Battling the Enemy Read online

  Liam let out a whoop. “Oh, man,” he said gleefully. “That girl is so fucked.”

  Now while I’ve wrapped my hand around a girl’s throat before during sex, they expected it. They were those types of girls. They wanted dirty, rough sex. As much as sex was just a physical release for me, I wasn’t a complete asshole. I paid attention to the girl and made sure she got off and enjoyed herself. If I ever got the vibe that a girl wasn’t into choking, biting, or bruises…well then, I just fucked her easy-peasy style and sent her on her way.

  Delaney wasn’t supposed to have liked that squeeze around her neck. Everything I’ve ever known about her suggested she’d get scared. That threat to her safety should have brought on pleas, tears, and apologies.

  But it hadn’t.

  The girl had moaned, and I had been ready to mount her right there against the car in front of every-goddamn-body.

  While Liam was laughing at my predicament, Ramsey was more thoughtful, more insightful. “So, she’s the one, huh?”

  Was she?

  I wasn’t sure. But what I did know was that I’ve never had an emotional reaction to a girl like that before. Sure, I got turned on, and I hated tears, but the anxiousness Delaney made me feel was new.

  I had to tug my dick to the memory of her body pressed up against mine last night, and again, this morning. “I’m not sure, Ram,” I admitted. “But nothing’s going to stop me from finding out if she is or isn’t.”

  “Do we tell the girls?” Liam asked. “I mean…they need to know, right?”

  I thought about that, and he was right. Emerson and Roselyn were my family now, and they deserved the same respect as Ramsey and Liam. “Yeah, but make sure they know not to interfere,” I answered. Nothing and no one would stop me from going after Delaney to see if this was real or not.

  Ramsey snorted. “I’m pretty sure them girls will be setting up a betting pool by the end of the week. No way they’ll interfere.”

  I laughed because, knowing Roselyn and Emerson, he was probably right. “Tell them to bet wisely, because I will win,” I joked.

  “Never doubted it, Deke,” Ramsey said.

  Chapter 4

  Delaney~

  I was a coward.

  Okay, maybe not a coward, so much as a wimp.

  Okay, okay, okay, I was a coward. Proven by the fact that I’ve barricaded myself in my room, and have turned off all notification on my phone, because all everyone’s been talking about on social media is Deke’s…uh, interest in me last night.

  And why wouldn’t it be news? Deke effin’ Marlow chased me down and held me hostage in front of everyone. And I knew it was the chasing that had garnered all the attention.

  Deke Marlow never chased anyone.

  Even if I have never been a part of the royal hierarchy, Deke’s, Ramsey’s, and Liam’s reputations preceded them. They had never been short of female companionship, and if the rumors were to be believed, before Emerson and Roselyn came into the picture, all three guys were hit-it-and-quit-it kind of guys. They could have any girl they wanted, so it made no sense that Deke would single me out. By all accounts, I was the very definition of a nerd.

  I never went to parties. I never drank. I’ve never touched a drug in my life. I didn’t go on shopping sprees or live lavishly, even though I had the money to do it. I think being raised by the cook, butler, gardener, etc. gave me a grounded upbringing. I saw how hard they worked for their paychecks, and that had always stuck with me. As for boys…well, I always knew I was going to marry Winston Reynolds. Our parents had broken the news to us when we were like ten-years-old, or something like that.

  My father, Jonah Martin, worked in pharmaceuticals and Winston’s father, Gary Reynolds, worked with insurance of some sort. Together they made a lot of money off sick people, and their greed never ran out of thirst. My mother, Shirley, was the perfect charitable socialite, whereas Winston’s mother had run off with the pool boy, or something, years ago. As far as I knew, she took off and never looked back.

  I didn’t mind not having my parents around, though. They were horrible human beings, and the less time I spent with them, the less likely they’d rub off on me. I learned early on they weren’t nice people, especially when they had scarred my face using the excuse as medical research as the reason.

