Mated with My Ruthless Bully

Chapter 5

Sophia's POV

So, there I was. On the cold sticky cafeteria floor, smelling like a cherry-scented radioactive waste spill qll because I’d tried to stand up and my stupid, uncoordinated foot had somehow gotten tangled with Jessica Monroe’s perfectly positioned, designer-booted one.

The icy shock of the red slushie had been bad enough. But the heat of everyone’s stares was a thousand times worse. I was a puddle of humiliation in a sea of judgment.

“Oops,” Jessica chirped, not sounding sorry at all. She tossed her silky hair over her shoulder. “Clumsy much, Sophia? You should really look where you’re going. Then again, I guess it’s hard when your nose is always in a book. Trying to be invisible again?”

Laughter echoed around me. I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing not for the first time, that I actually could turn invisible. My heart did this pathetic little flutter and my gaze automatically darted to the one person who was supposed to be my port in this stupid storm.

Jake.

He was sitting right there, at the coveted table with Lucas and his basketball team buddies. Our eyes met for a split second. I saw him see me. See the red dye dripping from my hair with the pathetic trembling of my chin.

And then he looked away.. deliberately. He turned back to another guy and said something that made them both laugh.

The betrayal felt colder than the slushie. My own boyfriend.. the guy I’d trusted with my deepest darkest shame and he was just going to sit there?

“Aw, what’s the matter?” Jessica cooed, kneeling down so only I could hear her. Her syrupy-sweet perfume mingled nauseatingly with the fake cherry smell. “No white knight coming to save the day? Guess Jake’s finally seen you for what you are. A nobody.”

I tried to gather my books, my hands shaking so badly I could barely grip the wet covers.

“But that’s not the only secret, is it?” she whispered, her voice dropping into something venomous and intimate.

My blood ran cold. No.

She leaned in closer, her lips almost touching my ear.

“I know what you did. I know why your daddy’s not around anymore.”

The world stopped and the noise of the cafeteria faded into a dull, roaring buzz in my ears. She couldn’t know. She couldn’t. I’d only ever told one person. I’d sobbed that story into Jake’s shoulder on a night I felt completely broken, making him swear never to tell a soul.

“That’s right,” she hissed, seeing the sheer terror on my face. She was enjoying this. “Jake told me. We don’t have secrets. He thinks you’re pathetic for carrying around all that guilt.” She stood up, raising her voice back to a mocking sing-song for the audience. “Hey, Jake! Come tell everyone what a tragic little mess your girlfriend is!”

Jake shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He didn’t deny it.. he just looked… annoyed. Annoyed at me for causing a scene.

This was it.. my life was over. My mom’s newfound happiness and my attempt at a fresh start was all ruined, splattered across the cafeteria floor like red ice.

A new sound suddenly cut through the murmur of the crowd as a chair scraped back with an violent, earsplitting screech and every single head, including mine, swiveled toward the sound.

Lucas Kane was on his feet. His posture was rigid with his hands clenched into white-knuckled fists at his sides. The air around him seemed to crackle and warp. The sarcastic bully was gone and in his place was something else!

The entire cafeteria fell so silent you could hear a pin drop. Or you know, a tear of humiliation plop onto the linoleum.

He didn’t say a word.. he just started walking.. toward me. His movements were eerily smooth like a predator stalking its prey and people literally shuffled out of his way, creating a path.

Jessica’s smirk melted into confusion, then a flicker of fear.

“Lucas? What’s...?”

He ignored her completely. His gaze was locked on me and he didn’t even look at Jake who was now watching with his mouth hanging open.

Without breaking his stride, Lucas snarled, “You’re off the team, Jake. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

Jake sputtered.

“What? You can’t just...!”

“I just did,” Lucas bit out, his voice low and lethally calm as he finally reached me.

He looked down and for a terrifying second, I thought he was going to kick me. Instead, he shrugged out of his letterman jacket.

The warm fabric landed on my shoulders, enveloping me in his scent. It was overwhelming am it was… safe.

He crouched down, his back to the entire staring school and his eyes, blazing with that weird faint gold gleam I remembered from our night together, scanned my face.

“Can you stand?” he asked, his voice rough but quieter now.

I could only nod as he hooked an arm under my elbow and hauled me to my feet like I weighed nothing.

The jacket which smelled amazing was also comically large on me with the sleeves swallowing my hands whole.

He didn’t let go of my arm. His grip was firm, almost possessive as he turned, pulling me along with him and marched us right out of the silent cafeteria, leaving a stunned Jake and a speechless Jessica and two hundred gossiping students in our wake.

He didn’t stop until we were in a deserted hallway near the faculty offices. He finally released my arm and turned to face me, leaning against the lockers with a sigh that sounded like it was from the depths of his soul.

The shock was starting to wear off, replaced by pure confusion.

“Why did you do that?” I whispered, my voice trembling. “You hate me. You told me not to talk to you. You said I was a chore.”

He ran a hand through his perfectly messy hair with frustration rolling off him in waves.

“I don’t know,” he gritted out, almost like he was angry at himself. “Just… don’t read into it.”

“You kicked Jake off the team.”

“He’s a spineless worm. He didn’t deserve a spot.”

“But… you hate me,” I repeated, because it was the only solid fact I had left in my spinning world.

His eyes snapped to mine with that gold flicker intensifying and the conflict in them was terrifying.. it was like watching a war happen behind his pupils with hatred, concern, disgust and possession.

“Yeah,” he breathed, pushing off the lockers and stepping into my space. “I do.”

The air left my lungs. He was so close and the scent of his jacket, now mixed with my stupid cherry slushie smell was everywhere.

“Then why?” I asked with my voice barely audible.

He didn’t answer with words.

One of his hands came up with his fingers brushing a strand of my wet, red-stained hair from my cheek and the touch was electric and I flinched.

His jaw tightened but he didn’t pull away. His thumb traced a slow almost unwilling path down my cheekbone, wiping away a tear I didn’t even know had escaped.

The look in his eyes was pure obsession. A hatred so deep it somehow looped all the way back around to something that felt like crazed, furious care.

“You’re a mess,” he murmured with his gaze dropping to my soaked, pathetic top.. and then he kissed me!!

It wasn’t like the kiss from that night. That had been heated, passionate and a blur of forgotten pain. This was different.. this was hard and demanding and punishing. It was a brand and a claim. It was his mouth telling me he hated me while his hands pulled me tighter against him, contradicting every single word.

Just as suddenly, he broke away, leaving me gasping for air with my lips tingling.

He looked down at my clothes again with his expression darkening.

“And for god’s sake, mind what you wear,” he growled. “This is embarrassing.”

He was literally the most confusing person on the planet!

He stared at me for a long moment with his chest rising and falling rapidly. The gold in his eyes was blazing now like a wolf staring out from behind a human mask.

He leaned in close again with his lips nearly touching my ear and then he whispered.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish.”