Chapter 20
WILLOW
The next day, I walk across campus, shooting glances from side to side as I go. I’ve been on edge all day, worried that whoever I saw last night is still here, waiting to find me again and attack me.
But I don’t see any signs of him, and there’s no one lurking around, waiting to hurt me.
I head into the science building a little after noon, walking to my next class. It’s in one of the bigger lecture halls, and I take a seat in the back, pulling out my notebook and pens, ready to take notes.
The room fills up slowly, students trickling in, laughing and talking as they settle into their seats, and then the professor comes in as well, taking his place at the front.
“We’ll be watching a film today,” he intones, then sweeps us all with a warning look. “And before you start thinking this might be an excellent time for a post-lunch nap, I should tell you—there will be a quiz on this later, so be sure to pay attention.”
He starts up the projector, gesturing for a student near the front of the room to dim the lights.
As the film starts to play, the door at the back of the lecture hall opens. I hear quiet footsteps, and then someone walks down the row where I’m sitting and settles into the seat beside me.
Without even looking over, I know who it is. I’ve learned to recognize his scent by now, as well as the way his very presence seems to disturb the atoms in the air, making every room he’s in seem to shrink.
Malice.
He’s sitting right next to me, but he seems almost too big and intimidating to be in this setting.
It’s hard to imagine him taking notes or answering questions from Professor Holborn, and I swallow hard before glancing over at him.
Even though this campus is ‘my turf,’ so to speak, I know that doesn’t mean anything.
I feel just as intimidated as always when it comes to Malice.
“What are you doing here?” I whisper, trying not to draw attention to us.
“Vic looked into that guy who was following you,” he tells me, his voice low. “He doesn’t have anything to do with that night. He was just a fucking creep.”
I glance over at him in the shadowy lecture hall. “What do you mean, a creep?”
“The asshole had two sexual assault charges on his record, a domestic abuse charge, and a restraining order against him. He wasn’t trying to get info from you. He just wanted something else.”
My stomach clenches, tightening into a knot. So my pursuer didn’t want to ask me about the guys or Nikolai… he just wanted to attack me or rape me. I swallow hard, replaying everything that happened last night in my mind.
What would have happened if I hadn’t gotten away from that guy? And what might happen if he decides to come after me again?
Malice’s eyes are on me, and as if he can read my thoughts, he shrugs.
“Ransom and I took care of him.”
He says it with the same casual bluntness that he might say ‘Ransom and I went to buy milk,’ but his words send a shiver down my spine. I might not know these men well, but I’ve learned a lot more about them than I ever expected to, and I already know they’re intimately acquainted with violence.
Did they kill the man who tried to attack me?
I can’t decide if that thought is terrifying or reassuring.
“I’m glad it wasn’t anything to do with the secret I’m keeping,” I murmur to Malice, deciding not to ask for clarification about exactly how they took care of him.
“You’re lucky it wasn’t anything to do with that,” Malice shoots back, and I know what he means. He’s made it perfectly clear that his ruthlessness will extend to me if I betray him or his brothers.
“If I’d known it was just a random guy, I wouldn’t have bothered you with it,” I whisper. “I’m sorry I barged into your place last night.”
Malice snorts, and I shoot him a glance out of the corner of my eye.
“Are you sorry?” he asks, raising a dark brow.
I don’t know what he means at first, and I frown in confusion.
“I saw the way your pupils got all blown out,” he whispers. “How long were you standing there watching?”
My shoulders stiffen, and I nearly choke on my next inhale.
Except for that brief moment at the end of the night when he asked about what he’d walked in on, Ransom mostly let me pretend it hadn’t happened.
I was sort of hoping all the brothers would do the same, but I should’ve known better than to expect that from Malice.
“I know you were turned on,” Malice continues, leaning toward me as he speaks in a low voice that trickles down my spine. “You liked watching it, didn’t you? Me fucking the shit out of some girl. You enjoyed it. Have you got a voyeurism kink under that innocent little face?”
I don’t answer him, but my cheeks feel like they’re on fire.
I should be pissed off at him for saying stuff like that to me, but instead, I can feel my body reacting.
Arousal surges through me at the memory of Malice pressing that woman down on the couch, taking what he wanted from her.
My heartbeat feels loud in my head, and every nerve ending feels charged and ready to respond to the slightest touch.
As if Malice can sense it, he reaches over and rests a hand on my thigh.
“Oh…”
The word slips out of me, half gasp and half sigh, and I hold myself rigid in my seat.
My notebook is open on the fold out desk in front of me, a pen grasped in my hand and poised over the paper, but I haven’t taken a single note.
The video plays on the large screen at the front of the lecture hall, but all I’m aware of is the heat of Malice’s palm on my leg.
“Should I find out?” he murmurs. “Should I see if thinking about me fucking her makes you wet?”
He trails his hand up higher, just barely teasing the place between my thighs with his fingertips. I drop the pen and grip the edge of the desk, my hips jerking forward involuntarily as sparks shoot through my limbs, radiating out from my clit.
