Chapter Nine
Jonas .
“You don’t think this whole nonverbal thing is a way to trick you?”
I glare at Chase who’s chewing a mouthful of turkey, bacon, avocado and Swiss on toasted gluten-free low-carb rye in the noisy dining hall. “Trick me into what? What the fuck are you even saying?”
“Nothing. He’s being a dick.” Riordan quips.
“No, I’m being a good friend and watching out for him. The entire student body is saying she’s faking it. Melissa said she heard her talking to someone in her room the other night.”
I drop my pizza and stare at the gorgeous all-American identical frat boys sitting across from me. “What?”
Chase shrugs and Riordan looks down at his roasted chicken breast and broccoli.
Since I’ve known them, Riordan is the freakish health-nut during on season, being the leaner twin.
Chase just makes up his carb-loading by hitting the gym extra hard, being the more stacked, sturdy of the two.
But they’re both incredibly good looking, like dirty blonde Henry Cavill's.
One glance and the women here throw their panties at them.
Us.
Out of all the families that own this town, the Prescott’s are richer than sin.
They're old money from England, but they own the oldest retail companies. All of them. Any large chain store you can think of, they own. Sure, people think they’re owned by separate companies but in the end, if you connect all the dots, the Prescott’s have funded any large retail chain and own over sixty percent of shares in every business.
Behind them are the Monroe's. Raven’s great-great grandfather owned bookstores along the entire east and west coast, in the nineties, it was online bookstores, rivaling Amazon. Then her stepdad with his techs and gadgets; the Monroe's are newish money. Only a few decades old.
Followed by my family; the fucking Andersons with their billion-dollar realty company that was established in 1952.
Fact of the matter is, we own this fucking school.
Between our three families, by nothing but surnames and wealth – are the elite.
The big bad fucking monsters, the legacies who're in the back of everyone’s minds and yet hushed when spoken about.
Nobody else fucking matters. Not them, not their families, not even their barely-a-blip money. And they know it.
That’s why when I took a semester off and came back, nobody said shit to me.
Yeah, they talked about me, sure. Never to my face.
Besides, it was all just rumors. Nobody could prove a goddamn thing.
Riordan and Chase have an inkling as to what happened - even had the balls to ask me about it once.
I shot them a glare and topped off the bottle of the twenty-four-year-old bottle of Macallan.
Nobody will ever - can ever know. I’ll take this secret to my fucking grave.
Fuck I miss George right now. I gotta tell him all about Raven.
“Melissa is a fucking pathological liar and an attention whore. Didn’t she pretend to be pregnant last year? One of yours? For a whole four months?” I deflect.
Chase swallows. “We signed an NDA; we can’t talk about that.”
I roll my eyes as Riordan sighs. “We’re just worried about you man; we haven’t seen you like this with anyone since… you know.”
Images of a caramel blonde with wavy locks and piercing blue eyes infiltrates my brain and I could violently spew out my three slices of pizza right now.
I stand up, grabbing my tray from the table.
“Raven’s not her. If you’re being my fucking friends , then trust me when I tell you Raven’s not faking it and she’s… she’s not her . She'll never be her. ”
“Okay, JoJo. Okay. Sit down. We trust your judgment. We’re just… you know, looking out for you is all.”
“I get it. I know I’m… I know I’m different now and it probably feels like last time but it’s not. There’s just something about her. She doesn’t make me feel crazy she makes me feel…” I take my seat, unwilling to look at them yet.
The truth is, Raven makes me feel fucking unhinged .
I want her to talk to me. I want to know everything that’s going on in her mind.
I want to hear her moans and whimpers and gasps when I finally make her come on my tongue.
I want her to scream my fucking name when she lets me shove all of me between those thick, creamy thighs of hers at once.
But I also just want to hear her talk about the fucking weather.
Or read me her favorite passage in a book.
Except… except I like her silence. I love her little gestures, the way she speaks without having to and these fuckers wouldn’t understand that.
Riordan might. I mean, he’s at least had a girlfriend once or twice since I’ve known him in the last three years.
But Chase? Chase fucks more girls than he changes his underwear.
I’m not even sure he washes his dick in-between fucks. He’d never get it.
But they’re already tied down. The Prescott’s are traditional in more than one sense when it comes to the word.
They’re both already betrothed with a bride arranged for them and set to marry when they turn twenty-six to women of pedigree and status.
They won’t get to marry for love. They get to breed more Prescott heirs.
“ Peace . I don’t know if it’s because she doesn’t have to fill up every single moment with incessant chattering or because when I look at her something happens inside me but she…
it’s quiet around her. It’s quiet and I feel like I can breathe and I can think and I fucking love it.
I want to put it all in a vial and carry it around and just have it with me all the time. This... silence. It’s fucking nice.”
