SNOB: A Dark College Enemies to Lovers Romance

Chapter 8

Fuck.Malcom. McKinsley.

A burning sensation takes over my mouth as Beau holds his flask to my lips. My hands still shake from what he did to me in Sun House, and I can still feel the way his eyes bore into mine.

“How you holding up?” Beau asks. “You feeling any better?”

My head falls against the backseat of Beau’s Rover, the leather cold against my warm skin but I hardly feel it. Opening my mouth wider beckons Beau to pour more gin down my throat.

Again.

Yes, who?

Beg.

Plead.

His voice in my head twists my insides, my thighs clenching. No matter how much I drink, I can still taste his bitter finger in my mouth. I can still feel his package against my lips. I can still hear his voice in my ear.

My nipples harden again against my shirt before I grab the flask from Beau’s hand and pour more in my mouth.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Beau says, falling back into his seat next to me.

“Fuck Malcolm McKinsley.” It’s all I manage to say. The humiliation I went through today is more than some people go through in a lifetime. I should be the one getting revenge on him not the other way around.

I fucking hate him. I hate the way his eyes pierce mine like a bullet. I hate the way his soft skin contrasts his very not-soft behaviour. And I hate the way my body shivered when his lips brushed my ear as he spoke those filthy words.

I can’t get that image out of my head. The one he said about bending me over his car and spanking me like some disobedient child. My grip around the flask tightens as I stare at the back of the headrest.

FuckMalcolm McKinsley.

Pouring more gin in my mouth doesn’t get the image to go away, but I won’t stop until it does. Or until this flask is empty.

“We’ll get them back,” Beau says. “Don’t worry. Rich kids? We’re all the same. All it takes is one good hit to our ego.”

“Everyone saw.” Everyone saw the way he treated me like his toy.

“Know what I saw?” Beau slings his arm across the back of our seats. “I saw a shift.” I wait for him to explain, but I”m not ready for the question that comes next. ”Ember, did you like the way he treated you?”

My eyes shift to Beau. “Are you fucking with me?”

He laughs, “Listen, we all know Mac could be a model tomorrow if he wanted to. It’s not that crazy to say some people could get off on his rough touch.”

“Rough is an understatement.”

“Humiliation and degradation can be really hot” Beau continues though I”m not sure why. “Add praise to the mix and it can all be really enticing. Got mommy issues? Daddy issues? That’ll do it.”

“Are you a psych major now?”

“No, but I spend a lot of time on KinkLife.” My cheeks heat thinking about the way he spoke to me with such authority. And the way his dick jumped in his pants when I obliged.

“Is that what you’re into?” I ask. “All that kinky stuff?”

“Is that what you’re into?”

“What are you on, Beau?”

“I’m just saying’ there was a little glimmer in your eye. There was even a smirk.” His words bring a hammer to my chest. Did everyone else see that? “I think you like it.”

As I knock more gin down my throat, my mind flashes back to the night we met as a tremor rolls through my body. “Mac can burn in hell for all I care. I don’t like him. I don’t like what he did. I want to destroy him.”

“Ou, say that again.” Beau turns his phone towards me, pink case matching his hair.

I put a hand up, blocking the camera. “The Valley already got a show tonight.”

“Reframe the narrative,” he says. “We saw what Mac can do to you. But what can you do to him? C’mon, it could be cathartic. Tell me how much you hate Mac.”

“Fuck Malcolm McKinsley, that insecure asshole.” A hot insecure asshole. “He uses his privilege to pick on people smaller than him and I want his head. On a platter. On a stick. Buried six feet deep.”

Beau laughs, “Damn, Ember.”

“The only power he has is being the dickhead, psychopathic son to a parasite. And just like that parasite he has a perversion in shattering everything he touches. Thing is, he couldn’t handle it if someone broke him. He’s a predator. I wish he would die. Even if I have to be the one to do it.”

My heaving breaths fill the car before Beau whistles, taking the flask away. “Feel better?” He places his phone on his lap.

“A little?” I laugh, my rant and the buzz from the gin easing the pain.

“Good. I have an idea.” Beau’s hand comes on top of mine. Gentle. Soft. “Why don’t you stay with me tonight? You don’t have to go back to The Valley. My mom’s off with her toy for the evening so I have the entire place to myself, and an app where we can order whatever you want.”

My stomach grumbles at the mention of food. When was the last time I ate? “Keep talking,” I say, my words coming with a bit of a slur.

“Afterwards, you can sink into a whirlpool tub then cozy into a king sized bed with soft organic cotton.”

My mind finally switches from Mac’s model face to the idea of curling up in luxury. After a day like today, I could use some pampering. I don’t even know what word means but The Hill is the right place for it. “I’d really like that.” Reaching for my phone in my tote, I tap out a quick text to Uncle Jake, telling him where I’ll be. Not that he’d be awake to read it.

“Well then, let’s get you home.” Beau’s eyes dart around my face. “My home that is. And don’t worry, no funny business.” He winks, his hand moving from mine.

“Hey Beau,” I reach for his hand again, holding onto that bit of warmth. “You sure about that last bit?”

I see the first glint of bashfulness on his face when a hint of pink appears on his cheeks. “I don’t have to be.” Moving closer, I try to replace the memories of Mac’s cock in my face as quick as I can. And gin leads the way. “Want to get outta here?”

Slam!

The car door shuts, bringing me out of my gin-infused daze of Beau’s very blue eyes. A rumble comes under me and… was the car always on?

“Sure, let’s go.”

That’s not Beau’s voice.

My body jolts awake, the tipsiness from the liquor dissipating when I see who’s sitting in the driver’s seat.

Mac.

