The Touch of a Villain: An Enemies to Lovers High School Romance (The Boys of Clermont Bay Book 1)

by Holly Renee

  “Same as me.” She linked her arm in mine, and even though I didn’t know a single thing about this girl, I was happy to have someone by my side as I walked to my first class. Even if she was a complete stranger.

  I sat at the desk beside her, and I pulled a blank notebook out of my backpack as I waited for the teacher to start. It was weird seeing all the students in matching uniforms, but somehow looking so different at the same time.

  I had never had to wear a uniform before. Never even seen a school that had to, but I still pulled it on this morning like I knew what I was doing. Like I knew what the hell I was getting into.

  The students were all looking at me as if they hadn’t seen a new student in their entire lives. It was everyone’s first day back, but they didn’t seem to care about each other.

  They were too interested in me.

  “Good morning, everyone.” I pulled my attention to the teacher and watched as he adjusted his tie. He looked like he was already stressed out, but it was only the first day of the school year. “I’m going to complete a roll call. Please say here when I call your name.”

  He went through the list of names and everyone responded with a bored ‘here’ as if they couldn’t be bothered. For such an elite school, the students didn’t seem to care.

  “Josephine Vos.” I winced as my name passed his lips.

  “Here.” Several eyes turned back in my direction, but I avoided them all. Except for Cami, who shot her leg out and kicked the edge of my chair.

  I looked over at her and her mouth was practically gaping. “What?” I whispered because Mr. Fouch was still taking roll.

  “You’re Joseph Vos’s daughter?” She said it like it was supposed to mean something more than it did. She said it like he wasn’t the worst father in the world.

  “Unfortunately.”

  She chuckled before covering her mouth with her hand. “Holy shit. I didn’t even realize he had any other kids.”

  Other.

  Because Lucas had been his only one.

  I guess he belonged to him more than I did.

  “Long-lost.” I looked back up at our teacher and hoped she’d catch my drift that I didn’t want to talk about my father. I didn’t want to think about him at all.

  “I bet Lucas is having a field day with you.”

  I hated the way she said that. I hated that she even knew him, but of course, she did. They all did. I was the outsider here.

  I tried to ignore Cami for the rest of the class, but she was back on me as soon as the bell rang. Apparently, my last name had made me far more interesting than I had been before she knew it.

  A name I hated would determine where I stood with these people. It would tell them everything they needed to know about me. Every single thing that they cared to know.

  But I didn’t care.

  One school year. That was all I had to make it through.

  The opinions of these people didn’t matter. They would go on with their charmed lives, and I would be gone.

  They wouldn’t even remember that I was here, and I would make sure that I forgot every single one of them.

  Even Beck.

  I would make sure I forgot him just like the rest.

  “Walk with me.” She slid her arm in mine, no longer oblivious over whether I was following her or not, and I tried to calm my heart.

  People were staring at us as I walked with her, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before every damn one of them knew my name. They would all have figured out who I was without ever saying a word to me.

  The halls were crowded with people all wearing the same uniform as me, but they were still so easy to tell apart. The cliques of every other high school still present through the money and privilege.

  But none of them looked like him.

  I spotted him before he ever noticed me. Beck was leaning against a locker, his back to us, but I knew it was him. His uniform jacket hung from his arm, the sleeves of his shirt pushed up to the elbow, and I hated that he looked so good. Even though I couldn’t see his face, he still demanded my attention.

  Cami let go of my arm just as we reached where he stood, and I prayed she would just keep walking by. Avoiding him was the only plan I had at the moment. I didn’t know how else to deal with him. Not here.

  But Cami had no intentions of walking past the king of Clermont Bay. I tightened my hands on the straps of my backpack as she pressed her body into his back and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

  He smiled over his shoulder at her, and I knew, I knew deep in my gut it was a smile he didn’t give anyone else. That was a smile he reserved only for her, and I felt like I was going to be sick.

  She pushed to the tips of her toes, and I couldn’t stop myself from watching as she pushed her lips toward his. Beck Clermont meant nothing to me. Not a damn thing, but I could still barely breathe.

  He had touched me. His body convincing mine that I wanted him without any damn effort on his part, and he had her.

  Of course, he had her.

  He was Beck fucking Clermont.

  He turned his head at the last second before their mouths touched, and her lips pressed against the corner of his as his gaze met mine. There was a moment of shock, but I didn’t know what he had to be shocked about. I was the fool.

  I knew from the moment I had met Beck that he was cruel, but I would have expected him to tell me about her.

  I had no idea why.

  He hadn’t cared about me from the moment I met him.

  I schooled my expression, and I prayed that he didn’t see an ounce of my being affected on my face.

  I refused to allow him to think I was affected when he was touching her. When she was touching him. God, she was still touching him.

  She dropped back to her feet, and she looked back in my direction with a smile on her face. “Have you all met my new friend, Josie?”

  “Hey, Josie.” Olly smiled at me from where he leaned against the locker next to Beck. He looked back and forth between me and where Beck and Cami still stood together. Did he know? Did Beck tell him what I had let him do?

