Cruel Prince (Royal Hearts Academy, #1)(36)

I gulp down as much air as my lungs can take, then I open my mouth and yell, “Help.” So loud I’m surprised my vocal cords don’t shred.

If I’m lucky, it will be a teacher who finds me and not a student.

“Hel—”

The doorknob turns, and my hero pops their head through the crack.

Or not.

“Dylan?” Oakley’s eyes—make that eye—because the other one is swollen shut, widen. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

He says it like I’m inconveniencing him by being tied up.

His brows furrow. “Why are you standing there in your bra?”

I glare at him. “Oh, you know. Just working on my suntan.”

Puzzled, he looks around the dim confines. “Really?”

“No, you imbecile,” I screech as he walks in.

He swiftly closes the door behind him. “Keep your voice down. There are people coming down the hallway.”

And yet, none of them were selected by whatever higher power is currently shitting on me to open my storage closet of doom and unleash me from this hell.

No, that would be too easy. Instead, I get stuck with this knucklehead.

This has got to be some kind of sick joke. Actually, with the way things are going, I wouldn’t rule it out.

“Let me guess, Jace sent you in here so you can really drive the cousin-fucking rumors home and ruin my life even more.”

He scratches the back of his head. “Look, I’m gonna need you to calm down and put the Jace shit on the back burner for a bit. We have more important stuff to worry about.”

It’s the most intelligent thing he’s ever uttered.

He walks over to me. “My dad and your aunt are on their way up to the school.”

“They are? Why?”

This time, it’s him who looks at me like I’m high as he points to his face. “Because you made chopped meat out of my pretty mug in front of everyone and then took off to go have nakie time in a storage closet.”

He can’t be serious. “Wait. Are you suggesting I did this to myself…on purpose?”

He holds up his hands. “Some people are into the exhibitionist and BDSM lifestyle.” He wags a finger at me. “But I’m gonna need you to partake in your kinky shit on your own time. We have less than ten minutes to pull it together and come up with a story before the parental units come through.”

“I’m not…that’s not… I didn’t strip and tie myself up.”

“Whatever.” Rubbing his chin, he assesses me. “So what exactly am I working with here? What’s your bondage of choice?”

“I don’t have a bondage of choice. Jace tied me up with…” My cheeks heat and I swallow hard. “On second thought, does it really matter? Just get me out of here.”

I want to punch him when he starts whistling. “Damn, he really went the extra mile. This knot is tighter than a motherfucker.” He makes a face. “Are you sweating? The fabric is kind of—”

“Oh my God, shut up.” I kick his shin. “Just stop talking.”

“All right. Jesus.” He gives the fabric a forceful jerk, freeing my wrists. “Don’t get your panties in a—never mind. Too late for that.”

I snatch them from him. “Turn around.”

Remarkably, he does as I ask. “Relax, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before. Although if you want my honest advice, you’d benefit from a trip, or five, to Victoria’s Secret.”

I tug them on and rub my chafed wrists. “I’m good, thanks.”

He stops me when I head for the door. “Not so fast. We still have to figure out what we’re going to tell them.”

“Tell who?”

“My dad and your aunt.”

“I don’t know, but the truth sounds like a pretty good start.”

He rushes over when I turn the knob. “Woah, hold on. Let’s not do anything crazy.”

He must be higher than usual. “You really expect me to lie to them for you after all you’ve done?”

Although now that I think about it, he didn’t really do anything. Jace did.

No. Oakley’s not exactly free of fault. Jace had to have gotten the information to use against me from someone.

I grind my molars. Oakley could have stopped the rumors and refused to feed Jace my secrets, but he didn’t.

He gloated and made everything worse.

I can tell he’s trying to choose his next words carefully. “I already let you kick my ass in front of everyone, isn’t that en—”

“You’re unbelievable.”

I swing the door open, but he lugs me back inside and stands in front of it.

“Dylan, please.” His expression is solemn. “I’m sorry, okay? I was mean to you and you didn’t deserve it. But my grades are shit and if I don’t pull my act together, I might not graduate. I really need you to have my back out there.”

I snort. “Like all the times you had mine these last few days?”

He opens his mouth and then clamps it shut.

I jab his chest with my finger. “Do you have any idea how much I dreaded coming back to Royal Manor?” My throat thickens. “I know how these people can be, and I hated the idea of returning to the place where people like Britney and her crew of mean girls reign, but I didn’t have a choice in the matter.” I shrug helplessly. “I figured maybe, just maybe, things wouldn’t be so bad at RHA, because I’d have a friend—no, family—here and we could look out for each other. I didn’t expect to be super close or anything, and I didn’t want to insert myself into your circle of friends—but I definitely didn’t anticipate coming back to everything being a complete one-eighty from the way it was when I left. Or that you’d be helping my childhood best friend destroy my life because he insists on holding a grudge against me for some unknown reason.”