“Is that why you haven’t disappeared to the bell tower?”
I snap my gaze to their ocean ones. “You know about that?”
Chase swallows the last of his sandwich. “We know you get moody and go somewhere. But there’s nowhere else on campus you could go other than the library and you aren’t exactly the studious type.”
“I study.” I lie .
“You open your textbook and use it as a pillow after five minutes.”
“And yet I maintain a 3.8 GPA. Besides, she does talk to me.”
Riordan’s cerulean gaze meets mine from across the table. “She talks to you?”
“Not with words, exactly. Little gestures. I mean, you experienced it this morning. When you asked if she was going to our game on Friday. When she squeezed your hand, even for a brief moment, what did it feel like she was saying?”
He cocks his head side to side as if thinking it over. “Like she said, ‘thanks but no thanks.’”
“So then you get it.”
Before he can reply, I watch Raven leaving the psych department like a bat out of hell only for some bitch with red hair to purposely trip her. She barely manages to catch herself with her hands before a brunette dumps her iced mocha-frappè-whatever all over Raven’s head.
“What the fuck?” Chase whispers as we watch the interaction. Raven throws her backpack down, getting up quickly, yanks the girl by the same wrist still holding the empty cup, twists her arm behind her back and has her on her knees before my fucking goddess, execution style.
My dick goes stone hard so fast I get dizzy and I have to readjust myself before I run out after her.
The closer I get to the scene, I see it’s fucking Addison Cleary, and she’s screaming obscenities and the more she screams, “ I knew you’re a fucking psycho!
” The more I’m sure my goddess is going to break Addison’s wrist. I want her to.
I desperately want to hear the snap of Addison’s bones.
I love the look of absolute hostile animosity on Raven.
It’s so ferocious, even her features have turned sharper in her snarl.
Her soft eyes are nearly black and she’s breathing so hard her chest is heaving.
“Baby?” At the sound of my voice her eyes snap up to find me in the crowd that’s gathered and I push my way forward. “Baby, c’mon. Let the horrible little thing go. Let’s go get you cleaned up.”
She glances back down and pulls her hand away from Addison like she burned her, grabs her backpack, and runs away, hair flying behind her .
“Raven!” I call out but the twins hold me back.
“Still don’t believe she’s faking it? She may look innocent but that was definitely not a helpless little mouse.” Chase says and I swear it’s like his voice has duplicated, sending chills down my spine.
“No,” I reply, my eyes still following her. “That was the look of a wounded animal that was backed into a corner. That was the look of someone that had to learn how to defend herself and she did. Isn’t she fucking magnificent?”
“Magnificent?!” Addison screams. “Your psycho bitch of girlfriend nearly broke my wrist!”
Ooh. Girlfriend . I like that. I like that a lot.
My feathers are the biggest in all the land.
I roll my eyes and sneer down at Addison.
“That’s probably carpal tunnel pain from those shitty blowjobs you gave half the football team during the toga party on Friday.
I’m amazed you don’t have lockjaw. I saw you.
All wrist, no muscle, couldn’t even deep throat Schwartz.
Didn’t you scrape Chase’s dick with your big teeth? ”
“Yeah she did.” He agrees and the crowd laughs.
“Seriously, Addison, you go from bad to worse. Mad because I won’t fuck you so you give the worst blowies to my friends to what?
Make them suffer? Now, you’re jealous because Raven’s not just hotter than you, but she has everyone’s attention – my attention - so you thought you’d be petty and embarrass her by spilling coffee on her?
And look where you are now; on your knees and I still won’t fucking touch you.
You’re fucking pathetic like the rest of your family.
Always were, always will be. The funniest part is that not one person here fucking likes you because you’re an insufferable bitch.
You could die today and not one person will miss you.
If you go to Dean Whitmore , no one will testify for you.
Because everyone here saw you trip and fall on your pathetic scrawny ass.
” I enunciate and stand to my full height and address the crowd. “What a bad tumble, wasn’t it?”
The murmurs come back to me, all in agreement.
“Listen here, listen now, Raven Monroe is mine . She’s off fucking limits. If any of you have a problem, come to me and I’ll happily rip out your throat because no, you fucking don’t.” I say calmly. “Now shoo like the vermin you are.”
I decide not to go after her this time. Even I know when someone needs space. Granted, I’ve never had coffee dumped over my head, (just a few alcoholic beverages by sorority girls I’ve slept with while their sister is sucking my cock) I’m pretty sure she needs alone time.
“I’m gonna take a nap and hit the gym.” Chase announces. “See you there?”
I nod. Yeah, I definitely need to blow off some steam later. Besides, I know her schedule like my own. I’ll find out all of her secrets. She’ll never be able to hide from me ever again.