Defiant Princess (Boys of Oak Park Prep #2) - Callie Rose Page 0,40

to kill him. Oliver was grunting, screaming, and moaning, but Cole was silent. Focused.

My gaze fixed on the sight, and for the second time, I froze.

The sight before me was terrifying, but somehow, I couldn’t lift a finger to try to stop it.

My breath suspended in my lungs as I watched Cole’s fist descend over and over, his knuckles smeared red with blood—just like Oliver’s nose and teeth.

When I finally sucked in a breath, it was on a gasp, my seizing lungs working too hard to draw in oxygen.

It wasn’t a loud sound, but Cole’s head snapped up to me like a predator catching a new scent. His piercing blue gaze landed on me again, and he rose to his feet, hurling Oliver away from him like a sack of potatoes. The other boy landed on his ass and rolled onto his side, coughing and wheezing as he crawled to his feet. He started toward me, but before panic at his approach could really register, he pushed past me and ran down the hall.

The door shut with a click behind him, leaving Cole and me alone in the room. Splotches of blood were smeared on the light wood floor, and little droplets marked the path where Oliver had fled.

Cole stared at me, his broad chest rising and falling fast, his hands still clenched into fists. And it was only as my shock began to fade that I realized how he had known at a single glance what’d happened to me. The right strap of my leotard had torn when I pulled away from Oliver’s grasp. It hung uselessly down my front now, the fabric on that side drooping so low it left almost my entire breast exposed.

I reached my opposite hand to lift the fabric, covering myself quickly, and that sharp movement seemed to jerk Cole out of his stasis. He crossed the room with the same determined stride, running his hands over me to check for injuries.

“What the fuck did he do?” he grunted. “Motherfucker.”

His touch was rough, leaving little smears of red on my skin from the blood that still coated his knuckles, and it struck me how completely made of violence Cole was—how even his tenderness had an element of violence to it.

It made me think of his father, of my father, and as he skated his hands roughly over my arms, sides, and neck, I noticed a new mark on his face, just below his eye.

Had he gotten that from his dad, or the fight club?

Had he started the fight club as a way to hide the injuries he got from his father?

Without thought, my fingertips drifted up to brush over the small, purple bruise. It was a light touch, but Cole jerked away as if I’d hit him, stepping back and staring at me in shock. His gaze fell to my hand, which was still holding up the useless strap of my leotard, and he grabbed the hem of his t-shirt, yanking it over his head.

“Here.”

He shoved it toward me, and I took it slowly, watching him with a wary gaze. His tattooed chest glistened with sweat, the swirls of black ink almost seeming to move on their own accord as his muscles bunched and flexed. The rage in him sat just below the surface, pulsing under his skin.

Without taking my gaze off of him, I released the strap and quickly pulled the shirt over my head. It smelled like him, a faint hint of ginger and pine, and it covered my leotard completely, the hem reaching my upper thighs.

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the movement, the veins in his neck still standing out. “What happened?”

I shook my head, crossing my arms almost defensively over my stomach. “You know what happened.”

His fist tightened, and he paced a few steps, looking like he wished he hadn’t let Oliver go yet. “Fucking asshole.”

“Yeah.”

He turned back to me sharply. “That the first time he tried something?”

I shook my head as I started to turn away. “What do you care?”

“Talia.” His voice was like a hammer falling. “Was it. The. First. Time?”

Without turning back to face him, I nodded.

Cole cursed under his breath, and I could hear him pacing again. “Goddammit. Why would he—”

“Because he thought it would be easy!” Now I did turn, and when his shocked blue gaze met mine, I huffed a breath that was almost a laugh. “Why are you acting so surprised, Cole? You told the whole school I was a slut.