“She did, but like you said it’s off Broadway, not on.”
“Does that really matter?”
“In our family it does.” Amber’s voice was stiff. “What’s your problem anyway?”
“Barry called and he’s missing me.”
“You need to move on from that chump.”
“He’s the father of my son. I’m not just going to move on. They want me to come home.”
“It’s nearly done, Shannon. We’ll be going home soon.” Amber sighed and paused. “What was that noise?” Her voice rose and I stepped back as quickly and quietly as I could and made my way to my room. My heart was pounding and my face was burning at the fear of nearly being caught. What had I just heard? It didn’t make sense. How could Shannon have a son if she was a virgin? It didn’t make any sense to me. What was going on here? I walked over to my bed and sat down. I’d never been more confused in my life. Why had Jaxon asked me to marry him? Why would Shannon come to a lovers academy and pretend she was a virgin if she had a kid and why had Hunter been killed? It made no sense. Absolutely no sense at all.
Chapter 3
Jaxon
The best way to deal with feelings of guilt is to occupy your mind and ignore them. Once guilt sets in, there is no way to remove it. It tells you that you’ve done something wrong and you know it. It tells you that if you could go back, you might make a different decision. Guilt can kill you slowly. It creeps up on you and takes over your brain. I’m not really one for guilt. I’m not a sociopath, I do know when I’ve done something wrong, but I find it doesn’t help to feel guilty about it. What’s done is done. You move on and do the best you can to forget about it.
I felt my heart drop when Nancy left the room. I knew that she hadn’t believed everything I’d said. Though, I knew she had wanted to believe. She’d wanted to believe very badly. She liked me. Though, I wasn’t even sure if she realized how much. I wasn’t sure if she knew that the connection we had wasn’t normal. She might be blaming it on the sexual chemistry we’d had. The sexual chemistry that was eating me up inside. My c**k was still rock hard, even though she’d left the room an hour earlier. I wanted more than anything to be inside of her and I knew she wanted it too. Though¸ I couldn’t think about that. Not yet. Not right now. I was playing too dangerous of a game. If she called home now, it would all be over.
I hadn’t wanted to let her go. I hadn’t wanted to risk everything blowing up now. Yet, I’d known I had to. I had to let her go. I had to let her think she could trust me, to a certain degree. Nothing would progress past this point, if she didn’t trust me. It didn’t help that I had my own questions. I walked over to the door and banged it with my fists, resisting the urge to slam my fist through the window. I wanted to break something. I wanted to feel pain and see blood. I needed to be reminded of what a sick and dangerous game this was. I was about to hit the door again when I received a phone call.
“Jaxon.” My dad’s voice was cold as I answered the phone.
“Yes?” I said warily.
“How is part two going?”
“It’s going.”
“You’re not weakening?”
“I’m not weakening.”
“It’s a pity about what happened to Hunter.” His voice held a question, but I didn’t respond right away.
“Yes, it’s a pity.”
“Death is only the beginning.”
“Yes.”
“She’s not a stupid girl.”
“I know that.”
“She’ll start asking questions.”
“She’s already asking questions.”
“Does she know anything?”
“Nothing more than we want her to know.”
“You know what’ll happen to her if this doesn’t work.”
“I know.”
“Brandon won’t be happy once he knows the truth.”
“I know, dad.” My voice was annoyed.
“You don’t have long.”
“He thinks she’s pregnant.”
“Smart move.” He paused and I could almost see the smile on his face. “The marriage will proceed then.”
“Of course it will.” My voice was irritated. “She wants me. She wants to protect me. It will proceed.”
“You’ve a lot of faith in your answer.”
“I’ve a lot of faith in the way she reacts when I touch her.”
“That’s my boy.” He laughed. “Enjoy the spoils while you can.”
“It’s not like that.” My voice was stiff and I frowned at the empty space in front of me.
“Just make sure that you marry her before she finds out about the academy.”
“She’s not going to find out dad.”
“Trust me, nothing stays a secret for long. She’ll find out. And once she realizes that the Lovers’ Academy doesn’t really exist, she’s going to ask questions. She’s going to ask questions that neither of us is going to want to answer.”
“She won’t find out.”
“Remember the rules of Chess I taught you when you were a boy. If you want to be a winner in the game, you must never start with the same openings. You must never count on one strategy for too long. Also, never underestimate your opponent. You must account for their accounting of your next ten moves. Figure out your strategy based on them figuring out your strategy, it is only then you can win the game.”
“Winning the game doesn’t always mean you’re a winner, dad.”
“Winning this game is all that matters, Jaxon. Don’t forget that. In a game of cat and mouse, the winner is the one who gets the cheese and survives, not just the one that gets to keep his life.” And with that he hung up.
Chapter FOUR
Nancy
I woke up the next morning with a heavy head. I hadn’t slept well and I didn’t know what to do. I had nowhere to go. No one to talk to. I had no options. It scared me to feel so alone. I’d gone from having a loving family to nothing in a week. I felt isolated and unsure of myself. I knew I should just go back to Brandon’s, wait out the summer and then go to college. That’s what any normal person would do, but I wasn’t normal.
BANG BANG. The knock on the door made me jump. I got out of bed slowly and walked over to the door, not sure who was waiting for me.
