Royal Prick (A Stepbrother Romance) (5 page)

The anxiety that formed deep in the pit of my stomach sank lower with every step that Noelle took away from me. I felt like an asshole for not standing up for her. I mean after all, wasn’t that what a brother was supposed to do? Yet I was pretty fucking impressed that she could hold her own against someone like Sasha.

“Thank God, she’s gone. I thought she would never leave.” Sasha looked up from her nail bed, annoyance saturating her words. I could see the look of claim forming in her eyes. Yeah, that wasn’t happening either.  

“Let’s get something clear from this point forward. You and I can fuck, we can fuck however you want, and wherever you want...” I made sure she was looking at me so she understood just exactly what I was saying.

“But do not, and I mean it,” my voice grew cold, “fuck with her. I don’t care if the two of you had problems before I came along, if you fucking hate each other, but you don’t fuck with her. Got it?” I stared at her harshly, not breaking eye contact until I saw the small curt nod of her head, letting me know she understood what I was saying. For some reason the nod of her head didn’t seem like it was enough of an answer to me. I needed to press the issue further, just to prove my point and let her know just how serious I was.

“No, I want to hear the words. I want to know that we are clear,” I whispered sternly, giving her an icy glare. I wasn’t sure she would still want to fuck me after this, but if she didn’t then none of this mattered anyway.

Time seemed to stand still as she gazed up at me. There was a spark in her eyes that flared as I spoke. It was as if she was enjoying the dominant angry side of me.

“Yes, Royal, we’re clear,” she purred. Now that we had gotten that out of the way, we could head to the locker rooms and blow off some steam. I grabbed her hand in mine and let her lead the way.

All while the thought of Noelle lingered at the back of my mind.

Chapter Six

-Noelle

             
Anger.

Rage.

Hate.

All three were emotions I wasn’t familiar with in the least bit, but still seemed to simmer just beneath the surface all day long. It was as if I was preparing a roast, letting the meat marinate for hours, until it became weak and tender.

I didn’t know why Royal hated me so much. He didn’t know enough about me to even form a proper opinion of me. Still he acted like he did, and that only made things hurt more. I was fiercely angry. I did everything in my power to make him feel welcome. To try and make him feel as comfortable as possible in a new town, house, and a school, and what do I get in return? Nothing but a slap to the face. A
let me eye fuck Sasha Master’s in front of you, and then make you feel unworthy of the same air I breathe
. Sure, why the fuck not.

“Your stepbrother is a total asshole,” Jordan confessed, her words lodged behind the bite of pizza that she just stuffed in her mouth.

                     “Dude, you have no fucking idea,” I responded, taking a drink of my Pepsi as I watched him with hate burning in my eyes from across the room. Royal was already starting to fit in like I never had. Bile rose in my throat, and the swig of soda I had just taken threatened to come back up. I shook my head in disbelief; he didn’t seem like the jock type, but there he was laughing right along with their jokes, sitting with the cool kids, pretending as if he was right at home.

                     “All he did was fuck with Sasha during Economics class.” There was a pause as she spoke so she could take another bite from her slice of pizza. Her comment only made the bile rise a little bit more. I was seriously disgusted with him.

“Also I don’t think he had his eyes on the board the entire time, and I kid you not, if I have to hear her fake ass giggle one more time I’m going to puke.” Jordan made a sour face, stuffing more food into her mouth.

“I’m already about to puke.” I barely got the words out.

“Let’s go over there and barf all over both of them!” Jordan snickered, her words laced with humor. She might be joking, but I considered taking her up on the offer.

A laugh lodged in my throat. She was my best friend; the kind that you had from the first day of kindergarten and every single day after. If there was anyone that could relate to how I felt about Royal and his new groupies, it would be her.

                     “You don’t even want to know about the vile things he did to me.” I pretended to gag, my mind drifting back to the soft caress of his tongue against my skin, the chills that ran all over my body followed by the searing pain that enveloped me as his teeth sank into my soft flesh. I couldn’t tell if I was really hurt by what he did, or really turned on. He was disgusting and so very disturbed, but still a part of me hoped that I could reach him and shake the bad out of him.

                     “He’s nothing but a self-righteous pig, Noelle. Don’t let him get to you, babe,” she concluded as she finished her food, stuffing the remaining piece of food into her mouth.  

