by Mallory Fox
“To give you the rules of our school and remind you who owns it.”
I roll my eyes. “Have you been reading too many bully romances? Students don’t own schools. Not in England anyway.”
“Owning a school is as easy as paying for it, Darling.”
“I’m not your darling. I would kill myself if I were. And last time I checked, my company owns half this school.”
“There’s a takeover happening, or do you not understand how takeovers work. I suspect international business wasn’t an option at your finishing school?”
“Last time I checked, the acquisition is now our play.”
He sneers. “You think that by spreading your legs for Seth you’ll gain more votes. Business doesn’t work that way, sweetheart.”
I roll my eyes. “Get out of my way so I can get my books and get to class. You’re making me late.”
He towers over me as if to prove a point. Students around us have scattered. It’s just me and these boys and a load of ravens cawing outside the window. Fists clenched, I hold my ground. I refuse to lean away from him, so he’s up in my face.
“You know, Seth isn’t the only one who has stock in Montford International. If you want to try and fuck my share out of me, I’m willing to give you a go.” He reaches up to grasp a lock my hair and I slap his hand away
“You’ll regret it if you touch me again.”
Without warning, he slams me against the wall of lockers. My head rebounds off the metal, making the doors clatter and sending a flash of pain into my skull. Air leaves my lungs, but it’s not until his meaty hand wraps around my neck does panic flare inside my chest.
He’s over a foot taller than me, even though I’m wearing heels. If he lifts me off the ground, I won’t be able to stop him.
“What’ll you do? Run to Daddy?”
Asshole. I don’t answer back, I can’t. His whole body is suffocating mine as he holds me up against the locker wall.
He grins, eyes dancing with crazy. “After I’m finished with you, you’ll be calling me daddy.”
Just when the squeezing is starting to get old, and my vision begins to blur, he rubs his small but erect cock up against me and plunges his hand up my skirt. No fucking way.
“You may have your father’s pin, Darlington, but this school is ours and whatever is inside it is ours too, including you. And after we take what’s ours, we’re going to take your Daddy’s pin too. Do you understand, bitch?”
He gropes at the strip of my panties.
Speaking of pins.
While the asshole was chatting shit at me, I’d already yanked the pin off my blazer and palmed it. As weapons go, it’s less than adequate, but now I take the sharp end and jab it against the side of his crotch as hard as I can. I’ve no idea if it’s in the right place since his package is so tiny and he’s pressed up against me, but I’m reasonably confident.
His eyes go extremely wide and he yelps loudly, releasing me, his hands going to his precious cargo as he stumbles back.
I get some satisfaction from the look on his stupid face.
“You want the pin?” I say sweetly. “Here it is.”
His pig like eyes become slits. “You fucking cunt—”
“Shut up and back off, before I pierce your ball sack and reduce your ability to breed by half,’ I hiss at him.
Hands still on his crotch, shaved eyebrow steps back. I keep the length of the pin aimed at his mini meat and two morsels of veg until he’s out of reach.
This whole time, I’ve not been paying attention to the other two. Not really. But even with my gaze trained on shaved eyebrow, the other two are advancing in my peripheral. It’s only when I lift my chin to look up, I realize how useless my weapon truly is and how very much alone I am in the locker room.
I toss my attention wildly between the three of them and calculate in my head the best way of escape. One of them is blocking the door so it’s not going to be easy. Shaved eyebrow’s eyes gleam. He raises his hands as his friends to my left and right take a step closer.
“Easy, princess, we’ll be gentle.”
“We can make it feel good. Better than Seth.”
They lunge.
One of them barrels me and I duck down and slip through the space under his arm as he yanks my sleeve. My jujutsu instructor would be proud. As he clings to the material of my blazer, my palms are so sweaty that the pin slides out of my grip as I stumble to get away. It clatters onto the floor and skids next to a locker. There’s no time to retrieve it, not when I’m running headlong towards the exit.
