Isaiah groaned, his words clipped. “New student. Go back to your room, Callie.”
She huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest in a bratty manner. “Who are you? Father Isaiah? Telling me to go back to my room...” She huffed out the last part of her sentence, and Isaiah snickered.
“I remember you calling me daddy a few nights ago, so yeah, I guess you could call me that.” My mouth dropped open slightly, and then she yelled, “Fuck you, Isaiah,” and then swiftly turned around and slammed her door.
Wow.
“Let’s go, Good Girl,” Isaiah whispered in my ear, and I jumped before following after him again.
He waited until we were stopped in front of what I assumed to be my new room to say, “If you’re afraid of the dark, I suggest getting a flashlight.”
I gingerly peered up, still feeling a bit vulnerable that I was so spooked from the sound of chains that it had me running into him. And if I was being honest, I was a little embarrassed to admit that his and Callie’s little spar distracted me enough to make me forget about the chains all together. That was very unusual. “I’m not afraid of the dark.”
Isaiah studied me with an interested look before raising his hand to knock. “Then what are you afraid of?”
The chains were clamping around my wrists. The gag was being stuffed in my mouth. “Nothing,” I answered as he rapped his knuckles on the door. “Nothing at all.”
He kept his icy-blue gaze on me as the door opened up. Before I brushed past him, his hand clamped down on my elbow, and he whispered his hot breath into my ear, “And here I thought good girls didn’t lie, Gemma.”
Heat spread over my skin like I was standing in the middle of a burning room. I inched my head to the side, my neck more exposed than before. “Well, maybe I’m not a good girl, Isaiah.” Then, I ripped my elbow out of his grasp and entered my new home.
It took him a few moments to follow after me, and I was certain it was because he was as surprised as I was at my behavior. I wasn’t sure what had come over me. I had never, in my entire life, talked to someone as confidently as I had just spoken to Isaiah. I felt in control but totally out of control at the same exact time, which made absolutely no sense at all.
What I did know was that, without Richard breathing down my neck and watching me with his dirty, beady eyes, I felt at ease, and that wasn’t good even in the slightest. Letting my guard down around anyone, especially Isaiah, would only bite me in the ass down the road.
I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
My lungs burned as snippets from the last few weeks filled my head, but they quickly disappeared as I let my gaze scour around my new room. My mouth fell as I took in the beautiful, glowing fairy lights that hung from every corner, making the small area seem like some sort of fairytale instead of the dungeon that I’d expected.
“I know,” a girl announced, snagging my attention. I glanced to the center of the room and saw a petite girl with shoulder-length black hair. Her smile was as bright as the pink on her lips. “It’s weird coming from a creepy hallway to a room that’s…”
“Beautiful,” I finished for her, looking up to the ceiling that had some type of 3D paper butterflies taped to it. The room was all things light and fluffy, which were two things I wasn’t really familiar with. I would be lying if I said it didn’t make me feel lighter, though.
“Gemma, this is Sloane. Sloane, this is Gemma, your new roommate.”
She smiled again as she walked over to me and held her hand out. “Welcome to St. Mary’s.”
I took it cautiously and glanced at Isaiah who was staring at me intently with an unreadable expression on his face. “Alright, I’m out,” he finally said, still keeping me pinned to my spot.
“I thought I was supposed to get a tour of the school?”
“I’ll give you a tour,” Sloane said, dismissing Isaiah.
My shoulders immediately dropped in relief. Being around Isaiah was exhausting, even if it had been only for a few minutes. I was acting way out of character with him for some reason. It was better this way. I’d be able to keep myself in line by getting a rundown of St. Mary’s from my new roommate rather than him.
He made me feel…something. Something I wouldn’t allow myself to feel because I already knew it would be a distraction.
“Great.” Isaiah slapped his hands together. “I’ll see you around, Good Girl.” He winked at me, and my face flamed.
As soon as he left the room, Sloane laughed. “That’s Isaiah for you. He’s a lot, huh?”
I thought very carefully before I spoke. “He makes me nervous,” I said, and although it was true, it wasn’t the first word to come to mind when answering her. Isaiah made me feel excited and maybe a bit scared. And hot. Really hot. Like, sweat-was-coating-my-back hot.
She nodded, her straight, shiny, ebony strands swaying. “He makes all the girls nervous. He’s a bad boy, though. Through and through.” She sighed. “You should probably stay away from him, or you’ll end up in the closet.”
The closet? I absolutely hated that I was so out of the loop on just about everything teenage-girl related. It only took a few days at Wellington Prep to realize that high school was not what I had expected—or what I was taught. I had learned a lot from watching others my age navigate their normal high school lives, and the things I’d overheard at the lunch table made me blush just being near someone who had done them. I was curious, too. Really curious.
I nodded in Sloane’s direction, pretending I knew what she was referring to with the closet thing, but I really had no idea. I could only guess that it was something my dear Uncle Richard wouldn’t