A Rose to Keep (The Society 1)

She got to her feet, and I cursed, about to follow her, but Mateo grabbed my arm, stopping me.

“You’ve done enough.”

“She needs to learn her place,” I said.

“You want to win this, Gideon, you’re going to have to learn to play nice.”

I ignored Mateo.

Sian would cave. She’d be ours. I was going to make sure of it.

****

Mateo

The rest of the day went by without much event. We continued to stalk Sian but were only able to sit with her in a couple of classes. Any that had Heather, we could only sit near her. It was all fucking crap.

Gideon was pissed off. William was being his usual self, seeing the light in everything, and Dante, well, he was just … being quiet on the whole subject.

Me, I sat outside the library building on our first day of school, waiting. Instead of going home and listening to the guys plan ways to try to win her, I opted to take a more direct approach.

I’d never thought much of Sian. From the moment she arrived at All Saints, she’d kept to herself, only making friends with the new girl, Heather. They were both two misfits. Neither of them really fitting in even though Sian came from wealth like the rest of us. She wasn’t like the other chicks who went to this school. She never went to parties, nor had the latest designer trends. She didn’t even have a brand-new cell phone. In fact, I didn’t even think she had a cell phone. I never saw her playing on the damn thing.

After learning what we had to do, I’d tried to do my research on this girl, and I came up with jack shit. No social media accounts. There was nothing to help me draw this girl close.

She was an enigma.

I loved a challenge, we all did, but it was important for us to have Sian. The quality of our lives depended on it.

The light in front of the library turned off, and I watched as Sian left the building. She still wore the standard school uniform, only she conformed to the original design of the pencil skirt being below the knee. Others wore mini-skirts, trying to show off their legs, and in most instances, their panties, if they were even wearing them.

Her shirt was untucked and her long brown hair was down. I didn’t recall ever seeing her hair down. She always wore it up in a ponytail.

She hadn’t seen me and started the small walk back to where her dorm was. I closed the distance between us.

“Hey, Sian, wait up,” I said.

She glanced over her shoulder and released a groan. “Are you stalking me now?”

“No,” I said. The lie spilled easily from my lips.

“I don’t believe you.”

“What? A guy couldn’t be running here?” I had changed into my running gear.

“Mateo, you never run. You refuse to run.”

Busted. I preferred to lift weights or save my energy for the field playing ball. Any other time was pointless for running.

I stepped in front of her, stopping her from moving. She glanced around, and I saw the way she shifted the strap of her bag on her shoulder. I made her nervous.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“Can’t a guy be … walking and curious about a girl?”

“No,” she said. “Not when it comes to you or your friends or that damn flower you decided to give me.” She took a small step toward me. I guessed she assumed I’d budge. Not a chance. I wasn’t moving. There was no other place I wanted to be than right in front of her. “Please, move.”

I liked her saying please. One day soon she’d be begging me to taste her sweet cunt. Until then, I was going to have to wait.

“Tell me why,” I said.

“Why what?”

“Why you turned us down. You do realize four of the most eligible guys gave you an opportunity of a lifetime.”

She snorted. “An opportunity of a lifetime? Yeah, I guess being four guys’ bitch is just a wonderful thing. We’re done here.”

“You know we could have anyone. We chose you.”

“Then go and chose one of those girls who would find this whole experience thrilling. To be honest, I’m kind of finding this creepy.” She stood her ground.

With the tilt of her head, the uniform seemed to mold to every single one of her curves, and don’t even get me started on her mass of hair. So full and thick. Damn, I was already having visions of her spread out on my bed, me grabbing fistfuls of her hair, fucking her hard.

I bet she was a virgin.

In fact, I knew she was. Her virginity is going to be a sticky subject. Pun not intended. Which one of us would break her in?

I bet Gideon would be the one, but there was a chance she’d be scarred for life.