King of Corium (Corium University Trilogy 1)

Those thoughts stay with me as I rush back to my room. Even when I’m closing the door behind me and turning the lock, I don’t feel safe anymore. Not that I ever really felt safe in my dorm room, but now even less so. As long as Xander Rossi is here, no room in the school will be safe for me.

Slipping out of my shoes, I fall into my bed and curl up in a ball. The events of last night and this morning keep replaying in my mind. I still don’t know what Xander did, but it must be bad if he doesn’t want Quinton to know. I play with the idea of telling him the whole thing, but that’ll probably backfire. Like Quinton always says, my mouth is going to get me in trouble.

I decide to take my mind off reality and grab a book off my nightstand. I’ll try to get lost in the pages, but after two chapters, my eyes keep falling shut, and I finally give in and put the book aside.

Of course, I slept terribly last night. I’m not even sure how many hours; I just know it wasn’t much. Grabbing the blanket, I pull it over myself and close my eyes.

Just when I start to doze off a little, I hear the clicking of the lock. The door is pushed open, and I sit up in my bed so fast my head spins.

“You’re already going back to bed?” Quinton’s voice fills the room, and I relax back down onto the mattress.

“This might come as a surprise to you, but I didn’t get much sleep last night. Something about being in the same place as people trying to kill you will do that to you.”

“Don’t be so dramatic. No one is trying to kill you.”

“You’re right. Matteo only wanted to rape and beat me. Nothing to be dramatic about.”

He doesn’t have an answer to that, probably because he knows I’m right. If Matteo had gotten his way, last night would have ended much worse for me.

Quinton sits down on the edge of my bed, the mattress giving way under his weight, making me roll toward him. “He won’t bother you again—”

I hold up my hand, making him stop talking. “You’ve said that before, and how did that work out for me?”

“Yesterday happened because of my father, but he is gone now. My family just left.”

“Oh… I’m sorry.”

Quinton tilts his head, inspecting me. “Are you really?”

“I mean, I’m sorry you had to say goodbye to your family. I’m not sorry your father is gone. If it was up to me, I would never be in the same zip code as your dad.”

“That’s understandable.”

“Why are you here?” I ask. Though I can guess why.

“I want to fuck you, of course.”

“Of course,” I echo his words. “Did you miss the part where our deal is off? You didn’t hold up your end of the bargain.”

“My father is gone. Our deal is back on.”

“No.” I shake my head.

“Fine. No deal then. I’ll just come and go as I please, use your body wherever I feel like it, and while I’m at it, I’ll give Matteo a spare key.”

I flinch at his words and the coldness of the voice delivering them. He holds all the power here, and he doesn’t miss the opportunity to let me know it.

“I’d like to think you wouldn’t do that to me, but then I remember who you are and what we are to each other. I guess our deal is back on. Unfortunately, you have already had your hour of fun, and my head hurts anyway. So, I’ll see you next week.”

I turn away from him, hoping he’ll simply leave, but like everything involving Quinton, nothing is easy.

“You can’t really count the bathroom sex as an hour. That was a quickie, ten minutes at best. You still owe me most of that hour.”

I roll back over onto my back to look at him. “My head really does hurt, okay? Have you seen my face?” I point at my eye. “Please, just let me sleep. I’ll give you a full hour tomorrow night, okay?” I’m probably going to regret this later, but right now, I just want to sleep.

“Fine. I’ll be back tomorrow to collect.”

“Great…” I pull my blanket closer to my chest.

Quinton gets up from my bed and walks out of my room without another word.

Yeah, I definitely will regret giving him another hour tomorrow.

33

QUINTON

The time on my phone stares back at me in an almost mocking way. I can’t sleep, and I’m going fucking crazy lying here in bed. Ever since my parents and Scarlet left a few days ago, it’s been harder than ever for me to get decent sleep. The time ticks to four, and I decide I need to do something before I end up ripping this room to shreds.