Wild Girl: A High School Bully Romance (Slateview High Book 2) Page 7

  I understood the feeling. I’d already come hard, but my body was humming with adrenaline and desire, and I could feel my clit pulsing, demanding another release.

  “Come here, Coralee,” he said softly.

  His cheeks were a little flushed, his hazel eyes warm and half-lidded, and I moved toward him without hesitation.

  I was about to crawl onto his lap like I had Kace’s, but he stopped me before I could, taking hold of my hips and spinning me to face away from him. Craning my neck to look back over my shoulder, I shot him a quizzical look.

  He chuckled, the sound rough and deep.

  “Oh, I still want you on my lap. Sit down, baby.”

  Oh.

  Oh.

  I bit my lip as a flare of nerves rose up in me. I’d never had sex in this position either, and I was sure I was about to make a fool of myself trying to do it gracefully.

  But of course, I shouldn’t have worried. Misael and Kace both moved to help me, holding me steady and as I sat on Bishop’s lap with my back to his front. My legs splayed on either side of his, and as his hard length slid inside my tight core, I let out a groan, letting my head loll against his shoulder. I was sore, but something about the feel of him inside me, about knowing that all three boys would come inside me tonight, pushed the bite of pain into something like pleasure.

  No.

  Something more than pleasure.

  Something I couldn’t even name. Ownership and satisfaction and ecstasy all wrapped into one.

  I’d thought we had all already claimed each other, but as I began to roll my hips, riding Bishop backward as the other two boys watched with greedy eyes, I realized we were about to cross a new line I hadn’t even known existed.

  This was it.

  It was forever.

  These boys were all I would ever want, and although someone older and wiser might insist I was too young to know that for sure, I didn’t care what anyone else thought.

  I would crave these boys until the day I died, and I would never want anyone else.

  They had ruined me for anyone else.

  And I wanted to be ruined.

  “Fuck, Cora,” Bish breathed in my ear, thrusting shallowly as our hips found a rhythm together. “I didn’t know. I knew I wanted you from the first second I saw you, but I didn’t know it would be like this.”

  I shook my head, unable to find the words to respond. But he’d spoken my own thoughts aloud. He knew exactly how I felt.

  His arms banded around me, one hand moving to my breast to tease and massage the soft flesh while the other moved down to find my clit. He worked slow circles around it as he fucked me slowly, gently even, as if he knew my body couldn’t handle anything more right now.

  I could still feel Kace and Misael in me, could feel their cum leaking from the place where Bishop impaled me, could feel the way my body had stretched to accommodate them.

  That thought made me groan, and when Bishop sped up the pattern of his fingers, my legs locked up and my back arched as I came hard, squeezing his thick length as my core convulsed around him.

  “Fuck. Oh, fuck.”

  He grunted out the words as he swirled his hips against my ass, thrusting as deep as he could as his cock jerked and swelled inside me.

  My body went completely boneless, and I could feel him relaxing beneath me, both of us completely spent. My head tipped back, my eyes closing as I lost myself in the echo of sensation.

  “Holy shit,” Misael muttered. He had knelt on the floor a few feet away as both he and Kace watched us, and I could hear a rasp in his voice that sent a pleased little shiver up my spine. “I think I’m fuckin’ addicted.”

  I lifted my head, shifting my gaze from him to Kace before tilting my head to press a kiss to Bishop’s sweat-dampened neck.

  “Good,” I murmured.

  At least I’m not the only one.

  We ended up in my room afterward, snuggled together in a tight pile on my bed. It was a snug fit, the four of us on the full-sized mattress, but there was something… reassuring about it.

  In the middle of the night, I stirred when I heard the front door open and close softly. Quiet footsteps went down the hall, passing my bedroom door on the way to the back of the house. Blearily, I disentangled myself from the boys—all three of whom remained sleeping quietly where I left them. I trekked with light feet toward my door and peeked out. Mom had ducked into her room by then, but her door was slightly ajar, and dim light spilled through the crack.

