Playboy Princes: A Dark College Romance(17)

My silent threat to bite his fucking tongue off must have been clear because he released me long enough to thread a hand into my hair.

“Careful, Violet love,” he whispered in my ear, his voice husky but so soft not even Mattie would hear him, “I quite like it rough.” A roll of his hips reiterated that statement, and I internally gagged at the idea he’d just gotten hard from forcing me to kiss him.

“Enjoy lunch, girls,” he said in a louder voice, knowing full well we had an audience. Of course we did. He was a fucking crown heir, and I was a ballot winner. We were literally the hottest gossip in the whole Academy. “I’ll be seeing you later, gorgeous.” He smacked a hot, wet kiss on the curve of my neck, nipping the skin lightly with his teeth, then laughed under his breath as he walked away. It wasn’t a cheerful laugh, either. It was a dark sound, one that spoke to all the stains on his soul, and it sent a shiver chasing down my spine.

My hands balled into fists at my sides as I followed Mattie over to our table, where Jordan, Rafe and Nolan were all watching us with laser-like intensity.

“What?” I snarled when Rafe scowled at me as he gave my hands a pointed look.

He arched a brow—probably at my tone—and just shook his head. “Nothing,” he lied. “Your lipstick is smudged, though.”

My brows dropped into a scowl of my own, and I uncurled one of my fists long enough to flip him off. “I’m not wearing any, dickhead, but thanks for making an already shitty day even shittier with your foul attitude.”

“Whoa,” Luca commented with an awkward laugh. “Alex must be a pretty shitty kisser if that’s the mood he puts you in.”

Oh crap. I’d been so focused on the way the guys had been staring at me—at the way Jordan and Rafe had been staring at me—I’d totally forgotten their other friends were at the table. Friends who didn’t know Alex was a two-faced, cheating piece of shit who’d threatened to kill me on several occasions. Friends who potentially couldn’t be trusted.

The effort it took to wipe my face clear of all the anger and frustration was immense, but Mattie was already coming to my rescue.

“Oh please, Luca,” she snickered, “you can’t recognize sexual frustration when you see it ’cause you never get girls all worked up like that. Vi is just shitty that she can’t go chase Alex down and ride him like her personal pony. Right, babe?” She gave me a playful nudge, and this time my laugh was genuine. She’d deliberately called me babe like Alex had, and it seemed to clean the word of all his creepiness.

“Yeah,” I agreed, giving a small laugh, “something like that.” I shot a lightning fast look over at Jordan… and Rafe. Damn my body for still being attracted to that bastard. “Actually, I’m not really hungry after all. I might just go over my notes for tomorrow’s chem lab.”

Mattie frowned at me like she wanted to call me on my bullshit, but I was already escaping the dining room. After everything with the dean and then Alex, I needed a second to just breathe. I wasn’t going to get that while sitting at an awkwardly tense lunch with the guy who wanted to date me, his best friend who had fucked me until I saw heaven, and a bunch of clueless bastards who thought I was dating someone else entirely.

I let out a groan when I was a decent distance from the dining room and scrubbed my hands over my face. “When did life become so complicated?” I asked myself, wondering for the millionth time why I’d decided to enter the ballot in the first place.

Footsteps on the marble tiles alerted me to someone approaching, and I released a heavy sigh.

“Violet,” Jordan called out, and I turned to face him. When I’d heard someone following, I’d initially expected Mattie. And then when I’d realized it wasn’t a girl, I’d assumed Rafe had come to pile on more assholery.

“Jordy, hey.” I gave him a weak smile, wrapping my arms around myself. Of all my new friends, he was actually the one I’d most wanted it to be following me. “What’s up?”

He tucked his hands into his pockets and dipped his head, looking at me with those coffee-colored eyes in an almost coy gesture. “I just… I know you wanted a moment alone. I just wanted to… uh… fuck it.” He looked both ways up and down the hall—making sure we were alone, I guessed—then reached out to me and clasped the back of my neck.

