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He cursed, moving his head away and wiping at the water.
“Fuck you, Beckett! You’re officially crazy, and I’m going to tell the coach, your father, your friends, everyone I can.”
“No, I don’t think you are.” His voice was way more confident than I liked. He wiped at his eyes and turned back to me. “Your mom – Melly, isn’t it? Her medication is expensive. How will she afford it if she loses her cleaning position?”
My heart skipped a beat. “You wouldn’t threaten her.”
“Wouldn’t I?” Beckett’s tone was lazy and uninterested, like threatening a sick woman’s livelihood was just an everyday thing, and there shouldn’t be any hard feelings about it.
“You’re not a monster, Beckett. You might think you are…but you don’t have to be.”
He stared at me for a long moment, a faint look of surprise on his face, before his uncaring mask slipped back into place. “I’ve told you before, Evie. I know what I am. Don’t try to save me. It’s a waste of time. Just follow my rules, be a good fucking girl for me for once in your life, and your mom won’t know anything is wrong. I have no problem with her, after all. It’s you I have a problem with.”
I mulled over his infuriating words. I wanted to kill him, to fight and disobey and scream at him, but he was right. He could mess with my mom’s job. He had all the power between us, and I had none, because of money. It always came down to that at the end of the day.
“What rules?” I ground out after considering my nonexistent options.
“Oh, nothing too strenuous. No parties, no boys, no drinking, no dating, no sex – obviously, no talking back to me or pissing me off. In fact, just pretend like you’re not here when I’m home. Oh, and be home by ten p.m.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Not in the slightest, and as much as you might hate it, you’ll do it, because you don’t have a choice.” He had the audacity to smirk at me. He reached out his hand and gripped my chin. “Understood?”
He rocked my head up and down, a parody of a nod.
“Oh, and obviously, no telling anyone, including your brother or Lily, about the rules or our understanding here. This is between you and me, and no one else can get involved.”
I chewed on my lip, my mind racing furiously. I’d get out of here as soon as a space opened up in the other dorm. I could put up with Beckett being on a power trip for a few weeks, surely? I wasn’t scared of him. After what had passed between us, I’d seen too far under his jaded rich-boy veneer, to the lonely soul beneath, to ever truly fear him. The most he could do was piss me off, and that was nothing new.
“Fine. Untie me,” I snapped, making up my mind. I needed a place to live, and I was pretty sure Beckett was all talk, but not completely. The remaining uncertainty forced me to comply.
Beckett tutted. “We’re not done here until you agree.”
“I agree to your rules, Your Majesty,” I snapped at him.
He smirked to himself and reached out to untie my arms. Luckily, they’d been tied low, at a natural angle, so my blood flow was fine, but the urge to pee was taking over everything else in my brain.
He untied me and backed off. As he turned, he adjusted his raging hard-on in his boxers, sending a shot of liquid heat through me.
“Still getting turned on by tying girls up?” I threw at him.
He shrugged. “Only you, Cinderella. Now, you want to give me a hand with this?” He gripped the thick bulge of his cock in the material. “Or shut up and get out of here?”
I rolled my eyes and avoided his gaze as I headed for the bathroom.
You might have won this round, Anderson, but I’ll find a way to even the score. I always do.
I was still feeling scattered when I met Lily on the way to the athletic department later that morning. She had a huge piece of paper taped round her neck that read “Eve for the win.”
“Give me that.” I grabbed it off her, embarrassed, and folded it into a tiny square as we walked.
Lily laughed, the sound relaxing my mounting tension. Trying out for cheerleading and being rejected was such a routine occurrence for me, I shouldn’t be nervous at this point.
“You shouldn’t have come. This is a total waste of time. If I couldn’t make the team at HHH, why would I here? There’s way more competition.”
We were nearing the building where the tryouts were, and nerves were digging their claws in.
“But you’re amazing, and you know it. Selena just had a thing against you then. Probably just jealous,” Lily pointed out.