“Tell me to stop.” Malice’s voice is a low burn in my ear. “If you don’t tell me to stop, Solnyshka, I’m going to find out the answer to that question.”
Oh my god. There’s no way he’s going to… Not in class.
But he is. He does.
When I don’t answer or even shake my head, his hand works its way under the waistband of my pants, slipping beneath my panties to find my clit. I bite down hard on my lip as he circles that sensitive bud with the pad of one rough finger.
“Yeah,” he muses. “I was right. If I wasn’t, you wouldn’t be so fucking soaked right now.”
His voice is so quiet that only I can hear it, but it seems designed to go right to my core.
I squeeze my legs together, terrified that someone is going to look over and see, but Malice doesn’t seem bothered by that possibility at all as he works his hand a little lower, dipping two fingers into me shallowly.
He slides them out and brings them to my clit again, pressing and rubbing against it in a way that sends jolt after jolt of hot, intense pleasure through me.
I keep trying to force it down, to breathe through it and keep my face impassive. But Malice’s willpower is a terrifying thing, and it’s clear he’s not going to let up until he gets what he wants.
And what he wants seems to be for me to fall apart right here and now.
Oh god. Oh fuck. I dig my teeth into my lower lip and close my eyes, trying to fight against the tide of it.
That proves to be a mistake, because with my eyes closed, I can vividly picture the glimpse of Malice’s cock I got last night, and my brain fills in how intense it would feel to have that inside me.
A whimper builds in my throat, and I swallow it back, my eyes snapping open. I make the mistake of looking over at Malice, and he’s looking right back at me.
His dark eyes burn with heat as he stares at me, half a glower, half… something else. In the dim light of the classroom, he looks even more like a shadowy god than usual.
“Look around you,” he whispers, leaning in even closer so that his lips almost touch my ear. “No one in this room knows that you’re about to come. No one but you and me. They don’t know how fucking slick you are, or how you’re grinding against my hand. They don’t know how fucking greedy you are.”
I shake my head, but I don’t really know what I’m objecting to. Maybe this whole thing. But I don’t tell him to stop.
He traps my clit between two fingers, pinching it lightly, and it sends a jolt of sensation through me so intense that it almost takes my breath away. I bite down harder on my lip, a second away from putting my hand over my mouth to keep from making noise.
The heat in me builds and builds, getting sharper and more intense. And then, all of a sudden, it’s too much. I can’t stop it, and Malice seems to know that. He moves his fingers faster, sending me hurtling over the edge.
When my orgasm hits me, it feels like I’m having a seizure or something. It takes over my whole body, white hot and electric, making me shudder from head to toe. I cling to him, my fingers digging into his muscled forearm as I try desperately to be quiet so that no one will look over at us.
As the waves of sensation finally start to ebb away, I’m panting for breath, my nostrils flaring as I struggle to keep my desperate inhalations from getting too loud.
Malice works his hand free, dragging it out from my jeans.
Holding my gaze, he licks his fingers clean one by one, his tongue practically caressing each digit. Then he drags two fingers over my cheek, a little of his saliva and my arousal smearing on my skin.
“If you see anyone else following you, let us know,” he says, his tone turning hard and businesslike again.
Without another word, he gets up and walks out of the classroom as the movie continues to play.
Once the door closes quietly behind him, I slump in my chair, my heart still racing and my entire body burning up like I have a fever.
The rest of the lecture passes by in a haze, and I have no idea how I manage to pack up my things and file out of the building with everyone else when it ends.
My legs feel shaky, and every so often, there’s a phantom pulse between my thighs, as if the aftershocks of my orgasm are still coursing through me.
I blink in the sunlight as I step outside the building, and as my eyes adjust to the brightness after the darkened classroom, I notice Colin heading up the pathway in my direction.
He waves, jogging up to me. “Hey, Willow. How’s it going?”
It takes me a second to unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth and remember how to talk to a normal person. Like a normal person.
“Oh, um, I’m fine,” I finally say. “How are you?”
“Not bad. Got an A on my business administration paper, so I’m feeling good.” He peers at me a little closer, a look of concern flashing over his face. “Are you okay? You look a little flushed. You’re not getting sick, are you?”
“N-no, I’m just hot,” I tell him. “It was really hot in my last class. Maybe the air conditioner is broken.”
Embarrassment rises inside me, and I’m sure it’s making me look even more flushed. I hate how turned on I am by what Malice did to me. He’s not even here anymore, and I’m still feeling it.
I just want to be normal. I want to like normal things. I want safety and security and all the things that go along with that.
None of those things are things the three brothers represent. It freaks me out that I’m drawn to them the way I am, like a moth pulled toward the flame that will end up destroying it.
Oblivious to the turmoil churning in my gut, Colin grins at me.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he says. “You’re still coming to the party on Thursday, right?”
I nod, trying to get my mind off of Malice and the others. Parties are normal. College students go to parties and hang out with their friends, and that’s what I’m going to do.
“Of course. I’ll be there,” I promise.