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5. Roman

5

ROMAN

I left Quinn without a backwards look, scooping up her hoodie as I went. Her shouts rang in my ears, but I didn't stop other than to grab my small pile of clothes where I'd left them. Quickly tugging on tracksuit bottoms and my own hoodie, then shoving my feet into my trainers, I jogged back to the school building and made my way to my room.

Tristan looked up from his laptop when I entered, his eyes narrowing. "You look suspiciously happy."

"I don't know what you mean. I'm off to have a shower."

Once I'd washed the lake water off, I headed back into the room to change into my normal uniform. Tristan was sitting on the side of his bed, holding up Quinn's hoodie.

"Care to explain this?"

"Not really, no." Opening the wardrobe, I pulled out my clothes, hiding my smirk.

From behind me, he cleared his throat pointedly. "Okay. Want to tell me how you now have two phones when you had one this morning? And why you're suddenly in possession of a pair of rose-gold headphones?"

"Who doesn't have two phones these days? And I liked the colour, so what?" I shifted so he could see my face, and he rolled his eyes at me.

"Nice try."

Moving to stand in front of the mirror, I began pulling on my clothes and made sure I kept my voice casual. "I saw Quinn."

"Uh-huh." He eyed my reflection in the mirror. "In that case, I don't even want to know. Plausible deniability and all that. But you can't keep her phone."

"Watch me."

"Ro. You can't."

"You know what your problem is?" Shrugging on my blazer, I turned to face him. "You have too much of a conscience."

"Maybe if you listened to yours, you wouldn't get into so much trouble." He flashed me a grin, and I knew he wasn't really annoyed at me. Head boy or not, he was my friend, and he was on my side. Except, he continued. "I'm serious. You can't keep this. I'll make sure it gets back to her without implicating either of us, okay?"

"You're such a good boy, Tris. Want some help polishing that halo?" I stepped over to his bed and ruffled his hair, which made him glare at me, shoving my hand away and smoothing his hair back down. With a sigh, I held up my hands. "Fine, get it back to her if it'll stop you whining about it." The truth was, I hadn't even noticed her phone was in the hoodie when I'd first taken it. If you thought about it, I'd actually done her a favour by saving it from being drowned in the lake when I'd thrown her in.

"My influence spreads far and wide. I got Hatherley Hall's resident bad boy to do my bidding." Climbing to his feet, he pulled on his own blazer and then grabbed his bag. "They don't call me the king of the school for nothing."

Swiping my own bag from the floor, I followed him out of the room just as the bell rang for breakfast. "Literally no one calls you the king of the school."

"Everyone does."

"They don't."

We continued arguing all the way down to the dining hall, where Tristan strolled to the front of the line with his head boy privileges, and I had to join the back of the queue with the other students. In front of me, two girls were talking in hushed voices. I wasn't paying attention until one of them mentioned Quinn's name.

"…and she only had a sports bra and leggings on. She was completely soaked, and I heard from Harriet that her lips were blue with the cold."

I had a sudden twinge of something that felt a lot like guilt, but I pushed it aside. Quinn deserved it.

"…yes, but did you actually see her? I did. Ugh, I wish I had her body. There's no way I'd look anywhere near that good if I'd fallen in the lake."

"Yeah, she's so pretty. I'd look like a drowned rat if it had been me. How did she even manage to fall in the lake, anyway?"

"I don't know."

The conversation segued into something about hair-drying techniques, so I tuned them back out. From the sound of it, Quinn hadn't told anyone about the part I'd played in her dunking. At least she was smart enough to keep it quiet.

For a moment there, when I'd broken the surface of the water and seen her standing frozen, staring at me with that look in her eyes, I'd forgotten the way she'd acted towards me. Forgotten that I needed to punish her. And when I'd had her pressed up against me, all soft and pliant, it had taken every bit of willpower I had not to just rip off those fucking leggings that showed off the curves of her long legs and sink my cock inside her. She would've taken it, too. Probably even begged me for it.

Then I'd remembered what she'd said to me. Throwing her in the lake had been an impulsive decision, but she made me irrational. Made my head spin, telling me one thing one day, then begging me to kiss her the next. No, Quinn Farrow deserved to be punished. I knew that no one loved me, that despite the way I looked, I'd never have a close connection with someone. I tried not to think about it, managed to ignore it most of the time, but then Quinn had come along and reminded me of everything I wanted to forget. And she'd made it crystal clear just what I meant to her when she'd told me I needed to forget she existed.

I wasn't going to let that happen. The lake was just the beginning.

By the time lessons were over for the day, the word had spread around the school, and every time I saw Quinn, she had a murderous look on her face directed at me. Good.

It wasn't enough, though.

I cornered Tristan in the common room after dinner. Knox was down in the creepy crypts with his girlfriend, Elena, so it was just the two of us.

"Hey, Tris, can I have a word?"

