Broken Empire A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance - Callie Rose Page 0,27

hardly seemed to notice or care about their slipping rank in the school.

It wasn’t that they weren’t paying attention to Adena. They were. But all their attention was focused on me and her—on making sure she didn’t get a chance to hurt me again in any way, large or small. I felt like a celebrity or the daughter of a dignitary or something with the way they escorted me everywhere on campus. The only time I was ever really alone was when I was tucked away safely in my dorm room—and I was pretty sure if I’d allowed it, the Princes would’ve started sleeping over in shifts too.

“You guys don’t have to do all this, you know,” I told Finn on Saturday when he came over to study with me.

I’d done a shitload of research on dyslexia and had some ideas I thought might help him. I also wanted to try to get him to go to a reading specialist, but considering how much his parents had messed him up about it, I figured we’d start with baby steps.

“Do what?”

He followed me to the couch and sat down next to me, dropping his books onto the coffee table. There was a foot of space between us, but I found myself hyper aware of his proximity anyway, of every little shift and movement of his body. I’d been alone in a room with the blond boy plenty of times, but not recently, and not in my dorm.

I tugged my gaze away from the taut muscles of his forearms, shaking my head and hoping he hadn’t caught me staring. Fuck, Tal. Stop it.

“This whole ‘guard the princess’ thing,” I said. “I appreciate you wanting to watch out for me, and I know I told Mason not to go after Adena for the car until we know for sure. But what about what she’s been doing to you? Aren’t you going to do something about it?”

He grinned at me, his dimples popping out in his cheeks, and all of a sudden the foot of space between us felt like nothing at all.

“We are doing something, Legs. We’re keeping you safe. Honestly, that’s the best fucking revenge there is against that bitch. And besides, it’s all that matters.”

“But she’s ruining your reputation around the school. Don’t you care?”

He cocked his head as if seriously considering my question. Then he shrugged.

“Not as much as I thought I would, honestly.” He scooted a little closer to me on the couch, and it got a tiny bit harder to breathe. “When we first got here—our freshman year—there was another group that kind of ran things. We became the kings of our class, but they ruled the school. When they graduated, we took over. We started throwing parties at Clarendon Hall. Making nice with the right people and being assholes to the right people. And our families were already well known by everyone who goes here, so it just made it that much easier.”

He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth, pausing for a second as he considered his next words.

“But you know what? It was fucking lonely. I mean, we had each other, and I love those three fuckers like my own flesh and blood. But that was all we had. That’s why when we threw parties at Clarendon, we always ended up in a back room, just smoking and drinking by ourselves. Because we couldn’t trust anyone. Everyone wanted something—either a favor or to bring us down or just to get close to the fucking school royalty, you know? None of it was real. Not even whatever fucked up ‘relationship’ Adena and Mason had. It was all… fake.”

He leaned against the back cushions of the couch, putting his feet up on the coffee table and tugging me back to rest beside him. He left his arm around my shoulders, and his thumb rubbed gentle circles over my upper arm as he added, “So, no. Maybe I won’t miss whatever reputation I had around this place. Maybe it doesn’t fucking matter.”

I leaned into him, enjoying the strong, solid feel of his body against mine. My cast was too clunky for me to put it up on the coffee table too, but I put my good leg up, stretching it out alongside his.

“I never would’ve thought I’d hear one of the Princes say that.”

“Hey.” He poked my shoulder, careful to avoid any of my scars. “People can change, you know.”

The monumental meaning of those simple words, spoken with