody hell,” I said, gripping the steering wheel tightly. There were times, very few times at that, that I wished I was someone else.

  That I didn’t have the weight of my family’s future on my shoulders.

  That I wasn’t on the verge of failing.

  That I wasn’t a fucking king.

  This was one of those times. What would it be like to be just another bloke, lusting after a girl that had a smile like that?

  Shit, I was turning into some sort of poet.

  I chuckled as I pulled my car into the drive, waiting until the garage door rose before I pulled in. For a small moment in time tonight, I had felt normal. Anna hadn’t looked at me as the king I was, or the man who was trying to ruin her future, but as a regular guy out on a regular date with a girl he fancied.

  And I did fancy her, a hell of a lot.

  Climbing out of the car, I shut the door and walked up to the back door of the house, holding my key fob up to the door lock to unlock it. The warm interior greeted me, but also the silence, too, and I sighed, crossing the kitchen to reach for the good-ass brandy I kept in the cabinet, away from the other kings.

  After locating a glass, I poured a healthy swallow and drained it, the fiery liquid burning a path to my gut. Damn her. She made me think of things that I hadn’t ever.

  She made me question who I was and what I was doing.

  She made me feel human and not at all like the superior that I should be. I had responsibilities to my family, to my country, to every fucking body, and Anna was making me question if I even wanted that sort of responsibility.

  I poured another glass, wasting no time with the chaser. Maybe I should just get fucking drunk tonight and forget about everything for a while.

  But as I placed the glass on the counter, I knew I couldn’t drink her away. Hell, I had tried to do it already, more than once. She had gotten under my skin, in my thoughts.

  In my fucking dreams.

  Shit.

  Chapter 17

  Anna

  The next afternoon was my weekly session with Arthur. While had forgotten about it when I got tangled with Royce, I had texted Arthur and re-upped our time together, curious to know what I could find out from the king.

  Max was right. I needed to practice using Arthur and Royce as pawns in my own game because that was what I was in.

  A game.

  I found Arthur waiting in one of the empty classrooms in the senior hall, his body leaning up against the desk there. His expression was inscrutable, and I gave him my best ‘I’m not worried’ look, though inside I was worried. What had he heard?

  Did he know about Royce?

  What about Isauros? Had someone told him about my encounter with her?

  I found it hard to be around Arthur lately. After our encounter in the hall that day, I knew he had a difference of opinion when it came to what I should be doing and who I should be hanging out with.

  The interesting part was that he thought I shouldn’t be with anyone but him, the same guy that had lied to me about his interest. Didn’t he remember that he was part of the same pact as Royce and Max had been?

  Maybe that was selective memory.

  “Hey,” I said, shutting the door behind me.

  “Hey,” he said, pushing away from the desk. “You ready for your lesson?”

  I nodded. “What will it be today? The way I walk?”

  “We are going to practice court decorum,” he answered, completely ignoring my joke. “The court is very important when it comes to being a royal. It is where you can make one misstep and completely insult another country without even knowing.”

  “Great,” I muttered, sliding into one of the chairs. “How do you remember all this? Do they play this in your crib when you are a baby?”

  His grin was fleeting. “Maybe. You get a book and a shitload of lessons until it’s like second nature.”

  “Must be difficult,” I answered, leaning back in the chair.

  “For a dude, yes,” he replied, reaching into his back pocket. I watched as he produced a slim book before he threw it at me. I caught it and turned it over, breaking out into laughter.

  “Court Decorum 101.”

  “It’s the best way to learn,” Arthur stated, his eyes dancing with laughter. “All you have to do is memorize the entire thing and you are good.”

  I flipped through the pages, shaking my head. “I just won’t go to court then.”

  “That’s not an option.”

  “Surely I can make up my own rules at some point.” I mean, I was going to rule a nation or something like that if the rumors were true.

  “Not these,” Arthur said, joining me. “There are some things you just have to do, Anna, and this is one, unfortunately. It sucks, I’m not going to lie. It’s long hours, and not even good alcohol to drown your sorrows in.”

