Defiant: A High School Bully Romance (Midpark High Book 2) Read online

  My, my. My lucky freaking day.

  I figured I couldn’t go straight for his stomach, feeling like it would be too obvious, so I ground my hips along him, causing the hardness under me to twitch and the man himself to groan. His leather jacket hung open, a dark shirt underneath. He really was fit under that leather, wasn’t he?

  The perfect body to use and discard…

  But I’d learned my lesson the last time. No more hookups. Not for a while, at least. When things calmed down…maybe.

  I leaned down, moving my lips along his jaw, kissing away. Eventually his hands found my sides, though they took a while to get there—but when they did, they dug in, so hard I knew I’d have bruises tomorrow. Better bruises than being the next face on the news, though.

  Once I was sure his hands were firm on my sides, my mouth moved to his. I kissed him as hard as I could, nibbling on his lower lip, putting a fire behind the lip lock I’d never known before. He urgently kissed me before? Well, now I kissed him like my life depended on it.

  And it kind of did.

  As I kissed him hard, I ground again on his dick, over and over, basically dry-humping him. Had to distract him somehow, right? My hands moved down, roaming over his solid chest, the fabric of his t-shirt softer than I would’ve guessed.

  My heart skipped a beat, because I was really doing this, my hand nearing the inner pocket of his leather jacket. Excitement and apprehension mixed inside me; I was both nervous and anxious to get out of here, to get back to Midpark.

  I wasn’t a killer, but the thought did cross my mind—if I didn’t end him here, he’d come after me again. He knew about my mom, knew all about me, and he obviously was willing to put others in danger to get what he wanted. At this point, I still didn’t know what that was, but could I take the chance that, by letting him live, he wouldn’t do it again? Wouldn’t come for me again or hurt my mom?

  In the end, it didn’t matter.

  When I felt the pocket where the knife should be, where I’d felt it before, when Dante had me pinned down under him, it wasn’t there.

  Chapter Two – Dante

  I smiled against her lips, feeling her freeze instantly. She was a smart girl, trying to go for the knife, thinking I was leading with my dick and not my brain. I wasn’t stupid, not like those kids in Midpark. I knew the knife would be her only way out of here, realistically, and I knew the only way she’d push herself to go for it.

  Sex.

  Granted, I’d hoped to be inside her before she realized it was pointless, but, hey, there was always time later. Like I said before, Jaz would be mine in every way possible. She just didn’t know it yet.

  I had the knife tucked into my sleeve, having moved it while she was too busy grinding down on me. While she was trying to distract me, she was too preoccupied to see me move it. The poor girl; it meant she had a lot to learn, but that was fine. I was more than happy to teach her.

  When she froze, it wasn’t too long before she pulled her lips off mine, her dark eyes wide, the shock written across the pretty features on her face. Eh, pretty was an understatement when it came to her. She was so much more than that. She was a kind of drop-dead gorgeous most girls, and women for that matter, just weren’t. Her skin more tan than white, her hair long and thick, not an extra ounce of fat anywhere on her body. I could easily forget about every other girl I’d been with if I had Jaz to fill my time.

  When her dark stare locked with mine, I couldn’t help but smirk. My hands left her sides, and I asked, “Looking for this?” The knife in my jacket sleeve slid down, into my palm, and I pushed the button on its center, causing the blade to erupt with a swift, soft sound.

  Jaz looked something between mortified and frightened. “How did you know?” She still straddled me, still gave my cock something to yearn for, but now there was no point in grinding and trying to keep my mind elsewhere.

  I had to hand it to her. Not many girls would’ve tried what she did.

  “Believe it or not, I don’t think with my dick,” I said, spinning us so that once again I was the one on top. Jaz under me—it was definitely something I could get used to. Her flushed cheeks, the way her lips tasted; I could only imagine the sounds that would escape that slender throat when she was being pile-drived against the bed.

  Fuck. I really wanted to pile-drive her against the bed.

