Page 31 of Broken by my Bully (Lessons in Cruelty Dark Academia #1)

Kai

Rooke isn’t just late. He doesn’t show up for class at all. I didn’t expect my foray into teaching to end on such a weird climax, so I tell Rooke’s students to read from their textbooks while I go outside to make a call.

It’s bullshit. I need to clear my head.

Ha. I’m dealing with an infestation, not some cobwebs. I need a fucking weed whacker to get rid of Haven.

I don’t plan on going back to the lecture hall, so I trot down the stairs and out through the cafeteria, walking around the back of the campus building until I’m in the area beside the library windows.

The two enormous oak trees shading the grass look like bookends to a densely wooded area that stretches a few hundred yards from the campus.

These woods are my new happy place. A stark contrast to the manicured lawn and rectangular hedges that run along the length of the library gardens, but a subpar replacement for the woods back in Riverside.

No time to go hiking through those trees today, though. I’d end up smoking the joint in my backpack and never going back to class .

Nope. All I need is a little fresh air to wipe out the image of Haven sucking me off under the library table.

I turn to look for a spot to sit. The concrete benches are too hard. Maybe I’ll sit under the farthest oak tree.

A student rounds the corner where I’d just been walking. I pay them no mind until I see brown hair fluttering.

Haven speed walks toward me.

“The fuck are you doing here?” I call out. “You’re supposed to be in class.”

She just keeps coming.

“Or in your car,” I add, laughing.

Christ, it’s disturbing how single-minded she looks right now in her cute, thrifted sundress and flip-flops. Thought she’d learned her lesson about wearing those to class, but I guess I was wrong.

She’s a few feet away when she tugs on the handle of her tote bag, shortening the linen strap.

That should have been my first clue.

The snarl that jumps onto her mouth should have been my second.

But it seems I still have this bad habit of underestimating little Miss H, because I’m standing there smirking at her like an idiot when she swings her tote bag and catches me full on the side of her head.

“Jesus!” I yell as I fall to the grass. “You got a fucking brick in there?”

She stomps down on my stomach, kicks off her flip-flop when it gets tangled in her toes, then does it again.

My washboard abs barely feel it, but I’m kinda too scared to get up in case she slams me with her fucking tote bag again.

“Haven!”

“Fuck you, you piece of shit!” She tries to kick my head, but I get my arms up in time to deflect it.

Then she’s on her knees, her sundress’s skirt taut as she straddles me.

Punching, slapping, clawing .

Our struggle churns bits of grass into the air, filling my frantic breaths with their sweet scent.

“Christ, what the fuck?” I yell, trying to grab her wrists, but always a millisecond too slow.

Because you’re reacting, idiot, not attacking.

She squeals in surprise when I grab her hips and keep her pinned on top of me as I roll over. Grass rains down onto her shocked face, a tiny sliver landing on her top lip.

I blow it away, and grin at her. “Just like old times, huh?”

Fury washes over her face, her body going rigid under me. Her knees crash into my back as she kicks and struggles, but all it takes is grabbing her shoulders, then sliding my hands down to her elbows, then finally her wrists before pinning them between her hips and my thighs.

Her frustrated growl makes my cock thicken inside my Fendi joggers, but I ignore it just like I ignore the tension and heat building inside me. Just because she had her lips wrapped around it a few days ago doesn’t mean this is a replay.

More like a rematch.

Poor girl really thought she could win a round?

I rub the side of my head where she dinged me with her textbooks. “If you gave me a concussion, I’m gonna be?—“

“What?” she cuts in viciously, glaring up at me. “Even more pissed off with me?” A few wild wriggles punctuate her words before she gives up with an exasperated huff. “You’d literally implode.”

“Figuratively,” I say, using my pinkie finger to brush a strand of hair from her face with a flick of my wrist.

I lean forward, resting on my palms as I duck my head inches from hers. Then I turn my head, opening my mouth like I’m straining to hear something.

“What’s that?” I whisper. “You realize your mistake now, and you’ll be scampering back to Ashwood as fast as your little legs can carry you?”

Her lips squirm together for a moment, her blue eyes flickering from my left eye to my right. Then she lets out a puff of breath, her body going slack under mine as she looks away.

If she’s looking for help, I’ve got bad news for her. This area is deserted during class. It only starts livening up after lunchtime.

“What the fuck did I do to deserve this?” she whispers. “My dad made me leave?—“

“I’m not pissed you left.” My hands curl into fists as I lower down even more, until our noses are almost touching. “I’m pissed you came back. You should have stayed gone.”

She frowns. “I had to, Kai.”

“No, Heavenly.” I look at her little nose, at her plump little lips, at that singular freckle. “There was plenty you had to do. That any person with a live, beating heart would have felt compelled to do. But coming back here just to rub your sluttiness in my face?—”

“Why do you keep saying that?” she bleats, eyes frantically hunting mine. “You know I’m not a slut!”

“Jesus,” I say, sitting up, leaning back, running my hands through my hair and not even giving a shit that I’m getting grass in it. “You’re so fucking delusional, I can’t even?—”

I break off with a dry chuckle.

“If this is about my birthday?—”

“You think that’s what this is about?” I kick up to a stand, feet still straddling her hips. “Nah, Heavenly. That day was a fucking eye opener. Got to meet the real you under that fucking maple tree. Pity it was eleven years too late.”

Her lips tremble, and it almost looks like she’s going to cry. But she’s always known how to squeeze out an odd tear or two when she really needed.

“I said I was sorry,” she says, shaking her head. “I said it a thousand times. If you want me to say it again, I’ll?—”

She cuts off when I press my shoe against her throat. The way she grabs my ankle and starts choking and gagging, you’d swear I had my full weight on her windpipe.

Hollywood’s missing one of its stars .

I tilt my head, leaning down so my whisper will carry easily to her.

“Wanna know what I’ve been thinking about all this time you’ve been gone, Haven? All those times in the woods when you cried for me. Remember? When you begged me to stop, but we both knew you wanted more?”

Her eyes widen in horror, and fuck, that look goes straight to my cock.

“I’ve been wondering if you still cry the same way. If you still make those perfect little sounds when you’re breaking apart.”

“What’s it going to take, Kai?” she asks, voice husky from the weight on her throat. “What do I have to do so you’ll leave me alone?”

“Leave.”

Her lip curls. “Suck a dick.”

“That how you solve everything these days? Or are you just sick of being on your back all the time?” I move my foot from her throat, angling the tip of my black Balenciaga sneaker so it digs between her thighs instead.

She stares up at me with morbid curiosity as I urge her legs apart, her fingers digging into the grass beside her.

“This is what you were doing over in Ashwood, right?” My voice is so thick, it’s hard to get the words out.

Fuck, how I wish it wasn’t so easy to imagine her getting railed in the back of a car. Draped over someone’s kitchen counter. The back of a sofa.

It’s an image that refuses to leave my mind. The epitome of ‘what was seen, cannot be unseen.’

But what rips me up inside is how furious I get at the thought of someone else touching what’s mine. Which is so massively fucked up, because Heavenly was never mine. Will never be. And yet…somehow…always was.

Haven’s mouth opens, but the only thing dawning on that pretty face is anger.

“Spreading your legs,” I stage-whisper .

I’m already stepping over her, dismissing her just like she dismissed me.

Haven lets out an angry, snarling roar. “Asshole!”

She grabs my ankle and pulls .