by Pam Godwin
I wanted to strip that man and fuck him like the good Lord intended. By the smoldering look in his eyes, he was thinking the same about me.
“Lord have mercy, you two couldn’t be more obvious.” Crisanto’s whisper came over my shoulder, and his finger jabbed into my spine. “Pull your eyes away from him and go find Daisy.”
I blinked, breaking the trance. That was when I noticed my surroundings, the onlookers. Everyone was watching me stare at my teacher.
Shit.
CHAPTER 22
TINSLEY
Where was Daisy?
I started walking, my head swinging left to right, my attention on everything and everyone except the person who called to the deepest parts of my soul.
As Magnus’s gaze burned the side of my face, I avoided looking in his direction and zeroed in on my friend.
She stood alone at the edge of the dance floor. No one talked to her or acknowledged her presence. Every student who passed gave her a wide berth as if she were a leper.
High schoolers could be so fucking mean, but over the past three months, I’d discovered that Sion girls were the cruelest. Especially Nevada Hildebrand.
I stayed away from that bitch. After she wrongfully accused me of ratting her out, she stopped talking to me. Good riddance.
Since I wasn’t a snitch, I never told anyone about her threat. But I hadn’t forgotten it.
A familiar song pounded through the speakers. I caught the beat and danced my way to Daisy.
“Why aren’t you out on the dance floor, showing them how it’s done?” I rocked my hips, shimmying a circle around her stiff posture.
“They aren’t ready for my superstar moves.”
“They’ll never be ready. You just gotta rip off the Band-Aid and give it to them.”
I’d spent an hour curling her hair, and it was starting to go limp. I reached up, fluffing and arranging the pretty ringlets around her face.
“Quit it.” She knocked my hands away, putting a stop to that.
But I didn’t miss the twitch in her lips. She secretly loved when I fussed over her.
“When are you going to ask me what’s wrong with my face?” She folded her arms across her chest.
Not this again.
I sighed. “Never.”
“Why not?”
“Because there’s nothing wrong with your face. This is the problem.” I gripped her arms and dragged them down to her sides. “See? Less defensive. More approachable.” I stepped back and drank in the beautiful sight of her. “Holy shit, you’re hot. I kinda wish I was gay right now.”
“You’re so annoying.” Her throat worked, and she averted her face. But she couldn’t hide the affection in her voice. “Go away.”
“Oh no. You’re stuck with me.” I poked her in the ribs. “Best friends, remember?”
That earned me a smile.
Her eyes flicked over my shoulder, and her lips flattened. “Incoming.”
I turned and found Tucker Kensington sauntering toward us. His gaze lingered on me, giving my dress and heels an unabashed perusal.
Over the past few weeks, he’d started to grow on me. For a cocky, immature, self-centered trust fund kid, he had a couple of strengths, such as his skill with a football and his ability to roll with Daisy’s punches.
He’d put a lot of effort into winning over my prickly friend, and the best part? His attempts were sincere. He seemed to actually enjoy riling her up with compliments.
I still didn’t know why he gravitated toward me the way he did. I wasn’t particularly nice to him and never gave him an opening to kiss me or touch me sexually. If I was reading him right, he wanted out of the friend zone but wasn’t aggressive enough to make that happen. Seemed weird considering the ease in which he flirted with every other girl at Sion.
He was the most handsome, most sought-after boy at St. John’s. He was also the wealthiest. His family had more money than God.
Standing before me, he wore a tailored tuxedo and a panty-melting smile. Every girl on the dance floor gawked at him and glared at me. Daisy had been right about this whole thing. Tucker had asked me to this dance, and all the girls hated me.
As if I cared.
“Damn.” He released a low whistle, giving me another once-over. “You’re killing me, Tinsley. Breathtaking.”
“Thank you.” I inclined my head.
He didn’t need any prompting before he turned to Daisy and pressed a palm over his heart. “Two beauties in such close proximity. I’m a lucky man.”