“Fuck, Derek, grab her. Don’t let her escape.”
I almost make it.
Someone grabs a handful of my hair, yanking me back in. I let a scream out as an arm of steel clamps around my waist and lifts me off the ground. I’m still screaming as the asshole carries me back into the room.
Shaved eyebrow looks pissed off, he’s still rubbing his balls so that makes me slightly happy. “Can you shut her up? Someone’s going to bloody hear her at that pitch.”
Derek makes the mistake of trying to cover my mouth with his hand so bite down on his stray fingers.
“Fuck, Royce, the fucking bitch bit me!”
“Let go of me, you sick fuck!” I hiss. It takes all my energy to struggle and kick like a crazy person. Anything to get lose.
“Just stop pissing about and bring her over her. I’ll shut her up with this.” Shaved eyebrow or Royce says, as holds up what looks to be his sports kit. Derek almost breaks my ribs he squeezes so hard as he drags me over to him.
Royce fists a handful of my hair and jerks my head back. “The bitch is mine first.”
“You touch me… I swear… I’ll castrate you in your sleep,” I snarl at him, my breathing becoming erratic.
They laugh like donkeys and Derek drops me like a sack of potatoes over a padded bench in the middle of the room. He holds me there with my skirt ruffled up.
Royce bends down and shoves a piece of material into my mouth. As he uses something long and thin to hold it in place, my adrenaline peaks. I feel the third guy tugging at my own school tie and my first thought is they’re going to choke me, until it unravels all the way. Then he is sliding it off from around my neck and using it to bind my hands behind my back.
I can’t move. I can’t breathe.
I’m gulping down ragged breaths, my heart racing. All I can smell and taste is chlorine from the swimming trunks in my mouth. They must be Royce’s swimming trunks. The thought makes me want to throw up.
That and the sound of one of them unbuckling his pants.
Is this how I’m going to lose my virginity? Being raped over a bench in a locker room?
The air is cold around my bottom half as the edge of my skirt is flipped up and a rough hand gropes between my legs.
“Which hole, darling? I’ll let you choose.”
I hear the click of a camera as the bastards take pictures.
Something wet stings my eyes. I’m crying.
I’m going to kill them all.
They’re already dead.
The air in the room changes as I sense others walk in. I can’t see who it is, but no one makes move to let me up.
Great. More wankers. Why not turn this into a gang bang?
“Please tell me that isn’t Pearl Darlington you have tied up over a bench with her ass in the air?”
His voice is smooth as silk.
Seth Montford, my fucking stepbrother to be, just walked into the room.
The humiliation is real.
“Seth!” Someone slaps my ass and laughs. “We caught your bitch fake sister dissing you. Do you want to a go? Happy to share.”
“Royce, fuck off now before I kill you.”
“Hey, if you want to go first…”
“Are you deaf? He said to get lost.” A south London accent; Brompton is with him.
“Alright, calm yourself down, mate. We’re going. We’ll leave you to enjoy her alone shall we.”
“Before you go… your fucking phones. Leave them.”
“Are you fucking having a laugh? I’m not leaving—” There’s the sound of hitting and of someone doubling up in pain. “Charlie, take his phone.”
Charlie is here too.
There’s some shuffling as the assholes who tried to rape me leave the room. Using every effort, I twist where I’m lying and struggle to sit up with my hands tied behind my back. There’s no dignified way to do it with your skirt up around your waist and your face streaked with tears. But if Seth Montford is in the same room as me, I at least want eyes on him.
He’s just standing there, watching me with an unreadable expression, giving nothing away.
Did he do this? Did he set me up?
Humiliation.
That was second on his list. First shame and now humiliation.
I glare at him and his pals next to him.
It’s Charles who breaks the silence first, as soon as I make a silent plea to him. I hate begging but I’ll be dammed if I stay trussed up like a turkey a moment longer. And Charles might be a pot head, but I doubt he’s a rapist.
I avoid looking at Brompton altogether.
