AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He grins slightly. “Be careful, Jesse. I might take you somewhere to show you how happy I am that we go to the same school. It can be like old times,” he says calmly as he walks away, referring to the party from our senior year in high school.
My skin crawls with terror remembering that night, and he senses it. He's picking up on the scent of fear. Vulnerable people are easy prey for predators, yet sometimes, there is little you can do to avoid being vulnerable.
If I report him, the Order will make it go away, starting with me and then my mom. No one will miss the poor mother with the trailer-trash daughter from Ohio. They will probably make it look like an accident. Who will question people like Michael and the Levines. If he’s here, it means he has money, power and influence. Three things I don’t. Like all the assholes here, he wants to play me like the strings on a guitar. He doesn’t know that he isn’t the only one playing with my strings. But he will soon find out.
I walk out of the dark space and almost run into a hard body. “Woah, there.”
I look up about to tell the asshole to watch where he is going, but then I meet light eyes to my brown ones. Valen.
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry,” I say, letting out a breath and pressing my fingers over my brow.
“Don’t be sorry.” He looks over my shoulder to where I jetted out from, probably noting that there is no one in class and the window light by the door is out. He leans his neck back and tilts his head to meet my gaze. “Are you okay?”
I give him a fake smile. “I’m fine.”
I’m not fine. I’m a victim of a rapist stalker that has blackmailed me into fucking him for his pleasure at the expense of me and my mother’s life. Valen’s tongue flicks the corner of his lip piercing, and my eyes follow the movement of his tongue, watching the tip caressing the metal. The scent of him hits me in full force, replacing Michael’s unwelcome one. Valen is fun and familiar. Young and carefree.
Valen rolls his bottom lip inside his mouth with his tongue and it’s sexy. He’s sexy. People walk by us and around us, but we are still standing in the middle of the hallway studying each other. Him trying to figure out what I’m really thinking and me trying to keep it together by using him as eye candy.
“Want to get out of here?”
My heart begins to pound in my chest, humming a tune. I think about my next class and if it would be a huge deal if I miss it. Then I think about what just happened, causing the pounding in my chest to travel to my head and telling me that I need a release. The need to feel wanted and safe beating out the guilt and shame of using him for my own selfish needs. Maybe he is doing the same and we need each other for whatever reason. Right now. In this moment.
“Yeah. What do you have in mind?”
His eyes travel down my knitted sweater and wool leggings to my cheap knock-off Uggs I bought in the kiosk at the mall. He slowly lifts his eyes like he is picturing me without any clothes on. “Everything.”
CHAPTER7
Jess
The blast of cold air hits my cheeks like a slap in the face when the front door of the building swings open. I welcome the sting and cold air filling my lungs as I follow Valen outside the campus building. The trees are bare, with a unique texture and color. Some have smooth, grey bark, while others have rough, dark brown bark, full of knots. It hasn't snowed, but the harsh cold hasn't let up for two weeks, which is no surprise since it’s the middle of winter.
"Your car or mine?" I ask.
"I think you know the answer to that, princess."
Of course, it would be his car. He had to drive my car back when I left the pool party with him that one time and it showed him what a piece of shit my car really is, which means he isn't interested in another test drive.
As I walk behind him into the parking lot, I reflect on the fact that the closest I've been to Valen always has to do with his cock. I've ridden it a few times, and it's always a pleasant experience.
I’m also sure his car is much better than mine. I didn't have much growing up, and most people, compared to me, are well-off. I think even poor people are more well-off than me at this point. I'm a generation away from being homeless after I graduate. When you are used to people having more than you for so long, you get used to the fact that you never will have more than you already do. You can't cry for something you've never had. You just have to work harder and make sacrifices for what you do have.
He turns left in the parking lot and stops in front of a sleek black sports car that reads Mercedes with the letters GT on the back.
"Do you like it?"
All the rich boys around here drive nice cars and live in even nicer houses that look like hotel resorts. It looks new. If it's new, what is not to like.
"It's better than mine," I say, shrugging my shoulders.
He smiles. "I think anything is better than your car. No offense. I just got it for Christmas. Listen, I need to head to practice and want you to come along. If that's okay. Dravin and Reid are in their last year at Kenyan, and I'm taking over as swim team captain, and I would love for you to be there.”
I thought he was taking me to have sex somewhere. I guess my encounter with Michael affected my brain cells more than I thought because the only thing I can think about is wiping the memory of his touch off my skin.
I don't want to disappoint Valen, but I really need a shower. The need to scrub my skin raw overpowers my guilt in turning him down as I stare at the handle of his nice car, knowing I'm not the type of girl that should be seen with him. I step back when I see him slide into the luxury sports car and hear his door shut.
He probably thinks I'm agreeing to come along. As much as I want to, I can't because we would never work. He is young and he deserves better. Better than someone like me and I feel like I'm using him for all the wrong reasons. He has to know what happened to me. That I was drugged and dropped off on the curb like a prostitute, but he doesn't mention it or bring it up. Him asking me if I'm okay in the hallway was a sign that he knows, but knowing how Valen is, he won't bring it up because he's a nice guy.