  I laid the book on the desk before me. “Tell me about your first experience.”

  Arthur chuckled. “I was twelve. My mom wanted me to have my first true experience in court and put all that expensive-ass training to use. I lasted ten minutes before she was turning me around and giving me back to my tutor.”

  “Oh my God,” I laughed, covering my mouth with my hand. “What did you do?”

  “I stole a glass of champagne and proceeded to drink it in front of the king of Austria,” he said solemnly. “Apparently when she said putting my lessons to use, she didn’t mean drinking alcohol.”
/>   We shared a smile as I tried to picture him as a twelve-year-old to begin with. It was hard to think that at one time, the kings were just kids.

  Bad kids, apparently.

  Arthur’s smile faded. “I’ve heard rumors, Anna.”

  I shifted in my chair. Here it comes. I knew he couldn’t hold out for long. “What kind of rumors, Arthur?”

  His eyes darkened. “You fucking Royce.”

  Well then. I thought he would use a better way to ask. “That’s none of your business, Arthur.”

  “Isn’t it?” he asked, arching a brow. “I had you first. Technically, we are still together.”

  Together? We weren’t together! We were barely friends at this moment! “Arthur, I think you have that confused.”

  “Do I?” he asked lightly, his jaw clenched. “If I remember right, you were a fucking virgin before I touched you. Now you are bed hopping? That’s something Johanna would do, not you, Anna.”

  I just stared at him. Was he really lecturing me about this? “Weren’t you the one who made a pact to take my virginity in the first place?”

  “That’s different and you know it.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “Is it really, Arthur? Please explain that to me, because I’m not seeing it right now and I would really like to know how that’s different.”

  He stared at me. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  I pushed out of the chair, now wishing I hadn’t even attempted to come today. It was clear to me that Arthur was still struggling to accept the fact that one, we weren’t together, and two, he had no hold over me.

  He just couldn’t get it. “You can’t accept the fact that you were actually going to share me,” I told him. “And now that it’s happening, it’s killing you inside.”

  His face turned red. “It was fucking stupid for me to even think I could share you, Anna. The moment I decided not to, I told you.”

  “Yet you still lied to me.”

  Arthur ran a hand through his hair roughly, clearly angry now. “Hell, I already explained to you what happened with that. It was a stupid bet. We didn’t know what or who you would be, and I couldn’t share you after meeting you. I couldn’t.”

  I should have been touched by his words. They should have warmed my insides and made me feel all gooey inside.

  Instead I felt cold. It reminded me that I was just another pawn in the kings’ games, one that hadn’t quite learned her lesson.

  I didn’t even know why I was fighting with Arthur. It didn’t matter any longer and it sure as hell didn’t matter that I had slept with Royce. At least I knew where I stood with him.

  With Arthur, he had broken my heart, pretending to be someone I thought I could trust, that I thought I could love.

  Only to find out he had been lying in wait the entire time for his moment. People who truly cared about others did not do that. “I’m done here.”

  “Anna, wait,” Arthur started as I turned to go. “I’m sorry. Just come back. We need to go through this lesson. You need to be prepared.”

  I turned to look at him. “Why? What if I decide not to take my rightful place?” It was the first time I had voiced it to a king aloud and the shock on Arthur’s face was evident.

  “You’re shitting me, right?”

  I shook my head. “I could just walk away, just be Anna Komita.”

  “And you would be fucking stupid to turn your back on what you have done so far. You are here for a reason, Anna.”

  “I don’t care!” I exploded, really wanting to throw something. “I don’t care that I am supposedly the next empress of Rome! I just want a normal life. I want to wake up and not have to worry about being stabbed in the back or lied to or hated. I want to fade into existence and just live, Arthur. Is that so wrong?”

