Chapter Two

Maxom

Black hair with blue streaks swirled around Maddie Sutcliff's taut frame where she ignored me across the library, as stoic as she had been for the past week. I made it my goal to be where she was as often as physically possible, knowing that the nothingness happening between us when she expected a head-on attack unnerved her.

Earning that little scream from her soft, pink lips would be so sweet, and so easy.

And so fucking rewarding.

Because she'd be on her knees when she gave it to me.

But for now I resorted to petty flirting, tormenting the edges of her psyche because I could. Hell, I even slid into her economics class for the perverse pleasure of twisting her mind around my needs.

She glanced up again, her brow furrowing as she stared at me through thick lashes. Our gazes connected, a flash of mutual need thrashing somewhere in the no-man's-land between us.

She broke the look—again—her head going down to focus on the page before her. My own work sat untouched, and I wondered if she struggled with the words as much as I did when she was near. She had no idea the depths of my obsession to destroy her.

Maddie Sutcliff thought the first time I saw her was after she fucked my twin in my house—he had his own, for fuck's sake, but rarely used it, preferring to bunk at mine—when I really had my sights set on her for a little while longer.

Do you remember a hen's night at a seedy strip club, Maddie?

I sure as hell did. Her in a tight, white sheath dress that covered her neck to wrist, and stopped at her ankles. Her usual boots and white leather jacket slung over her shoulder, her black-and-blue hair flowing free down her back. I stared at her the way my brother ogled the stripper my uncle paid to lap dance for him. Like I wanted nothing more than to take her into the dimly lit hall and fuck her until we both forgot who we were.

She glanced in my direction once, her cheeks pinked as she watched the bikini-clad stripper grind her crotch onto my twin's face. The twin she slept with the next week, ending with her in my kitchen searching for food like she owned the place at an indecent hour while that same brother slept upstairs in the room next to mine.

What does that say about you, Maddie? Did you get off watching him with her, or did you want it to be you?

If she wanted to play the exhibitionist, I'd give her all the chances she could ever beg for.

When she next glanced up at me I stretched my legs beneath the table, wiggling my fingers in her direction before I slid that same hand beneath the table to rub at my crotch as she watched. Her mouth fell open, that same stain rising in her cheeks she had while she watched the stripper do her thing.

Maybe you're not an exhibitionist, but have some voyeur tendencies instead?

I swallowed my grin, still palming my cock through my black jeans as I rose. She glanced around wildly, but as she preferred the back corner of the library where literally no one else sat, we were alone. For now.

I held her gaze as I walked forward, sliding my hands into my pockets to prevent myself from guiding them through her hair and shoving my cock down her throat.

Only because she hadn't begged me yet. But she would.

"What are you doing, Maxom?" She sighed and played it cool, pushing her fingers through her hair as she leaned back in her seat. "See this? It's called study time."

I snorted. "I don't need study time. From your grades, neither do you."

"How do you know my grades?" she frowned.

"You and my brother were talking them over after the last exam block. In my house, instead of his." I put emphasis on that last word, aiming at forestalling the coming objection. Because a little law student like her had plenty. "It's hard to avoid people in your own house and all."

Her mouth opened and closed once, then again. "He has his own house?"

Yes, Maddie. My brother kept plenty of secrets from you.

"He does."

"He never told me."

"I know." I looked at her, letting pity fill my eyes because I knew she'd hate it.

My pretty little obsession hated lots of things, and I was only part of a long list. Her pride—coming from a poor family and winning a scholarship where she had to house with other students like herself—came close to the top. The four of them were considered anathema for their backgrounds. I wondered if she cared about sorority life, or missing out on it.

"Why would he keep staying at yours with me?" She shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. You're lying."

"Am I?" Not knowing would kill her. And now she had no one left to ask on that front but had to trust my answer. I smiled and squatted on my heels so I perched at eye height with her. "Too bad you can't know the truth. Or recognize it."

"What truth?" she snapped.

"That he was never in love with you." Those words came as a surprise to me, secondary to the fact that I knew they were true the moment they left my lips.

I'd seen my twin in love before, which was why I never understood his why with Maddie. Their two years together felt like marking time rather than living.

"Go away," she scoffed. "You know nothing."

"I know you don't understand him." Neither did I, but that was beside the point. I kept that revelation to myself, uncomfortable as it was. "I know you struggle with your pride and feel like you don't fit into that house. I know you sometimes cry at night and want to be home in the UK. England is so far away," I mused, just to be a bigger asshole to her than I was already.

"Fuck you," she whispered, her face draining of color. "You don't know that."

"Lennox's room is right next to mine. I listened to him fuck you for two years while you pretended to come, though that waned after a while. I listened to you become desperate trying to figure out why he wouldn't propose, and what went wrong." Didn't we all, at that point? "And then I listened to you sob when you thought he couldn't hear you."

"That house is so big. Why couldn't you just sleep somewhere else?" Her voice rose and cracked.

"I don't need to move in my own house. Does it hurt to know someone heard you and did nothing about your pain?"

"No," she snapped. "Just fuck off, Deitrich!" She emitted a thin whine. Even though it still couldn't be called a scream, that high-pitched sound came damn close.

Her eyes widened, and her mouth snapped shut.

This is too easy. Time to remind her of the stakes.

"Doesn't it make you just want to scream?" I stood and stretched, making sure my raging boner was right in her face. She stared for a moment, her lips parted as though fascinated. I nearly groaned, aching to grip her hair and grind myself on her mouth, feel her open for me and swallow my dick whole.

Maddie stared at me for a second longer then recoiled in a delayed reaction, her gaze flicking to my face in a show of abject dismissal. "You're sick. Get help."

She fakes it well.

So well, I hadn't been sure about her made-up orgasms until she confirmed that little truth just now. It turned out Maddie Sutcliff was a people pleaser and couldn't bear the thought of letting her lover down. So she lied instead. That ate me a little more, fueling my cold rage.

I bent at the waist to inhale her air, running my nose along her blue streak while she batted at me.

Whatever shriek lodged in her throat was muted as she swallowed with effort, panic written across her wide eyes and white cheeks. "Get off me!"

I braced both arms over the back of the next chair, bringing my long body face to nose with hers. "I'll make you beg," I promised, dropping my gaze to her lips.

Her body stiffened as she glared back. "Never. Going. To. Happen. Asshole," she added.

She shoved at my chest but unlike the day by the fountain, I was prepared for her kitten brand of vicious.

"Time to get some new moves, Sutcliff." I stretched again, adding a yawn, and wandered away to collect my things.

When I walked past her on my way out of the library, she was still glaring at me.

Oh, little kitten. I could have made that so much worse.

But what was the fun in breaking her early? That came in the chase, after all. No, I'd play this out long enough to earn every scream from her pretty, oh-so-fuckable mouth. And she would give me plenty.

I blew her a kiss as I passed, trailing my fingers along her desk. "See you soon."