  “Not all the time, anyway,” I said, bringing the sharp, shiny steel blade to her neck. I laid it flat, so it wasn’t like I could accidentally cut her, but to Jaz, it was probably the same thing. I watched as her breathing hitched, her entire body stiffening under mine.

  God, she felt good. She’d feel even better if her clothes were off—but I wasn’t one of those guys. When Jaz got so hot for me she practically tore off her clothes to fuck me, then I’d do it. I’d do her over and over until I memorized the sounds she made.

  “Why, oh why would you be going for this?” I questioned, already knowing the answer. My eyes were glued to her face, her reactions imprinting on my brain as I moved the knife along her throat, against her jaw. Such pretty, tanned skin; she looked so much better with a knife against her throat. Who would’ve known?

  I did. I knew from the first moment I laid eyes on her, all those years ago. Back when Skull had told me the truth, what would’ve happened if she’d been with us. I couldn’t help it.

  Mine. She would’ve been mine, in every definition of the word.

  “Let’s get one thing straight,” I said, “I’d never hurt you. I might threaten those you care about to get you to do what I want, but you? Never you. I’m not that much of a monster.” There were other guys in the gang who had no qualms about hurting their women, but I wasn’t one of them.

  I might’ve been psychotic, but I wasn’t that psychotic.

  Jaz let out a shaky breath. “It’s hard to take you seriously when you’re resting a knife against my cheek.”

  Damn it, she was right.

  Heaving a sigh, I pulled the knife off her and slowly got up, giving her some space. I still had a raging erection between my legs, but that was to be expected with what we were just doing. My eyes were on her as I folded the blade up and shoved it back inside my jacket. “Happy?”

  She shot me a frown as she sat up, tucking her legs under her as she ran her hands through her hair. “I’ll be happier when you take me back to Midpark.”

  I almost laughed at that. Almost. “You’re not going back,” I told her. “You’re coming with me.”

  “Why would I go anywhere with you? Who sent you? You can’t have just…found me off the streets,” Jaz spoke, puckering those sweet, full lips. I bet they’d feel amazing wrapped around my cock and sucking me off.

  “First off, you’re going with me because I’m telling you that you are,” I said, tapping my fingers on the bed. I felt jittery; they wanted to touch something, preferably her smooth skin. “And no one sent me. I came on my own to watch you, but after seeing you fuck up in Midpark over and over, I got impatient.”

  Jaz stared at me as if she didn’t trust me. Good. She was smart not to. “How do you know who I am? How do you know my mom? I’ve never seen you before—”

  I nodded, cutting her off, “That’s because you’ve been sheltered. A bit too much, if I say so myself.” I was about to say more, about to tell her just who sent me and why it should matter to her, but my phone chose that specific time to ring.

  Damn it.

  When I pulled it out of my pocket, my spirits sunk when I saw who it was. I glanced to Jaz, extending a hand toward her instead of picking it up right away. “Your phone,” I demanded, once she made no moves to do anything.

  She frowned—a ridiculously cute expression on her otherwise beautiful face—and rolled onto her side to retrieve it from her back pocket. Jaz practically slammed it onto my palm, muttering, “Happy now, Dante?”

  Ah, seemed she chose to call me Dante instead of Storm. I could work with that.

  As my fingers curled around her phone, I stood up
and answered mine, moving toward the door to get some semblance of privacy. “Hey,” I spoke quietly, glancing over my shoulder, at Jaz on the bed.

  My cock twinged with need when I wished I could be on that bed with her. Seriously, feeling her underneath me was the best feeling in the world.

  “Where the fuck are you?” The voice on the other line was not happy.

  “I’m, uh, out of town for the moment.” Hedging wasn’t something you did with the man who could crush you and your soul with his fist, but it was what I chose to do, mostly because I knew, unless I dragged Jaz with me, he would only yank me back.

  He wanted it to be her decision, but I said fuck that.

  It was a while before he growled out, “Out of town? Out of fucking town? And where might you have run off to, Storm? I really hope you’re not doing what I strictly told you not to.” There was a pause, and I could hear his hard, ragged breathing. When he got mad, he got furious. Zero to one hundred in less than two seconds.

