by Madison Faye
“What do you want?” I whispered hoarsely.
Matt smiled triumphantly.
“I’m going to fuckin’ ruin them, that’s what I want. And then, I’m going to ruin you too.”
“Please,” I whispered, backing away from him, my face ashen. And here we went again. More of the world pushing me around. First my mom, always putting me after her own drinking habit, or telling me to “stop being a brat” when my dad got rough. My father, literally pushing me around, and telling me I’d never amount to anything. The bank, taking my home out from under me when I needed it the most.
And now Matt — Matt with the bullet that could destroy the happiness I’d finally found.
“What do you want?” I whispered out, my voice choked with tears.
Matt smiled sickeningly. “You know what I want, Cora.”
I felt the bile rise in my throat as I slowly shook my head. “You’re disgusting.”
“Come to my place, tonight after my last class.”
“No fucking way.”
He grinned. “Fine. Then this hits every free porn video site on the web. You’ll be the talk of the entire campus tomorrow. And your professors will be fucking out of here, or fucking jailed.” His eyes narrowed at me, his sickening smile making me want to throw up. “And that football asshole? Fuck him. I’m going to wait until he’s disgraced from this little porno of yours, and then I’ll sue his ass for hittin—”
“Okay!”
The word felt like poison as it left my lips, my entire body deflating.
“Okay,” I whispered this time.
Matt grinned widely. “That a yes?”
“Yes,” I whispered, looking at my feet as the knife sliced through my heart. “I’ll be there.”
“Good, babe, good.” He snickered. “Hey, wear something nice for me, huh?”
I shivered. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to run until I crashed into something. But I knew what I had to do. I knew what had to be done to keep this all okay, and to protect the men I’d fallen completely in love with.
I knew what I had to do. I knew what the necessary move was here. I just didn’t want to think about it until I had to.
Chapter 17
Garret
“Where’s Cora?”
I poked my head into the kitchen to see Max chopping up some stuff for dinner, and Nolan glancing over a pile of papers with a drink in his hand. They both looked up wth curious expressions.
“What do you mean?” Max’s brow furrowed.
“I mean she’s not home.”
He shrugged. “Dude she’s at college. She can stay out.” He rolled his eyes at me, putting his knife down and reaching for a beer as he moved to slump into a chair at the kitchen table.
“I just thought she was going to be home. Thought you guys were cooking dinner.”
“I got it handled,” Max shrugged, reaching for his laptop.
Nolan snorted. “You know we’re not actually her daddies, right?”
I gave him the finger. “Har-fucking-har. Her car’s gone, and she usually just walks to campus.”
Nolan’s brow furrowed, and he set his drink down.
“Hmm.”
“Yeah, hmm,” I growled, my anxiety growing. Fuck, I’d never been like this. I’d never been so fucking worried about someone like this — so protective. Immediately, my mind was going to worst-case scenarios — car crashes, a freak accident, Ukrainian sex-traffickers abducting her like some sort of Hollywood movie.
Nolan and I looked at each other, both of us with the same hard, worried expression. But finally, he shook his head.
“Fuck, look at us.”
I sighed, my tension deflating.
“We gotta stop,” he said quietly. “We can’t just be worried about her whenever she’s not here. She’s a tough girl, she can handle herse—”
“Oh fuck.”
We both whirled to see Max staring at his laptop screen, his face white and furious looking.
“What?” Nolan said quickly.
Max ignored him, or didn’t hear him, his eyes growing wide.
“What?” I hissed, my anxiety spiking again.
“I— I let Cora use my laptop the other day.”
“And?”
His eyes dragged from the screen up to look at us. “Her text messenger is still logged in under her account on here.”
I was about to tell him to stop snooping into her life, but there was something fucking real wrong with the look on his face. Nolan and I glanced at each other for half a second before we dashed across the kitchen to see what Max was seeing.
Sure enough, his messenger app was open, but with Cora logged in from when she’d used it. And she was texting with someone.
Matt.
Her fucking ex. The guy Max had laid out, and the one that’d tried to get her to fucking sleep with him for a place to stay like a complete piece of shit.
There were a few messages already on the screen, and I felt anger roar through every part of me.
Cora: “I’m here.”
Matt: “B down in a sec.”
Cora: “Let’s get this over with”
Matt: “U better be dressed nice, slut.”
More rage than I’d ever felt before spiked through me, and I could hear both of my other friends brimming with anger, growling as they read the words on the screen.
What the fuck was she doing?
More texts came through.
Cora: “Just let me in you asshole.”
Matt: “So eager for it huh? :P”
“What the fuck is this?” Nolan spat, his face going red and his muscles clenching and rippling. I could see Max’s shoulders heaving, like he was barely containing his own rage. And I wasn’t sure how much more I could read before I destroyed something.
Cora: “The sooner we do this, the sooner you delete that video. Right? So just let me in.”
“What fucking video?!” I roared to no one who could hear me.
Matt: “You fucking your professors and that football asshole in the backyard? Yeah, you come up here and ride this cock and I'll delete it.”
The kitchen went silent.
