“Wait, she told you? You spoke to her?”
“Yes,” she breathes, placing a hand over her heart, her lashes fluttering against her cheek. “I spoke to the great Aspen. Beautiful, shiny, madly in love with a certifiable psychopath. She had to make sure I knew it was her generosity that led to me wearing something other than your clothes around school.”
“Don’t talk about her that way.” I barely bite back a growl.
“Is there any aspect of my life that belongs to me? I can’t even say what’s on my mind. I have to wear somebody else’s clothes. I have to live in someone else’s apartment and sleep behind a locked door. I have to take classes at this godforsaken school that I never wanted to go to or agreed to attend. And now I can’t even talk about how embarrassing it is to know the girl everybody holds me responsible for hurting provided me with clothes.” Her voice breaks. “I don’t even deserve new clothes. How do you think that makes me feel?”
“I don’t recall asking you how you feel,” I growl and continue, “Do you know why that is? Because I don’t fucking care. If you did the right thing and stayed away from the wrong people, there wouldn’t have been any reason for Quinton to take you in the first place. You wouldn’t have gone through that shit. And you wouldn’t be here, whining like a baby about not getting brand new clothes.”
Her eyelids flutter, crimson flooding her cheeks. “That’s not how I meant it.”
“That’s sure as hell how it sounded.”
“I’m telling you, it’s humiliating. What, you think I never wore castoffs? You think I didn’t shop at Goodwill? That’s all I was ever able to afford. The problem isn’t havingnewclothes. It’s that these are her clothes.”
“She happens to be the only girl around here I know well enough to ask for clothes.”
“Well, here.” She pulls the sweater off over her head, balls it up, and shoves it into my chest. “I don’t want them.”
“Because that’s going to solve all your problems.” I toss the sweater onto the bed, but she sweeps it off with her arm.
“No! Don’t do me any favors, and I sure as hell don’t want her doing them for me, either. She already thinks she’s better than me.”
“She is better than you.”
She rocks back on her heels. Part of me knows that was the wrong thing to say, but the bigger part of me relishes the effect my words have on her. Her eyes glisten with what looks to be tears.
Her chin quivers. “Good. At least I know where we stand on that.” With that comes the skirt, which she lets drop to the floor before kicking it away. My frustration toward her mounts. I don’t have time to play childish games.
“Are you finished with your tantrum?”
“Fuck you,” she spits.
I’m on her in a flash, even before I know what I’m doing. She gasps, but most of the sound is cut off with my hand circling her throat.
Fear floods her eyes and drains the color from her cheeks. “Is that what this is all about? You want me to fuck you? You’ve practically been begging for it since you got here. Is that what you want?”
She tries to shake her head but can’t move much. “No,” she chokes out.
“So it was some other Lucas you were thinking about in the shower the other day?” I lean in, so close our noses touch. Her shallow, panicked breath is hot against my face. I love it. I want her fear, her tears. “When you were fingering yourself? You mean to say it wasn’t me you were thinking about?”
With my other hand, I cup her ass, blood surging to my cock and stiffening it almost instantly. “Fucking tease. Saying my name out loud like you did. Knowing I would hear you. And now, this little striptease?”
“Not a striptease,” she chokes. She’s gone stiff, frozen in fear, and that’s good. I like that almost too much.
“Face it. It was an excuse to get naked in front of me, or as good as.” I throw her onto the bed, where she bounces hard enough to almost knock her back off. She rolls over, trying to get away like wounded prey, but doesn’t she know that when you run, you only make the predator want you more. I take hold of her legs, flip her onto her back, and wedge myself between her thighs.
“Here. Let me take care of the rest for you.”
“Stop it!” she screams.
“No, you’re right. You shouldn’t have to wear anything you don’t feel comfortable in.” I tear off her panties, shredding the thin cotton with no effort. She lets out a choked sob that should stop me but instead reaches that dark place deep inside that I’ve tried so hard to suppress and ignore. It’s like a drug, and it goes straight to my head.
“Isn’t this better?” I ask, laughing at the way she tries to pull her ankles out of my grasp. “Fight all you want. We’ll see who tires first. I promise it won’t be me.”
“You’ve made your point. Let me go!” Her face is red, her eyes wild with fear.
“No. Not until I say so.”