Page 81 of The Ruthless Note

Dutch smiles. It’s not the charming smile that Zane is known for or the one of quiet amusement that makes Finn the unspoken heartthrob of Redwood Prep.

No, this is the smile that nightmares are made of.

His full pink lips stretch as if he’d been waiting for me to show my face. His blond hair lies messily over his forehead, and the brown of his Redwood Prep sweater vest brings out the dark honey of his eyes.

“Did you pay for Vi’s hospital bills?” I demand.

“What are you talking about?” He stares blankly at me. “What bills?”

What bills?Is he going to play dumb about it?

Dutch pulls off clueless so well. Maybe because he’s an empty shell of a person and has no problems lying or scheming into getting his way.

I wish a truck would charge into the school and run him over.

“Just letwhoever paidknow that we’re grateful, but they should never do that again. Also, I’ll pay them back.”

He leans against the door, assessing me. “How?”

“How?” I gulp. In the midst of my aggravation, I hadn’t accounted for that question to be volleyed back to me.

“How do you plan to pay them back, Brahms?”

I blink rapidly. “We can… maybe I can work out a payment plan.”

“Maybe? You sounded so sure a moment ago.” He steps forward and lets the door slam shut behind him. The little scanner on the side blinks red.

I creep backward. My heart lurches in my throat as Dutch advances on me.

“It even sounded,” he runs his fingers down my neck, “like you were willing to do anything.”

“Is that why you paid, you bastard?” I hiss, a slow, dangerous need burning between my thighs even as my heart screams with anger. “So that I’d have sex with you?”

“Have you?”

“Have I what?”

“Had sex.”

I bite down hard on my bottom lip. He’s standing over me, the king of the school, one finger swirling over my throat like he wants to control my pulse. His smirk is lazy, arrogant. His posture drips with self-assurance, even as his gaze burns my skin with heat.

“That’s none of your business.”

“I bet you haven’t.” He pins his fingers behind my neck and jerks me forward so his sneakers are kissing my tennis shoes. “I bet,” he leans down and runs his hot tongue down the curve of my neck, tasting my pulse, “that I’ll be your first, Cadey.”

His hand slides under my shirt, scalding my skin to unbearable temperatures.

My knees buckle, but I can’t fight the tension between us. A frightening feeling fractures my will power, like the hot, explosive asteroids that decimated the dinosaurs. It takes over my whole body as Dutch pulls me closer.

Still, I force myself to fight.

Gripping his arms with my fingers, I push him back.

He doesn’t budge an inch, but he does straighten, that lazy smirk still slashing across his handsome face.

“You willnevertake my virginity,” I spit, my chest heaving and the pulse between my legs in direct defiance to that statement.

Dutch leans down. I think he’ll try to kiss me, but he stops just shy of my lips. His eyes have darkened by a dozen shades, turning his amber eyes into an endless black hole. A perfect mirror of his blackened soul.