AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nope. I’m not dwelling on that. I’ve come up with a plan, and it’ll work. I’m staying out of Owen’s way, and that means he won’t have a reason to come knocking on my door again.
Although I have the feeling that next time… he won’t knock.
* * *
The TV room holds everything Kat promised… and more.
“Pizza? Out here?” I lift the lid on one of the boxes piled on the coffee table beside a mug of steaming cocoa. Willow and Ada are here too, each curled up on an armchair. That means I’m sharing the sofa with Kat.
“Baby keeps a chef on staff.” Ada takes a small bite of her pizza before wrinkling her nose and dropping it back on her plate. “But he can’t make a low-carb crust for shit.”
I pull my hand away from the slice I was just about to take.
“Don’t worry, noob,” Kat says through a mouthful of pizza. “Ours is regular carbo-loaded deliciousness.” She points at the box closest to Ada. “That’sthe one you don’t touch.”
“It’s edible,” Ada says through a sigh that suggests it’s anything but. “It’s just not the quality I’m used to.”
“Bitch, the quality of food you expect doesn’t exist.”
“Same goes for your men,” Ada says, arching an eyebrow at Kat as she picks an olive off her slice of pizza.
I smile at the two of them bickering, and turn to offer Willow a slice of pizza. She’s watching them with a glassy, wide-eyed stare, like a mouse that’s landed itself inside a snake’s terrarium and is hoping the serpent won’t notice it if it stays really still.
“Pizza?”
She gives me a double-take, and then a quick nod. I dish up a slice and hand her the plate. She takes it carefully, as if assuming I’ll pull it away at the last moment.
Looks like I’m not the only one feeling out of place.
Settling in beside Kat, I try to lose myself in the horror movie they put on, but the smallest shift immediately brings my thoughts keep returning to Owen.
And his strong arm.
My ass is throbbing now. It’s not painful as much as inconvenient. Especially because the last thing I want to do is sit here reminiscing about the spanking he just delivered.
Or why the hell it felt so good.
It wasn’t all good though. There was pain, obviously, and I don’t like pain. But I must have been in shock, because it wasn’t as sore as it should have been, even after the fact. My ass was already going numb by the second blow. By the third, all I felt was the thump of his hand meeting my flesh.
I’m more embarrassed about the way he had me bent over. Of all the things racing through my mind when he positioned me like that, getting a few slaps across my ass wasn’t even on the list.
And then he pulled me up against him like that and threatened to—?
Imagine how much it would hurt…
“—should we rather put on a rom-com or something?”
I snap out of my thoughts with a jolt, and then wince as I turn to face Kat too quickly and get a pulsing throb from my ass in repayment. “Huh?”
“From the look on your face, you’re rooting for the serial killer.” Kat crunches through a piece of crust as she watches me. “What’s up?”
“Just… uh… not sure what to expect.”
She frowns at me.
I take a deep breath. “Tomorrow, at school. First day and all.”
Kat nods. “It’ll be fine. Now that they’ve stopped all that shit with the hazing and everything, freshmen don’t walk in fear anymore.”
I try to smile, but all I can think about is the intense gleam in Owen’s eyes when he was standing at the door of my room.
Shoving the last bite of pizza into my mouth, I chew with stubborn resolve.
It’s not a possible hazing that’s got me worried. Somehow, I have to avoid Owen at schoolandat home. My temporary home, anyway. Which means I’ll have to be on guard twenty-four/seven.
Luckily for me, I’ve had practice doing just that. In the weeks before my father and I left the city, I was looking over my shoulder the whole time.
I’d hoped moving here would make a difference, but I guess I’m not done paying for my sins yet.