  It had been before we had moved to Sands Cove and my father had still been trying to make a name for himself. He had helped develop a scar erasing serum that had made it possible for us to go from upper-class to the One-Percent.

  I could remember it like it was yesterday. I had been six-years-old, and I remembered how my father and mother had held me down and had run a barbed wire across my face, slicing it open. I remembered all the blood. I remembered the pain-God, did I remember the pain. I remembered feeling the jagged edges of my skin hanging from my face. I remembered my parents discussing my injury with such detachment. My mother had promised that they’d get the best plastic surgeon in the world to help me, but for now, I had to help the family.

  The joke had been on them, though.

  My father’s plan had been to use my face and the hook of me being his daughter to promote his serum. However, I’d had such a horrible allergic reaction to some of the properties in the serum, it had actually burned my flesh. While the serum has works for million others, I had been part of the small percent that had suffered the rare side effects of the potion.

  I could remember being six and feeling ecstatic at how it hadn’t worked for me. My parents hadn’t deserved for it to work on me after what they had done to me. As the years went by, and I realized how truly horrible my parents were, I declined plastic surgery options because I had wanted them to have to look at me and see the evidence of what horrible people they were.

  Not that they cared, but still.

  Shortly after moving here, my parents had met the Reynolds, and a love affair had been born out of my father’s need for accolades, and Mr. Reynolds greed for money. It wasn’t long before they had concocted the match between their children to help further their agendas. Winston’s stepmother had pushed for it-hard.

  At the time, I hadn’t known what all of that had meant, but as I got older and knew what they were about, I hadn’t been too interested in alternatives to fight them on it. Besides, the marriage was to take place after Winston and I graduated from college. A lot could happen in four years when we were both away from each other and we were thrust into the arms of real life. Winston might find another match better suited for his family’s needs.

  He could also get hit by a bus.

  Or I could.

  But being betrothed hadn’t stopped him from losing his virginity to Clair McDaniels years ago. It also hasn’t stopped him from sleeping with any willing girl at Windsor. I suppose it should bother me, but I couldn’t garner enough energy or emotions to care what Winston Reynolds did. He was that inconsequential.

  The door to my bedroom flew open, and I didn’t even need to look up from my tablet to know who it was. Because I was a dork, I didn’t have many friends. And the friends I did have wouldn’t just barge into my house.

  I felt Ava’s weight drop on my bed as she said, “Okay, I let you flee from the party last night like a bat out of hell because I knew you were trippin’ out. And truth be told, so was I. But you gotta come clean now, chick. I let you sleep in and everything, but no more.”

  I sighed and put down my tablet, knowing she wasn’t going to go anywhere until she got the goods. “There’s nothing to come clean about, Ava,” I denied.

  She rolled over onto her side and propped her head up over her hand. “You randomly take off from the party, and not twenty minutes later, you come rushing back with Deke Marlow hot on your tail as you grab me and beg for us to leave,” she recited. “That’s not nothing, Delaney.”

  It didn’t feel right telling her what I saw, but if she was going to stick by me like she had last night, she should know the facts. “I was just…wandering around, and I got kind of lost. When I
found a tiny clearing, I saw Deke getting a blowjob from Melissa Randall.”

  Ava’s brows rose up casually. “So? Melissa Randall’s blown a lot of people,” she pointed out, making me feel like an even bigger nerd. Ava’s never teased me or made me feel stupid for being a virginal nerd, but sometimes I felt ridiculous discussing sex with someone so experienced. It made me feel inferior.

  “I think Deke took exception to me…seeing it happen,” I hedged.

  Ava let out a laugh as she dropped onto her back. She laughed up at the ceiling as she said, “Oh, please, Delaney. Deke Marlow does not care about someone watching him get a blowjob.” I could feel the blush rush my face at her casualness. “I’ve been to countless parties where that dude got his dick sucked in public. I mean, he doesn’t drop his pants in the middle of a living room, or anything like that. But there have been plenty of times he was huddled up in a corner somewhere, with a girl on her knees in front of him.” Jesus. “Trust me, Delaney. Whatever was bothering him last night, that was not it.”

