The Ruthless Note: Dark High School Bully Romance (Redwood Kings Book 2)

She thinks I don’t know about the phone.

If I were in a better frame of mind, I’d punish her right away for trying to film me without my permission. I hate girls who play games like that, but I’m a little off tonight.

The bomb dad dropped at dinner was enough to tear the fabric of Zane’s world and promise more trouble for all three of us. It bothers me that I don’t know what he’s planning and until he makes another move, there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

After dinner, I went straight to my guitar. The helplessness made me feel like I was dangling on the edge of a cliff. But no matter how hard I strummed, the world kept moving out of focus.

Then I saw a post from the school account with the line-up of tonight’s concert.

Cadence’s name was on the list.

I had to be there.

I had to hear her play.

If I missed her performance by a second, I would have grabbed someone by the throat and demanded they get her up there again. That’s how unhinged I was, how desperate for relief.

But I got here in time to see her take her place behind the piano, drowning in light. Her head was bent over the keys, making my breath catch, making my chest tight.

And her music…

Damn. Every second was worth it.

Every note.

Every chord.

Every detail.

She’s so honest when she plays. My eyes slide to the phone again. Maybe that’s why she’s such a bad liar.

“Let’s stay over here,” Cadence says, releasing her death grip on the bar to indicate a circle. It’s an area that is, coincidentally, in perfect view of her phone.

I glance at the device again. Cadence practically propped up her cell phone with the back camera facing us. The clothes she threw on top of it would have worked as a disguise if they were more substantial. But that slip of a dress was barely covering her body. It’s not doing much to hide her cell phone.

I slice my hands through the water. The air is cold and, since we’re in the shallow end, the entire upper half of my body isn’t submerged.

“You can’t stay over there,” I say, watching her cling for dear life to the iron bars that bracket the steps.

“Why not?”

“You can’t swim if your feet are glued to the stairs.” I jut my chin down. Beneath the water, her toes are planted firmly on the raised steps.

She licks her lips nervously. The water is barely swallowing her middle, giving me an unobstructed view of her practical black bra and panties.

So much skin on display.

I want to scrape my tongue against every inch until I know her the way I know my guitar. Until I can pluck chords with a gentle touch, knowing exactly where to stroke to get the sound I want.

She’s temptation in the water. A siren of destruction.

Pure, flawless ivory skin. Legs for days. My body’s already aching for more and I haven’t even touched her yet.

Cadence takes an uncertain step forward. And then another. The water reaches up to mid-torso now. She can stand comfortably and yet her eyes hold a hint of fear.

She must not be over what happened with Christa the last time.

I wrap my fingers around hers and try to lead her forward.

She resists me.

“Here.” Her eyes dart to the phone before jumping to me. It’s quick. Subtle. If I didn’t already know what she was doing, I wouldn’t have thought anything about it. “Let’s stay in the shallows.”

I stare down at her and watch the nervous flick of her tongue against her bottom lip. She’s trying to play me again. Trying to use me for her own purposes.

I’m running out of patience.

I said I would let it pass.

But not anymore.

I want to teach her a lesson.

And I want that lesson to hurt.

I lead her further into the pool until she’s submerged up to her neck.

“I can’t go any further,” she hisses, trying to disentangle her hand from mine.

Facing her, I take note of the wig on her head. She didn’t take it off when she was stripping out of her clothes. The orange suits her just as much as the red did, but she doesn’t need it.

Grabbing the wig by the embedded headband, I toss it to the side of the pool.

Cadence gasps.

“You don’t need to pretend with me,” I tell her darkly.

Before she can protest, I smooth my hands under her and heft her up so she’s floating on top of the water.

“Dutch!” Her frightened voice bounces off the walls.

“Sh.” I place a steadying hand on her shoulder. “The tenser you are, the more likely you’ll drown. You gotta trust that the water will hold you up.”

“You think that’s helpful?” she snaps. So much sass. Even when she’s at my mercy.

“Then think about something that relaxes you.”

“How am I supposed to think when you could literally drown me in the next second?” she fires back.

“I already told you. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Brahms.”

“Forgive me if that’s not exactly comforting.”

I can’t help the chuckle that rolls out of my chest.

She lets loose an aggravated sigh. “Nothing relaxes me. I’m tense all the time, waiting for the next boot to drop.”

I slide my fingers along her bare shoulders. “What about the piano?” I ask, keeping an eye on her legs. She’s still got them pointed down.

“The piano doesn’t calm me. It… it’s something I can’t live with… but I can’t live without it either.”

“Does that mean you love it?” I ask, removing one of my hands from her body. She doesn’t notice. Her eyes are closed, the lashes sparkling with drops of water. Her nostrils are flaring. “Or that you hate it?”

“Both.”

“Complicated.”

“Extremely. Have you ever loved and hated something in equal measures? That’s not fun. That’s exhausting. Music takes something from me every time I give in to it. It’s the air I breathe, but it’s also, like, the air is poisonous and it cuts a chunk of my life every time.”

I remove my other hand from her back. I’m staying close, but I’m not touching her anywhere else.

“If it’s going to kill you anyway,” I whisper, “doesn’t that mean it’s better to love it like crazy? At least then, you’ll feel alive until the end.”

Her eyes flutter open. Our gazes lock and hold.

Suddenly, she starts to sink.

We’ve been floating away from the shallow end and Cadence panics when she realizes her feet can’t touch the floor.

I wrap my arms around her, latching her to my chest. “I’ve got you.”

She’s too close now, her hands wrapped around my neck and her wet body plastered to mine. Droplets trickle down her plump mouth and tease the curve of her chin before plopping back into the pool.

