Page 12 of Her Wicked Knights (Their Hallowed Queen #3)

There's a party tonight, which I won't be attending. It's homecoming weekend. The dance is tomorrow, and afterwards, Audrey thinks we're all going to drive an hour away just to go get drunk and pass out at her aunt's house on the vineyard. As if I can't drink and pass out here.

As long as I act like I'm not a piece of shit in public, my mother's fine with me doing whatever I want. If she knew I'd been stalking Marley, she'd simply tell me “That’s great but wait until you hear what I did today!”.

"Not interested." I roll my eyes, moving to go around her.

Audrey steps with me, barring my path as her lashes begin to flutter like she's got something in them. She's still dressed in her cheerleading uniform, the S on her tits branding her like the slut I'm pretty sure she is.

"Come on." She laughs, tipping her head so that her ponytail slips over her shoulder. "Party with me tonight... with or without everyone else."

It's clear she's propositioning me, but I'm not sure what I did to give her the idea that I was interested in her in any way, much less physically.

She's not bad looking, but she's not what I want.

She looks fake, even at sixteen— overdrawn lips, overstuffed bra, and overdone attempts at drawing my attention. It all feels desperate.

"Not interested."

"Tomorrow then? Go to homecoming with me?"

"I'm going with Tripp and Rev." I tell her, waiting to see if she turns that into a gay joke.

But Audrey doesn't dare, knowing that it'll backfire if she tries it.

Rev likes anyone that's red-blooded and capable of making him feel good, and I don't give a fuck who he sleeps with as long as I don't have to see it.

I'm not interested in watching other people fuck.

.. it's sweaty and desperate. It's why porn has never done anything for me.

.. I'm not interested in watching the librarian pay her debt to the pizza boy with pussy when I could simply close my eyes and imagine something much better.

"But we would have so much more fun." She shrugs, reaching up to tousle my hair like she thinks touching me is going to change anything.

Spoiler alert? It won't.

"I prefer brunettes." I tell her, brushing past with no uncertainty in my voice, no chance of giving her a tiny ray of hope to latch onto. If she hasn’t quit now, she must like the rejection.

"I know you do." She calls after me. "I know who you're stalking."

"Good for you." I throw a dismissive hand in the air.

The field has cleared out drastically as fans head to the parking lot, talking about their plans to get drunk tonight. Plans which I absolutely intend to follow through on... just not with Audrey Graves.

But she doesn't fucking quit. I can hear her footsteps on the asphalt behind me. "I saw you... touch her."

That gives me pause, and for a moment, I consider ignoring her. Instead, I turn back to face her slowly, waiting to see how she reacts. Her face is smug, red lips tipped in a smirk.

"You broke into her house, Colton."

"I've done it several times." I shrug. It's probably not the best thing to confess, but what's she going to do, tell the sheriff? He'll never believe that I've been breaking into his own home.

"Do you always finger her when you do it?" She laughs. "What are you, like, a rapist?"

"Fuck, Graves. Of course not."

"Shame." She tips her head, drawing her lip between her teeth. "I could do with a good, hard fuck."

"Try Rev." I shrug. "He'll stick his dick in anything."

But even as I say it, I know that he won't fuck with her. Whatever it is that I don't like about Audrey, Rev senses it, too. He's not a fan either.

"If you keep walking away from me, I'll tell everyone what I know.

.. what I saw you do. How do you think Jake will act when he finds out you violated his girlfriend?

" I couldn't give a fuck about how Jake feels.

Our friendship is well and truly dead. But what she says next is enough to anchor me to the spot.

"Think of how Marley will feel to know that you took advantage of her when she was medicated?

And she doesn't know that you didn't give her something extra to make her stay crashed through it so you could do whatever you wanted to her. "

"You fucking bitch." I laugh. "You think she'll believe I drugged her?"

"I guarantee she will when I tell her I saw you do it.

.. that I came over that night because I was bored and couldn't sleep, but I found you there slipping something into her water when she was in the shower?

Or when I walked into her room and saw you on top of her, slipping a tiny pill onto her tongue.

" She grins. "Why would I lie about something so sick?

And why would she believe you're innocent when you admitted earlier this year to stalking someone?

Remember how horrified she was by the idea that you were violating someone like that?

" She chuckles. "Now imagine again, how she'll feel when she believes you raped her before she could ever give it away to the boy she loves? "

I’ve never wanted to punch a bitch so much as I want to knock her ass out.

"She'd know if I'd fucked her... even if she was asleep."

"Well, she did mention something the next morning about being so sore."

"You're fucking depraved." I tell her.

"I know. Do something about it?"

That's clearly a request. And if she wants me to do something about it, I guess I will. I stride the two steps that separate us and grab her by the back of her head, wrapping her ponytail in my fist and using the leverage to bring her face closer to mine.

"Open your mouth." I demand, waiting to see if she's going to fight me or spew more vitriol.

Instead, she sinks to her knees, right there on the sidelines where she was cheering for our school twenty minutes earlier.

Her lips are parted wide, her eyes glittering like she's calling me on my bluff.

I grip her chin, pulling her jaw further apart so that I open her wider for my purposes.

She fucking moans, so ready to accept what I'm willing to give her.

I bend down, renewing my grip on her head and yanking it back so that it opens her throat.

The glob of my hot spit drips onto her tongue and slides quickly down her throat before she can spit it back out. She gags when she realizes what I just did and makes to smack me, but she can't get far with my grip on her hair and the distance I put between her body and mine.

"Now close it." I tell her, snapping her jaw shut with a little more force than necessary. Her teeth clack together, and a frustrated growl leaves her throat.

I'm already turning, leaving her on her knees as I walk away.

"Now keep it that way."