Royal Prick (A Stepbrother Romance #2)(32)

I didn’t care what he told me. Nothing could change the fact that he went off and made a new family while my mother and I struggled every day to get by. Nothing he could say to me would make up for him not being around.

“I’ll talk to him.” I lied. I wouldn’t even try. Not in a million years, but she didn’t need to know that.

“Good.” She sounded pleased for the first time since Mark’s name came up, which caused me to smile. “Now be good, keep your grades up, don’t get anyone pregnant and don’t get into any more fights.”

My own laughter filtered into the phone. My mother knew me so well, and despite the fact I had to be here with Mark and his bitch wife, I was glad my mom was getting a break, even if it was me she needed a break from.

“Yeah, yeah. I won’t. I love you. I’ll call you later this week,” I mumbled into the phone. We exchanged our goodbyes and then I hung up my phone, leaving me to my own thoughts.

I slammed down onto my mattress and allowed myself to think about Noelle, which seemed to be the only thing I could focus on anymore. I hated it here when I first arrived, and I still kind of did. I hated my father and Noelle’s mom, but Noelle herself was growing on me, in more ways than one.

She saw the good inside of me. She didn’t turn her back on me and decide I was unworthy at the slightest infraction. When I first met Noelle, I initially thought she had her head in the clouds. That she was just some spoiled little princess living off my dad’s money, but time and time again I was proven wrong.

She was smart, kind, and caring. She didn’t judge me or anyone else, she just kept to herself like she was biding her time until she could get out. I loved how she didn’t feel that she was entitled to anything just because she came from a family of money and success didn’t mean she had all the friends in the world. It also didn’t mean everyone liked you, unless you were of course Sasha Master’s, but that was a whole different story.

I stared up at the ceiling, trying to decide what to do with Noelle and the situation we were in. I crossed a major boundary. When I found out that she showed up at Sasha’s party even after I told her not to come, I was livid. Then seeing her with Dom sent me straight over the edge. Suddenly I was on autopilot; not even thinking. I wanted to spank the f*ck out of her for disobeying me, and then there was the fight. Sure Dom and I were set to fight already, but that was under different circumstances.

I didn’t plan on just running up and punching the dude in the f*cking head. Her actions caused me to humiliate myself in front of all of our peers. It was once Sasha broke the fight up that I realized the mistake I made.

Once I saw the pure terror on Noelle’s sweet face and then watched her run for her life away from me, I knew that I would regret what I had done. In that moment, I wanted to take it all back. But once I had her alone and saw the way she looked at me with so much desire… desires she didn’t even understand.

I knew I needed her. I just had to have her.

I had to at the very least claim her with my lips, and then when she told me I was worthy enough to have her as my own after just having found out I was her very first kiss… I just about came undone. I wanted to ask her how she could feel I was worthy of her when I was nothing but an *. My actions from that night proved it.

Everything I did was to hurt others, That’s all I did and would continue to do, and if Noelle got too close she too would get swept away in my rage and destruction. I had to keep reminding myself of that, being that she was merely a stone’s throw away from me.

Oh how easily I could slip into her bedroom in the middle of the night and seduce her, have my way with her, and cause us both unimaginable pleasure, but did I really want to?

Of course I wanted her. I wanted inside of her, on her, to hear my name fall from those pink lips of her. I wanted all of it, but I couldn’t take from someone when I knew exactly the type of person I was and the type of person Noelle needed.

I needed to remember that Noelle wasn’t like Sasha or the other girls I f*cked around with. Noelle was the forever type, the white picket fence and two point five kids type. Unless I planned to keep her, I needed to leave her be. Let her find love elsewhere.

“I am fed up with you, Noelle.” Viviana, Noelle’s mother’s voice met my ears, immediately pulling me from my meandering thoughts.

“I didn’t do anything, Mother,” Noelle sassed. I could tell just from the sound of her voice that she was annoyed. I would be too if I had to suffer through her obnoxious voice. Viviana annoyed the f*ck out of me and she wasn’t even my mother.

“Really? Officer Lawson called the house last night letting us know that you and Royal were at the Masters estate a few nights ago for one of their daughter’s parties.” Viviana was livid.

The sound of a door shutting forced me to get up from my bed and peek out of my bedroom and into the hallway. I stared a hole through Noelle’s door, which was still ajar a smidge. Why would my father marry an evil woman like Viviana, especially over someone as sweet as my own mother?

“Please… Like you never went out to a party when you were a teenager?” I couldn’t really blame Noelle for the attitude she was giving her mom. Viviana was an uppity bitch, one who only saw perfection. If you didn’t meet her expectations and standards— which were sky high— then you were nothing but dirt beneath her feet.