  I kept my mouth shut, though I did glance at Jaz again. It wasn’t like I could lie to him; he’d know. He wasn’t our leader because he was gullible.

  “I take it your silence means you are where I told you not to go,” he growled out, rumbling on the other line. “What the fuck is wrong with you, Storm? I told you, if you want to eventually run the Skulls, you have to start acting like a leader. Running off and doing exactly what I told you not to does not make me believe you’d be good at leading the gang.”

  He wasn’t wrong, but…fuck. Couldn’t he understand why I ran off and did the opposite of what he’d said? Didn’t he care that I had her here with me, right now, that I was going to bring her back? I’d just brought her here to give her the gist of it away from Midpark High and its hoity-toity students, but the plan was to continue east, to go home.

  To bring her home, where she belonged.

  “I—” I was not able to get a word more in, edgewise.

  “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t care what your plan was, but it’s done.”

  My blood ran hot. I didn’t like hearing him talk like that.

  “You’re too rash, Storm. Your actions could put us at risk, and I can’t have that. Whatever the reason you went off and did the opposite of what you were told, I don’t give a shit,” he said. “Don’t come back. Don’t you dare fucking come back until that head of yours is screwed on straight—do you understand?”

  He was…banishing me from coming back? How the fuck was I…

  “And don’t try to come back until I give you the all-clear. You know what kind of welcome will greet you if you do.” With that, he hung up, leaving me to stare in shock at my phone.

  What the absolute fuck was this?

  I tried to call him back, but it went straight to voicemail. Shit. He wasn’t one to make needless threats, which meant…which meant I couldn’t go back, and I sure as hell couldn’t bring Jaz with me.

  Fuck it all. I’d planned this, wanted to bring her home with me, be the savior of the fucking princess, and now I was effectively exiled.

  No way the exile would last forever. No fucking way.

  I moved deeper into the room, saying nothing as I sat on the edge of the bed, away from Jaz. She couldn’t see my face, she had my back, but with my slumping posture, she was bound to realize something was wrong.

  Shit. I knew sometimes I made rash decisions, but to be exiled? Seemed a bit harsh, didn’t it? I was pretty much stuck in Midpark now, because if I went home without getting word that he’d changed his mind about the verdict, the others wouldn’t hesitate to beat me to a bloody pulp and toss me back out.

  We were brothers and sisters, but loyalty to the gang mattered above all else, loyalty to the king. To Skull.

  I didn’t hand her her phone back, keeping it together with mine, my stare on my lap. Well, if anything was a boner-killer, that last conversation was. Sex was the last thing on my mind as I sat there, lost in my own thoughts.

  The Skulls had been my family for so long. They’d raised me while my father was in prison and my mother wasted her body away with whatever drugs she could get ahold of. I needed them. I needed…I needed to be patient. Skull would welcome me back. He had to.

  Until then, maybe I should keep my focus on Jaz. She was the reason I was here, after all. If I could make her trust me, get onto her good side…

  “What’s wrong?” Jaz’s voice broke into my head, causing me to glance at her.

  I was a stranger to her, a stranger who’d been more than a little overconfident, and yet she truly sounded as if she cared about what that phone call was about. Hmm. She was probably smart enough to know it was about her, in a way.

  “Thanks for asking, but it’s family business,” I muttered, running my thumb over the screen of her phone. An old model, its case scuffed up. It wasn’t the kind of phone I expected to see on any kid in Midpark, and yet I knew Jaz wasn’t from there. She was a lamb tossed to the rich wolves for sport.

  “It didn’t sound good, from what I heard,” she said, moving to hug her knees to her chest. Jaz studied me with those huge, dark, knowing eyes, and I had to turn away. It was almost funny how easily she could affect me, though I supposed I was partially to blame for that, since I’d been obsessing over her ever since I’d found out what would’ve happened if her mother had never taken her away.

  I didn’t like the thought of being exiled, but maybe this would work out for the best. Maybe, by the time Skull called me again and forgave me for my mistake, I’d have Jaz on my arm. She’d be my girl, just as she should’ve always been.

