Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,146

have my own clothes. I’ll wear your stupid uniforms if you want, but this stuff.” I gestured to the incredible array of things. Sure, if I’d been gifted them under any other circumstances I would have been thrilled. But I wasn’t going to let this asshole dress me.

Saint’s eyes turned to pitch and I was suddenly very aware of being alone with him in here. He strode toward me and I pressed my back to the wall in an attempt to put as much distance between us as possible. But he kept coming.

“I decide what’s too far and what isn’t,” he growled, his voice driving shards of ice right into my soul. “You’re going to be the best dressed Barbie doll in the world. My doll.”

A lump rose in my throat and for a moment I wondered what had happened to this guy to make him like this. To need to control everything and everyone around him. The money he must have spent to get me these things was absurd. And why he felt the need to do it was so beyond my grasp, it was as if we were different species.

“Why?” I blurted, sure he’d never answer, but I couldn’t fight my curiosity. “I don’t understand.”

His brows rose ever-so-slightly and he drew in a slow breath. “I like things a certain way-”

“But why?” I cut over him and his eyes flashed dangerously, but there was a dark kind of desire there too that made my thighs clench together.

“It’s just how I am,” he said simply.

“Liar.” I gave him my cheek, staring at the row of shirts to my right which were coordinated from white through ivory to every shade of grey, all the way down to black. He had a real colour fetish it seemed.

His shadow surrounded me and he caught my jaw, turning me back to look at him. His fingers were firm, but not painful and the look in his eyes was full of something very almost human.

“Control is power. Without that, what’s the point of life?” He seemed to want a genuine answer to that question and my brow furrowed as I tried to concentrate. With his fresh, apple scent and icy touch making my thoughts blurry, it was difficult to manage. But I did.

“Enjoyment? Compassion? Friends? Family? Love?”

He tsked, half rolling his eyes at me. “Most people in this world will stab you in the back and claw their way over your dead corpse to take everything you own. Most of your so-called friends would do it in a heartbeat. Your family too. There are a minute number of people in life who you can truly rely on, your job is to figure out who they are fast then learn how to be the most powerful one amongst them to keep them in check.”

I gave him a look of pity because if that was really what he thought life was about, we were never going to understand each other. And he was never going to be happy. Not that I was too bothered about that part. At least the bastard was miserable, though he probably didn’t even realise it.

He released my chin, running his hand over his short hair as he kept himself perfectly composed. I wondered if he ever let his inhibitions slip. I couldn’t imagine what that would look like. He was as rigid as the tin man and just as heartless.

He headed back into his room and I turned to the lingerie, picking up a little black thong. Sure, it was hot. I mean, I wasn’t exactly complaining about the quality of this shit. I loved wearing stuff like this. But I never wore it because someone told me to, I wore it to feel good. Was he going to expect a freaking catwalk in it? Because there was no chance in hell of that happening.

“Come out,” he called and I cursed him under my breath as I exited the closet and found him leaning on the balcony railing.

I moved to his side, my eyes falling to Kyan and Blake on the couch below. They didn’t seem remotely interested in this side of things. Kyan liked the thrill of telling me what to do and me fighting back before I did it, but he didn’t get off on controlling me down to the colour of my freaking underwear. No, that special weirdness was just Saint’s style. And Blake? Well I didn’t think he cared what they did with me so long as