  He stared at me like I had suddenly sprouted two heads. “But Anna, you have no idea what’s out there for you with this title. This is your chance to live a life you can only dream of. I mean, you would never have to worry about where you live, or what you are going to eat, or even if you want to work again. Half this academy would take your place in a minute.”

  “Maybe they should, then,” I shot back, suddenly weary of this conversation. I had wrestled with it enough myself, wondering what would happen if I just walked away and gave up. I could walk away faster than the man before me or the other two kings.

  I still had a choice, though I was about fifty percent sure it could be the wrong one in the long run.

  Well, maybe not. The other fifty percent hinged on a crazed headmistress that really wanted me dead. “I’m sorry, Arthur,” I finally said. “I can’t do this today.”

  “Fine,” he stated as I walked to the door. “But don’t throw away a chance of a lifetime because you are scared, Anna.”

  I didn’t answer, pushing on the door and leaving before I told him that he might be right on that account.

  I was scared.

  **

  After my brush with Arthur, I really didn’t want to see anyone. He had struck a chord deep inside me, one that was hiding the real truth from everyone else. They all saw me as this new princess, like the confidence would come out of nowhere now that I knew the truth of who I was and where I had come from.

  The funny thing was, confidence didn’t just appear overnight.

  My cell phone rang, and I picked it up, my concern growing to excitement as I held it up to my ear. “Sara!”

  “Anna, girl, you sound far too happy right now.”

  “It’s all a front,” I laughed, lying back on my pillow. “Trust me.”

  She laughed, the solid warmth of her affection coming through the line. God, how I would like to be sitting in front of her at her kitchen table right now, a cup of coffee warming my hands and my heart warmed by someone who truly cared.

  “Well? How is it?”

  I wasn’t going to tell her the truth. I needed someone to remember me for who I was truly and not the person they all wanted me to become. “It’s different.”

  “And the guys?”

  “Hot,” I said slowly, deciding there was no reason to hide that fact. They were quite gorgeous and unfortunately, two out of the three were gunning for my birthright.

  “How are royal people, anyway?” Sara asked, oblivious to my thoughts. “Are they like the ones you see on TV, like Will and Kate? Or more like Harry and Meghan?”

  “More like Harry and Meghan,” I admitted. “Well, the ones that will talk to me anyway. The entire school knows I’m not royalty, Sara, and let’s just say that has made for an interesting couple of semesters.”

  “Well, if they do not get to know you, it’s their loss, sweetie,” she stated. “You don’t need those people.”

  I actually did, but I wasn’t going to relay that information either. I did need these people to like me, or at least tolerate my presence if I was going to push forward with my birthright. Wasn’t that what the kings and Johanna had been saying all along? If I was to be the empress of Rome one day, then I would have to make nice with people I really didn’t like.

  Did I really want that life? I didn’t care about the money. Sure, it was a large chunk of change, more than I would see in my lifetime, but I had lived this long without it, so I wasn’t about to miss what I didn’t have.

  “Guess what?”

  I snapped out of my current train of thought at the sound of Sara’s voice. “What?”

  “I’m getting married!” she squealed before laughing. “Sorry, I just love to say that. It’s not even surreal, to be honest.”

  “Oh my God,” I breathed. “So, Ben really did it?”

  “Yes,” she answered. “I will have to send you a picture of the ring. He proposed last night, and I still can’t believe it.” I smiled as I thought of the handsome physician assistant that Sara had been dating for over two years. They were the absolute perfect couple and I was insanely jealous of their relationship.

  Especially now.

  “The wedding will be next year, in
the summer. I hope you can come. I want you to be my only bridesmaid.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” I stammered, tears crowding my eyes.

  “Duh, ‘yes’ will work,” Sara laughed. “Come on, Anna. You are like my only friend and I really miss our ice-cream dates.”

  “Me too,” I said softly, wiping away a tear. I knew with Sara I didn’t have to be anyone but myself and right now, that went a long way. “Yes, I will be your bridesmaid, though you might have to show me the gowns via FaceTime right now.”