Matt: “Buzzin u up now.”
Cora: “Omw.”
My blood ran cold, and it felt like I was sliding through the cracks in the floor. Rage, hatred, fear, and horror washed through me, and I whirled. I stumbled across the kitchen in a nightmare dream, stumbling until I caught myself on the edge of the counter. I sucked in a breath of air, my nerves jangling. Slowly, I turned to see my two friends looking about as furious and horrified as I felt.
“Where does that fucker live?” Nolan hissed quietly, his hand clutching the back of Max’s chair so hard I thought either it or his fingers might break.
“I know exactly where he lives,” Max spat out, jumping out of his chair and grabbing his car keys off the kitchen counter. Nolan and I were right behind him, blood roaring through our veins like diesel as we sprinted for the car.
I just hoped to God we weren’t too late by the time we got there.
Chapter 18
Nolan
Max’s Land Rover roared around the corner on two wheels, screeching rubber as we turned onto Lake Drive. Max had been to the fucker’s house, the day he’d helped Cora get her things, so he knew just where we were going. But I don’t think any of us knew what we’d do when we got there. Get her, of course, but I knew one thing was on our mind: would we be able to stop ourselves before we killed Matt?
The little piece of shit had filmed us. I didn’t give a fuck about my reputation, or my career. That’s not why I was so fucking mad. I was furious because he’d violated her by sneaking around watching us. He’d made her feel vulnerable, and awful, and threatened her with what he’d known would make her break, all so he could put his fucking hands on her.
I fucking hated that she’d gone to his place, knowing what he was after. But I knew she was only here because she thought it was the only way to protect us. I knew she
thought she was doing what she had to do — that she was being the rock she had to be to get us all through this.
But I’d be damned if I let that piece of shit touch her. I was going to murder him. Fuck my job. I was going to bury his ass in a shallow grave and piss on it if he’d harmed her, or even touched her.
The SUV tore around the corner onto the side street where Matt lived, when suddenly, we came to a screeching halt.
Oh fuck.
Smoke poured out of the top floor of the shitty brick apartment building, flames licking at the windows.
“That’s his fucking building!”
Max was out of the car before it even came to a full stop, with us right on his heels. My pulse roared like a freight train, every muscle in my body coiled and clenched tight. My eyes locked onto the blazing fire shattering the glass in Matt’s windows, with one thought and one thought only on my mind: Cora was in there.
We could hear sirens blaring in the distance, but there was no time. The three of us slammed out through the small crowd of gawkers and onlookers, rushing right for the fire blazing around the front door of the place, when suddenly, they pushed open…
She walked out like some sort of phoenix angel — her beauty wreathed in flames as she floated out the front door, her face slowly curling into a smile as she saw us.
“Cora!”
We rushed to her, all three of us scooping her up into our arms and holding her so damn tight we might’ve broken her if she hadn’t started to just laugh.
“What happened?!” Garret gasped.
She giggled, her eyes wide and a little delirious looking.
Fuck, she was in shock.
“Cora,” I growled, crouching down in front of her and taking her hands, looking up into her face.
“Cora, what did he do?”
She blinked, glancing at us.
“Who, Matt?”
“Your texts,” Max muttered. “They were…” He trailed off and looked down, sighing heavily. “They were coming through on my laptop. You were still signed in.”
Her face went red.
“Oh, oh, GOD no!” She made a horrified face, shaking her head as she started to grin. “No, God, no he didn’t…”
She bit her lip, leaning in to us as the crowd grew, snapping pictures excitedly and as the sirens wailed closer.
“I did smash him over the head with his own laptop and light it and everything else electronic in his apartment on fire though.”
My jaw dropped. Actually, all three of our jaws about hit the ground as we stared at her, dumbfounded.
“Wait, you did what?” Garret looked at her incredulously.
“I wasn’t going to let him hurt us, or destroy this thing we have,” she hissed fiercely, her hands pulling us all close and her eyes flashing blue fire. “Not a chance.”
She started to laugh, still looking a little out of it.
“You set the kid’s apartment on fire?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I—”
Suddenly, her face went white, and a look of realization broke through the shock on her face. Her hand flew to her mouth as she seemed to snap out of it.
“Oh my fucking God, I did!” Horror washed over her face as she darted her eyes across ours. “Oh fuck, he might—”
“I’ll get him.”
Max was on his feet before we could stop him, rushing at the front door and shouldering it open as he tumbled inside, into the flames. Cora screamed, lunging for him, but we held her back, holding her close and stroking her back as shock fully wore off and the tears started to pour down her face.
Fire trucks came roaring down the street, when suddenly, the front door to the place kicked open and Max came stumbling out, coughing with the piece of shit in his arms. He stumbled over to us, all five of us pulling away from the flames as Max dumped a groaning, wheezing Matt onto the sidewalk.
“I can’t believe you actually saved him,” Garret growled.
“I dropped him on the way down the stairs,” Max muttered, grinning.
“Twice.”
Slowly, coughing, Matt started to come to, his eyes blinking open as he looked up. Suddenly, he seemed to realize where he was and who we were, and his eyes flew open.