I expected him to immediately drag me onto the dance floor and claim the thing he’d valiantly worked for over the past four weeks. But he surprised me again.
“May I have this dance, pretty lady?” He held out his hand to Daisy, making my chest flutter.
“Should I tell him?” She glanced at me.
“That’s up to you.”
“Tucker.” She stared at his waiting hand. “I know about Tinsley’s ultimatum. She told me when we left football practice that day. You don’t have to be nice to me anymore.”
I’d confessed to her immediately because I didn’t want her to get hurt if the whole thing went south. I also wanted her stamp of approval on my train-Tucker-to-be-a-decent-person project.
“Okay, well…” He shot me an angry glare and returned to her. “If it’s all right with you, may I still have that dance?”
He kept his hand outstretched, and I delighted in the happy shock that registered on her face.
Tucker might’ve been a judgmental prick, but once he’d charmed his way past Daisy’s protective walls, he’d discovered the same thing I had. She was smart, hilarious, and pretty freaking fun to be around.
As he pulled her into his arms and twirled her across the dance floor, he cast a few sullen scowls my way. Yeah, he wasn’t thrilled with my duplicity. I’d made him spend four weeks wooing a girl he never would’ve wooed, and she knew the whole time why he was doing it.
That was a lot of work just to win a dance with me. But this was about more than a dance. He’d made some sort of claim on me. I sensed it every time I was around the other guys from St. John’s.
None of them hit on me. None of them asked me out. And as I stood here, watching boys in tuxedos lead girls in glittery gowns on and off the dance floor, not one of them invited me to dance. Not a single pair of eyes turned my way.
That was Tucker’s doing. I was certain of it. Without telling me, he’d taken me off the market and declared me as his.
But the joke was on him. I was already taken.
My thoughts, my breaths, every beat of my damn heart belonged to someone else. And all of it jumped to life as his unmistakable heat and power greeted my back.
“You’re ravishing, Miss Constantine.” His purr caressed my ear, making me shiver. In the next breath, he appeared beside me, still as stone and his gaze directed across the dance floor as his chiseled lips mouthed, Drop-dead gorgeous.
An intense feeling of affection, warm and wrapped in possessiveness, settled into my midsection. Then he gave me his eyes, the caress of his hungry stare, searing my skin and deeper, strangling my air like a closed fist.
Heat swept through me, surging between my legs. In mute fascination, I watched his gaze discover my nipples beneath the thin organza and travel lower, tracing the lines of my body and devouring every swath of exposed skin.
Then he lifted my hand with professional grace, bowed his head, and rested his hot mouth upon my fingers. The feel of his lips sent my heart into the decorated rafters. But it was the wicked glint in his eyes that stole my soul.
The man he’d pretended to be for the past nine years was a lie.
He was danger. Sin encaged in muscle and bone. A demon wearing the face of a god, the collar of a priest, and the belt of Adonis.
“May I cut in?” Tucker stood beside Magnus, reaching for my hand still held in Magnus’s grip.
Magnus took his time releasing me and straightening to his full height.
On the dance floor, Daisy swayed in the arms of another St. John’s boy—Kevin, the guitarist in the church band—with a contented grin on her face. Good for her.
I smiled and turned to Tucker. “Yes. I’ll dance with you.”
He’d earned it after all.
Displeasure radiated off Magnus. “Keep your hands above her waist, Kensington.”
“I know the rules.” Tucker led me away from the glaring priest.
His hands slid around my back. His body heat pressed in, and I felt uncomfortably trapped.
I pushed the sensation aside and pretended I couldn’t feel Magnus’s gaze. “I hope you’ll continue to be nice to Daisy.”
“She’s all right.” Tucker pulled me closer, bringing his mouth to my temple. “I much prefer you.”
“Why?” My hands lay inert on his muscled shoulders, the scent of his cologne all wrong in my nose. “Why did you tell all the guys at St. John’s to stay away from me?”
