“Maybe not at first.” My voice is filled with emotions. “But I promise that I’ll eventually do it. I’m not your plaything, Levi and I never will be.”
He drops his hands from my hair and sighs. “Fuck it.”
Fuck it?
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
“Do you remember what happened the night of your accident?”
My brows furrow. “The accidental fire?”
“Only it wasn’t accidental.”
My eyes widen. “You…”
He nods. “I set my uncle’s mansion on fire.”
“But… why?”
“Arson leads to prison, princess. Uncle could’ve gotten me out of it, but that would’ve been at the expense of my freedom. That’s why I needed you to drop the case.”
“No. Why did you burn your uncle’s mansion?”
He laughs without humour. “Because I wanted to rebel against him? Because he threatened to take my inheritance and keep me on a leash? Because I wanted to be a dick and take his favourite holiday home right before the summer? Take your pick.”
Wow. I didn’t realise his relationship with his uncle was that strained.
“Can your uncle take your inheritance?”
“My father listed him as my guardian until I’m twenty-five. If I don’t play into his hands, he won’t let me touch a dime from the family’s money.”
“Can he really do that when you’re over eighteen?”
“Yeah. Even if he can’t, I can’t challenge him in court. No lawyer will beat Uncle’s harem of hotshot lawyers.”
“Why is he doing this to you?”
He releases a long breath. “He doesn’t want me to become my father. You see, my father wasn’t the perfect King that Jonathan is. James King loved life more and he never engaged in the family business. He played rugby in his early years and had a horrible injury that forced him into early retirement. He became depressed then manic. While Uncle built the empire, my father either gambled the King’s money or spent it on drugs.”
Humming energy pulses off Levi the more he talks about his father.
I inch towards him, slowly as if I’m afraid of setting him off. My heart aches for him and I can taste his pain on the tip of my tongue.
No king is born as a king. They’re made into one from their childhood. Levi never had a silver spoon. His mother abandoned him without a look back, his father had mental issues, and his uncle is obviously a control freak.
Oh, and his cousin is a psychopath.
“But you told me you had a good relationship with your father.”
“I did when he wasn’t manic or high, which leaves very little room for father and son bonding.” He pauses. “He taught me to be myself. I didn’t realise how much he really meant to me until I lost him.”
I lean my head against his tense shoulder, squeezing his hand in mine.
This must be why he has prejudices against drugs. It was part of the reason he lost his father.
“Jonathan doesn’t want me to be a failure like my father and Jonathan stops at nothing to get what he wants.”
I can see where Levi and Aiden got their ruthless side.
Levi wouldn’t admit to it openly, but he takes after his uncle in more ways than one.
“And what do you want?” I ask in a whisper.
His eyes find mine and they soften. “You.”
If my heart could escape its confinement, it would be spilling at our feet about now.
“What else?” The words come out on a breath.
“Just you would do.” His lips find mine in the slowest, most toe-curling kiss he’s ever given me.
I push him away with a hand on his chest. “There must be something else you want.”
He’s silent for a beat. “Football.”
“You want to play pro?”
He nods once. “I had some calls and interest from Liverpool and Manchester City.”
“Wow. Those are big ones.”
He narrows his eyes. “How do you know that, Miss-I-don’t-care-about-Football?”
“I had Dan educate me.” I smile. “But wow, I’m happy for you.”
I try to camouflage the breaking of my heart at the thought that he’ll be on the other half of the country.
“Doesn’t matter. If Uncle forbids it. No good team will accept me.” He stares down at our entwined hands. “What about you? Where do you plan to go?”
“Dad is thinking about Imperial College.”
“And let me guess, that’s not where you want to go.”
“I’m an artist. I want to continue being an artist.”
“Did you tell him that?”
“Have you seen my dad?” I laugh awkwardly.
“He seemed a lot more reasonable than my uncle.”
“Do you really think that?”
“Not really.” He lifts a shoulder. “But Uncle’s enemy is my friend.”
I laugh, leaning my head against his shoulder. For a moment, we get lost in the lights in the distance as the Ferris wheel continues its ascendance to the top.
Then, a crazy thought comes to mind. “Levi… did you see who hit me that night?”
“If I did, I would’ve told you.”
I pull back, staring at him. Then I grab both his arms and feel around them. “Were you there at the moment I got hit?”
“I heard the hit.”
“Meaning, you were at the road? Did you see anyone?”
“Believe me, princess, if I knew who hurt you, I’d be the first to fuck them up.”
But a crazy idea won’t leave my mind.
