Page 486 of Filthy Elites

“No,” she gasps.

“All the days you waited for your dad to go out on his boat before you cried yourself to sleep, I knew about. All the times you’ve been asked out on dates or to parties I knew about. When the doctor offered to put you on birth control and tried to get you to take anti-anxiety medication, I knew about it.”

She shakes her head as a single tear rolls down her cheek.

“I knew every school you applied to, so I’d know which admissions officers I needed to bribe into rejecting you. I made sure Kingsacre was your only option, I even awarded you the Lockwood scholarship so you’d feel obliged to come here rather than let your father take out a second mortgage to pay for school for you, just in case you were accepted elsewhere.”

Tears flow freely down her cheeks now, and I have to restrain myself from hauling her to me and licking them off her skin.

“Every step you’ve taken it’s been controlled by me, orchestrated to get you exactly where I wanted you to be. Here in this house, under my roof, under my control, mine.”

TWELVE

Starling

It can’t be true,it can’t be. He’s a kid, a rich kid but still just a kid. He doesn’t have access to a security team and even if he did, why the hell would he have them following me around? What would be the point?

“Why?” I ask.

“Because you’re destined to be mine.”

“But I don’t want you, I don’t want any of it. Pick a new toy to obsess over, one who wants you back.”

“You do want me, Starling.”

I shake my head. “I don’t, Sebastian. I don’t want you. I don’t want to be yours, I don’t want a present or a future with you, all I want is for you to forget I exist.”

“Did you know you say my name in your sleep, you dream about me,” he tells me casually like I haven’t just told him I want nothing to do with him.

“They’re nightmares, not dreams. You stalk me, stealing every bit of sunshine in my life until I’m suffocating in the darkness and then I die, begging you to leave me alone,” I confess, not bothering to try and sugarcoat how he haunts my subconscious.

His eyes fall closed for a second and when he opens them again, they’re harder, and full of steely determination. “I’ll make you want me again.”

Grimacing, I force a pained smile to my lips. “I never wanted you, Sebastian.”

“Then you’ll learn to fucking pretend,” he yells, stalking toward me, and grabbing my upper arms in an unyielding grip as he leans down and kisses me.

His lips slam against mine and he forces his tongue into my mouth, kissing me with a punishing force that I loathe but which ignites something inside of me that’s been dormant since the last time he touched me.

My body threatens to wilt into him, but I force myself to stay ramrod straight, not lifting my hands to reach for him, or reacting to him at all. His growl of frustration is almost gratifying enough to make me smile, but I keep my lips flat and unmoving, not wanting him to think he’s done something to warrant my happiness.

“Kiss me back,” he growls.

Staying still I let him kiss me, but give him nothing in return. I want him to know that he might be able to take from me, but I won’t willingly give him anything.

Pulling away from me, he runs soft fingers over the skin at the back of my neck and I fight back a whimper. “I preferred your hair when it was long; when I could wrap my hand around it and tug on it,” he says, gripping a thick strand of hair and pulling until I whimper.

“I like it short,” I whisper.

The room is silent except for me and Sebastian but I can still feel the other guys’ presence, they’re still here, watching this all go down.

“You all live here, in this house?”

“Our families own it,” Clay says.

“Of course they do,” I nod, exhaling.

“I should go.” Before I can complete a single step, Sebastian tightens his hold on my hair and yanks me back to him.

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