Royal Prick (A Stepbrother Romance #2)(15)

A scary smile formed on his face as he slid against the brick wall slowly getting closer to me. “You aren’t right now, but then again I haven’t done anything to hurt you yet.” Air filtered into my lungs. I was done with this conversation. If I didn’t leave now, he would get his hands on me and the whole point I had just proven would be pointless.

“Try to hurt me. Do it. I’ll fight you tooth and nail, Royal. Unlike everyone, else I believe there is something halfway decent in that cold heart of yours.”

I skirted away from him and his coldness, running with all my might toward the locker rooms. I might have looked and sounded like a warrior, but I was scared as f*ck of Royal and the repercussions that would follow from what I had done.





Chapter Seven


-Royal


Three long days and a bag of frozen peas later and I was finally getting past what Noelle had done. My ego wasn’t bruised but my balls were, and that was enough to piss me the f*ck off for an eternity.

I was livid at first; you didn’t touch someone without the intention of having the same come back upon you. I wouldn’t lift a hand to her beautiful skin, but I would retaliate in some form to get even with her. The nerve it took to knee me in the balls had to be immense. Somewhere in something that I said to her must have caused a switch to flip inside of her, pissing her right the f*ck off. That was fine though, because if Noelle wanted a war, she was going to get one. I was darker. Meaner. Far worse than she could ever imagine.

If she wanted to see me in my most ruthless form, then she was going to get her wish.

“Royal. I need you to come into my study, please?” Mark asked but more so ordered right before he headed out of the kitchen. His voice startled me because he had been in the kitchen preparing his food without a single word said to me. Then suddenly he wanted me to listen to him. Yeah I didn’t know how I felt about that.

Still I scarfed the rest of my cereal down and placed the bowl in the kitchen sink. Before I got here, I considered this place to be a shit f*cking hole, but now, now I was starting to wonder if this place was really all that bad. It seemed more like a lap of luxury, like a vacation that I never received growing up.

I marched up the stairs and toward the study stopping right before I hit the top of the landing. I could hear hushed voices down the hall.

“You need to stay away from that boy, Noelle.” A bubble of laughter filled my throat, threatening to escape. That boy. Like I was some bad habit or something.

“He’s my stepbrother, how can I stay away from him? We have almost every class together, and if we aren’t sharing classes he lives here, or have you forgotten that?” Noelle’s voice sounded broken and deflated. Was I really being that big of an *? If you ask me, it’s her that’s being the *.

“You need to stay focused on your grades, on your studies, and whomever Mark and I see fit for you to date. Do you understand me?” There was moment of silence. I was praying Noelle would say no and shove the words back at her mom with force, but instead I heard nothing. There were no further words said between them.

Was Noelle drowning in misery, just like I had been for the better part of my life? Maybe I misjudged her? Maybe she wasn’t some spoiled princess like I assumed she was? Perhaps, we were more alike than I realized.

Viviana, Noelle’s mother was the woman my father married after leaving my mother, and she was a total bitch. Thus more, it turned out she even treated her own daughter like scum of the earth.

I wasn’t going to hide from either of them anymore, so I continued my walk to the study, passing Viviana as I walked down the hall.

“Royal,” she said my name like it took her effort to do so. I wondered if there was more that she wanted to say but stopped herself.

“Bitch.” I tilted my head at her, signifying that I didn’t give a shit what her name was.

I would call her whatever the hell I wanted, when I wanted.

I watched her green eyes fill with murderous rage. Her anger toward me didn’t bother me one bit. It just added to the fire that was already blazing inside of me. Plus, I knew the type of woman she was— the money hungry, I take whatever I can to better myself kind of person. She was nothing but a piece of garbage in my eyes. Why he threw a precious stone away like my mother for a dirty piece of coal, I didn’t know. My thoughts trailed off as I stopped right in front of the door to the study. Lifting my fist, I beat it against the door, my father’s deep voice ringing out.

“Come in, Royal.” He sounded pleased that I finally listened to him.

“I still don’t like you. I probably never will, so don’t try and make an effort to be something we both know you’re not.” I wasn’t smug about anything I said, just truthful, because let’s face it, it took more than money and a few visits here and there to be a dad. Anyone, could be a dad if that were the case.

I was taken aback as his laughter filled the room. What the hell was he laughing about? I wasn’t making any kind of joke. He pursed his lips, slipping on a pair of thick, stylish glasses as he pulled out a thin stack of papers.

“Ahhh. Look, son, I know I screwed up big time as a father, and I am sorry,” my father said with a look of genuine regret on his aged but still handsome face. “There are a lot of things I know we need to talk about and work through. Unfortunately, there really isn’t anything I can do to turn back the clock and change how things ended between your mother and I.” I rolled my eyes at him, getting tired of this conversation already. Mark shrugged his shoulders as if telling me it is what it is. That just annoyed me even further.