We The Pretty Stars (Court High 4)

“What happened?” I asked, pushing my fingers into blond hair that smelled so good. I buried my face in it. “At the Sheriff’s office?”

Clearly killing the mood, Royal tossed his head back, smoothing his hands over my bottom when he settled back into the couch. “Mira. I guess she mentioned me in her suicide letter. Her dad found it this morning. It was in an envelope on his desk. He said he must have missed it since he’s always got a bunch of shit on it.”

“What did it say?” I moved my legs, no longer straddling him when I sat on his lap. He let me, holding me to him with strong arms.

“Only that she was sad,” he said, frowning. “That she was in love with me, but I made her life miserable. That’s ironic as fuck since she made my life miserable. She was manipulative and tried to use what she knew about the haze to ruin my life. I told you why I gave in to her.”

To push me away, the only reason. I looped my arms around his neck. “Why would she say that?”

He sat with that, irises flickering up. “I guess to ruin me even in death. The last thing she said before she died to me was I’d regret leaving her.”

Had she meant that? Killed herself really over him? It was so sick, sad. I swallowed. “Why did you have her cell phone?”

“I didn’t.” He wrestled fingers through his dusky blond locks. “She must have put it there, wanting to beef up the letter or something. Anyway, it was evidence enough for them to bring me in. They couldn’t charge me with anything because I didn’t do anything. They had to let me go and did once my dad showed up. They gave me a call. I decided to use it on him since I didn’t know what I was dealing with. I’m regretting that now, and don’t you ever do what you did today again. Don’t stand up to my dad. Don’t fucking talk to him.”

“Why?”

He tossed me on my back, literally maneuvered me underneath him. He pinned me down, and when he forced his fingers into my hair, guiding me to look up at him, my heart raced.

He was so beautiful, shallow breaths releasing from perfect lips. I touched one, and he kissed my finger, his tongue touching the tip.

Harsh heat simmered between my legs, Royal’s hard length pressing into my stomach.

“He won’t ever hurt you,” he said, pulling my thumb into his mouth and sliding a hand beneath my skirt. He pushed into my underwear, cupping me. “And you make it harder for me to protect you if you do things like that. Don’t ever stand up to him, December. Don’t ever. Promise me.”

“I promise,” I sighed, trembling when he slid a finger inside me. He dipped in deep. In and out. In and out, and I rocked my hips up to meet his strokes. He only just had me on the brink of falling apart when a pound hit the door, both of us jumping. The knock followed three more, and next thing I knew, taps were hitting t

he window of the living room.

I tossed a head back into the couch the same time Royal looked up, and what did we get? Jax’s fucking grin staring at us through my dad’s window.

“They’re in here, guys,” he said, waving both Knight and LJ over. Jax’s grin widened. “And they’re basically fucking.”

Once Royal had gotten off me—and removed his hand from my panties—we got ourselves together enough to open the door and let the cockblockers inside my dad’s house. They came casually, sans uniforms unlike Royal and myself. They must have gone home to change, and the only reason I let them inside was because I happened to get a call from my dad basically as they came in. He said he was going to be working late, but he wanted to make sure I had the alarm system on, something I had the guys check after I got off the phone. With everything going on in this town, it didn’t hurt to have some added security, I guess, and the boys not only checked that but double-checked. They were apparently with my dad on this, and after they got the place locked down like Fort Knox, they immediately moved into raiding my dad’s fridge.

“Dude! He’s got chocolate milk!” Jax proclaimed, then frowned at me. “Sorry, December.”

I shrugged. Just because I didn’t drink milk didn’t mean they couldn’t. The boys quickly got their bounty, and soon, we were back on the couch, me in Royal’s lap while he explained again what went down at the sheriff’s station. The guys all thought what happened was bullshit—which it was—and even more so when Royal’s father came into the picture.

“One day that fucker is going to get what’s coming to him,” Jax stated, regarding Royal’s dad. He’d said it a little hesitantly, looking to Royal. Maybe he thought he may feel some kind of way about saying something like that about his Royal’s dad, but since Royal didn’t disagree with him, I think what he’d said had been cool between them. This was a messed-up situation, and I was sure Royal did feel a little conflicted about all of it.

I mean, at the end of that day, that was his dad.

I had one of those too, and I got being conflicted. There were some times I really wanted to hate my dad and others when I just wanted him to be my family, my dad. Especially after losing not just my mom but Paige.

Wow, we held so many similarities there, didn’t we?

Royal obviously didn’t talk about it, but he lost a mom and a sibling too, and as the boys and I vegged out on my dad’s couch, we all got into trying to relax into what assuredly was not a relaxing town. Maywood Heights held some dark secrets, a murderer most likely still within its borders and maybe even more than one. We lost an opportunity to go to the Prinze family jewelry store today with Royal’s arrest. I think we all came to the conclusion that right now lying low was best for the present, and as Royal later pointed out, his dad gave us an opportunity since he was headed out of town. Apparently, he was going to be gone all weekend according to Royal, so it’d be the perfect time to get down to business on a sleepy Sunday since no one came downtown. In regards to tonight, the guys offered to sit with me so I wouldn’t have a night alone in my dad’s house. I wasn’t alone. Rosanna may not be here on the weekends, but I had Hershey. I later brought her downstairs, but these boys I was quickly learning were very protective. I idly wondered if Paige had to deal with that too, but knowing her, she was most likely doing the protecting.

After the guys went back to my dad’s fridge for more snacks, we were all on the couch. Hershey in my arms, I held out several movie options for us all to pick through for the night.

“Okay, so these are our options outside of my dad’s political thrillers,” I said. Dad had a shelf full of them lining his office, so I made do with what I had, tossing the three DVDs on the ottoman for the boys to root through.

Four mini mountains eased off cream-colored suede, but it was Royal to smirk at the DVDs. He pointed a finger. “Legally Blonde?”

I shrugged. “Paige’s favorite.”

“And a classic.” Lounging back, Jax pulled large arms behind his head. “I vote for that.”