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“We. Own. You.” As he stands, his hand goes into my hair. He grips it and tilts my head back. He leans over the desk, brings his face to mine. I can feel his breath on my lips. “You’re ours to play with, you’re ours to destroy. It’d be best if you remember that.”
“We don’t take kindly to other people playing with our toys, Red,” Mason says in my ear.
“Best to listen to us, Phoenix. It will make all of this easier,” Colt says. I can’t move my head because of the hold that Dax has on me, but out of the corner of my eye, I see him stand from the desk.
Mason’s hand comes up to my cheek and strokes it softly, he pushes up from the desk and stands. Dax’s finger brushes my lower lip, and I can feel my heart racing, and my breathing picks up. My brain and my body are not on the same page when it comes to these three.
“See you around, Spitfire.” Dax drops his hold on me, and the fire I felt instantly turns to ice. I watch the three of them walk out of the classroom, not once looking back. The teacher still has his head in the newspaper he’s reading, not once acknowledging what just happened.
I close my eyes and try to still my body, which is still humming from being around those three. I don’t open them until I hear a throat clearing.
“You may go now, Miss Hayes.” The old man doesn’t even look up from his paper as he says that. I look up at the clock and see that it has indeed been an hour.
I grab my bag and run myself out of the building. Once outside I take a deep breath and march towards the dorms.
They may rule the school, but they do not rule me. No matter what they say or think, they do not own me. They can’t tell me what to do or who to talk to. It’s funny that they think they can.
I’m no one’s toy.
twelve
COLTON
The last placeI want to be is here. But the football team won tonight, so the kings need to make their presence known here at this stupid fucking party.
This place is a testament to Chad Oliver’s douche baggery. It’s set back in the middle of the forest, hidden away from prying eyes. When you walk into Palace de Oliver, it’s nothing but a display of their wealth and influence that they have in this town. And while they have a lot, it’s not nearly as much as our families.
The Olivers have been trying for years to get into our little circle. They come from new money, real estate investments. But our families don’t want them. It doesn’t stop them from flaunting their wealth across this city.
The walls are stark white, windows from floor to ceiling. When you walk into the house, you walk into the great room that shows off the windows that overlook their back property. I think at last count, they owned at least sixteen acres.
People are in every corner of the great room and walking in and out of the kitchen that is off to the left of the space. There’s a balcony above the great room with a glass wall divider. Some students have taken to hanging out up there. Well, more like dry humping each other up top.
Expensive abstract paintings painted by no one I know hang on the walls. A family portrait hangs in the great room over their floating gas-fired hearth. They are situated and painted in a way to look like they are royalty. Like I said, douchebags.
People give us a wide berth as we walk around. They try to high five us, shake our hands, anything to get on our good side. But we didn’t really show up to mingle and socialize like we normally do. There’s a whole different reason we showed our faces today.
Phoenix.
She’s a defiant one. I saw the look in her eyes when we told her that she’s ours; she was determined to prove us wrong. She won’t bow to anyone, not even us. She just doesn’t realize we love the fight. We thrive off the challenge. She will burn out before we even lift a finger.
Fight us, little ember.
I can feel myself harden just thinking about her putting up such resistance to me, to us. Fuck, I love it that she’s so feisty.
Where Mase and Dax have chicks constantly hanging off them, I really prefer to not walk around school like a man whore. I’m quiet and reserved. I’ve always been taught to listen and observe, and if I’m running my mouth or distracted, I’ll miss the obvious.
With my family in the security business, it’s been engrained in me how to read people, how to break them down. It’s also great because being as smart as I am, I helped set up the technology for security systems in this town and state.
When you have a company run by a king, people flock to throw their money at you. The amount of trust they put into you is ridiculous. I could break into any house I choose to with a push of a couple buttons. The number of secrets, valuables, lives, that are protected by my father’s company is overwhelming.
To have that level of trust.
I don’t trust anyone but my brothers.
And I don’t trust any chick on this campus enough to let them get close to me.
Now, I’m not saying I haven’t fucked a chick; I’ve had plenty. I’m just picky about where I stick my dick and when. And right now, my focus is on one particular off-limits pussy.