  “Hi.” I tucked my hair behind my ear and looked down the hallway for some sort of escape. Any excuse to get away.

  “You’re not going to say hi to me?” My gaze snapped up to Beck as he spoke. He had a smile on his face, and I noticed that Cami was still clinging to his arm even though he wasn’t touching her. Of course, I noticed.

  “Hello, Beckham.”

  He grinned harder as one of the guys beside him chuckled. I didn’t know if it was Olly or Carson or someone I didn’t know. I didn’t care.

  “You two know each other?” Cami looked between the two of us, and I felt bad for her. I didn’t know the extent of her and Beck’s relationship, but it was clear that she had walked in here today expecting one.

  I had no such expectations, but I had assumed that there was no one else. That was my foolish mistake, and one I wasn’t willing to make again.

  “Josie and I go way back.” Beck was laying it on thick, and everyone around him seemed to hang on to his every word. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t saying a single bit of truth. He was important, and that was all that mattered.

  “We don’t.” I tightened my hands around my strap and pulled out my schedule. I needed to find my next class. I didn’t have time to worry about him.

  “We most certainly do.”

  I looked up at him and crinkled the paper in my hand. “I work for Beck’s father at the country club.” I didn’t say anything more because there was nothing else to say.

  Nothing else mattered.

  “Ouch.” He rubbed his hand over his chest before snatching my paper out of my hand. “Where’s your next class, Vos?”

  Those around us who hadn’t already known my name were now looking at me more intensely than a moment before, and I hated it.

  “Give me my schedule back, Beckham.”

  There were a few chuckles, and Cami leaned farther into his side.
“He goes by Beck.”

  “Oh.” I pretended like I hadn’t known. “I’m sorry, Beck. I hadn’t realized.”

  He grinned as he read over my paper but didn’t respond. I was trying to get under his skin, but that was impossible. Beck Clermont was impenetrable.

  “It looks like your next class is with me.” He tucked my schedule in his pocket and started moving down the hall. He didn’t say a word to anyone else. Not even a goodbye to Cami.

  She didn’t look happy about it either. But I didn’t have time to worry about that, I was too busy trying to catch up to Beck so I could get my schedule back and find my next class.

  Everyone was watching as I jogged behind him to catch up. “Give me my schedule, Beck.”

  “Oh. Now I’m Beck?”

  “Just give me my schedule.” I held out my hand, but he made no move to give it to me. He liked having me at his mercy, and he wasn’t going to do anything that took away his advantage.

  “Are you having a good first day?” I felt like I was getting whiplash. Was he seriously just asking me about my day after I had just seen him with her?

  “Oh, yes. I’m having an amazing time.” My sarcasm was clear.

  “Yeah?” He chuckled softly as he walked. “First period was good?”

  “Oh yeah.” I nodded and stepped around a guy who was picking up his books off the floor. “I made a new friend who invited me to her party this weekend. I think you know her.” I tapped my chin as he watched me. “You know? Your girlfriend.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend,” he said it so casually that I couldn’t stop myself from looking up at him.

  “She looked like your girlfriend.”

  “And you look jealous.” He stopped by the classroom door and students stared at us as they walked past.

  “I am not jealous.”

  “You sure?” he asked as he raised his hand and pushed some hair behind my ear.

  I wanted to slap that hand away, but I didn’t want to cause a bigger scene. I didn’t need to give these people any other reason to think, talk, or look at me.

  I wanted to be under the radar. Off of it completely.

  But standing here arguing with their king wasn’t going to accomplish that. It was only going to make everything worse.

  But I couldn’t just walk away and let him think that I was jealous. I was, insanely so, but he didn’t need to know that. He didn’t need to know that yesterday had meant anything to me.

  If he wanted to treat it as nothing, then so would I.

  “I’m positive.” I brushed past him and walked into class.

  I moved to one of the seats at the back of the class. I didn’t even care that he still had my schedule. I would be late for my next class and go to the office to get one printed. They wouldn’t fault me on my first day.

  Beck plopped down into the desk in front of me and smiled at me over his shoulder. He was perfectly in my line of sight when I would be looking at the teacher, and he knew it. Beck didn’t do anything without a plan.

  I stared forward, trying my hardest to ignore him, and I listened to the teacher as she spoke. This was calculus, and I needed to pay attention. I didn’t have time to deal with Beck in this class.

  I wouldn’t let him distract me.

  He had a notebook in front of him, but I didn’t see him take a single note as she spoke.

  My phone buzzed in my bag on the floor, and I quickly grabbed it before she could hear it. She had just gone over her class rules, and no phones were at the top of the list.

  I wasn’t trying to get in trouble during the first day.

  I pressed my phone between my knees so the buzzing wouldn’t be heard, and when it went off two more times, I quickly checked it.

  You were jealous.

  But you have nothing to be jealous of.

  Me and Cami just have a history.

  I clicked the screen off without replying. I didn’t care about his and Cami’s history. That was a lie, I absolutely cared, but I didn’t want him to know that.

  As far as he was concerned, nothing about him mattered to me. Not who he was with in the past or present because I was no longer going to be a part of that equation.

