I follow her, stepping in front of the line of hungry boys who want nothing more than a taste of the most decadent dish in this room–one that just so happens to belong to me.

“Here.” I pull her chair out for her.

She shoots me a deadly look over her shoulder as she sits and I scoot her chair forward.

I take the seat beside her.

Falco lowers himself into the chair directly across from her, and the other hopefuls grumble about the distance between them and their prize.

Once we’re seated, I slide my hand up her thigh and grip.

She jumps slightly, then cuts her gaze to me.

I squeeze a little harder, leaving my fingerprints on her tender flesh, then gently rub away the pressure.

“If you intend to skip college, are your plans to travel?” Falco asks.

She turns to him, a smile perched on her delicate lips. “I’d love to travel.”

“My family has villas all over Italy.” He smiles, showing off what must’ve been years of braces. “And we also enjoy several other properties all over the world. Anywhere you’d like to go.”

I slide my fingers higher along her thigh as the servers set out the first course.

“We just bought an estate in the French countryside.” The boy beside him pipes up. “Do you like France?”

“I …” She shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ve never been. But I’ve always dreamed of visiting Versailles.”

“I’ll take you–” at least three of the boys say at once.

She gives a teasing smile, her cheeks going pink. “How could a girl refuse an offer from such handsome men?”

I dig my fingers into her thigh again, and that’s when I realize she intends to torture me the entire night. Tit for tat. She’s getting back at me for the powder room.

But what my little brat doesn’t seem to understand is that I keep score–and for every bit of this charade she makes me endure, I’m going to take it out on her round, luscious ass.

12

CARINA

I’ve made a grave mistake. I'm in way over my head here. At boarding school, there were only girls. Without boys, we didn’t have distractions. Besides, who wants a boy? I know I didn’t. Not when I’ve grown up in the world I have. An average boy would never have cut it or held my interest. I would have run circles around them.

So I was never pissed or thought I was sent to an all-girls school to keep my chastity intact. It was not only a way to keep me safe, but I think my brother hoped that my classmates would gloss over the family I come from. He forgets it’s my world too, and I don’t have any plans to leave it.