“Because you’re mine, Tinsley.”
“What?” I pushed against him.
He was stronger, his arms around my back holding me against him. “You need to hear what I have to say.”
Out of the corner of my eye, Nevada sidled up to Magnus, whispering in his ear and rubbing her huge boobs against his arm. My blood pressure spiked.
“I’ve had a lot of confusing, conflicting feelings about this.” Tucker led me through the slow dance, scrutinizing me too closely. “I wasn’t happy about this arrangement at first. I was with Alice before. I mean, she and I…our relationship was hush-hush, because my parents didn’t approve of her family. But I really liked her. I might’ve even loved her.”
“Why are you telling me this? What arrangement?”
“Do you know why your mother enrolled you at Sion Academy? Why she chose that boarding school for you?”
My stomach hardened, and my feet stopped moving as realization crept up my spine.
“She wanted to put you closer to me.” He gave my waist an assertive nudge. “Keep moving. I earned this dance.”
He was a Kensington. Of course, my mother had targeted him.
It was all too real, happening too fast. My stomach cramped, and dizziness invaded.
“You’re being forced into a relationship with me,” I said numbly.
“I was. At first, I was outraged. Like I said, Alice and I had to end things because of this.”
“When? How long have you known?”
“It was dropped on me the night before the first day of school.”
“The night I arrived here. Then Alice left dead opossums on my bed. Did you know about that?”
“Yeah.” He lifted a shoulder, not a trace of compassion in his eyes. “She’s heartbroken.”
“You don’t look heartbroken. Do our parents even know one another?”
“Our mothers have been brunching together for years. They’ve negotiated an agreement, Tinsley. A Kensington-Constantine merger.”
“No.” I pulled my arms away, causing him to only hug me tighter. “I’m not marrying you.”
“Neither of us have a choice. They already modified our trust funds. We don’t get a dime unless we tie the knot.”
I didn’t even feel the cold grip of shock at this point. I’d known my whole life this was coming. I’d been mouthy and disrespectful and free with my blow jobs because I’d been trying to fucking escape this fate.
If I cut ties and walked away from my family, my inheritance, where would that leave Tucker? Would he lose his trust fund? Did I care?
“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say.
“I’m not. You’re beautiful. Prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. A little pushy and independent, but I can fix that once we’re married.”
“Excuse me?” Heat boiled in my cheeks.
“Oh my God!” Someone made a strangled sound behind me.
“Ew!”
“Is that what I think it is?”
“It’s everywhere!”
Voices and horrified gasps erupted on all sides. Tucker released me as if he’d been burned. He stumbled back, his eyes wide and fixed on my feet.
That was when I felt it. The hot, wet drops on my ankles. More on my toes in the strappy heels.
The commotion around me intensified, and ringing thrashed in my ears as I looked down.
Blood.
It ran down my legs. Stained the gold organza around my thighs. Dripped over my shoes. Pooled on the floor between my feet.
Oh God, it was heavy.
Heavy menstruation.
Heavy emotion.
Too great to lift or carry or move.
I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole.
CHAPTER 23
TINSLEY
Mortification sank into my muscles and feasted upon my backbone. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t react. The sounds in my ears pulsed like muffled gunfire.
My gaze lifted and found Tucker staring back.
His friends clung to his arms, seemingly holding him upright as they pointed at me and laughed, spewing jokes about shark week. Tucker didn’t laugh. He didn’t shove them off. He just looked at me with wide-eyed horror. And embarrassment.
I humiliated him. Totally cramped his style. I bet he was regretting that Kensington-Constantine merger right about now.
Fuck him.
With his teeth bared, he whirled, flinging away his friends, and stormed off.
He fucking left.
“Let’s go, Tins.” Daisy gripped my hand.
