Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 125121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Victor trapped my bottom lip, scraping it slow and agonizing between his teeth. I moaned so wantonly, I teased a blush on my own cheeks. The kiss was amazingly, mind-blowingly, stomach-tighteningly good. Victor kissed me like he wanted to draw every ounce of pleasure from my body, and drown me in it.
He drew back and I followed him, whimpering softly as I slipped around his shoulders and held him still.
He tore away so abruptly, I nearly fell off the bed. Eyes huge, I shoved up and took in all the teeth flashing through that smirk.
“Full of myself, am I? Looks like I was being generous with that month.” He winked. “Keep the room. I’m cool to bunk anywhere,” Victor said, loping out. “Until you invite me to sleep with you all on your own.”
“I... You...”
Who the hell knew who I was stuttering to? Victor was long gone—leaving nothing but his searing kiss on my lips, taunting me every time I told myself he had no effect on me.
“ARE YOU GOING TODAY?”
Katie swiped her lip gloss, then puckered at her reflection. Her black fit-and-flare dress looked better suited to the runway than the Ethics class she was heading to, but administration only canceled classes in the afternoon. After morning classes, everyone was invited to attend the memorial for Giovanni Natale.
“No,” I said. “I don’t think I should. One day of classes yesterday, and it was a hell of whispers, stares, and two globs of spit on my shoes from people hissing that I’m a murderer.” Katie and I moved up the breakfast line, collecting a few of those mentioned stares on the way. “It’s clear some people think the cops got it wrong. If I show up at the memorial, it’ll become about me and not Giovanni. I hated the guy, but there’s no more revenge to take against him. The least I could do is not turn his send-off into a drama.”
“Hate to say it, but I agree with you.” Katie claimed two trays and passed one off to me. Seemingly sweet if not for her immediately loading my tray with the cinnamon doughnuts and chocolate muffins she wanted to eat, but instead would nibble off my plate, then leave for me to finish. “It’ll pretty much all be Royals, and they’re not a fan of you right now. You don’t want to know what they’re saying in the group chat.”
“I do, actually. How bad is it?”
She winced.
That bad.
“They’re saying it has to be you because it couldn’t have been a Royal. You, Rafael Dumont, Dean, and, like, two other guys were the only non-Royals there. Dean wouldn’t do this and Saylor said she was hooking up with Rafael when it all went down.”
I bit back a sneer. She wishes she was hooking up with my boyfriend. That was another thing I loved about Rafael. He saw right through the Queen Bee, Saylor Burkhardt.
“Those other Dregs had no beef with Giovanni, while you...” She shrugged helplessly. “Gio dumped Winter brutally and in public. Everyone knows why you’d hate him. Almost everyone is convinced you did it.” Her gaze drifted over my shoulder. “And they don’t care what the cops say.”
I resisted the urge to look. I snuck out early that morning and met up with Katie before the guys woke up. I didn’t need a bodyguard that day, but I also didn’t need to push my luck. You can sense in the air when people are spoiling for a fight.
“That’s all it takes to pin murder on someone?” I asked. “Be a Dreg? It doesn’t matter that he screwed more than a few Royals over too? The girlfriend he left to bleed out at the bottom of a cliff? The daughter of a rival he was secretly banging on the side who had a lot to lose if he ever admitted she threw his girlfriend off a cliff? Everyone is completely forgetting all those motives.”
Katie gave me a serious look as she loaded my plate with bacon. “None of them were alone by the pool with him.”
“That we know,” I corrected. “I didn’t tase myself.”
“Look, I believe you.” Katie strode off to the drinks section. “I’m just telling you what people are saying. More reason that you’re coming to my place after the memorial, and looking through the footage with me. This is bigger than the Royal/Dreg shit. I need to know who came into my house and killed a guy I’ve known my whole life.”
I squeezed her arm. “After the memorial is fine. Meet you by the fountain?”
“No, too crowded. I’ll pick you up in the parking lot by your dorm.”
That settled, I followed her to a table, set down her second tray, and went to get my own breakfast. I returned with pumpkin bread and a frittata. “How’s your mom doing?”