Royal Prick (A Stepbrother Romance #2)(14)

I was a mess of emotions and nearly halfway down the hall when heavy footfalls sounded behind me. I anticipated his touch before his hand even landed against my shoulder, stopping me from going any further. Still I wasn’t happy that he was touching me after having just been rubbed up against that snotty, filthy bitch.

“Excuse you, *.” Anger entwined my words.

“You’re excused, Noelle.” Royal’s deep voice met my ears far too close to me. The smell of spicy men’s body wash and cigarette smoke invading my senses.

“Have you been smoking?” I accused, his scent f*cking with my mind and body. I shouldn’t be feeling the things that I was, especially not for someone like him.

Three days at this school and he had already had sex with that whore, and was now apparently skipping classes for a smoke break. Bad boy wasn’t even a word I would use to describe Royal.

He craned further, his head tilting sideways as if he was trying to read me. My eyes dropped down to his lips where his tongue had darted out, wetting his bottom lip. He was in my space forcing me to take in a breath that was filled with nothing more than his scent. It was permeating, choking me. Everything on my body tingled as his breath fell against my cheek. If I turned even the slightest bit our lips would touch. My heart thudded against my rib cage, threatening to break free.

“Tell me, love, when did you become my mother again?” He spoke to me like my opinion of him didn’t matter, and honestly it didn’t. I wanted to punch him in the face, knee him in the balls— inflicting some type of pain upon him. I wanted to bring any other emotion but the present to the surface. I wanted to drown him in some him in his own feelings.

“I wasn’t trying to act like your mother, Royal. It just caught me off guard, that and I wasn’t aware that you had added smoking to your already long laundry list of shit you shouldn’t be doing.” I hated that he lumped me in with his mom. As if I was going to ground him or something. The choices he made were his, and he would have to deal with the consequences of them.

“I’m a criminal, baby, a bad man; far too naughty for a little miss perfect princess like yourself,” he spoke, using the nickname that he gave me. His eyes drifted up and down my body as if he was checking me out. His eyes on my exposed skin caused me to squirm.

I knew the effect he had on me was dangerous, but the danger of it was the thing that tempted me most. “You should remember that…” His voice was deep as he swiped his thumb across my bottom lip. His fingertips against my skin awakened a piece of me that I didn’t want to acknowledge.

Our eyes clashed with one another’s. “Because next time you decide to stare at me with lust and desires in your eyes that you don’t understand, I just might have to take it as an invitation for far more than I know you can handle.” Royal’s voice dipped, and with it so did my heart, a shiver working its way down my spine.

I gulped in a deep breath of much needed air. The words he spoke were partially true and partially false. I may have looked at him with desires I didn’t understand, but I knew damn well I could handle the * and anything he dished out. The thought of him degrading me as he was, was enough to pull me from the lust-filled stupor he put me in.

I should’ve known he would try something like this. It was nothing but a way to cover up his pain. My mouth was dry, and words seemed to be missing from my vocabulary. I couldn’t speak, not after everything he just said to me. Not after he made me hot and bothered but angry all at the same time. How did he insult me and still manage to make me want him all within the same sentence?

“Cat got your tongue, sweet cheeks?” When he spoke this time his lips were a breath away from my own, his own hot breath fanning against my face. He was gorgeous, but he was also an * and I would learn well to remember that. I knew the type of game he was playing and exactly what his next move would be.

He’s your stepbrother, Noelle, nothing more, nothing less.

“Check mate, bitch,” I whispered the words just as I lifted my leg up into his groin. My knee made contact with his balls just as he realized what it was that I was going to do. There was, however, nothing that could be done to stop me at that point. My knee was already connecting with his groin when his eyes finally met mine, a fierce anger simmering in them. I slammed the top of my knee hard against his sack, making sure the impact was hard enough to put him out of commission for awhile. Then I slowly pulled away from him, all while his hands reached out to stop me from leaving, his fingers skimming across the front of my shirt.

Pain etched into his features, and his eyes started to water as he leaned against the brick wall like his life depended on it. I took another weary step away from him, afraid that if I got too close he would do something to hurt me.

“Bitch,” he growled, gripping himself as he tried to stand to his full height. There was a feral rage lingering in those pale blue eyes of his. Shit! He was going to kill me.

I took another step back as he righted himself, pain obviously overtaking him as he tried to take a step toward me.

“Don’t think this is over, Noelle. Don’t think that you can get away with doing something like this without facing my wrath.” Fear rooted me in place, but as I continued to stare at him, something else started to replace that fear.

Something that gave me the strength to finally speak.

“Don’t f*ck with me, Royal. You may think that I’m just some spoiled little princess, but I’m tougher than you think, and I’m not afraid of you.”