  “Then I don’t know what his problem was,” I told her half-ass honestly. “Maybe he was just funnin’ about.”

  This time she snorted. “Deke Marlow doesn’t fun about, Delaney. The guy’s Satan.”

  “I thought Ramsey Reed was Satan?”

  “Good point,” she quipped. A few seconds of silence went by before she said, “What are you going to tell Winston?”

  Huh?

  “Nothing,” I replied. “There’s nothing to tell him. Besides, if I were to ride Deke Marlow in the middle of the eatery pavilion at school on Monday, Winston would hardly have any room to complain, don’tcha think?”

  Ava sat up and side-eyed me. “I still can’t believe you have an arranged marriage with that tool.”

  I shrugged a shoulder. “Families with money do it all the time, Ava. How many people with money ever really marry for love? Most females from our class marry for more money and most males from our class marry for more power. It’s not that unrealistic.”

  “But you couldn’t care less about money or power, Delaney,” she murmured softly. “Don’t tie yourself to a fool for life just because you haven’t experienced anything worthwhile yet.”

  I looked over at my friend and wondered, not for the first time, if she had been sexually abused as a child. I couldn’t reconcile this sweet, tender girl with the sexually wild party girl. “I still have four years to either go through with this or bow out, Ava,” I reminded her. “It’s not forever, yet.”

  The corner of her lip lifted in a mischievous grin. “If you’re going to go through with this ridiculous betrothal, I say you take Deke Marlow for a ride first before committing to Winston for life.”

  I wanted to scoff at how ridiculous that suggestion was, but I couldn’t when her statement held a grain of truth to it. It had crossed my mind. Watching Deke and Melissa had turned me on. Getting caught had really lit a fire between my legs. But when Deke had chased me down and wrapped his hand around my neck, all kinds of things I never imagined crossed through my mind. For the first time in all my life, I had wanted to have sex with someone.

  No-not someone; Deke.

  During those early puberty years, I had let Winston kiss me, but I had never felt anything, and so, I had put a stop to those kisses.

  However, Deke wasn’t Winston.

  Chapter 5

  Deke~

  I watched Delaney and Ava walk past our little group, like I have for the past four years, but this time was different. This time I saw them walking past our group.

  Every morning for the past four years, Ramsey, Liam, and I had always congregated around our cars in the parking lot in front of the school before classes began. We were always surrounded by random stragglers, but for the most part, it was me, Ram, and Liam. Emerson and Roselyn would often loiter with us, too. But there were rare days where Liam and Ramsey let them do their own thing. And now, sitting on the hood of my Lexus, I appeared casual, but I’d been looking to spot Delaney since I got here.

  I had spent all day yesterday straight up stalking her social media, and all my stalking accomplished was confirming that the girl didn’t have a life. It appeared as if she lived vicariously through Ava’s antics, because all her pictures were either of school stuff or girl time with Ava. There were random pictures of her posted with other people, who I presumed might be family. But since I didn’t know much about Delaney, I really had no idea who those people were.

  I did note a couple of family-looking pictures with Winston Reynolds, and that had surprised me a bit because I had never seen them act chummy at all. Granted, I wasn’t friends with Winston, and I never really paid any attention to Delaney before Friday night, but I just never imagined they were friends.

  Delaney and I had second, third, and seventh periods together, so I was going to have to let her be during first period, but she’d be all mine during second. I’d have to share her with Linnie during third, but Delaney would be all mine again during seventh. It wasn’t that I thought Linnie wouldn’t back my play, but girls were funny sometimes. And don’t get me started on when it was that time of the month. Talk about dealing with the devil you don’t know.

  Sweet Baby Jesus.

  Looking over at Delaney, I ignored the pull that called on me to run after her, and stayed my ass planted on the hood of my car. It wasn’t a second later I abandoned that plan when Ramsey smirked at me. If anyone knew what I was feeling, it was Ramsey. Emerson just about drove him crazy those first few weeks of their fucked-up courtship. I hopped off my hood and took off in a sprint. A sprint that didn’t go unnoticed, might I add.

