Page 64 of The Villain's Beast

Chapter 45

Bellamy

Daren all but slammed the door in Vince’s face, stalking down the hallway until we were outside of the building. Instead of heading back the way we’d come, he made a sharp left into the alley and I chased after him. Once we were out of sight, his hand was around my throat and my back was against the wall. My backpack slipped off my arm as he lifted me up, my toes barely scraping the gravel beneath our feet.

“Who are you?” he hissed.

Daren’s face had morphed into a mask I’d never seen before, eyes narrowed and lip curled in a scowl. His eyes were dark, shuttered, and a vein that ran across his temple throbbed in time with his heartbeat.

“Bellamy Marchant,” I rasped.

Stars prickled the corners of my vision.

“Butwho?”

I blinked slowly, finding it hard to pry my lids open. Daren showed no signs of releasing me, and the stars turned brighter, taking up more space in my periphery. I’d listened to his conversation with Vince while I packed a bag, and I didn’t have an explanation as to why Vince had taken on such an annoying line of questioning. In the weeks we’d lived together, he’dbasically spent the whole time ignoring me, coming and going at different hours than me, giving vague answers when I asked him questions about his day.

“I’m nobody,” I croaked, the words harder to get out than I’d expected. My lungs rattled as I tried to catch a breath, and Daren tightened his fingers around my throat, pressed me harder against the bricks.

“You’re far from that,” he whispered, tilting his head to the side.

I grabbed his arm because I didn’t know what else to do. My head throbbed, vision now more black than anything else, narrowed down to his terrifyingly dark and untrusting eyes. I dug my nails into the skin of his wrist and kicked my feet out, trying to get footing to take the pressure off my throat, but Daren was stronger than me, taller, broader, in all ways.

“Daren,” I managed his name, which turned out to be the right answer. In a swift motion, he crashed our mouths together, spearing his tongue past my teeth and kissing me so hard it hurt. I kept my nails pressed into his wrist until he let go, and the next breath hit my lungs with so much force I was helpless to stop myself from coughing.

Tearing my head to the side, I sputtered and spit all over myself, body taking breath after breath to make up for the air I’d been deprived. My throat tingled, my dickthrobbed. Daren grabbed my face and turned me back toward him before I could catch my breath, taking my mouth in another blistering kiss. My feet landed flat on the gravel and I hated it, so I hitched one leg over his waist instead. Daren groaned, curling his fingers around the underside of my thigh and hiking my leg higher.

I jumped, wrapping both legs around his waist, groaning when he rutted me against the bricks and dipped his head away from my mouth and into the crook of my neck. He peppered my throat and my jaw with kisses, using his teeth with enough forcethat I leaked in my underwear, already soiling the fresh pair I’d just put on.

And as fast as it started, it was finished. With a growl, Daren shook his head and lowered me back to the ground, stepping back and running a frustrated hand through his hair. He braced both hands against his waist. He licked his lips. He shook his head.

“What’s Vince’s surname?” he asked.

It was the last thing I’d expected him to say.

“I—”

I was interrupted by my cell phone vibrating a call in my pocket. Daren’s eyes flashed and we both looked down at my leg. He saw my hard cock, pressing against my fly. We both did.

“Who’s calling?”

I pulled my phone out and turned the screen toward him. It was my dad.

“Answer it,” he said. “Put it on speaker.”

He still fidgeted his hand through his hair and I accepted the call, clearing my throat.

“Hi, Dad,” I said weakly.

He breathed into the phone. “Bellamy. How are you?”

“I’m fine.”

“How is your weekend?” he asked, clarifying, “How was last night?”

The knowing in his voice was enough to confirm he knewexactlywhat had happened to me the night before. Not the details, but he knew what he’d signed me up for when he changed my entire life and moved me to Rose Hill University. Was that why my mom had been so upset over the whole thing? She’d known I was meant to be chattel?

“It was…” I swallowed, looking up at Daren, who studied me with curious eyes.