  Part of me wanted to go to her, to confront her and demand to know what had kept her out so long. I wanted to ask her where the money was coming from, where the new clothes and car and jewelry had come from. I wanted to ask what she’d been doing lately that kept her out of the house more often than she was in it.

  I had been telling myself that maybe she’d found a job. It could explain most of her odd behavior lately, and justify why she was gone so often. It was the most harmless explanation I could think of, and I hoped to God I was right.

  But the honest truth was, even though dozens of questions beat against my rib cage, demanding to be let out, I wasn’t prepared to ask her any of them.

  Because I wasn’t ready to face the truth.

  Nine

  “Think we can pick up some grub before we head over to Jessica’s?”

  We were in the car, heading away from Slateview after school had let out. We were going to have another study session at Jessica’s and possibly head over to the warehouse to hang out after.

  “Grub” sounded amazing; I hoped that it was burgers.

  Bishop chuckled at Misael’s suggestion. “Yeah, sure. We’ll pick some up for Jessica and Liam too. They’re probably already at her place since they don’t take forever getting out to their car.” Bishop raised a brow, looking back at Misael.

  “Hey! I had to grab a bunch of shit since we’re doing this whole study thing, okay?”

  “Don’t see why it matters. All you do is doodle anyway,” Kace pointed out.

  “Not today. I’m taking a—what do they say?—leaf outta Jessica and Cora’s book and gonna do some actual studying. Mostly ’cause I’m tired of bein’ called out because math is dumb.”

  I laughed. “It’s not dumb. It’s only because your teacher is a bit of an asshole, from what I hear.”

  He belted a laugh, grinning widely. “Ha! Princess usin’ uncouth terms.”

  My brow rose. “Uncouth?”

  “Learned it in English Lit.”

  I chuckled, sitting back easily and relaxing into the seat. It had been a good day. All things considered, I had nothing to complain about. Eli, for all the bravado he’d come in with on his first day, hadn’t openly antagonized the Lost Boys since then.

  Following the example set by their respective bosses, Nathaniel and Luke, the boys and Eli left each other alone. That didn’t stop the new kid from strutting around the school like a damn peacock, and heavy tension hung in the air anytime he or one of the boys passed each other—but luckily, there hadn’t been a repeat of the incident on his first day.

  Since our altercation by my locker, I had avoided him as completely as I could, even going so far as to arrive late to US History to make sure I could choose a desk that wasn’t next to his. He’d never approached me again, but I couldn’t help but feel that a lot of the time, he was watching me. There was definitely something unnerving about it.

  I was so lost in my thoughts that I almost jumped when Bishop’s cell rang. He kept one hand on the wheel while he swiped his screen with the other and brought the phone up to his ear.

  “Yeah. This is Bish.” That was all the greeting he gave, then he listened intently for a few moments before nodding. “Yeah, sure. We’ll head over soon.”

  I looked over to him, head tilted, as he hung up and dropped the phone in the cupholder in the center console.

  “What’s up?”

  “Nathaniel wants us in on another job,” he said tersely. I could tell that, even though they wer
e getting more money for the work they were doing, the amount of pressure was causing a bit of a strain. I couldn’t tell if it was just because they were taking on more demanding jobs for Nathaniel, or because they were waiting for someone to uncover information about Flint. Maybe it was a bit of both. Except for the night we’d all spent together the previous weekend, I still wasn’t sleeping very well, my dreams still constantly overtaken by nightmares.

  I frowned a little, looking back to the other two before glancing at Bishop.

  “Can I come with you?”

  Bish actually hit the brakes hard, jolting us before continuing on smoothly and pulling into the Burger King parking lot.

  “Fuck no,” he said immediately.

  “I want to come,” I insisted.

  “Why?”

  “Just to see.”

  Bishop’s brow rose, and he shot me a quelling look.

  “I don’t think so, Cora.”