“Oh, fuck, you—”
“I want you to listen to me very closely, Matt.”
My voice was like a dagger as I leaned close to him. To anyone else, it must have looked like I was helping him, but I sure as fuck wasn’t.
“Whatever it is you think you saw, weigh it against your college career.”
Matt coughed, and then sneered up at me. “You can do that, asshole, it’s—”
“Blackmail?” I hissed. “Yeah, so is threatening a girl to get her to fuck you cause you’re too much of a piece of human garbage to get her normally, you absolute piece of shit.”
I spat the words at him, barely containing my rage as my hand closed on the collar of his shirt.
“I’ll personally watch your transcript burn to the fucking ground. I will make sure you never attend college anywhere else. I will make sure you enter your adult life with a royal fuck-up on your resume.”
His face paled, and I leaned in closer, letting him feel the full wrath of my fury.
“Weigh all of that carefully, Matt. Weigh it against realizing that what you think you saw wasn’t what you think it was. Realize the importance of silence, and you can just go on living your life as you planned.”
Matt swallowed, his eyes darting to Cora for second before I growled lowly, tightening my grip on his collar and yanking his attention back to me.
“Just live your life, Matt, and don’t come after her.”
He nodded quickly, his eyes wide.
“Yeah, that’s— yeah that sounds good.”
“Great,” I hissed, narrowing my eyes at him. “Oh, and Matt?” I leaned close, letting him feel my wrath.
“You ever even look at her again and I’ll break your fucking head, okay?”
The color drained from his face as he nodded. “Yeah, got it. Yes.”
“Yes what?”
“Yes sir!”
The EMT truck blared onto the scene, screeching to a stop as the paramedics started to run towards us. Max leaned down close to Matt.
“How you feeling, Matt?”
“Huh?”
“Feeling better? You know, after I saved you from that freak fire?”
He started to open his mouth, but then it snapped shut, and he nodded. “Much better,” he said quickly.
“You know you really shouldn’t have been smoking cigarettes in bed, Matt,” Max growled, leveling his eyes on him. “What with it catching your blankets on fire and all.”
His look hardened, and Matt quickly nodded.
“Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, I shouldn’t have done that.” He laughed nervously as we backed away just as the paramedics ran up.
Our statement to the cops was easy enough — that we’d been heading out to a bar when we saw the blaze and stepped in to help two of our students — “as any educator would do.” We made sure the paramedics checked Cora out, who got a full clean slate of health, and then we headed home.
Home, with her.
Home that’d never felt like home before she got there. She was the missing piece to all of this, the part that brought us all together.
The part we were never going to let go of.
Epilogue
Cora
The door to the office slams shut, and I gasp as hands lift me off the ground and into a hard, chiseled body. More hands slide over my ass, teasing up my sides as another man comes up behind me, nuzzling my neck and making me gasp in pleasure. We all stumble over to the desk, papers and files and a cup full of pens scattering onto the floor as they lay me across it and start to tear the clothes from my body.
God, could every day be like this?
“They” are Nolan, Garret, and Max, of course. And we’re in Nolan’s classroom, on graduation day. Graduation day. My graduation day, from Gilman Co
llege, which I’m preparing for by laying across Nolan’s classroom desk and letting him and the two other loves of my life slip my panties down my legs and start to devour me with their mouths.
So, here’s the deal.
As much as all three of the guys were ready to say fuck it and take whatever came their way for standing up and saying they loved me publicly, I couldn’t let them do that. I just couldn’t. Their careers meant too much to them, and honestly, Nolan and Garret are amazing educators. I couldn’t let them trash that for me.
So, as much as they protested, I won.
…I have a sneaky way of doing that with them.
We kept what we all were a secret. For publicity reasons, and to give me a reason to be living in their house, I officially became the public girlfriend of ex-football star Max O’Reilly. Yes, it meant my name was all over the tabloids, and that our relationship was talked about at length on Good Morning America, and on ESPN, and pretty much everywhere on the internet. But really, I didn’t care at all. Sure, there were assholes who called Max all sorts of things for dating a girl my age at his age. They called me worse stuff, actually. But we shrugged it off.
It helps that we all knew the real scandal was a million times juicier.
Only the three of us — well, and Kenzie because I couldn’t not tell her — knew what the real deal was, that at night, Max O’Reilly went home with “his” girlfriend and shared her with his two best friends, all together, most of the time.
Max enjoyed the shit out of it all, by the way. Yes, he had to turn down the athletics director job, but he got to spend the next two and a half years of my college career being as physical with me as he wanted in public. Poor Nolan and Garret had to grin and bear it until they could get me behind closed doors and ravage me.
Which they did, frequently, and with a passion that took my breath away most nights.
So, that’s why we’re here today, in Nolan’s classroom, on his desk. Because part of keeping the secret was a strict no touching rule anywhere but behind closed doors. As much as I’d been dying to act out the hot older teacher fantasy in a classroom, it was just too risky. But here, two hours before I walk across the stage? Well, temptation won out.