Could it be…?
I lift his long-sleeved T-shirt to his elbows.
He chuckles, “Am I going to be your sugar daddy sooner than agreed?”
My gaze zeroes on the lines in his veiny forearms. I pull it to the shadows and gasp.
The mole near his elbow looks like a small star in the darkness.
My eyes blur as I look at him. “You saved me.”
Astrid
Just when I think I have you, everything dissipates into thin air.
Weeks passand every day is surreal.
Every day, Levi tests my limits and I test his right back.
We’re like two pieces of a jigsaw, him and I. It’s impossible to have one without the other.
I walk into the school with Levi’s arm wrapped around my waist. Most of the football team surround us like knights.
Dan, Aiden, Xander, Ronan, and Cole are like my own protection and follow me whenever Levi isn’t there. I can tell Aiden doesn’t like it, but Levi forced his hand somehow.
Since that pool punishment, the three others keep quiet around Levi. Apparently, their captain has been out for their lives at practice. I’ve been hoping it’s not because of the orgy joke.
But knowing Levi, that most likely plays a part in it.
Levi isn’t only possessive to a fault, but he’s also the petty jealous type when I as much as look at his teammates. I might have been doing it on purpose to get a rise out of him.
I smile mischievously as I tell Ronan, “When are we going to have another drinking competition?”
“Tonight if you like…” his grin falters when Levi cuts him a glare. “Or never. Yeah, never.” He leans in to whisper. “Come down when Captain is asleep.”
“I heard that.” The look on Levi’s face is that of pure contempt. I can only imagine all the ideas he has going on in his head on how to punish Ronan.
“You’re pathetic.” Aiden shakes his head at his cousin.
Levi flips him the finger.
“Twenty-two hundred.” Ronan coughs and my gaze immediately flies in that direction.
The blonde girl, Kimberly’s friend, hugs books to her chest and walks towards the library. The guys stare at her, but only Aiden and Levi check her out openly.
“What’s the deal with her?” I ask. “An old ex of the both of you?”
A stab of jealousy hits me. Levi said he doesn’t date, but if he has an ex of that level, it makes my self-confidence shaky.
“She’s no one’s ex or current” Xander laughs. “She’s Frozen. An ice princess.”
“Unfortunately for this chap.” Cole nudges Aiden.
He throws him an undecipherable look and scrolls on his phone as if nothing happened.
“She’s sort of like you,” Xander snaps his fingers at me. “Captain had his knickers in a twist because of you.”
“Piss off, Xan,” Levi tells him.
“No.” I elbow Levi’s side. “I want to know more.”
Ronan’s playful gaze bounces between me and the girl who disappeared in the direction of the library. “Do you think she’s pretty, Astrid?”
“Are you kidding me? She looks like a doll.” And I’m glad she has Aiden’s interest, not Levi’s.
Scratch that.
I shouldn’t be glad that anyone has the psycho’s attention.
A lustful look covers Ronan’s features. “As in you’d do her?”
Ronan is the type who makes everything about sex — like Dan. From the time I spent with them, he’s the one with the most heart out of the four horesemen. Xander is too slippery. Cole is too silent. Aiden is too…, well, nothing. I can’t grasp his real character no matter how much I study him.
“Yes, I would.” I keep up with Ronan’s game.
“Take my fucking money,” Ronan exclaims. “I want to watch. First row!”
“In your fucking dreams.” Levi pushes him away with a hand on his face.
“Oh, come on, Captain. You already took away my cake bunny hookers fantasy.”
“Cake bunny hookers?” I chuckle.
“Ronan wanted hookers dressed as bunnies coming out of his birthday cake,” Cole says. “Captain denied it.”
Wow. I don’t even have thoughts about that.
“You killed my fantasy once, Captain.” Ronan talks in his dramatic voice. “You can’t do it une autre fois. Two hot girls will be explosive. It’s a waste if no one watches.”
“Who said no one will watch.” Levi meets my gaze with his darkened, lust-filled one. “I would.”
“I would watch, too,” Aiden says without lifting his gaze from his phone.
I don’t know which one to be more surprised by. Who knew both cousins had this side to them?
When we arrive at my class, Levi pulls me against him by the hips and leans in to whisper in my ear. “Locker room. After practice.”
Last week, I snuck into the football team’s locker room to surprise Levi. The surprise somehow ended up with me sucking him off in the showers before he fucked me against the lockers.
I still have bruises and hickeys to prove it.
My skin throbs and heats at the mere memory of that day.
“That was a one-time thing.”