  “It does sound like a bad idea,” Misael threw in, poking his head between the seats from where he sat in the back. “I mean, it was one thing when it was Flint coming to the warehouse and all, but after everything that went down… We need to keep you and anything that has to do with Nathaniel as far away from each other as possible.”

  I sighed. Of course none of them wanted me to come. They all wanted to protect me, and the easiest way they could think of to do that was to keep me far away from the world they’d become a part of.

  But what they didn’t understand was that the idea of losing them, of any of them being in danger, hurt worse than the thought of my own death. They were trying to protect my body, but I was trying to protect my heart.

  “Please, let me,” I insisted. “I just… I don’t know. I think it will set my mind at ease a little if I just meet him and see that’s he’s not a bad man.”

  Bishop turned to me, a deadpan expression on his face. “He’s literally the leader of a criminal ring and orchestrates illegal activity.”

  “Yeah, and you work for him, yet I can see past that to who you are as a person. I know you, and I care about you and trust you,” I countered. Then I softened my voice. “Please? Just this one time?”

  Bishop considered this, and I could tell an internal debate was raging inside him. I peeked into the back seat and found Kace and Misael with similar expressions on their face. None of them wanted to let me do this, and I could understand that. But there was an inexplicable need burning in my chest, one that had been growing in me ever since their promotion.

  A little voice whispered in my mind that if I met him, put a face to the name that had been haunting my dreams, it would put my mind at ease. Then maybe I would be able to trust that, at least for now, they were safe in Nathaniel’s hands.

  After a long, quiet moment, Bishop sighed. Kace grunted, and Misael reached through the seats to brush his knuckles down my arm. My gaze bounced between all three of them, ending on Bish—none of them had spoken, but as if they’d all communicated telepathically, they seemed to have come to the same conclusion.

  “Fine. You can come.” Bishop shook his head, his grip tightening on the wheel. “But I’m gonna regret the fuck outta this.”

  We got our food and ate on the way, and a little under an hour later, we were in a… surprisingly nice part of Baltimore. I didn’t know the area, but the sights that surrounded us were more familiar to me than those I saw in the neighborhood Mom and I lived in now.

  We drove up a street bordered by posh houses and manicured lawns, and my head swiveled back and forth.

  It honestly surprised me. I wasn’t sure why, but I had almost expected Nathaniel to operate out of someplace shoddy, maybe an abandoned warehouse of his own. The image I’d had in my mind was based on the way Hollywood tended to portray the lairs of criminal masterminds, all low lighting and dingy, run-down buildings.

  “I thought Nathaniel was a crime lord?” I asked quietly, leaning over and craning my neck to stare at a particularly large house as we passed by.

  “Yeah, well, he’s been doing this a long time,” Bishop said. “Crime pays if you do it as well and as long as Nathaniel has. But make no mistake, he’s nothing like the kinda people you’re used to. Don’t let all the finery fool you.”

  To be honest, it made me a little more relaxed, but I said nothing of the sort to Bishop as we pulled up to a gate. Bish leaned out of the car, pressing one of the buttons to speak into the intercom.

  “Bish here. Nathaniel wanted to see us.”

  There was a slight moment of silence, followed by static and then an answer.

  “Yup. Roll on in.”

  The gate parted with a creek, and we were on our way in. The drive was long, lined with perfectly clipped hedges, not a leaf out of place. At the end of the drive was a fountain, behind which sat a huge, dark red-brick manor.

  It reminded me a lot of home, and there was a pang in my chest as we got out of the convertible. I couldn’t help but wonder what had become of my family’s estate as we walked up the paved path from the horseshoe drive to the front door.

  Had it been sold already? Was there someone living in it now? Had they changed it in any way? If so, what had they done?

  Those thoughts cluttered my brain as Bishop knocked on the door, delivering three hard raps before standing back. We waited a few moments in silence, and my heart beat a little faster when the door opened.

  A statuesque man in a crisp suit stood before us. His silver hair was slicked back, and he gave a slight bow.

