Cruel King (Royal Elite #0) by Rina Kent

There’s this air of nonchalance about him. A fuck you to the entire world surrounding him. In full rebel mood, his tousled hair is all over the place, but still has that supermodel look written all over it. There’s no tie in his uniform and he has the cuffs of his shirt rolled over the sleeves of his jacket.

How can someone so gorgeous be the embodiment of the devil?

I start towards the exit. “I’m telling the principal.”

“Sure thing, princess. While you’re at it, tell him you painted my car’s windshield.”

I come to a screeching halt and fold my arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He pushes off the door and it’s like he gained height. He’s become all broad and stiff and…

Threatening. Intimidating.

All humour vanishes from his face as if I was imagining all the smirks and nonchalant behaviour.

It’s scary how much he masters his emotions, what to show and what to hide, when to stalk and when to attack.

Something undecipherable shines in the depth of his eyes and they turn another completely different shade of blue.

Deadly blue.

The type of blue that's infested with sharks,

I keep my position, refusing to let him affect me. But that doesn’t stop my limbs from screaming at me to step back.

Levi King isn’t someone I want to play games with.

One more year.

If I stay out of trouble and finish this year peacefully, everything will be over.

Any type of conflict will destroy my invisibility game.

Despite my pride, I step back, matching his wide relentless strides. The air ripples with crackling tension that grips me by the gut. With every step forward, my heart hammers against my ribcage. I feel like the stupid little deer who lost her way from the herd and got herself stuck with a hungry, relentless predator.

My shins hit the easel and I yelp. I grit my teeth at the effect I’m letting him have on me.

“Stop!” I thrust both my palms against his chest and push him.

I might as well be pushing a buffalo.

A very toned one with hard ridges and pectorals and the whole thing.

He doesn’t move back. Not even a step. If anything he leans closer into my personal space. So close that my hands are the only thing stopping his chest from crushing against mine. So close that he becomes tenfold more beautiful. So close that I smell cigarette and chocolate cheesecake on his breath.

Wait. Is that on me from this morning’s breakfast? Because if this bully likes cheesecake, too, then I’m retiring from the food.

“What do you want, Levi?”

“It’s King to you.”

“No, thanks. You have a name, why does everyone call you by your last name?”

“You don’t ask the questions, princess. You only answer mine, understood?”

I can’t believe the arrogance of this bastard. But then again, he’s had the school at the palm of his hands for two years, why wouldn’t he think everyone would bow down to him?

“What do you want, your majesty?”

He tilts his head at the sarcastic note and I jut my chin upwards. He looks down at my palms on his chest as if contemplating something.

Before he can get any wild ideas, I remove my hands with a jerk.

Big mistake.

Levi advances into me like the bull from earlier, and I have no choice but to step over the easel and move back. My back hits the wall and a shiver draws down my core.

Why the hell do I keep getting myself into corners with him?

Levi slams his hand on the wall beside my head with his face mere inches from mine. My air supply comes in and out in short bursts. I can’t even breathe properly, afraid that this time my throbbing chest will surely become one with his.

“I told you what I want.” His voice drops to a dangerous, low range. “But what did you do?”

I fold my arms both to stop his chest from grazing mine and to control the hammering of my crazy heartbeat.

My gaze trails in the opposite direction, refusing to meet his eyes. If I do, I have a feeling they’d swallow me whole and never let go.

“I said.” His thumb and forefinger squeeze my chin, forcing me to face him. “What did you do?”

I gulp against the feel of his skin on mine. The calloused, long fingers bring back memories of that night.

Hit-and-run night.

For the first time in months, the memories aren’t gory and gruesome like in my nightmares.

No.

It’s entirely different.

These memories consume me like a case of drugs gone wrong — or maybe it’s gone right.

Goosebumps form on my skin at the memory of how good it felt to be touched by him.

How he elicited those desperate, foreign sensations in parts I thought didn’t exist.

This same devil made me feel like no one did before.

No. That was Ecstasy. Anyone could’ve touched me and it would’ve felt good.

Only now, I’m under no drug influence and I might as well be. Tingles draw down my spine, and I have no way to fight them off.

All I can do is show him that he can’t get through me.

“I told you I’m not meeting you. It’s not my fault you assumed otherwise.”

He raises one perfect, thick eyebrow. “Is that why you painted my car?”

“That was for humiliating me in front of the entire school.”

“That’s nothing compared to what I can do to you. Be a good little princess and I’ll let everything blow over.”