Cruel King (Royal Elite #0) by Rina Kent

“No.” I elbow Levi’s side. “I want to know more.”

Ronan’s playful gaze bounces between me and the girl who disappeared in the direction of the library. “Do you think she’s pretty, Astrid?”

“Are you kidding me? She looks like a doll.” And I’m glad she has Aiden’s interest, not Levi’s.

Scratch that.

I shouldn’t be glad that anyone has the psycho’s attention.

A lustful look covers Ronan’s features. “As in you’d do her?”

Ronan is the type who makes everything about sex — like Dan. From the time I spent with them, he’s the one with the most heart out of the four horesemen. Xander is too slippery. Cole is too silent. Aiden is too..., well, nothing. I can’t grasp his real character no matter how much I study him.

“Yes, I would.” I keep up with Ronan’s game.

“Take my fucking money,” Ronan exclaims. “I want to watch. First row!”

“In your fucking dreams.” Levi pushes him away with a hand on his face.

“Oh, come on, Captain. You already took away my cake bunny hookers fantasy.”

“Cake bunny hookers?” I chuckle.

“Ronan wanted hookers dressed as bunnies coming out of his birthday cake,” Cole says. “Captain denied it.”

Wow. I don’t even have thoughts about that.

“You killed my fantasy once, Captain.” Ronan talks in his dramatic voice. “You can’t do it une autre fois. Two hot girls will be explosive. It’s a waste if no one watches.”

“Who said no one will watch.” Levi meets my gaze with his darkened, lust-filled one. “I would.”

“I would watch, too,” Aiden says without lifting his gaze from his phone.

I don’t know which one to be more surprised by. Who knew both cousins had this side to them?

When we arrive at my class, Levi pulls me against him by the hips and leans in to whisper in my ear. “Locker room. After practice.”

Last week, I snuck into the football team’s locker room to surprise Levi. The surprise somehow ended up with me sucking him off in the showers before he fucked me against the lockers.

I still have bruises and hickeys to prove it.

My skin throbs and heats at the mere memory of that day.

“That was a one-time thing.”

“I’m making it a multiple-times thing.” His tongue slides to the shell of my ear. “Be there, princess.”

“Or what?” I lick my lips, unable to resist the urge to push him.

There’s this sick thrill about getting under his skin.

“Or I’ll bind you again.” He pauses. “Wait. You’d like that, won’t you?”

I thin my lips in a line to keep myself from screaming hell yes.

He taps my nose twice. The gesture has become an addiction. “I’ll wait.”

Like a lovesick idiot, I watch his strong, broad back as he retreats down the halls.

He’s just too tall and well built, it’s unfair.

My own Viking.

When I turn to get into class, someone slams their shoulder into mine on the way inside. Nicole.

She’s been extra aggressive these weeks. I usually strike back, but I don’t want to stir a big problem with her. If she tells Dad about Levi and I, things will become murkier than ever.

The only reason she’s keeping her mouth shut about my relationship with Levi is because I threatened her that her sexcapades with Christopher under Dad’s roof will come to light as well.

That kept her in line. Sort of.

She and Chloe still throw remarks my way whether in the halls or at the games when I go. I decided to tune them out as background noise.

I’m finally living my life as I always wished, and I won’t let them or anyone else ruin it for me.

With every session with Dr Edmonds, I’ve come to appreciate everything I have. I’m even coming to peace with myself that I might never recall my memories from the night of the accident and that it’s completely fine.

My memories or whatever grudge I hold don’t define me. My past doesn’t define me.

Since that resolution, I’ve been more comfortable in my skin and I even started getting my muse back. Baby steps, but it’s there.

I want to say it’s all because of the therapy, but it’s not. There’s a different type of therapy wrapped in an enigma called Levi.

Ever since I found out he’s the one who saved me that night, it’s like someone breathed fresh air into my soul. My own type of a second chance.

I’ve been given that second chance for a reason. I always thought that Levi was my bully and my tormentor, but maybe since the beginning, he was more.

I’m not naive enough to think that life with Levi is easy. It isn’t. While he doesn’t have his father’s mental illness, he has a suffocating intensity that demands everything out of me.

Whenever he offers a piece of his heart, he confiscates mine in return. I’m just hoping it won’t be broken beyond repair by the end.

We didn’t start as some sort of a meet-cute. It was bloody and gruesome and a part of me knows that Levi will never be the prince charming type. I’m completely fine with that, I always preferred the villain anyway.

I love our morning runs and our non-traditional dates. I love how he models for me just so he’d end up taking my clothes off and I’ll be the one modelling for him. In bed.