  Luckily, I had everything I needed for first period in my backpack, so I could skip my locker. I headed straight to where I knew Delaney’s locker was. And how did I know were her locker was? Sunday, while I was internet stalking her, I had texted Ramsey to get me all her school information, and he had. I knew the guy could get information on damn near anyone he wanted, so by Sunday evening, I had her class schedule, her locker number, her phone number, her parents’ names and professions, her address, and he even threw in her favorite book, just to show off.

  The fucker.

  I was walking up behind her, and because I was indeed a lucky guy, Ava’s locker was nowhere near Delaney’s, so there was no one to interrupt my good morning greeting.

  The locker door was opened on my side, so she couldn’t see me coming and that had my dick twitching with anticipation of her reaction. I stepped up behind her and gave her no room to escape. I brushed my body up against hers, and my dick got instantly hard when her entire body stilled. She had been in the middle of pulling a book out of her locker, and her entire body absolutely froze.

  I leaned down and let my lips brush up against the shell of her ear. “Good Morning, Delaney,” I said, my voice low for only her to hear.

  “Wh…what are you doing?” she asked, and my dick got even harder at the hitch in her voice.

  “Saying hello,” I smirked.

  She didn’t respond. She went about finishing pulling her book out of her locker. I imagined she was trying to buy herself some time to figure out how to proceed. When she finally did turn around, my dick and I were both disappointed that he was no longer nestled near her ass.

  Delaney looked up at me, and she looked irritated. I had been expecting some apprehensiveness, maybe a little fear, but I had gotten irritation instead. “Leave me alone, Deke,” she instructed, trying to sound strong and firm.

  I grinned and shook my head. “Not a chance in hell of that happening, Delaney. So, don’t waste your energy on that.”

  Her eyes darted around, taking in the crowd taking notice of our proximity, before landing back on mine. “I said I was sorry,” she hissed. “I’ll never invade your privacy again, so just leave me alone.”

  I reached up, and it was game on when my fingertips danced across her scar and she didn’t recoil. I was going to fuck this girl. I was going to use up everything she had to offer. I was g
oing to fucking own her. If she had any clue what I was going to do to her, she run, and she’d run far.

  The second warning bell for class rang, and the students around us still didn’t scatter to get to class. Everyone was watching, and I wasn’t going to let them go without something to talk about. I cupped her jaw in my hand, and I did something I’ve never done with a girl before outside of fucking her. I leaned down and kissed Delaney on her cupid-bowed lips. She gasped, and I used that shock to sweep my tongue in her mouth, tighten my hold on her face, and kiss the fuck out of her. And this first kiss gave me an answer to take back to Ramsey and Liam.

  She was the one.

  Delaney Martin was my Emerson and Roselyn, and the girl had no clue what that meant.

  All too soon, Delaney’s shock wore off, and she pushed me off her, and the slap that followed surprised her just as much as it surprised everyone else. I wasn’t sure what surprised her more, the slap or the force behind the slap. But when I turned back to face her, she looked equal parts shocked and pissed off.

  And I wanted to fuck her, right here and now, in front of everyone.

  Delaney hugged her book to her chest in a white-knuckle grip. “You…you don’t…” She was so upset, she couldn’t even speak. “You don’t just get to kiss me, Deke.”

  I threw my head back and let out a dark laugh. I looked back down at her, and in a voice the entire hallway could hear, I announced, “You’re mine, Delaney. And that means I get to do whatever the fuck I want to you.”

  You could hear gasps and murmurs all around us, but they weren’t as loud as Delaney’s gasp of outrage. “I’m…I’m not yours,” she seethed. “I don’t even like you.”

  This time, in a voice low enough for only her and a few close students to hear, I growled, “You ask anyone in this school an hour from now, and they will all say you belong to me, Delaney. Give in gracefully, baby. Otherwise, this could get ugly.”