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

Maybe she could go fucking hang out with Matt, since she liked him so much.

I stared over at his house as Cowen’s car disappeared around a corner, then turned back to Aileen to see her watching me with a knowing little look.

“Are you thinking you might drag me over there and spank me in front of him just to put both of us in our place?” She rolled her eyes like she wouldn’t be an absolute wreck if I did that. “Because Matt never really did anything, he was just unlucky enough to agree to hang out with me when I asked.”

“He never did do anything, did he,” I muttered. Was it inevitable that she found a way to remind me?

“What was that?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. Come inside for a moment, Aileen. I promise I’m not going to spank your arse this time… unless you ask.”

I could see the way that was affecting her, too. It was in the way she walked, the way she wrapped her arms around herself in that flimsy little dress like she didn’t feel like it was any protection at all. The way she’d showed up in that thing at all.

She followed me right into my damn bedroom without much hesitation, too. It put me on edge.

Just to make sure this didn’t get out of hand, I did a casual circle around the edge of my room and switched on an old mp3 player I’d gotten from my dad ages ago, that I now used to record any interaction I thought might give me something I could use. Legal? Not in the slightest, but that wasn’t a problem for me. When I got something really good, something I could leverage, that always overlapped with the subject being way too awkward about the whole deal to risk taking it to the police. Exhibit A: Matt being a fucking furry.

I didn’t need to be thinking of Matt right now, though. Aileen and her piercing eyes were going to have me feeling bad over that, when I was not the reason he’d ended up in the firing line there. Fuck that. Fuck him.

I turned my attention to Aileen, standing with her back against my door, hesitating to come any further. She was a smart girl. And I was the dumb one, letting her just walk in like this. I could feel it now: I was about to end up in the fight of my life to keep her in her place.

And as much as the reality pissed me off, I thought there was a very strong chance I would lose.

I just couldn’t let her find out if I lost. My own secrets might be the closest thing I had to protection right now.

Chapter Fourteen

“I’m sorry I interfered with your meeting,” I blurted out when Axel just stared at me silently for a while, like I was undressed in front of him again. He didn’t deserve my unconditional apology, so I hardened it a little. “Unlike you, I actually try not to unnecessarily screw with other people’s lives. I was just trying to have a little bit of fun at your expense, the way you’ve been at mine.”

“Is that what you think I’ve been doing?” My bare back brushed against his door as he took a step towards me. “Having fun?”

“I hope not,” I admitted. “Not with all the really nasty things, at least.”

That threw me into a spiral of confusion. Was I trying to suggest I hoped he had enjoyed the times when we’d… just let the battle between us get a little too out of hand?

He didn’t seem to have noticed that possibility. “I don’t have fun,” he told me, keeping his voice lo

w. “It’s just what I have to do.”

“You have to? You had to do all those terrible things to me… because, what, my dad’s patent was such a threat to you?”

“Maybe not.” The way he was grinning thinking about my dad pissed me off. Who was he to act like he was just some joke?

He was exactly right was the answer, but I still hated him for going there. I wanted to snap at him, to really dig into him for it… but then I started thinking about how we’d been such a team before with that creep Mal Cowen, how he’d seemed to pick up where I left off exactly right.

“Hey Aileen.” His eyes were sparkling in a different way to how they’d been only seconds earlier. It was like he knew how to act in concert with my feelings too. “You were actually kind of something back there. I can’t be mad when you had such a big part in closing the deal. Where did you get all that shit from? I thought you really did know nothing about your dad’s work.”

Unlike the creep, he didn’t seem to assume that had to be the case. “I don’t know a whole lot, but I’ve been around the sort of stuff you’re wanting to get into all my life. It’s sort of embedded into my psyche, I guess.” I debated whether I should tell him the rest, and decided against it.

Axel was nodding, thoughtful. “It’s more than the domain knowledge, though. You’ve just got a certain charm. You’d be a good entrepreneur yourself: you don’t have to be involved with the inventing side of it, just show up and talk until they give you money. Not everyone’s got that in them but it just seems to come naturally to you.”

“Well thank you.” I felt there was a chance he might be blowing smoke up my arse, and I shouldn’t let him get any more involved with my arse than he already had, but I felt like I wanted to give him something. The last few times I’d volunteered things he had or hadn’t wanted from me had gone so badly it couldn’t possibly all go wrong again… right? “Actually, I’ve sort of thought, for a long time, that I could make an okay lawyer. I guess that’s not the same as what you’re talking about really, but… there is a strong element of standing up and talking, right?”

I started at how close Axel was to me all of a sudden. He must have been moving so smoothly I hadn’t registered it. “Hmm.” He nudged my chin up with his fingertip so he could look right into my eyes. “I can see it, you know. I totally believe you’d kick arse at it, and you’d be cute as in a courtroom. All those annoying men in the profession wouldn’t bother you one bit either, would they?” Having him so close to me, touching me even, made me nervous. I could barely form the smile my lips insisted on. “You should talk to Ashleigh about it. She’s been on the law path for years now, so she’s thought out all the possibilities.”

I was barely able to hide a grimace. I tried to give everyone a chance, but with Ashleigh, it was hard.

Axel wasn’t fooled, either. “I know she’s got her reputation. But everyone’s a bit not nice in some ways. We’re all nasty if you dig a little deeper.”