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“Someone who told me all about the school.” As soon as I said the words, I could tell everything had changed inside of him. There was a darkness that I hadn’t noticed, one fueled with an entirely different kind of savagery.
“Even if that is the case, our records remain sealed. That’s a perk of the university.”
“Not from everyone. Don’t you think that there are secret files kept of everyone who ever stepped foot on the campus?” I had no way of knowing if that was the case, but it sounded plausible enough to me.
Brogan exhaled before sliding a finger under my chin and lifting. “You are a terrible liar. I can see the hurt in your eyes when you do so, a sorrow so huge that even the darkness can’t hide how much you’ve suffered. What the hell did the three of us do to you to make you hate us so much?”
I realized my lower lip was quivering, the moment almost as intimate as when we’d kissed on the balcony in Vegas. I couldn’t be around him. I couldn’t tolerate the extreme electricity or the way he made my stomach do flip-flops. And I certainly couldn’t trust him enough to confide in him even though that’s exactly what I wanted to do.
“It’s personal.”
“But painful enough to kill us over. Yes, little flower?”
Goddamn it, tears formed in my eyes again, the intense pull to the man insane and so very wrong, but as he lowered his head, all I could think about was the way he’d kissed me before with all the passion I’d hungered for over the years. It had felt so good in his arms, the feel of his barrel chest exactly as I’d imagined.
When our lips were barely an inch apart, I pressed my palm against him, trying to wiggle out of his hold, but it was no use. He’d captured me not only in body but had already ripped additional pieces of my heart away, taking them as his own.
“Is this about Garrison?”
His question and timing shocked me. A series of shivers shifted down the back of my legs. “I’m sorry. Who?” Iwasa terrible liar. I prayed the darkness would keep my pinched face from being seen.
Brogan remained quiet for a full thirty seconds. “It’s obvious you know how close the three of us used to be since you checked on our backgrounds. There was a fourth in our bizarre group, a boy by the name of Garrison Fields. My guess is that you know far too much, but there’s always a story beneath the surface. Isn’t there?”
“I guess.”
Exhaling, he shook his head. “Trust me, little flower. Everything isn’t always as it seems to be on the surface. How you know things is the great mystery. Whatever reason you have for harboring anger toward us, I’m certain you believe it’s for the right reason, but keep in mind that we were taught to be a certain way. I will tell you this. Garrison was a friend of mine, of all three of us. He was the kind of guy that could light up a room with his laughter alone. And boy, he loved life, eager to try anything. He had the ability to keep things light when everything around us felt dark.”
“The school you attended?”
“Yeah. It was a different kind of place. Anyway, we did some things we aren’t proud of now, which led to Garrison spending time in prison. It killed all three of us. Still, I miss those days sometimes. We were bad seeds, but the loyalty we shared kept us alive and feeling like we weren’t alone.”
I swallowed hard, wanting to reach out to him, to end the charade. God. What was I supposed to do? “How could you stand it, Brogan? How could any of you tolerate whatever these special classes were? Why didn’t you just go somewhere else?”
“Because we had no choice in the matter. We were forced into the program by our parents. My father called it a privilege that I was allowed to enter a university where members of an elite society went. He beat me when I said I didn’t want to go. So I went. You see, I was told where I’d go and what I’d become. So were the others. That’s the kind of world we grew up in. Oh, sure. Garrison’s father was a senator, but it didn’t matter. The man is just as corrupt as my father or Alexander’s. Only Daniel’s father stayed on the other side of the law.”
“So you did what was expected of you.” My God. I hadn’t thought about what it was like to be the son or daughter of some of the most powerful and dangerous people on Earth.
He laughed bitterly. “I certainly didn’t expect to go to prison, but that’s what happened.”
“I’m sorry for what I said on the beach. You’re right. I don’t know the circumstances.”
“Well, the real truth is that I killed a man, although I didn’t mean for that to happen. Still, I’d do it again if it meant saving someone who didn’t deserve to be treated the way that poor girl was inside that bar.”
The pain in his voice drove anguish into my heart. I’d been wrong. So very wrong.
With his fingers flexed open, he brushed the rough pads of his fingertips down my face, taking his time and following the trail with his heated gaze. His nostrils flared as he rolled his fingers down my chest, swirling a single tip around first one nipple then the other before easing them down the dress I’d been provided.
“Absolutely stunning.” When he grabbed a handful of material, yanking the dress above my thigh, I snapped my hand onto his.
“I don’t know if I can do this, Brogan. I’m not your toy.”
“Of course you’re not a toy. You’re a mysterious, naughty, but beautiful woman. However, what you haven’t embraced and accepted yet is that you now belong to us.”
Us. The single, small word held such a powerful meaning. When he touched my skin, another moment of utter hatred for myself thrashed through my system. I loathed the fact I was tingling all over. “I don’t belong to anyone any longer, not that I ever really did.”
“I find that hard to believe. You’re very special. Delicate and kind.” He hovered over me, the brutal man more in control than the night in Vegas. He’d tasted something he had no intention of letting go.
“Brogan, I… I’m not special. You don’t understand. I almost… killed you.” The remorse was tightening around my throat. Telling him the truth was on the tip of my tongue.