“Oh, it’s you.” I stared at Jaxon’s calm, yet serious face.
“Yes, it’s me. Can I come in?” He stood there patiently and I frowned at him.
“This is a bit out of the ordinary for you, isn’t it? Since when do you knock?”
“Since I realized that you would prefer me to knock before I entered the room.”
“It didn’t seem to bother you before.”
“Maybe not, but you didn’t know how good masturbating felt before.”
“Oh.” I blushed up at him.
“I wouldn’t want to catch you in the act.” He grinned and walked into my room. “I might just have to finish you off myself.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I closed the door behind him and turned around.
“Well it means, I can use my fingers or my cock. Though, this time, I think I’d much rather use my cock.”
“You’re…” I started, but he cut me off.
“Yes, I am.” He grinned. “Whatever you were going to say was true. I am everything you think I am, including a good lover.”
“Whatever.”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it?”
“I haven’t thought about it.” I lied, trying to ignore the thoughts I’d had early this morning.
“Liar.” He licked his lips.
“What do you want?”
“I wanted to make sure you were okay. Last night was crazy and I suspect today will be even crazier.”
“Why? Another death?”
“I hope not.” He shivered. “I’m talking about the police. They will want to question you this morning. They understood you were in shock last night, but I don’t think they’ll let it go another day.”
“Why do they want to question me?”
“To see if you did it, of course.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at me. “You didn’t of course.”
“Is that a question or a statement?” I looked into his eyes and frowned. “Because for a second there, it really sounded like a question.”
“I think none of us can really know what happened until the police figure it out.”
“I’m shocked you let the police come to investigate.” I walked over to my bed and sat down and looked at him. “It seems to me that there are things that you and your father wouldn’t want to get out.”
“We’re happy for the truth to come out. We don’t evade the truth. We just want all the answers out in the open.” He came and sat next to me. “How are you feeling this morning?” He stared into my face, his eyes a mere inch from my own.
“I’m fine.” I shuffled away from him.
“You look like shit.”
“Well, I didn’t have the best sleep I’d ever had in my life.” I rolled my eyes. “Someone died here last night. I don’t know why. I don’t know who killed him. All I know is that he had my name on a piece of paper when he died.”
“So who are your main suspects?”
“I’m not Sherlock Holmes. Or Olivia Benson.” I smiled to myself as I thought of Law and Order: SVU. It always made me think of Meg.
“If you were, who would you suspect?” His voice was low as if he didn’t care about my answer, but I knew that he did.
“You.” I said directly and stared into his eyes. “You’re my first suspect. Then my dad.” I said reluctantly. “Then Amber.”
“Amber.” He looked confused. “The other student, Amber?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “There’s something not right about that girl.”
“Oh, why’s that?”
“A good detective never tells her secrets.”
“Why am I a subject?”
“Because I don’t trust you.”
“I see.” I could see him studying my face. “You let me into your room though.”
“I let you in because better the devil you know then the devil you don’t.”
“So you think I’m a devil?” He smirked at me.
“Aren’t you?”
“I’m not in hell.” He shrugged. “Yet.”
“You think this is all fun and games?”
“I don’t think it’s all fun, no.” He shook his head. “Not yet.”
“What do you want, Jaxon?”
“I want you on the bed, stomach down, ass in the air and begging me to enter you.”
“Puh-lease.” I rolled my eyes at him, though my body was shaking at his words.
“There’s the eighteen year old in you.” He shook his head and groaned.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Puh-lease.” He imitated my voice and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.
“You think you’re funny?”
“No, I think I’m horny.”
“Is this all about sex for you?”
“This is the Lovers’ Academy.” He touched my face. “I’m your teacher.”
“Okay.”
“Are you ready for your lesson today?”
“What’s the lesson?” I asked slowly, not believing that I was even entertaining the idea.
“Some more rope play.”
“Rope play?” I repeated confused. “What does that mean?”
“It means I want to show you how to have fun with ropes.”
“Fun with ropes? How?”
“I want to use this rope.”
“Around my wrists?”
“No around your neck.” His face was grim. “I won’t hurt you.”
“Are you f**king joking?” I started laughing, partly due to shock. “There is no way in hell you’re using that rope around my neck.”
“Why?” His lips twitched and his eyes changed from a serious glare to a surprised one.
“Did you seriously think I was just going to say yes to that?” I gave him a crazy look. “Did you think I would say sure Jaxon, tie a rope around my neck and let’s have some fun?”
“I guess not.” He laughed. “We can use it in other ways.”
“Maybe I can tie you up this time.” I smiled sweetly. “If we’re doing this whole trust thing.”
“You want to tie me up?” His eyes narrowed.
“Yes.” I moved closer to him and pushed him down onto the bed. “I want to tie you up.” I let my inner seductress come out as I stared at him. “I want to see how much you can take.”
“How much what?” He grabbed my wrists.
“How much anything? You’re not the only one who can be a tease.”
“You want to tease me?”
“I want to see if I can trust you.”
“And teasing me will let you know if you can trust me?”
“No, you letting me tie you up with rope will let me know if you trust me.”
“I trust you.” He rolled over and pushed me down onto the bed. “I trust you or I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have told you about my dad and your dad. I wouldn’t have suggested we get married.”