  “It’ll be fine,” I said, turning to face her on the bed. “But there is a change of plans. I can’t bring you home.”

  “You still could, because my home now is in Midpark,” Jaz quipped with a small grin. “I don’t know where yours is, though.”

  “I can take you back,” I said, giving her a smirk. “But first, how about you agree to play a full day of hooky with me?” I watched as she thought it over, knowing Jaz was the sort of girl who liked playing by the rules, but was also the kind who liked playing games. She was a goodie-goodie on occasion, but not all of the time.

  Sometimes she was very, very bad.

  I hoped, someday soon, she’d show her naughty side to me, like she’d started doing earlier.

  “Hooky?” Jaz repeated, incredulous. “First you want to kidnap me—at knifepoint—and now you want to play hooky with me? What’s next? You going to threaten my mom again?” Still angry about that, apparently.

  “Look, I’m sorry I threatened your mom,” I told her. “I had to get you to come with me, and with how much you care about her, I figured she was the best way.” Shrugging, I added, “It was nothing personal against you or your mom.”

  Jaz was silent for a while, sizing me up. “How can I trust a single word you say?”

  “I’m many things, but I’m no liar.” My gaze fell to the phones in my hands, and I was slow in handing hers back. “There. You want to call someone—your mom, the cops, whoever—go ahead. If not…you can show me around Midpark. Give me the tour. Maybe I’ll even buy you lunch.”

  I could tell she didn’t know what to do, didn’t know whether to trust me. “And then what?”

  And then what? That was the question of the morning, because I sure as hell couldn’t afford this hotel room for more than a few nights. I’d…have to figure out something. I could be resourceful when I had to be.

  “Then…then I take you home, and you go about your life.” That was as simple as I could get without telling her, pointblank, I wasn’t going anywhere. I didn’t want her hightailing it and running the other way, away from me. Not when I knew she had other guys in her life right now that would easily take her in.

  Jaz looked like she debated on calling someone, but in the end, she set her phone aside. “All right,” she spoke slowly, “I’ll play hooky with you, as long as you drop me off at the high school before it lets out.”

  I nodded once, figuring she didn�
��t want her dear mother to realize she’d been away the entire day. If her mother kept a tight leash on her now, imagine how short it would be if she found out about me basically kidnapping her.

  I got off the bed, moving to get her backpack on the floor. I set it beside her, eyeing her up. I still wouldn’t mind continuing where we’d left off, but…probably best to get my mind off that right now.

  It was only a matter of time until she succumbed to me, mark my words.

  “Where to?” Jaz asked, sliding her backpack over her shoulders as she stood. Her slender, curvy figure reached my chin, the perfect height for me to tuck her under there, hold her against me, and refuse to let her go.

  Hmm. I supposed that would be a little much, considering everything. I had to remind myself to take baby steps. She didn’t know me, after all. To her, I was nothing but a stranger who’d threatened her mother.

  “You tell me,” I spoke with a grin.

  Oh, today was going to be fun. I might be feeling upset over what Skull had told me, but if I focused on Jaz, everything would be okay. I’d get through it. She would help me, even if she was unaware of it.

  Chapter Three – Archer

  Jaz wasn’t in class today. It wasn’t surprising, given what happened on Friday, what I did to her, what everyone else did, but still…I guess a part of me wanted to see her, as stupid as it was. I knew I didn’t deserve to ever lay eyes on her again, not after what I did, but that didn’t stop my heart from secretly aching.

  I hated it. I hated it all—what we did, what I’d done to her. Fooling her was never part of the plan, but then, when I’d invited her over to study, when things spiraled and we hooked up in my bed, I’d known I couldn’t keep it to myself. It was only a matter of time before she found out.

  And by she, I meant Brittany. Brittany had eyes and ears everywhere in this school. She had all the teachers on her side, too. All she had to do was pout, or bat her eyelashes, or flash her family’s money, and everyone bent to her will.

  Me? It took a bit more to get me to bend to her.