He glanced up from the TV screen, meeting my gaze. "Yeah. What's up?"

"Over here."

When we were in a corner of the room away from the others, I shoved my hands in my pockets, leaning back against the wall. "Did you give Quinn her phone back?"

He shook his head. "Not yet."

"Okay, good." It was time to put the first steps of my plan into place. "You know how Blaine was talking about going down to the beach for the bank holiday weekend? What do you say we take him up on that and invite a few others?"

"I can already see where this is going." He shook his head with a sigh, but I caught the wry grin that he was trying to hide. "Let me guess. You want me to get Quinn to come. This is a bad idea, you know."

"Yeah, but we're doing it."

When he gave me a resigned nod, I called Blaine over. He was a guy that I knew from the diving club, plus he was a friend of Tristan and Knox. I hadn't seen him much lately because despite the fact I was a fucking strong swimmer and diver, I'd been kicked off both the swim and diving teams the previous year, and I'd been banned from reapplying this year. Banned from applying for anything else, in fact. The lacrosse team was the only extracurricular activity I was still allowed to be involved in at this school. The only reason I'd been allowed to stay in it was because I was really fucking good, and the truth was, the number of players that were on my level could be counted on one hand. That, and the competitive nature of Hatherley Hall—the desire to outrank the other schools and come out on top—was stronger than the desire to punish me for my transgressions.

"Hey, mate." I grinned at him. "Still planning on that beach trip for the bank holiday weekend?"

His face lit up. "Yeah. You coming?"

"Yep. How do you feel about me bringing a few friends? I can sweeten the deal with some contraband."

"No need. The beach house is fully stocked. But yeah, the more the merrier. We've got the space."

Throwing my arm over his shoulders, I lowered my voice conspiratorially. "There's a girl. I want her to come, too, but I don't want her to be pressured into showing up. I want her to realise it's gonna be a good weekend that she doesn't want to miss."

He gave me an evil grin. "Leave it with me. Who is she, and what do you need me to do?"

I glanced over at Tristan, who raised a brow at me. "Well…we have this phone, and we need it to sound like you found it lying outside on the ground…"

When Blaine returned to the common room around fifteen minutes later, he headed straight for me. "Done. Now we have a whole group of girls coming, and I kept your name out of it. I gave the phone to the scary short girl."

Tristan snorted. "Aria?"

"The one and only."

I noticed Tristan pretending to study the window intently. "Is she coming?" His voice radiated disinterest, but he was so transparent.

"No. Or, more accurately, ‘Fuck no. Why would I want to come?'" He laughed. "Nah, she said she had shit to do this weekend."

"I see," Tristan murmured before changing the subject. "Okay. Who else is coming, and how many cars do we have?"

I left them to make plans and headed out of the common room. Coincidentally, the path to my and Tristan's room led straight past Quinn's dorm room. If you took a detour in the opposite direction, that was.

My timing was perfect. Just as I rounded the corner of the corridor, I saw her disappearing into the shower room. Wasting no time, I followed her in.

Her shocked gaze met mine through the mirror, and she spun around, clutching her towel and toiletry bag in front of her like it would protect her from me. She was fully dressed, but she was acting as if I'd caught her naked or something.

I grinned. "I heard you went for a swim with your clothes on this morning. Trying to shower again to get the smell of the lake water off?"

Her eyes flashed with anger, and she bared her teeth at me. "Get out."

There was no one else in the shower room, but I wouldn't have cared either way. Stalking up to her, I ripped the towel and bag from her grip and let them fall to the floor, then caged her in against the sink unit with my hands planted on either side of her body. "No."

"Get. Out." The way she pushed at my chest, staring up at me from beneath her lashes with both anger and lust burning in her gaze, combined with her body up against mine, made my dick harden rapidly.

"I don't think you want me to." Angling my hips, I let her know just how she was affecting me. When my hard cock pressed against her, a gasp fell from her lips, her eyes darkening, and I took the opportunity to lower my head and kiss her gorgeous mouth. Fuck, she tasted so sweet.

There was a single moment when our lips met, hers plaint against mine. The next minute, there was a stinging pain as she clamped her teeth down on my lower lip, and I tasted blood. This time when she shoved me, I let myself go. Was it wrong that her actions made me smile?

"Biting isn't very nice, Quinn." I shook my head at her.

She stood there seething, all the lust gone. "Don't. Touch. Me. Don't speak to me. Don't come near me again." Her words were spat at me between gritted teeth.

"I'm going." Making a show of adjusting my dick in my trousers, which made her cheeks flush a deep pink, I backed out of the shower room.

She knew I'd never touch her properly if it wasn't clear that she wanted it, too. The ball was in her court. I'd let her think she'd won, for now. I'd step back for the rest of the week, lull her into a false sense of security. But this coming weekend…

I knew that despite herself, despite her mind telling her I was the wrong option, she wanted me.

And with that knowledge…I couldn't wait.

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