AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nod, spontaneously blowing through my immediate plans.
What I thought tomorrow would look like no longer matters. Camden Hunt blew through my future like a tornado, destroying everything in its path. My sister’s gone, my mother’s in jail. All that’s left for me here is ghosts and nightmares.
“That’s twenty-one fifty.”
I don’t think I even look back to the only town I’ve ever known.
PARTTWO
The Deal
ChapterTwelve
Six weeks later
I wake up drenched in sweat, uncomfortable, and not only because it’s a thousand degree in the small apartment I share with Pauline—Lola’s cousin—and three other girls.
My room’s basically a large closet, but I have a clean, flat surface to sleep on. That’s all that matters.
I work at a popular café by day, and do whatever I can to escape my shadows in my few hours of free time. For a while, that included clubbing and compulsively dating to attempt to chase the memory of one man with another. It worked for millions of women before me, right? It didn’t work, so I gave up mid July. Then I met Trent, and he convinced me to give him a shot. He’s kind, and sweet—not to mention handsome. Dating him is a fun distraction. And I need distractions.
The first thing I do whenever I wake up is check my phone. Four a.m., no messages, no alert. No one released that video. I have notifications using my name as a keyword. Let’s face it, ifhedecides to ruin my life, he’ll use my name.
I breathe out, like I do every morning.
I know that my fear is irrational.Of coursehe didn’t release the video. I have enough shit to ruin a lot of his friends. He filmed us to keep me muzzled. He’s not about to waste his bargaining chip for fun.
The rhythm of my heart takes a while to slow down to normal, as it usually does when I think ofhim. Which is every day, several times.
At first, my mind would constantly go back to that faithful night, every hour of every day, but as the weeks pass, I think of him a little less. At least, I’d like to think so.
It’s early to call Willow, even in New York where it’s three hours ahead, so I just get dressed in my shorts and sport bra before heading out.
LA is too hot during to skate outside this time of the year, and the exercise has become essential to me. I like to slide along the beach on my rollerblades in the early hours of the morning, when the city sleeps. I’m awake anyway, and I’m not about to stay home. Whenever I’m idle, I think. I remember. I stew in a puddle of fear and shame.
I can’t say I was hurt, or mistreated, or even forced. By all accounts, I shouldn’t be this affected by my encounter with Thorn Falls royalty, but I am. I can’t put it behind me, no matter how far I go. Everything makes me think of them, ofhim.
Even as I race along the footpath close to the beach, pushing my muscles harder and harder, Ifeelhim.
Camden laid down on the dark wood floor and made me sit on his face. Then he feasted on me, wrenching cries of pleasure out of me. He made mebegfor more, and never delivered. I didn’t need anyone to tell me where to put my hands, or my mouth, or my tongue. He pleased me and I found a disgusting, disturbing instinct within myself that made me want to please in return. Even when Aryan, despicable as he is—the very man responsible for the disappearance of one of my best friends—shoved his cock in front of my face, I opened my mouth wide and took it.
Iwastheir little slut, as Camden accused me of being, and I don’t know how to reconcileherwith the woman I thought I was before, with who I’m supposed to be again.
I liked it, and it broke who I am. Who I was.
I know now why Juliet Montgomery didn’t bother to scream insults at me. Why she didn’t try to exact vengeance for my actions. She didn’t need to. She got even by making me take her place: right in the middle of those boys, getting thoroughly fucked. And enjoying it.
Camden kept his word. Their cocks never entered my pussy. One of his fingers did, while his tongue flicked my clit relentlessly, and I begged him to fill and soothe the ache inside me.
Ibegged.
I’m glad someone shoved their cock in my mouth to shut me up.
“Gosh, you’re disgusting.”
That’s not an unusual greeting, and she’s right: I’m drenched in sweat and shame when I get back home.
I flip the bird at Pauline and she giggles. “I was going to let you take the shower first, but fuck you, bitch.”