It’s the first time Cadence Cooper has ever clung to me. I can’t believe how good it feels. I can’t believe how desperate I am to never let her go.

“What about you?” Cadence asks, her voice so low I can barely hear it. “Is music still a burden?”

Her eyes are big brown galaxies. If I’m not careful, I’ll find myself floating around in them like an astronaut cut off from the ship, knifing through a vast, endless space.

I freaking wish I knew how to be careful with her.

But I’ve never been able to do it. Especially not when she plays that damn piano.

Cadence.

Redhead.

Brahms.

My Achilles heel.

“There are some burdens you don’t let go of, even if it means drowning.” I trace a finger down the side of her face. “Music is like that to me. It’s a weight that I hold on to because the alternative is being empty.” Her eyes flutter closed as I slide my hand down her leg and hook it around my waist.

“Is being empty that terrifying?”

Rather than answer, I hook her other leg around my waist until she’s wrapped around me like moss on an ivory pillar.

Her gaze is hazy, but she fights through it, eyes sliding lazily to the phone as if she can’t remember why it’s important, only that it is.

I drop my face close, my lips hovering over hers. She pulls back at the last second. “T-the shallows.”

My temper spikes. Even now she’s still thinking about what she can take from me.

The smile I offer her is cruel. “Swim there if you want.”

Her fingers tighten around my neck. Her heart is pounding against mine.

I keep my face over hers, staring at her. Daring her to let me go.

She doesn’t.

She can’t.

She’s trapped.

The air brims with the same heated magnetism that threw us together in the theatre.

“Don’t you get tired of fighting me, Dutch?” she whispers, her eyes dropping to my mouth.

It takes effort not to let my smile unfurl. She’s trying to seduce me into doing what she wants.

For the briefest of moments, I consider giving in. I consider waltzing right into her phone’s line of sight, pretending that I never noticed and giving Jinx the show she probably demanded.

Cadence kisses me softly. Her mouth is hot against mine. Softer than silk. A convincing argument.

I cradle her back, pulling her closer.

She pushes away, her eyes dark liquid. “I’m curious about something.”

“What?” I growl. I’m not really in the mood for talking right now.

“Why does it have to be me?”

I hold her eyes hostage. “What the hell does that mean?”

“There are tons of girls who would willingly give up their V-card to you. Hell, they’d line up and wait their turn. Why go through the trouble of choosing me when I don’t want you?”

“You still don’t get it, do you?” I growl, everything wicked and sexual and insatiable simmering in my blood. “Whether you want me or not doesn’t matter. Either way, you belong to me.”

Her eyebrows tighten.

Enough talking.

I ram my mouth against hers and sweep my fingers up her inner thigh. The water laps at my hand, trying to push me away, but I overcome it to stroke her silken flesh, working closer and closer until…

There.

I plunge into her.

She lets out a breathless gasp and I swallow it, tasting the earthiness of the pool mixed with the sweet honey from her mouth.

We might as well be in a freaking Jacuzzi for all the heat that’s exploding around us.

She’s shaking so badly now that I have to pin her against the pool wall to keep the pace. Cadence claws my shoulders, back arching, mouth open. Sexy as hell.

“Look at me, Cadence,” I demand.

Her eyes burst open.

I keep savaging her and she doesn’t take her eyes off me this time.

My body protests, wanting so badly to invade her fully and take what I want, but the view of Cadence Cooper with her mouth open and her expression cratering with violent pleasure is freaking poetry. And it’ll have to do for now.

I continue teasing her even as she cries out, looking right into her face until those chocolate eyes open again and see me. Recognize me. Recognize the truth.

You belong to me.

Anger flares quickly in her expression, but she has no control over her pleasure. I do. That belongs to me too.

I kiss her when she opens her mouth as if she’ll talk back to me.

And then I hold her.

The entire world could fall away and I wouldn’t notice.

It’s her lesson and yet I’m the one who feels spent. A burning ache unfurls like a whip, demanding more of her, demanding I draw closer to whatever it is that’s making me feel so alive.

I kiss my way down her neck and then stare at her, watching her chest rise and fall as she catches her breath.

“Would you like to do it all again on camera?” I ask, my voice deep and low and edged with a crazed obsession that’s starting to escape from its cage.

She’s languid limbs, hair limp and in her face, eyes burning with desire and disgust. The kind of look that says she hates how much she enjoyed that. Or maybe she hates that I was the one who did it to her.

For a second, confusion crosses her face. And then she gets it.

Her anger rushes to the surface and she shoves me, dropping her legs further into the water and gripping the edge of the pool when I let her go.

“You bastard,” she hisses.

I watch her climb out, protesting the loss of her warmth even as I smirk in victory.

Cadence grits her teeth, jaw clenching. She bends down to grab her dress and shoves her feet into it, hauling it up and not bothering with the buttons at the back.

Her body is so wet, it leaves dark patches on the purple fabric of her costume.

“When did you know?” she asks, her face turned away from me.

I get out of the pool.

Her eyes drop to my pants and widen before climbing back to my face. She takes a step back. A frightened little deer in the presence of a python.

I need her to keep fearing me. Keep hating me. I can’t let her know how often she makes me lose control.

Instead of answering her question, I walk over to her phone, end the video and then delete it.

“Hey!” She launches for the phone.

I toss it back into the chair and glance over my shoulder at her. “Don’t contact Jinx. Don’t make any deals. Don’t even breathe unless I tell you,” I snarl, still wrestling with my need for her. “There are towels in that cabinet. Dry off and then meet me in the parking lot. I’m taking you home.”