“Seth, I’m just going to help her up.”
After a pause, Seth nods and Charles comes to my rescue. He sighs as he unbinds me. “Are you alright? Did they…?”
I shake my head, rubbing my wrists. I can speak now the disgusting trunks are no longer stuffed in my mouth, but I’m still working out what I want to say. I fix my uniform and my hair as best I can, feeling like I’m still on display. My cheeks and eyes feel hot and there’s a crawling sensation over my whole body. My skin doesn’t feel like it’s my own.
I don’t even feel like myself right now.
“Next time, bloody keep your cousin on a leash,” I say, barely holding back what would be uncontrollable tears.
I hate saying it, but what else should I say? Thank you for not raping me?
I don’t dare take my eyes off Seth. Unlike Charles, Seth is still an unknown entity. After his blackmail attempt I’m annoyed that he’s the one even saving me.
Seth’s eyes are like bottomless pits and the more I stare into them, the more I want to drown. I hate myself in the reflection of his gaze.
“If you provoke a viper, princess, what do you expect?”
I snort a laugh. “That’s not a viper, that’s a pig.”
“He’s a tool, a useful one. But I’m not disagreeing with you. It’s just fortunate that it was in the middle of the day when he cornered you and we were in the vicinity.”
“How lucky for me.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
Something about the way Seth says it has me looking up. “He’s done this before hasn’t he?”
Seth’s forehead creases, making him appear human for once. “Let’s just say that it’s a concern of the family’s that this is a co-ed school.”
“That you know that, and you still let him loose around campus…” I shake my head.
“Are you going to report him?” he asks, grimacing as Charles hands him the ties that held me. He inspects both and then drops one with boys’ colors to the floor.
Boys wear yellow and burgundy.
Girls wear blue and burgundy.
“I don’t know yet,” I say thickly. I swallow, trying to moisten my tongue back to life so I can speak without sounding like I’ve been crying. Because I haven’t been crying that much and I’ll be fucked if I let these pricks think otherwise.
“Well decide soon, I need to know if I need to cut him loose or not.”
Cut him loose?
He holds up one of the ties. “This is yours, correct?”
He starts unravelling it. Something about the way he holds it, caressing the length of it between both hands, undoing the knots as he comes closer until he’s standing right before me, has my face flushing.
He towers over me so that I have to look up, and my breath catches at the sight of him. He’s so near to me now, I swear he can hear my heart pounding in my chest.
He loops the tie around my neck tethering me to him. And suddenly, without warning, the spot between my begins legs pulsing. I’ve just nearly been raped and now I’m getting horny over some high school shibari?
There’s something really wrong with me.
It’s also a huge inconvenience if I start getting turned on by Seth now. I can’t be attracted to him after what he did and what’s about to happen with our parents, even if he is holding my own tie in his hands like a fucked up fifty shades fantasy man.
Even if he did rescue me.
He’s a Montford. My soon to be stepbrother. The enemy.
My enemy.
“If you report him, there will be repercussions for both our families. Do you understand?”
Both our families. It’s happening. Fuck. This is really happening.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” I say with all the scorn I can muster.
He seems to find my sarcasm amusing; his dark eyelashes seem to flutter against his olive skin begging to be kissed as he stifles a laugh. Why oh why, does he have to be so devastatingly beautiful?
He re-ties my school tie with expert precision and continues talking. And I stand there and let him. His voice is soothing, melting me from the inside out. His hands sending my heart and my apex into near spasms.
“It would be better all-around if we deal with this within the family. No police, no investigation, no press.” He leans in and wipes what I can only imagine is a smudge of mascara under my right eye. I must look hideous. This thought annoys me, and I hate myself for looking so weak in front of this boy who is the heir to the Montford throne. “Like nothing happened.”
“Seth… are you sure that’s the right course of action?” Charles interrupts.
The buzz of a phone hauls me out of my daymare.
My phone. I glance down at the floor where my phone must have fallen out in the struggle.