  My phone buzzed again, and the urge to quickly check it was so overwhelming. Even if I didn’t want him to know, I desperately wanted to know what he had to say.

  The urge felt irrational and obsessive, and I tried my hardest not to give in to it.

  But I failed.

  I tapped the screen of my phone and there his name was again. I had saved him as Clermont in my phone, and I knew that he would probably hate that. I smiled as I read his next message.

  Trust me.

  Trust him. He wanted me to trust him? I couldn’t think of anything more preposterous. Beck was the definition of untrustworthy. He was the most treacherous boy I had ever met, and I couldn’t be foolish enough to trust him. Even if I desperately wanted to.

  After what you said to your father? You want me to trust you?

  I tucked the phone under my thigh, and I refused to look at it again.

  I could feel him regularly looking over his shoulder to look at me, but I didn’t acknowledge him. If I was going to make it through this class, through this school year, then I had to stick to my original plan.

  Put my head down, work my ass off, and forget about him.

  That last part was relatively new, but it was the most important. Beck would do nothing but make this year more difficult.

  The bell rang, and I shoved my notebook into my bag. I had every intention of walking right by him when I stood, but he threw out his long legs and blocked my path as the other students filtered out of the room.

  “I was angry when you overheard me and my father.” He had my schedule in his hand, and he rested it against his stomach. He looked completely at ease.

  “I don’t care, Beck.” I shook my head and tried to step over his legs.

  “You’re a bad liar.” He leaned forward, and he tugged on the bottom edge of my skirt to bring me closer to him. “But you look so hot in this uniform.”

  “Does it remind you of your girlfriend?” I cocked my head to the side, and even though he was amused, I saw the edge of annoyance in his gaze. He wasn’t used to being pushed so hard. I was sure of it. I was sure that Cami rolled over and let him have anything he wanted.

  “It reminds me that you’re trouble.” He tugged harder, and I was forced to take a step forward. “I told you that she’s not my girlfriend.”

  “And I don’t believe you.” I looked down at him, and there was something about it that made me feel braver. Him looking up at me like that, it gave me a sense of false control. “Cami’s probably waiting for you.” I nodded toward the door.

  Everyone else was already gone from the class, even the teacher, but the door was wide open and there were plenty of students walking by.

  “But I’m talking to you.” He fingered the edge of my skirt, and I knew I should have slapped his hand away. It made absolutely zero sense that I didn’t, but nothing was making sense.

  I pressed my knees together as his finger moved, and I remembered what his hands had felt like yesterday.

  “Do you need a reminder of what happened yesterday?” His finger dropped from my skirt and ran a trail over my bare skin until he met my knee-high socks.

  I stared down at him, and the first word on my lips should have been no. I should have shouted it at him so he could get it through his thick skull, but that word never came.

  His hand wrapped around the back of my knee, and I felt a mix of fear and anticipation over what he would do next. He smelled so good, his dark cologne overwhelming me and making me make stupid decisions.

  “Do I need to eat this pussy to remind you who it belongs to?”

  My stomach tightened at his filthy words. No one had ever spoken to me like that, let alone touch me in that way. I couldn’t concentrate on what I should have said at that moment. All I could think about was the way he used
his wicked tongue and what it would feel like there.

  I could feel myself getting wet, and I knew that he knew it as well. He knew that he was turning me on. It was his intent, and he had hit it with minimal effort.

  “Beck.” I took the smallest step toward him and his pupils dilated. They became so large his eyes almost appeared black, and I glanced down to see if he was as turned on as I was. His erection was straining against his pants, and there was an overwhelming part of me that wanted to explore his body.

  “Yesterday was a mistake.” I slapped his hand away from my leg. “I don’t think your girlfriend would like that.”

  I wanted to know what every inch of him looked like beneath his facade. I wanted to know what every inch tasted like. I wanted to have as much control over him as he had over me.

  “Mr. Clermont, do you need a map to find your way out of my classroom?”

  I jumped back, our teacher’s voice startling me, and Beck’s hand fell from my skin.

  “No, ma’am.” He stood, grabbing his bag, and his body pressed against mine for the slightest moment before he turned to face her. “I was just helping Ms. Vos figure out the rest of her schedule.”

  She didn’t believe a word of his bullshit. “Then let’s make sure she gets there on time. Shall we?”

  He nodded and reached for my hand, and for some stupid reason, I didn’t pull it away.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Beck

  Everybody was talking about her. More importantly, they were talking about me with her, and I was eating that shit up.

  I had barely seen her since our second-period class. I didn’t know if it was due to her avoiding me or if her first day was actually keeping her busy, but by the time I hit the locker room after class for practice, I had the overwhelming urge to go find her.

  How was the rest of your first day? I text her before setting my phone in my locker and pulling off my shirt. I hated wearing this damn uniform. It was so damn stuffy and pretentious, and I planned to burn them all the moment I graduated from this place.

  The rest of the baseball team was pouring into the locker room, and Olly threw his bag down beside mine as he plopped down on the bench.