The lunchroom seemed to be louder than usual. Voices echoing and bouncing off every wall.  It seemed as if every eye was trained on Royal and the other popular kids. A knot formed in my chest as the mere thought of him actually becoming friends with them all.

He would invite them over, go to football games with them, and plan activities that I would never be a part of.

He would make my already severely lacking social life that much more nonexistent. I couldn’t stand them here, so if I had to deal with them in the comfort of my own home then I would for sure lose my shit. That was the only safe place I had.

              “That much is obvious. He’s with Sasha Master’s; it’s kind of self-explanatory when she basically throws herself at him without knowing him but a second.” The mere mention of her name off my lips made me want to commit murder. The girl was on my last nerve at every turn. I didn’t like Royal anymore then he liked me, but I didn’t want him getting caught up in the wrong crowd.                     

“Look at me,” Jordan ordered, forcing me to avert my attention from Royal and back to her instead. A giant smile began to form on her face, her hazel eyes glimmering with mischief. Yeah, I was positive she was up to no good.

                     “What Jordan?” I raised an eyebrow in questioning, not sure I wanted to hear what she had to say on the matter.

                     “Nothing that happens today, tomorrow, or a week from now in this place will matter in the long run. None of the people that are here right now will be a part of your life after high school... well, except me,” she added with a wink then continued on.

“Therefore, none of these people really matter, and nothing that takes place here will matter either. For instance, what you’re wearing today or how you act and talk tomorrow. None of that shit matters. Nothing from the past will be of any value; it will be nothing but a brief memory in time.” Jordan gave me this whole speech more than once. Just because you had money and the look, didn’t necessarily mean you fit in with the right crowd.

                     “I totally get that. I just hoped for more from him. Not to instantly fall into the wrong crowd, and slide straight into Sasha’s vagina all within one day.” I couldn’t even talk about this right now. No matter how much I tried to look anywhere else but at him, my eyes always betrayed me, slowly finding their way back to him in the mass of students.

                     The one single time that I didn’t try and hide my feelings, or force my stare away was of course the one time I caught him staring back at me. A moment seemed to pass between us. Unsaid words lingered, and in his eyes I could see the same anger that stirred inside of me, boiling deep inside of him.

                     “You thought he would be different, and he isn’t. Plus, it doesn’t help that your heart is made of gold, and we both know you don’t deserve to have to watch someone crash and burn,” Jordan finished my sentence for me. I did have a heart of gold, and I desperately wanted to see the good in Royal. I wanted it so badly that I could taste it.

I knew there was more to him than a criminal record and a bad attitude. You just had to be able to stick around long enough to get underneath all of that. He was like an onion; he had the power to make you cry as you peeled back each layer exposing something you never knew about him.

                     “No.” It hit me then that if I wanted to truly see the person Royal was, to really see him in his most vulnerable place, to get there I would have to stick through the hate and pain. I would have to endure his remarks, his obscene sexual gestures, and his hateful looks. I would have to break down his walls until I made certain he understood that I wasn’t just going to give up and disappear. That I wasn’t going to walk away from him. I wasn’t a quitter, and I wasn’t about to give up on him. I wasn’t his Dad or any other sorry soul on this planet.

                     “Oh no. I know that look; what have you thought of now?” Jordan spat the words out, along with a piece of cupcake that she started chewing on while she waited for me to get out of my own head. I looked down at it and then back up to her, pursing my lips.

                     She shrugged her shoulders. “Sorry, now answer me. The bell is about to ring and then I’ll have to sit in class for the rest of the day trying to figure out what you’re thinking inside that crazy head of yours.”

                     “I know how to get underneath his skin and break through the barriers that surround him,” I rushed out, knowing she probably wants to stop me before I even get started. I held up a finger and pleaded with my eyes for her to listen.

”He’s so used to people walking away, so used to them assuming the worst of him or not even giving him a chance to prove himself.” I paused watching as everything was clicking in Jordan’s mind.

“I’m going to be that one person in his life he can’t shake. I’m going to do whatever I can to see the good in him and make him realize that I won’t abandon him like everyone else. It’ll be hard as hell, but I’ll have to let the hurtful things he says and does go. I’ll have to remember it’s a defense mechanism and that’s it.”