Frozen in shock, I kept my feet planted. If I moved, I would leave a trail of shame so gruesome it would turn the gymnasium into a crime scene.
“Really gross, Keaton’s sister.” Nevada jutted her hip.
“Gross?” Daisy spun toward her. “Because you don’t get periods? Is that what you’re confessing to everyone here?”
“No one bleeds like that.” She scrunched up her face. “Unless they’re dead or dying.”
Daisy tensed as if she were about to physically attack her. I tightened my grip on her hand, silently telling her not to leave my side.
My period was a week early, probably due to stress. But it was always heavy. Most months, it flowed so excessively I had to change my tampon every hour. The red puddle between my feet looked enormous, but it was normal.
What wasn’t normal was bleeding all over the floor during a dance.
What would my mother do in this situation?
She wouldn’t do anything. She had people. A personal assistant to fetch her a tampon. A maid to scrub the floor. A PR team to erase the embarrassment. And a devoted henchman to kill anyone who talked about it.
I had Daisy, who was having a great time dancing with a boy until I ruined her night.
And I had Magnus.
As if conjured by my thoughts, he appeared in the crowd, shouldering his way through the growing number of spectators. He carried a stack of party napkins and roughly shoved students out of his path, his eyes fixed only on me.
And here I thought the most embarrassing moment of my life was when I’d pissed on the floor in front of him.
“I want to die,” I whispered when he reached me.
“No, you don’t. You’d much rather live to annoy the hell out of me every day.”
He lowered to a crouch and placed a few napkins over the crimson puddle. I wanted to reach out and run my hand through his tousled brown hair. What would it feel like? Was it as thick and soft as I imagined?
I was so glad he was here.
“Careful, Father,” one of the St. John’s linebackers shouted from the crush of students. “If she sneezes, you’re gonna get splattered.”
The muscles in Magnus’s shoulders went dangerously tense beneath the confines of his black shirt. He rose slowly, each inch of height a visceral reminder that this man was not someone to piss off.
Too late for the linebacker.
Magnus prowled into the suddenly silent crowd and grabbed the kid by the throat. This went beyon
d a warning squeeze. The guy couldn’t breathe, his hands pawing at his airway as he worked his jaw like a dying fish.
“You’re out of here!” Magnus hurled him away.
He landed on his butt, skidding backward along the floor in his tux. Then he leaped to his feet and ran out the door.
I needed to go, too, but a glance down confirmed I was still dripping. I felt a pool of wetness collecting in the crotch of my panties. One slight movement and it would all flow over.
“I need more napkins,” I whispered to Daisy.
She raced off.
Magnus charged back toward me, his eyes blazing, ratcheting my pulse.
One of the boys made a face after Magnus swept past.
He slammed to a stop. The room stilled as he swung around and stood toe to toe with the kid.
“Are you giving me an ignorant look, boy?” He exploded. “Or is stupidity just a condition of yours?” The thunder in his voice sent a reverberating shudder through the gym.
“N-n-no, Father. I’m sorry.”
“Stop standing around!” He slashed an arm through the air, shouting at everyone. “Scatter! Get!”
The crowd dispersed in a flurry of taffeta and black jackets. With the music still playing, most of them congregated on the far side of the dance floor. Others proceeded to the food tables.
“Don’t send anyone else home,” I said when he returned to my side. “I’ve already ruined the dance.”
“You haven’t ruined anything.” He leaned in and whispered at my ear, “You’re so goddamn sexy it’s taking all my strength not to maul you right here in front of everyone.” He stepped back. “Go to the restroom. I’ll catch up.”
“No. I’m…”
Leaking.
My face burned, and my shoulders hiked to my ears. I felt like I was standing in a damn spotlight.
Daisy arrived with more napkins. He took them from her and gestured at someone near the entrance of the gym. I turned, spotting Father Crisanto reaching for the wall of light switches.
A second later, the dim overhead lights went nearly dark, making it difficult to see the floor.