“What are you doing in my car, McKinsley?” Beau asks. He picks up his phone, recording again.

A deep chuckle comes from the driver’s seat as the doors lock around us. I don’t know what Mac”s up to now, but there’s no way I’m going anywhere with him.

Reaching for the door, I pull the handle but it doesn’t open.

Screech!

My body slams against the door as we take a hard turn out the Sun House parking lot. Beau’s shoulder crashes into mine as my eyes lock on Mac’s in the rearview. They look as psychotic as they did moments ago. Glossier, like he did get that drink. Or five.

“We’re just going for a little ride,” Mac says. “Hold on.”

My grip tightens around the seatbelt as we veer onto a small dark road. “Haven’t you done enough?” He hardly has his eyes on the road, I know because they’re on mine.

I glance from those iron eyes to the speedometer. He’s way beyond the limit.

“You’ll see,” Mac answers.

“Watch out!” Beau calls.

Mac swerves around a cyclist as I grip harder to the fabric holding me in place until it digs into my skin.

Don’t show fear.

The roar of Beau’s engine means he can’t hear how fast my heart beats. He moves in and out of traffic, chuckling every time Beau calls out.

“This isn’t funny, Mac, pull over,” Beau demands. Mac speeds up some more. “Mac!”

Another swerve makes me shut my eyes.

“I swear, Mac!” Beau yells, clearly as fed up with Mac’s shit as I am. “Don’t make me call Daddy.” Beau wiggles his phone and it’s a bad idea.

Mac reaches behind him, pulling it out his hand. Then he tosses it out the window. The engine revs as he speeds up. “Who you gonna call now? Your whore of a mother won’t help you.” The car swerves some more and I don’t know if Mac has any control. He’s still not watching the road. Instead, he glares right at me, my back pressed against the seat.

“Mac, stop!” Beau calls again.

It’s like he’s trying to kill me with that gaze. Like his eyes are bullets.

“Malcolm, I command you to stop!”

Then that smirk appears.

“Fuck, Mac, watch out!”

My eyes shift to the road but I see nothing but darkness.

Screech!

A gasp leaves me as my body feels weightless. My stomach drops, the world spinning.

So does the car.

It all happens so fast and I don’t know what he hit, or where we are. But Mac’s eyes are the last things I see before the world slows, and everything goes black.

“Ember.”

The serene sweet sound of nothingness fills me as Uncle Jake flashes in my head. So do Mom and Dad. Their fights. Their laughter.

Pow!

That gun shot.

“Ember.”

Him.

I can hear him now, haunting me in the afterlife.

“Ember!”

I can still feel the way my insides twist when he says my name. Even in a world beyond.

“Ember!”

A hard sting comes to my skin. Then my eyes widen to him.

The sound of the world comes crashing back as that sculpted face moves closer. My eyes fall to his heart-shaped lips as they close in, a little open as if he’s about to give me air.

Pull away, pull away, pull away!

But I’m too dazed to move when his lips graze mine.

The ground shakes beneath me and I don’t know where I am or remember why he’s here but… I want more.

My lips beg to connect to the soft pillowy pair in front of me, and when they do, a soft moan escapes me.

I’m spinning again, my body melting into the earth as a wave of warmth overtakes me and a thousand sparks fill me.

Then it all fades, as quickly as it came.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” That voice pulls me down to earth as he blurs into view.

The bane of my existence.

Wait, did we really just…?

My fingers come to my tingling lips as chills wash over me.

“Get the fuck up, Butterfly.” Mac hovers over me, patting his soaking blazer before he pulls out a golden case. As he pulls out a cigarette, droplets fall from his hair landing on me.

I’m on grass. Wet grass.

“It’s just you and me,” he says.

When I try to speak, I choke, water in my throat.

Then it all comes flooding back.

The car. The drive.

The flip.

“Get. Up,” he growls.

With a few more coughs, I push up on my elbows, my body aching when I do. Wincing at the pain, my eyes move around as I try to grasp reality. I don’t see the car.

I also don’t see anyone else.

My eyes widen. “Wh-where’s?—”

My words cut off when I’m lifted in the air, my body stinging with the pull. It’s dark around us but I’m trying to make sense of everything as quick as I can.

His arm comes around me, heat coming with it despite our soaked clothes. He cradles me for a moment before my feet touch the ground. He holds my hand as he steadies me, the only warmth coming to my body. Looking up at Mac, he stares right back. That maniacal gaze in the rearview mirror flashes in my head and I stumble back. He catches me, and when I try to pull away he keeps me in place.

Where the fuck are we? What are we doing out here? Why did he bring me here?

And where the fuck is?—?

Something falls over my shoulders, stopping my thoughts. It’s wet, but the extra layer feels warmer and when I look back at Mac his blazer’s gone, his cigarette lit.

A pair of headlights come from behind him, my eyes squinting.

“Let’s go. Now.” A puff of cigarette blows in my face before he grabs my hand, pulling me towards the black car coming to a stop. My heart thumps as I pull back on his hand, but he tugs harder. “I’m not fucking around, Ember, I’ll leave you the fuck out here.” My mind tells me that would be the better option. But when a driver hops out in a penguin suit and opens the door, the warmth from the car beckons me.

Mac walks towards it and I follow, the driver tucking us both inside. Mac keeps his cigarette lit inside the car, silence falling over us. The driver gets in and we back away from what I’m now realizing is a river.

No, a lake.

Words won’t leave my mouth, and as deafening as this silence is, I don’t end it. I don’t want to acknowledge that there’s one less person in this car than there should be.

“I’m bringing you home,” he says.

My home?

Looking at him again, he still has those eyes on me. “Looks like we’re in this together, Butterfly.”