Broken Trust: A Dark High School Romance(36)

His gaze devoured me. It was like being burned from the inside out, the heat in my center flowing like lava through my veins. The longer he stared at me, the more my resolve faltered.

I missed him so much.

“Go to bed, Riley,” he murmured. “There will be no solution to this issue tonight. Tonight we just need to survive.”

More angry words were on the tip of my tongue. More accusations and pains I wanted to slash him with, but all of a sudden, I was tired. Not even just tired. Exhausted. Weary. Broken.

For the second time tonight, I crawled back into bed, and closed my eyes. I had no idea what Beck was doing, I didn’t even bother to look again. I just wanted to escape.





15





The next morning I woke in Beck’s arms, and for a split second, right before reality crashed into me, I snuggled closer. Letting my face rest against his chest, enjoying the safety I felt being cradled against him like this. I breathed in deep, absorbing his sexy, masculine scent before the haze of sleep faded and it all came back to me.

Delta. The man I’d killed. The rape attempt.

As carefully as I could given how sore I was, I extracted myself from his embrace and slid out of the bed. Beck was still asleep—possibly the first time he’d ever slept longer than me—and I allowed myself an indulgent moment admiring his sculpted chest and broad, strong shoulders. Of course the devil was beautiful, how else did he lure you into evil?

“You can always come back to bed, Butterfly,” Beck’s sleepy voice murmured, his eyes still closed. It was the dose of reality I needed, though, and I scampered my ass into the bathroom to take a long shower. My whole body ached from the attack, my muscles all locked up and screaming at me, so the hot water was sheer heaven.

Showing up at school today was so far down my list of things I wanted to do, but I’d be damned if I’d let Katelyn think she had won for even a second. So I took my time to wash and blow dry my hair into a silken sheet, then carefully applied makeup to ensure all the small marks—fingertip bruises along my jaw—were covered. My uniform would cover the rest of the damage from kicks and punches and really, I’d survived worse after the plane crash. This damage was mental, and to my frustration that wasn’t something I could cover with concealer.

When I finally emerged from my bedroom, in full uniform with heels and all, Beck gave me a slow once over then nodded his approval.

“Say the word at any point, we can turn around and come home. Ducis Academy doesn’t rule us, we just let them pretend for the sake of appearances.” His words were intended to comfort me, but I just shivered with the weight of my new life. How the fuck was I going to survive this cut throat world?

“You’ve got this, Riley,” Beck said softly, clearly seeing my hesitation. “You’re the strongest person I know.”

I snorted a laugh. “Don’t lie to me, Beck. I’ve met Dylan.” I rolled my eyes and bit back a wince of pain as I brushed past him to grab my school satchel—Prada, of course. Avoiding his questioning gaze, I simply held the door for Beck to exit my apartment. “I guess you’re driving me?”

He nodded, waiting for me to lock up, then made as if to take my hand before thinking better of it. “Yes, I brought your favorite car. A peace offering.”

I pursed my lips and decided not to acknowledge that comment. Yes, we had aired some of our issues last night, but things were far from okay. This was real life. Real, bloody, painful, heartbreaking life. People don’t just magically forgive and forget overnight.

We drove to school in near silence, neither one of us really knowing how to handle this diplomatic truce, so it was a relief when we pulled into the parking lot and spotted Eddy waiting with Jasper.

“Holy fucking shit, girl,” she exclaimed, tackling me into a huge hug when I stepped out of Beck’s Bugatti. “I’m so, so, so, so sorry. I can’t believe they did that. What could have happened if Beck and Evan—”

Her rambling was cut off by Jasper’s hand over her mouth, and she released me in her surprise.

“Eddy, shut up,” Jasper hissed to his sister, “Just. Shut. Up.”

My bestie looked confused for a second, then her face flushed with red as she realized how uncomfortable I was. “Crap. Sorry, girl. You don’t wanna talk about it. Totally understand.” She mimed zipping her lips and throwing away the key.

“It’s fine,” I said with a weak smile, digging my fingernails into my bag strap. “But yeah if we could just … not talk about it. That’d be great.”

“Absolutely.” She nodded her agreement. “Anything you want.”

Eddy grabbed my hand and started walking with me toward the main school building, but Beck pushed between us and claimed my hand with his own.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded, stopping in the middle of the path and staring pointedly at the hand which Eddy was holding a second ago.

Beck glared. “United front, remember?”

My eyes narrowed at him. “United, yes. Dating, no.” Using my other hand, I peeled his fingers off and took a deliberate step back. “Besides, don’t you have a degree you’re supposed to study for? This is the high school building.” I waved my hand in the direction of the building in front of us—in case he wasn’t aware.