Prologue
Meredith Veronica Pope. That name was like a fucking taunt every time I heard it. Every time I saw her, knives dug into my skin, making me feel things I never wanted to feel for another person. Those damning green eyes and strawberry blonde hair curling around her shoulders. Every teenage boy’s wet dream, except this one made me lose my fucking mind.
I couldn’t have Meredith Pope.
Couldn’t touch her.
Taste her.
Tease her.
Meredith Pope was out of bounds. Not least because she wouldn’t look my way. Why would she? I was sixteen. She was two years my senior and in sixth form. Didn’t stop me looking. Didn’t stop me wondering. Didn’t stop me planning to take her and make her fucking well mine. I might not have been with a girl before, but as far as I knew Meredith hadn’t been touched either. Keeping an eye on her activities had become a game to me. Listening to rumours and gossip. Anything to do with Meredith and I was on high fucking alert.
Why I even liked her was a question I’d love answering. Meredith was rude, brash and overbearing. Apparently, I didn’t care about her tendency to bulldoze over everyone and everything. It only made me want her all the more. I’d teach that girl a lesson. I’d teach her how to submit. Nothing would stand in my goddamn fucking way.
I didn’t care if Meredith was out of my league.
I didn’t care if she was older than me.
I’d make sure she could never forget me.
I’d be buried so deep inside her fucking soul, she’d never be able to dig me out.
Meredith Veronica Pope better fucking watch herself.
Because I, Cole Carter, am coming for her.
Part I
persevere
verb, per·se·vered, per·se·ver·ing.
to persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly.
Chapter One
You know when you’re relatively sure someone is watching you, but whenever you look around, no one is there? That’s how I felt every time I sat in the library to study. Eyes were on me. Who they belonged to had me curious as hell. It started a few weeks ago at the beginning of term and it bugged the hell out of me. Always during lesson four right after lunch when I had study time on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
My eyes roamed across the room, hunting down the source. But no one seemed to be looking my way.
Who the fuck is watching me?
It was like an itch against my skin I needed to scratch. The gaze burnt into me and made me uncomfortable. There were several other students in here. A couple from sixth form who were doing the same A-Levels as me. Kyle and Lucinda were inseparable, usually glued to each other’s faces. Some younger kids I didn’t know the names of. And in the corner sat that kid two years below me, Cole Carter, who had five parents. Five. A mother and four fathers.
His brother, Raphael Nelson, was in sixth form with me and his other two older siblings had already left school. They all had the same mother and different fathers. It wasn’t like their mother had gone through four different men. Oh no, their parents were in some kind of polyamorous relationship. Probably why they got teased relentlessly until Duke Scott, Raphi’s older brother had beat a kid up for calling his mother a whore, then no one messed with them. At least, not as often as they had before.
I liked Raphi. He was smart, funny and respectful, most of the time. Cole Carter, however, was a law unto himself. I swear the boy had issues. It wasn’t helped by the fact he was devastatingly attractive in a bad boy sort of way.
So yeah, I’ve noticed him. He’s hard not to look at.
Dirty blonde hair and these hazel eyes, which whenever he turned them on anyone could captivate you. Didn’t mean I had any interest in him. He was trouble. I didn’t do trouble. If anyone tried to give me shit, I’d give it right back.
Probably why you have never been kissed. Boys don’t like girls who’re rude to them.
I shoved the thought away. Pretty much everyone I knew had lost their virginity. Not me.
Poor Meredith Pope. An eighteen-year-old virgin.
Thankfully, no one knew about that. It was fucking embarrassing. You were definitely judged for holding out on guys or being a prude. And gossip in this school was rife. If anyone got wind of it, I’d have people talking behind my back for the rest of the year like Wendy the year below me who fucked two boys in one night at a party. She’d been branded the school slut. Now all the boys leered at her and thought she was an easy lay. Teenage boys could be such dicks.
I did not want to join the ranks of those who had horrible rumours spread about them. Keeping my secret was paramount.
I hadn’t ever talked to Cole Carter. He hung out with a couple of older kids who didn’t seem to care about school. Cole, despite being trouble, did. At least according to his brother, who’d just sat down next to me
“Do those two really have to do that? Surprised Mrs Morris isn’t down here telling them off,” Raphi said, keeping his voice low and indicating Kyle and Lucinda sucking face two chairs down from us.
The school librarian didn’t usually tolerate stuff like this, but she seemed to be busy today.
“Apparently so.”
My eyes were still on Cole, who wasn’t looking this way.
“Gross.”
“Prude.”
“Why are you staring at my brother?”
I immediately snapped my gaze away and looked at Raphi instead, taking in his chestnut hair and green eyes as he pushed his glasses further up his nose.
“Why aren’t you sitting with him?”
“Cole doesn’t like me cramping his style at school.”
I scoffed.
“So what, your younger brother is cooler than you?”
Raphi shrugged.
“You have seen Cole, right?”
I shook my head and looked back down at my textbook, feeling my skin prickle with awareness. Everyone had seen Cole Carter. It was looking away from him which was the issue.
“You’re just as smart and attractive as your brother, so I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“So you were staring at him.”
I shoved his arm.
“I was looking out the window and Cole just happens to be in the way of it.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
I glanced at Raphi, who had a smirk on his face.
“I’m not judging.”
“Gross, Raphi, he’s two years younger than us. Also, he’s your brother and I’m so not interested.”
I couldn’t help looking over Cole’s way again. This time I found his gaze directly on me and Raphi. The scowl etched on his features made me flinch. But it also made me very aware of the way my skin prickled with the knowledge he was staring at me.
Has it been Cole this whole time?
That was ridiculous. Why would he look at me? Boys didn’t do that. All they saw was Meredith the girl who told boys to fuck off and die if they said anything inappropriate like ‘nice tits’ or asking me if my curtains matched the drapes. Boys could be right disgusting pricks.