  “Mr. Ward is waiting for you,” he said.

  I should have been used to the opulence by now, but I hadn’t expected there to be an actual butler here. It was one thing for Nathaniel to use his money to buy himself a big house; another entirely for all of… this. I supposed that it should have made me feel comfortable, but all it did was raise the elevation of my heart.

  How much crime had paid for all this?

  I was given an odd look by the man as he led us in, but he said nothing about my being there. He brought us through the entryway, and I got a good look at the space. Everything was done in beautiful mahogany, understated filigree trimmings along the floors and ceilings. It was a strange juxtaposition, seeing the beauty and opulence of the house while knowing how it had been accumulated.

  I stayed close to the boys as we were taken upstairs. We weren’t the only people here, and I got the sense that this place was more than a house—it was a headquarters. A group of men in their early twenties stepped out of a room, conversing in low voices amongst themselves.

  They cast gazes toward us, lingering a little on me, but not in the same way that Flint looked at me. There was a measure of recognition in one man’s eyes, and curiosity in the others’.

  I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t shy away from the stares either. If they knew who I was, then so be it. I wasn’t a shrinking violet. Not anymore.

  We were brought to a large double door, and the man leading us knocked.

  “Mr. Ward.”

  A heartbeat later, the door opened.

  Nathaniel Ward, much like everything about this estate, was not what I expected. He stood tall and was well dressed, in that kind of way where it felt effortless, but you could tell every piece of clothing from the black jacket to the wine red shirt underneath had been chosen intentionally. His slacks fit him well, and his dark hair was cropped close to the sides of his head, the hair at the top longer, slightly curled, and brushed back. He looked to me with interest, brown eyes gleaming in the warm light. Then he chuckled, looking to the Lost Boys.

  “I didn’t know you were going to be bringing a friend,” he said, his voice a deep rumble.

  “Is that a problem?” Kace asked, a little guarded, somewhat caged in his answer. I could see his fingers twitch slightly, as if he was just barely holding himself back from clenching his hands into fists.

  A flicker of worry flashed through me.

  Shit.

  Maybe this hadn’t been a good idea. Not for the reasons the
boys had thought, and not because it would be bad for me to meet the man they worked for. But because Kace was still on edge after Flint’s shooting, as if that night had stirred something up inside him, a ghost that haunted him and refused to settle.

  He hadn’t gotten into any more fights at school, but he seemed to live on a hair-trigger these days, ready to leap to my defense if anyone so much as breathed on me wrong.

  Nathaniel shook his head, either not noticing or ignoring the note of challenge in Kace’s voice.

  “Of course not. But we have business, and the little lady will have to wait out here.” He gave me a nod, then gestured behind me. In the area just outside the room, there was a small sitting area. “You can make yourself comfortable.”

  He shifted his focus to the boys again and gave a slight jerk of his head, summoning them into the large room behind him. Before they followed, Kace squeezed my hand, his fingers rough and calloused against mine.

  “Be good, Princess. Yeah?”

  I nodded, and Misael and Bish both gave me lingering looks before the three of them disappeared into the room. I bit my lip as I watched them go, and the moment they were inside, the door snapped closed behind them.

  When I turned around, the man who’d led us upstairs gestured to the small sitting area. “Miss.”

  It was part invitation and part command, and I didn’t waste a second in complying. I sat down on a small ottoman, legs crossed at the ankles. He regarded me for a second, as if trying to ascertain whether I’d stay put, then he nodded politely and turned to disappear down the hallway we’d come from.

  Silence fell around me. I could hear voices from the other side of the door, but not exactly what they were saying.

  Nerves rolled through me, making it hard to stay still. I had at least seen Nathaniel’s face, but it hadn’t given me quite the reassurance I had hoped for. I wanted to know more, to understand what the Lost Boys were doing for him, I knew that trying to discretely listen at the door would end up getting me into more trouble than I could afford.

  But I couldn’t stay still.