The Big Boys' League: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Troubled Playthings 3)

“Sounds like more of a business arrangement than a marriage.”

He shrugged. “Everyone involved will know exactly what they’re getting into, and that’s more than can be said about most marriages.”

Somehow, this conversation had relaxed me so much I no longer felt particularly awkward about standing there with my top off in front of him. Maybe because he’d kept his promise of good behaviour—he didn’t seem inclined to behave badly—and this whole conversation was making me feel like I knew him better than I had before. It was confirming he was an arsehole, but now he was an arsehole with an explanation.

“Well, I’m going to love the man I marry. I’m going to love him too much and probably get my heart broken, but if he’s the guy who is interested in seeing past… well,” I gestured toward

s the main subject of this interaction. “It’ll just be worth it then, you know?”

Axel smiled at me like he didn’t know and was barely able to humour me. Then he stood and stepped towards me, and I recoiled—but it was too late, and there was nowhere to run to anyway.

Axel got hold of my wrist, and had me falling forward with a sharp yank. My yelp was cut off when my bare belly landed hard across his knees. At some point he had seated himself again on the edge of my bed, and now I was sprawled face-down across his lap.

“Quiet, Aileen,” he snapped, even though I hadn’t said anything. “I’ve honoured our agreement so far.” It took me a few seconds to figure out he meant not touching my boobs, which were now dangling far too close to my face. “Now,” he said, “let’s make sure that little outburst isn’t going to bring Daddy dearest in on us.”

“Axel, I want you to let me—”

He smacked my arse, hard. I bit down on my squeal, because there was no way I wanted Dad running in to see what was happening right now.

“Good girl,” said Axel, like I’d controlled myself for him. “Now—”

“Now nothing, this was not in our agreement at all.” I struggled, but he held onto me harder. When I started trying to kick him, out of a sense of needing to do all I could rather than any practical good it would achieve, he used his spanking hand to hold my legs down, then it somehow crept up the back of my skirt and with a sudden, tearing yank he had pulled my underwear and pantyhose down.

I froze at that. He was clearly serious about whatever he was doing, and the only way I was going to get out of it was to follow his lead. Not that I needed to counsel myself to shut up and stay still, because the panic roaring through my body was making it impossible for me to speak or move.

Axel slid my skirt up in the back so I was completely exposed to him. I tried to hold my legs together and not try to work out exactly how much he could see. “You’ve been a bit too cheeky about this whole situation, Aileen.” He was rubbing my bare arse as he said it. “I don’t like it.” I bit my lip at a sharp pinch, my eyes squeezing shut at a sensation I hadn’t expected down there.

But this whole scene was basically my sick fantasy, so why hadn’t I?

My sick fantasy that I’d only revealed to one other—

My mouth was going again before I could help it. “You were talking to Matt, weren’t you?”

“You mean my Matt? Talking to him about flogging your cute little arse, what the fuck for?” His confusion sounded pretty genuine. It seemed I’d made things worse again.

Axel’s voice turned thoughtful. “I haven’t talked to Matt in a while, that fucker is shitty with me for some reason… but I’m guessing you have.”

Stupidly, I started to struggle again.

Axel’s next slap wasn’t hard, but it startled me still.

“As I was saying, Aileen, I don’t appreciate your attitude. I know you only came in here with me tonight because you had some idea you were going to get the upper hand.” Another slap. “There is no getting the upper hand with me. I always get what I want, I always win in the end. It only depends on how difficult you want to make it for yourself.”

“You always win? Is that what was going on when you lost your whole fortune for a while: winning?”

“Shut up, Aileen.” A slightly harder strike had that pleasurable feeling going through me again, and of course it wasn’t all because of actual contact. If he kept going like this, he was going to… well, get results.

And even though I knew I should scramble for my dignity and keep trying to stop him, I didn’t think I wanted to any more.

So of course, he shoved me off his lap instead, forcing me to scramble to keep from showing him everything he’d put in that picture. The sad thing was, he’d probably gotten a pretty good peek already in our previous configuration.

I hardly dared to look up at him, but he was already walking out. He turned back to me, still huddled on the floor over my naughty bits, just as he was moving through the door.

“In case you were wondering what happened with your dad, sweetheart, we’ve come to a nice arrangement. He’s going to work with me developing a product to bring to market. His additional experience in this market should prove utterly indispensable as we move forward with the project.” I cringed. It was pretty obvious he was conveying the gist of something my dad had said to him, and that he knew I’d recognise it for what it was.

He had to also realise this was a disaster. My dad wasn’t capable of working in whatever position Axel had offered him. He was going to screw up and get himself sacked, and if he’d handed over his rights to that patent based on the job opportunity—which, this was Axel we were talking about, he wouldn’t care if that was the deal he could get—we’d just been screwed out of everything.

“I’ll see myself out,” said Axel with a wink, and shut the door on me. Leaving me on the floor with my shirt off, my legs tangled up in my own clothes, and an awareness of how it could feel to have his hands on me.