“Are we really going down that lane, Nicole?” Daniel asks in a tone that’s completely different from his normal carefree one.
She gulps until I swear I almost hear her. That’s weird. Nicole hates Daniel as much as she loathes me — if not more. Actually, she’s marked him as an enemy before I came along, so it’s weird to see her not spit her venom as usual.
“Bastard,” she mutters under her breath.
“You might want to wipe that.” Dan rubs the side of his mouth with his thumb.
“What?” Nicole asks.
“Your bullshit.” He turns me around in the direction of his car.
“Do as you’re told, Viking!” she shouts at my back.
The best way to have me do something is to tell me not to do it.
I’m tempted to stay close to Levi just to see Nicole’s face reddening with exertion, but even that priceless look isn’t worth it.
I hate Levi King and everything he represents.
Besides, after the little gift I left on his car yesterday, I’m sure he won’t bother me anymore.
I’m proved wrong when I arrive at the school and part ways with Dan.
As soon as I open the door to the art studio, I halt at the threshold and scream.
8
Astrid
I didn’t start the war, but I’m fighting to the death.
* * *
All the canvases are painted in pitch black.
Every single one of them.
My muscles stiffen as I search around for any possible intruder. But there can’t be one, now can it?
RES isn’t the type of school where anyone can come in and pull a stunt like this. Not to mention that I’m the only soul who’s around in the early mornings.
“Just like a funeral, huh?”
My spine snaps upright at the sinister tone right at my back.
The click of the art studio’s door closing fills the space and sticks to the back of my throat.
I whirl around and come face to face with those hypnotic eyes.
Levi King.
Just what I needed on this epic morning.
“You did this?” I throw my arms in the direction of the canvases.
“Who knows?” A smirk lifts his lips the slightest bit.
There’s this air of nonchalance about him. A fuck you to the entire world surrounding him. In full rebel mood, his tousled hair is all over the place, but still has that supermodel look written all over it. There’s no tie in his uniform and he has the cuffs of his shirt rolled over the sleeves of his jacket.
How can someone so gorgeous be the embodiment of the devil?
I start towards the exit. “I’m telling the principal.”
“Sure thing, princess. While you’re at it, tell him you painted my car’s windshield.”
I come to a screeching halt and fold my arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He pushes off the door and it’s like he gained height. He’s become all broad and stiff and…
Threatening. Intimidating.
All humour vanishes from his face as if I was imagining all the smirks and nonchalant behaviour.
It’s scary how much he masters his emotions, what to show and what to hide, when to stalk and when to attack.
Something undecipherable shines in the depth of his eyes and they turn another completely different shade of blue.
Deadly blue.
The type of blue that's infested with sharks,
I keep my position, refusing to let him affect me. But that doesn’t stop my limbs from screaming at me to step back.
Levi King isn’t someone I want to play games with.
One more year.
If I stay out of trouble and finish this year peacefully, everything will be over.
Any type of conflict will destroy my invisibility game.
Despite my pride, I step back, matching his wide relentless strides. The air ripples with crackling tension that grips me by the gut. With every step forward, my heart hammers against my ribcage. I feel like the stupid little deer who lost her way from the herd and got herself stuck with a hungry, relentless predator.
My shins hit the easel and I yelp. I grit my teeth at the effect I’m letting him have on me.
“Stop!” I thrust both my palms against his chest and push him.
I might as well be pushing a buffalo.
A very toned one with hard ridges and pectorals and the whole thing.
He doesn’t move back. Not even a step. If anything he leans closer into my personal space. So close that my hands are the only thing stopping his chest from crushing against mine. So close that he becomes tenfold more beautiful. So close that I smell cigarette and chocolate cheesecake on his breath.
Wait. Is that on me from this morning’s breakfast? Because if this bully likes cheesecake, too, then I’m retiring from the food.
“What do you want, Levi?”
“It’s King to you.”
“No, thanks. You have a name, why does everyone call you by your last name?”
“You don’t ask the questions, princess. You only answer mine, understood?”
I can’t believe the arrogance of this bastard. But then again, he’s had the school at the palm of his hands for two years, why wouldn’t he think everyone would bow down to him?
“What do you want, your majesty?”
He tilts his head at the sarcastic note and I jut my chin upwards. He looks down at my palms on his chest as if contemplating something.
Before he can get any wild ideas, I remove my hands with a jerk.
Big mistake.
Levi advances into me like the bull from earlier, and I have no choice but to step over the easel and move back. My back hits the wall and a shiver draws down my core.
Why the hell do I keep getting myself into corners with him?
Levi slams his hand on the wall beside my head with his face mere inches from mine. My air supply comes in and out in short bursts. I can’t even breathe properly, afraid that this time my throbbing chest will surely become one with his.
“I told you what I want.” His voice drops to a dangerous, low range. “But what did you do?”
I fold my arms both to stop his chest from grazing mine and to control the hammering of my crazy heartbeat.
My gaze trails in the opposite direction, refusing to meet his eyes. If I do, I have a feeling they’d swallow me whole and never let go.
“I said.” His thumb and forefinger squeeze my chin, forcing me to face him. “What did you do?”
I gulp against the feel of his skin on mine. The calloused, long fingers bring back memories of that night.
Hit-and-run night.
For the first time in months, the memories aren’t gory and gruesome like in my nightmares.
No.
It’s entirely different.
These memories consume me like a case of drugs gone wrong — or maybe it’s gone right.
Goosebumps form on my skin at the memory of how good it felt to be touched by him.
How he elicited those desperate, foreign sensations in parts I thought didn’t exist.
This same devil made me feel like no one did before.
No. That was Ecstasy. Anyone could’ve touched me and it would’ve felt good.
Only now, I’m under no drug influence and I might as well be. Tingles draw down my spine, and I have no way to fight them off.