Page 31 of Burned By Sin
“Yes, a throne. Every King deserves one, does he not?” The others nearby pause, exchanging looks but they obey. Keeping watch over the rearranging of physics books Harper is likely to not need, adrenaline prickles beneath my skin. It comes together quickly, which is lucky. Harper’s nightly study session is due to start soon.
Dropping onto the throne, I marvel at its sturdiness. The base is built from hardcover tomes, the armrests from stacked binders of lab notes, and the seat is a thick slab of texts covered by a single sofa cushion.Said sofa has been lost beneath the towers of anatomy manuals, the coffee table lost beneath molecular models and open notebooks. I catch myself smiling as the jocks all line up before me, eager for my approval.
“Good job gentleman. I’ll speak to Coach in the morning.” Dismissing them with a flick of my wrist, I lean back, smug as fuck. Harper can fight me all she likes, but when it comes to her safety, I’m not taking any chances. If she won’t stop visiting the library, then she’ll have to come and find it here.
Ten minutes past seven, my legs are crossed and I have a celebratory whiskey in hand as my front door flies open. I hear her pass through the lower level, her stomping hard enough to rattle the windowpanes, before she rounds the stacks, her eyes alight with rage. Haloed by the light from the hall, her hair is flustered from the wind, cheeks flushed pink. She seems to be alone but I know better than to think Clay isn’t hanging back on the porch.
“What the actualhelldid you do?” Her voice slices through me like a siren, high and furious and, God, so fucking alive. Resting my glass on the cover ofCellular Metabolism and Human Function,I crack my neck side to side.
“Improved your access to study material,” I say smoothly, gesturing around us. “Welcome to your new library.”Her eyes flick from the piles of books to the throne I’m sitting on. Her mouth opens, then shuts again, and for a long moment, she just stares, caught somewhere between fury and utter disbelief.
“Youstolethem?” she accuses, eyes narrowing.
“Borrowed,” I correct smoothly, straightening my collar. “I checked the library policy. Turns out there’s no actual limit on how many books you can borrow within a two-week period. So, unless I decide to extend my lease, you’ve got exactly fourteen days to cram and crank out Peterson’s new assignment.” I flash her a slow grin. “You can thank me by writing my essay too.”
Her laugh is harsh and humourless, her hands slapping against her legging-clad thighs. Muttering curses beneath her breath, I watchHarper catalogue the texts, presumably checking for damage. When she can’t find anything, she folds her arms and taps her foot.
“They’re not alphabetized,” she pouts. I grin, unable to ignore how cute that pout is, and reach my hand out for her.
“I’m only human, Babygirl. A simple thank you would suffice.” Those green eyes swing to me, incredulous beneath pinched brows.
“For being so overbearing, you’ve cut off everyone else from the material they’re going to need as well? It’s not all about me, you know.” I snort. She’s wrong there.
“I don’t give a fuck about anyone else. Now, sit in my lap and praise me the way a King deserves.”
Her sigh is long and exasperated, but her shoulders loosen just enough for me to catch a flicker of amusement beneath the irritation. I know, I’m irresistible. Taking two steps towards me, Harper whips her phone out of her jacket pocket and taps out a quick message before relenting. As expected, Clayton’s silhouette passes beyond the window as he strides down my pathway, effectively being dismissed. I smile with all the arrogance of a man who’s just gained the upper hand.
Curling my arms around her, I breathe in the vanilla scent of her shampoo and nudge my nose against her receiver. If someone had told me a year ago that this would be the girl that turned my world upside down, I would have laughed in their face. But back then, I didn’t know someone like Harper existed. That someone who’s known pain, grief and misery can still be so spirited, bold and pragmatic. I thought the only way to deal with trauma was to bury it, not to own it.
Indulging in my cuddle for a few minutes, Harper pats my head like a puppy and slides free from my lap. She retrieves her backpack from where it must have been tossed by the front and raises a brow at me expectantly. I stare blanky, not quite sure what to do now. I’d kind of anticipated that she’d be on her knees in front of me, overwhelmed by gratitude as my cock sinks into her mouth. Instead, she’s rolling her eyes and tilting her head to the side.
“Come on then. It’s study time.” Using the pathway provided,Harper walks to the dining table and pulls out her highlighters and sticky notes. “Pick up a book, Rhys. We need to settle on a topic for the essay that you’re going to write yourself.” I gaze after her, my mouth parted.
“I’m sitting here on a throne, ready to have the soul sucked out of me, and you want to study?!”
“Actually, it’syouwho wants me to study. Isn’t that why you’ve done all of this, to become my new revision partner?”
My mouth slams shut, my thoughts stuttering to a halt. Looking over the stacks with new eyes, the smugness falls away as I realize what I’ve effectively done. I’ve cockblocked myself by giving Harper two thousand reasons to ignore me. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I’m preparing to set the entire room on fire as the doorbell rings. A murmur of voices bleeds through the walls, and when I peer through the window, I find my front lawn covered with figures.
“Oh, I hope you don’t mind,” Harper pitches in, unable to hide her smile, “I know how you like to make outlandish statements on the student forum, I thought I’d give it a try. Ooo, is that a coffee machine?” She distracts herself, wandering off. A tic beats in my jaw as I march across the room, tearing my phone out of my pocket. Just as I reach the front door, I see Harper’s public message and almost lose my shit.
RHYS’ LIBRARY - OPEN NIGHTLY TO SCIENCE STUDENTS BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 7-10PM
Ripping the door open, ready to snarl at them to get the fuck off my property, Clayton leads the parade, barging past me with a stack of pizzas in his arms. There’s no hiding his smirk, the bastard. Streams of nerds shove their way into my house, marveling at the height of the ceilings and size of the room as they scuff the floorboards with their muddy shoes. Through the shitshow that has become my evening,Harper catches my eye and blows a kiss. I storm upstairs and throw a spoiled tantrum in my room.
Once I’ve calmed down, and the growling in my stomach will no longer be denied, I leave the smashed lamp on my bedroom floor behind and slump back into the hallways, each step hollow like my damn soul.I hate this academy. I hate these people. I hate my plans backfiring.
The chatter below is louder, and none of it is interesting. Clayton climbs the stairs, pretending I’m not lurking around like a hostile shadow as he enters the bathroom.I wait outside like some crazed stalker until he reappears.
“You’re walking on thin ice, Scum,” I growl. I expect his shoulders to tense in his white t-shirt, but instead he looks amused. With his blonde waves free from the god-awful beanies he usually wears, he almost looks like a regular college jock. Not the convict scraping by on the last of his luck I know him to be.
“What did I do?” he chuckles.Chuckles.The audacity is treading on my last nerve. Without breaking eye contact, I gesture over the banister to the room below where the mumbling and giggling is emanating from. His eyebrow cocks over black eyes that are enjoying my distress far too much. “You know as much as I do, Harper won’t be bossed around. Besides, have you seen her?”
After a moment, I follow his eye line and spot Harper. Not that I’ve been looking at much else, but now I see how wide her smile is. She’s crossing the lounge, handing out steaming mugs and leaning over to answer a question. Her ass looks fantastically plump, but then her laughter rings out. She’s interacting with people. Students that have judged and scorned her for months are finally smiling, shifting books aside to make room for her beside them. She’s actually making friends.
“Harper needs this,” Clayton says from behind me, moving toward the staircase. I stalk after him, fisting my hands by my side.
“She doesn’t need anyone except me,” I glower. I’m not sure where that comes from, but I won’t deny it either. The way she tames mybeast, pushes me beyond boundaries I didn’t know where holding me back. I sure know all I need is her, so why can’t it work both ways? Why can’t I be the center of her world too?