This time when I found my lips pressed to someone else’s, it inspired a totally different reaction within me. I froze, but not because I was disgusted or horrified. I froze because I wanted to savor every single second. Jordan was kissing me, and it was a damn fairytale moment.

Except, he wasn’t a mind reader and pulled back abruptly, misreading my inactivity as a rejection. “I’m so sorry, Vi. I shouldn’t have—”

“Shut up and kiss me again,” I cut him off. But I didn’t wait for him to initiate this time. Nope, I was a strong, independent woman who owned her own sexual desires, and holy crap, did Jordan fall into that category. I threaded my arms around his neck as our mouths caressed, and when my lips parted to deepen the kiss, he made this unbelievably sexy sort of groan that had me wanting to jump his bones right then and there. Yeah, it wasn’t the most romantic of sentiments, but I’ve never claimed to be a princess.

We kissed for longer than we should have. Considering everything with Alex and the ballot and… everything… it was foolish and risky to just stand there kissing like we didn’t have a care in the world, but he seemed just as reluctant as me to end our embrace.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, husky and breathless when we finally parted. His lips continued to trace my jaw with feathered kisses. “I shouldn’t have kissed you without your permission. I just couldn’t stand the idea of him being on your lips a moment longer.”

Holy crap. My heart did this weird fluttery thing, and I found I needed to swallow before I could find the words to reply. “For the record, Jordan? You definitely have my permission. One hundred percent.”

I couldn’t see his face, but I could feel him smiling against my skin as he kissed the bend of my neck. Of course he’d seen Alex kiss me there, too, and was erasing that unwanted touch with his own.

“Cool,” he replied, then sucked in a sharp breath and shifted back with a pained look on his face. “I can’t believe I just said that. That’s the best I had? I’ve officially lost all my smooth.” He groaned, hanging his head and shaking it mournfully while I tried really hard to bite back a laugh.

“I should go,” I said, reluctant as all fuck. I didn’t try to hide that emotion when Jordan looked back up at me either. I wanted him to see me. The real me. “If anyone sees us here…”

He grimaced, but nodded. “Yeah, I know. We should step up our plans to deal with all of that soon. I don’t know how long I can hide how I feel about you.”

Ugh. There went my heart doing the flippy thing again.

Jordan kissed me once more—quickly this time—and I grinned like a lunatic the whole way to my next lecture of the day.





Chapter 12





Over the next few days, the weather decided it wanted a shot at second winter, sending massive snowstorms across the academy grounds.

“It’s, like, almost fucking summer,” I complained.

Mattie snorted. “Well, sure, but here there’re no real seasons. The weather just does whatever the fuck it wants.”

“It’s crazy to think I’ve been at Arbon for almost five months,” I said.

The time had flown by, and if it weren’t for the Alex situation, I’d be living my best life. Alex, Brandon, Claudette. I needed to rid myself of those fuckers and get back to the good times.

Like making out with Jordan, who I literally could not stop thinking about.

“Have I told you lately how happy I am that you won the lottery,” Mattie said, breaking me out of my sexy thoughts. “I couldn’t have chosen better myself.”

I shook my head at her. “We should stop referring to it as a lottery and more as a genetic Russian roulette, since apparently there’s nothing random about it at all.”

Mattie looked around suddenly, probably to ensure there were no ears close enough to overhear. "This Alex thing has to be dealt with soon. I can't watch him maul you like that again."

I swallowed roughly, bile on my tongue. "Imagine how I feel."

I'd never been more grateful to Jordan. His touch… taste. The way he’d taken the time to find me and help me erase Alex. It was the mental cleanse I needed to regain my composure.

A group of chicks appeared at the end of the hall, walking in our direction. When they got closer, I realized it was Claudette and her band of bitches.

I hadn’t seen her, not really, since everything had gone down with Alex. I found I wasn’t even remotely angry at her about that—I kind of felt sorry for the moron. But the Brandon thing.

That still had me raging.

Speaking of…

“Brandon will be back from his family home tomorrow,” she said, deliberately loud enough for us to hear. “Be interesting to see what happens when he takes his place here again.”