Page 13 of Sinful Storms

Digging into my pocket as I reached them, I wrapped my fingers around the enamel pin badge, warm from my body heat. It glinted in the sweeping lights as I held it out to Will.

“William Fitzgerald-Jones. I’d like to offer you the position of head boy.” I shrugged, my lips curving upwards. “Not like it’s mine to give, but our esteemed headmaster will be formally offering it to you tomorrow.” Turning to his girlfriend, I added, “I hear they think the two of you make a good team, so try and act surprised when they offer you the head girl position, okay?”

With that, I pressed the badge into Will’s hand and left them both staring after me, open-mouthed.

What to do next? Or who…?

I scanned the room once, then twice, groaning when I realised I was unconsciously looking for Aria. She hadn’t left already, had she? She wasn’t the type to run away. If anything?—

An image appeared in my mind of her walking away from me. At the time, I’d been too caught up in cock-related issues, but now I thought about it…she’d seemed purposeful. Determined.

My radar was pinging, and I listened to my instincts for once. My dick could wait—finding out what Aria was up to couldn’t.

With that in mind, I headed up the stairs into Hatherley Hall’s cellars, debating where to start my hunt. Aria’s dorm…the Epicurus house common room…the bell tower?

The bell tower. It had to be.

After a quick detour to my room, where I switched out my jeans for grey cashmere sweatpants and my loafers for trainers, Igrabbed a hoodie, pocketed my phone, and made my way to the off-limits part of the school.

When I entered the hidden stairwell that led up to the tower, I paused, cocking my head and listening. Faint metallic clanging sounds came from overhead, followed by a muttered curse and a long scrape that sounded like something heavy being dragged along the floor. What the fuck was happening?

Silently, I ascended the winding stairs, hugging the wall so I wouldn’t be seen until I wanted to.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I found Aria in the ruined tower room, crouching down with her back to me. An open box was placed in front of her, the metal dull and rusted. A small crowbar lay on the floor to her left, and next to it was what looked like a broken padlock. As I stepped forwards to get a better look at the contents of the box, I noticed a section of the floorboards had been prised up, revealing a dark space beneath.

She was completely intent on whatever she was doing, and so I held back, watching. Whatever it was, it was so far from what I’d expected.

Shifting across the dusty floorboards, she reached for the blanket she kept up here, arranging it next to the box, and then took a seat on top of it, cross-legged. Reaching inside the box, she carefully lifted out a…fuck, I couldn’t see what it was. I needed to get a closer look.

I stepped inside the room.

A floorboard creaked beneath my foot, and her head flew around, a shocked gasp tearing from her throat.

Whatever she was holding fell back into the box, and she slammed the lid shut.

“What the fuck do you want?” she hissed. It showed how shaken she was because she didn’t even try to give me any shit like she normally would, and now, my radar was pinginghard.

I thought for a second. If I asked her what she was doing outright, she wasn’t going to give me the truth. And I really wanted to know what she was up to. I just had to make sure she didn’t realise how much.

Folding my arms across my chest, I leaned against the door frame, smirking down at her.

“Did you have fun tonight, little scorpion? Letting Ty get his hands all over you while you watched Harriet with that longing expression on your face, wishing you were in her place?”

Rising to her feet, hiding the box behind her legs—which, by the way, didn’t fucking work—she shot me a savage glare. I smiled. There was the little scorpion I knew and loved to antagonise.

“You wish that was what I was thinking. Your average dick probably only got hard because I was there.”

“For someone who claims I have an average dick, you seem to talk about it a lot. Anything you want to confess?”

We’d somehow moved closer to each other, and now she was almost against my chest, still glaring up at me with all the ire she could muster up.

“That’s you projecting, head boy. Keep your fantasies in your head, where they belong.”

My smile widened into a grin. It was so much fun, fucking with her like this. “Do you want to know how many of my fantasies you star in?”

“Only if you want to pay for my therapy bill from the trauma it’ll cause me. I don’t want to know anything about the scenarios your sick mind comes up with.”

I reached out, gripping her shoulders and spinning her around before she had a chance to react, pressing her up against my back.