I casted a glare across the cafeteria and straight at Royal, studying him like he was my newest project, like I could fix him. He was still sitting with the assholes of my class. I could see him looking at me and watching me as I watched him. There was something very personal about it; sitting in a packed cafeteria with hundreds of kids but both just watching each other as if no one else was here with us. As if there weren’t table upon table separating us. Royal was dangerous… to my heart, my soul, and possibly my life.

Everything was great until Sasha realized Royal’s attention was no longer on her.  You could see her trying to figure out where his eyes were looking. She must have figured it out because in a matter of seconds she was sending icy daggers at me from across the lunchroom. I stared at both of them as if they were a car accident waiting to happen. Sasha knew exactly what she was trying to execute. Leaning over and into the crook of his neck she whispered something, her eyes gleaming with hate toward me. Then she lifted herself up so she was even with Royal’s face and pressed her lips against his, wrapping her hand around his head and pulling him in even closer.

My stomach twisted in a knot. I felt like I was violating some type of code of conduct. Like Sasha owned him and I was looking in from the outside.

                     “Talk about PDA. Jesus, they need to get a room.” Jordan sounded like she was going to puke, and the sound alone cheered me up, a bubble of happiness building deep inside of me. At the very least, I wasn’t the only one who found their newly found love absolutely disgusting. I couldn’t force myself to eat any of the fries or hot dog that I had gotten for lunch, so I got up from the table telling Jordan my goodbyes and tossing my food into the nearest trashcan. I forced myself not to look over my shoulder at Royal just one last time, but instead headed straight toward the girls’ locker room, to get ready for my least favorite activity of the day: gym class.

                     I was a mess of emotions and nearly halfway down the hall when heavy footfalls sounded behind me. I anticipated his touch before his hand even landed against my shoulder, stopping me from going any further. Still I wasn’t happy that he was touching me after having just been rubbed up against that snotty, filthy bitch.

                     “Excuse you, asshole.” Anger entwined my words.

                     “You’re excused, Noelle.” Royal’s deep voice met my ears far too close to me. The smell of spicy men’s body wash and cigarette smoke invading my senses.

                     “Have you been smoking?” I accused, his scent fucking with my mind and body. I shouldn’t be feeling the things that I was, especially not for someone like him.

Three days at this school and he had already had sex with that whore, and was now apparently skipping classes for a smoke break. Bad boy wasn’t even a word I would use to describe Royal.

                     He craned further, his head tilting sideways as if he was trying to read me. My eyes dropped down to his lips where his tongue had darted out, wetting his bottom lip. He was in my space forcing me to take in a breath that was filled with nothing more than his scent. It was permeating, choking me. Everything on my body tingled as his breath fell against my cheek. If I turned even the slightest bit our lips would touch. My heart thudded against my rib cage, threatening to break free.

                     “Tell me, love, when did you become my mother again?” He spoke to me like my opinion of him didn’t matter, and honestly it didn’t. I wanted to punch him in the face, knee him in the balls— inflicting some type of pain upon him. I wanted to bring any other emotion but the present to the surface. I wanted to drown him in some him in his own feelings.

                     “I wasn’t trying to act like your mother, Royal. It just caught me off guard, that and I wasn’t aware that you had added smoking to your already long laundry list of shit you shouldn’t be doing.” I hated that he lumped me in with his mom. As if I was going to ground him or something. The choices he made were his, and he would have to deal with the consequences of them.

                     “I’m a criminal, baby, a bad man; far too naughty for a little miss perfect princess like yourself,” he spoke, using the nickname that he gave me. His eyes drifted up and down my body as if he was checking me out. His eyes on my exposed skin caused me to squirm.  

I knew the effect he had on me was dangerous, but the danger of it was the thing that tempted me most. “You should remember that…” His voice was deep as he swiped his thumb across my bottom lip. His fingertips against my skin awakened a piece of me that I didn’t want to acknowledge.

Our eyes clashed with one another’s. “Because next time you decide to stare at me with lust and desires in your eyes that you don’t understand, I just might have to take it as an invitation for far more than I know you can handle.” Royal’s voice dipped, and with it so did my heart, a shiver working its way down my spine.

I gulped in a deep breath of much needed air. The words he spoke were partially true and partially false. I may have looked at him with desires I didn’t understand, but I knew damn well I could handle the asshole and anything he dished out. The thought of him degrading me as he was, was enough to pull me from the lust-filled stupor he put me in.