Defiant Princess (Boys of Oak Park Prep #2) - Callie Rose Page 0,39

pulled me into his arms, pressing his lips to mine. That feeling of wrongness that had flared up every time I tried to kiss him before resurfaced, stronger this time, and I wriggled out of his grip. “Oliver, I don’t—”

“Come on, Talia.” He laughed, looping his arms around my waist again and tugging me toward him. “I’ve been pretty patient, but you can’t go around dressed like that and expect me not to want you.”

“I’m not going around,” I shot back, pressing hard on his arms to break his grip again. “I came up here to work.”

He stepped into my space for the third time, one arm grasping my waist like a vise while the other skated up over my breast. “Sure you did. So did I.”

“What the fuck are you doing?”

I shoved at his chest, and he gave up groping my boob to wrap that arm around me too, pinning me to him. My heart beat harder in my chest as I stared at his bland, friendly face. His lips were curved up in a smile, as if the two of us shared some secret.

“Talia,” he said softly, hiking me tighter against him. He was hard. I could feel his dick pressing into my stomach, and it made the wrong kind of butterflies flap around wildly, like they too were trying to escape. “Come on. You can cut the act out. I saw that video. We all saw it. You like sex. And that’s okay. It’s more than okay. Don’t let anybody make you feel bad about who you are.”

As I blinked, trying to process those words, he swooped his head down and kissed me. Hard. I wrenched my mouth away, but he grabbed my jaw with one hand, forcing my face back to meet his.

“Jesus, Oliver, cut it out!” I shoved him hard and managed to slip his grasp for a second, but he was on me again in a blink, his body suddenly seeming bigger, more threatening than it ever had before.

“Come on, Talia. Come on. Just once. I put in all the fucking work. Just once.”

He pawed at me as he muttered, backing me up toward the mirror until my ass hit the barre, trapping me against it with the weight of his pelvis. His lips were on the skin of my neck, my ear, and the only word I could think of was wrong, wrong, wrong.

I flailed and kicked, trying to shove him off me, and when he slipped a hand down the front of my leotard, the feel of his palm on my breast sent a shockwave of panic spiraling through me. I screamed, hurling myself to the side. We both stumbled, and there was a ripping sound before I went down to my hands and knees. I didn’t turn around, didn’t even stop to see where he was, just scrambled back to my feet and threw myself toward the door.

My hands hit it with a loud smack, and I shoved it open, waves of adrenaline making me feel sick as I sprinted down the hall. The locker room. The locker room. I’d be safe in the locker room.

I rounded the corner toward the stairs—

And smashed into a body.

There was a grunt, and large hands caught my arms, steadying me. Cole stared down at me, and his expression shifted in less than a second as he took in my appearance.

Every bit of softness drained from his features, replaced by a fury I’d never seen before, and his blue gaze flicked past me before he let go of my arms and strode down the hall with long, purposeful strides.

I stood frozen for a moment, watching the place where he’d disappeared around the corner.

The door opened and closed.

A single raised voice started to speak, but it was cut off by noises I knew well.

Grunts and yells echoed from the room, punctuated by the sound of a solid fist hitting flesh.

Slowly, almost against my will, I moved down the hall, drawn by the sound and a terrible, morbid need to see.

I pulled open the door to the studio, and my stomach flipped. Cole must’ve come in here like a fucking Terminator. I wasn’t sure if Oliver had gotten a single punch in, but if he hadn’t already, he never would now. He was on the floor, Cole kneeling over him, half straddling his body. The larger boy held the front of Oliver’s shirt in one hand while his other hand rained down blows like he was trying