“Don’t answer that.”
I look back up at Seth, then Charlie as he pitches in a comment about my mental state. “Seth, she’s in shock. She needs a nurse.”
“Charlie, fucking grow a pair, mate,” Brompton snarls.
“She should still go to the nurse,” Charlie exclaims.
“I’ll fucking nurse you in a minute,” says Brompton, his jaw setting.
“Both of you shut the fuck up.” Seth tightens his hand on my shoulder bringing my attention back to him. “Pearl, look at me, not them, me. I need to know we’re good here. Are we good? Can I deal with this my way or do I need to prepare for another scandal?”
Another scandal…
His deep blue eyes search my face as I try to formulate how I want to play this. The words don’t match the coldness of the tone. I feel like there’s a piece of some puzzle that I’m not understanding. I also want to punch something. I want to make the pigs who tried to rape me suffer.
“I want to report them to the police.”
A sigh leaves his lips and he looks over his shoulder at Charlie. “You’re right, she is in shock. Pearl, why don’t you sit down.”
“No, I don’t want—”
“Sit the fuck down.” The feel of Seth’s fingers digging into my shoulder and tone of his voice makes me hesitate. After a pause, I park myself on the seat and smooth my skirt. Why bother even asking if I don’t have a choice in the matter?
Assholes…. The lot of them.
“Have another think, Pearl. A scandal is the last thing we need with the wedding on Sunday.”
I glare up at him. He seems to have changed his tune. He’s right, my father will be pissed if I ruin his wedding. I can’t go to the police. This has to stay in the family. Can I trust Seth?
“Pearl?”
“Fine. Do it your way. Whatever.”
“How bad?”
“For fuck’s sake. I’m going outside.” Then Charlie is gone, scowling as he storms out the door. Brompton smirks and leans against the door prev
enting anyone from coming in. Or out.
My eyes narrow at Seth. “What kind of question is that?’
“A relevant one.”
“I want those pigs dead.”
He quirks a brow at me. “That’s not quite what I had in mind.”
“Then what?”
“Shame, humiliation, pain or regret. Take your pick.”
I stare him straight in the eye to see if he’s joking. He’s not. “Is this some kind of cult thing?”
A smile tugs at the corner of his luscious mouth and I think about kissing him.
See, that’s how fucked up I am, why would I think about kissing this bastard after everything he’s done?
“It’s not a cult thing, it’s a Montford thing.”
Shame, humiliation, pain or regret. “All of them. I want them to experience all of them.”
Seth’s eyes burn with the same fire I saw in the pub when he asked me if he could take my virginity to fuck with my father. “Even if there’s consequences?”
There’s a dangerous edge to his voice that I choose to ignore.
I lift my chin up and stare unblinkingly into his blue orbs. “Screw the consequences.”
Seth nods and bends down to retrieve my phone and hands it to me.
“Your wish is my command. But…”
There’s always a but.
“… I’ll be wanting something in return.”
“You’re always wanting something. What? What do you want now?”
He squeezes my shoulder again. “Oh, you’ll find out soon enough.”
Chapter 9
Pearl
The wedding is tomorrow.
It’s Friday, the night of the welcome party and I’m not going. All of Ravenwood will be there but I’ve had enough of the stares and the whispers when I walk into the library or a classroom to last me a lifetime. It says a lot when I’d rather be alone in my room packing a suitcase. Plus, I want to get up early so I can beat Seth to the private plane our parents have scheduled to fly us out to the south of France. Maybe I can convince the pilot to take off without him?
Yes, I know. I’m petty like that.
I can hear the rest of the girls preening and gossiping in the main atrium downstairs, getting ready to go to the party. Each and every one of them, bar Flick and Charlotte, have been downright bitchy as hell or weird since finding out Seth will soon become my stepbrother. I’m not sure they understand that we’re not actually related. Or that being his stepsister doesn’t automatically give me a claim over him.
