Playboy Princes (Royals of Arbon Academy, #2)(12)

That was the only warning I had before his lips crashed into mine. The shock of it made me gasp, and Alex pushed his advantage, slipping his tongue into my mouth and stroking along mine.

This... this wasn't Alex. Not the Alex I knew and had been kissing for months. This person was harsh and demanding. Dominant. If I wasn't already a hollow, heartbroken mess, the way he kissed me now would have almost convinced me he actually cared. That somehow he regretted deceiving me.

But I knew better.

This was about power and control. He was showing me who held both.

"Kiss me back, or kiss your life and freedom goodbye." He'd released my mouth just long enough to whisper that threat, and his blue eyes were close enough that I imagined he was peering into my soul. Weighing my desire to live, I found the scales tipped in his favor.

He was right, too.

Swallowing back my pride, my hurt, my guilt, I closed my eyes, draped my arms around his neck and acted my fucking ass off. If anyone had walked past us then, they'd have seen exactly what they needed to see, the shining, golden, crown prince of Australasia and his princess-ballot girlfriend. In love.

Inside, I was screaming. Sobbing. Dying a little. But nothing could have prepared me for the overwhelming desperation that washed over me when our kiss ended and I opened my eyes.

Rafe's furious, sapphire gaze locked with mine from across the hall, and the expression on his face was nothing short of murderous.

Now, normally I’d react, shoot back something as pissed off as Rafe was sending my way. But I couldn’t.

Alex had taken something from me. I was that stupid fucking little girl again, trapped, locked away and sitting in my own piss. Helpless.

No!

Fuck.

Alex’s lips twisted as he stared down at me. “You’re gonna have to do better than that, princess,” he said softly, pressing his lips to mine one more time before he took off down the hall. “One last chance, Violet,” he called over his shoulder. There was no one but Rafe nearby now, and he clearly wasn’t worried about being overheard by the Swiss prince.

I slammed myself back against the wall, pressing my palms especially hard against the brick, trying to find my balance. I was better than this. I’d spent too many years learning how to destroy the weakness inside of me, and all it had taken was some smooth words from a prince to break everything down.

Sharp, painful sensations ran down my spine and across my arms until they tingled in my fingertips. I didn’t realize until blood followed that feeling that I’d slammed my back and shoulders so hard into the rough stone walls that I’d actually cut myself.

The blood was warm, ruining another uniform as it traced across my skin. That warmth was chased by another scent moving closer, one that smelled darkly enticing, turning my thoughts immediately erotic. Rafe had fucked me the same way he did everything else. Hard, intense, and on the edge of cruelty. My body responded to his scent now almost on instinct.

“Come with me,” he said. No, commanded. Everything that fucker did was a command, and fuck if my body wasn’t ready and willing.

I didn’t know where he was leading me, but I needed to clear my head, so I was following.

For now.

Rafe led me away from the dining room and main part of Arbon, taking me on a twisting path that was almost as hard to follow as the secret passages that led to the fights. Part of me wanted to ask where we were going, but another, larger part, really didn’t care.

Trapped. I was fucking trapped again.

How had this happened? How could this happen?

“Stop thinking,” Rafe said harshly. “Let it go for five minutes.”

I wanted to. I wanted to let everything go, including this fucking school, but I was afraid it was way too late for that. According to Alex, I was in a life and death situation, and if I didn’t choose him, I chose death.

Rafe snarled again, and his lips slammed into mine. My cut-up back crashed into the nearby wall. I didn’t care. I welcomed the pain because for the first time since I’d found out—outside of the last time Rafe had touched me—I was finally in blissful mental silence.

He did something to my body. He shut my senses down. And he erased Alex.

When he pulled back, he shook his head at me. “Keep the fuck up.”

He turned, moving fast, and I was blinking, not sure what the hell had just happened. Rafe was going to be the death of me.

If Alex didn’t get there first.

Eventually, when we must have been miles from the main part of the school, Rafe opened a door. It was partially hidden, completely nondescript, and I wouldn’t have noticed it at all before Rafe opened it and stepped through. I followed him to a single set of rickety stairs made of wood, ancient-looking wood that I was afraid would cave in under his mammoth weight. But they didn’t, apparently sturdier than they looked.

My gaze was all but glued to his ass as he ascended ahead of me, and I had to swallow a few times to keep the moisture in my mouth. I mean, I’d always been attracted to the prickly fuck, but now it was an almost tangible thing I could taste in the air.

And feel in my vag. That bitch knew him intimately now and she wanted more.

“You taking me up here to throw me off?” I half-joked when the stairs went on and on. I hadn’t been to a second floor anywhere here yet, so this was clearly one of the towers I’d seen when I’d first been driven up to the school.