Trick Me Twice: An Enemies to Lovers High School Bully Romance Read online

  Carter’s head whipped around in my direction. “Shit,” he muttered. “I’m taking you away from all the fun, aren’t I?”

  I stared at him in shock. “N-no. I’d rather be here with you. I’ve just…I’ve never been to anything like this before,” I told him truthfully.

  He took my hand again and began tugging me back towards the carnival. My mouth fell open in stunned disbelief as he said, “Pick something. We have time.”

  Once I’d convinced myself that I hadn’t been hallucinating and he was actually serious about taking me back, a huge smile spread across my face. Not that he’d be able to see it. I looked around me, at the rides and stalls illuminated by the lights cycling between colourful flashing neons to white strobes, then back again. What to pick? “Nothing with clowns. They freak me out.”

  I hadn’t realised I’d said that aloud until he laughed. “No clowns. Got it. Anything else?”

  “What would you pick?” As time went on, I grew bolder in speaking to him. He hadn’t recognised my voice yet, so I was more or less sure that I was in the clear.

  “Me?” He seemed surprised that I’d asked. “Other than getting you back in the haunted house again?” His voice dropped to a low rasp as he pulled me closer.

  “Something different,” I murmured. I didn’t think I’d survive another go inside there.

  “Maybe that.” Letting go of my hand, he pointed towards the same shooting game that Captain America had been trying his luck at when I’d first arrived. “But we can do something else, if you want to go on the rides.”

  I looked to the left of the shooting game to the neon blue Ferris wheel, standing tall among the other rides. “Do we have time for two things? The big wheel might be fun.”

  “Really?” I heard the scepticism in his tone. “Are you sure?”

  “Never mind. It was only a suggestion.” I turned away from the Ferris wheel and began walking in the direction of the shooting gallery.

  Carter stopped me with a hand on my arm. “If that’s what you want to do, we’ll do it.” Before I could say another word, he dragged me towards the wheel. We stopped at the bottom, staring up, and I heard him swallow hard. A sudden thought struck me. Was the fearless Carter Blackthorne afraid of heights? No. I dismissed that thought as soon as I’d had it. Something told me that there was a story behind his reluctance, though.

  “We don’t have to do this,” I murmured softly, going up on my toes so I could speak in his ear.

  “We do.” Without another word, he paid the man in the booth, waving away my offer of payment. He led me over to the car, and I slid inside. The attendant clicked the bar into place, and Carter tugged me into his body. “Good thing you’re so tiny,” I heard him say under his breath as he sprawled out in the cramped space. The ride juddered to life, and he clutched the bar with the hand that wasn’t around me. We ascended slowly as the other cars filled, and I heard him groan quietly as we got higher, his leg bouncing restlessly.

  “Are you okay?” I ventured.

  “Fine,” he muttered brusquely, and I shrank back. He huffed out a breath. “It’s nothing. Just a stupid fucking…never mind.”

  “Tell me,” I commanded softly, tentatively placing my hand on his thigh, his powerful muscles tense under my palm.

  “When I was a kid, my dad made me read this story in the paper. No idea what his thinking was behind it; he said he wanted to warn me of the dangers, but why he had to make me read it, I don’t know. Whatever. It was an article about a local boy dying at a fairground. He was on a big wheel, and he fell from the top and snapped his neck. I think he’d been fucking around in the car or something, standing up. For some reason the story stuck in my head, and I had nightmares about it for about a month straight. Never been on a big wheel since. Stupid, right?”

  I hadn’t been expecting that. For someone like Carter, so confident and untouchable, to admit to any kind of vulnerability—honestly, I was at a loss for words.

  “No, it’s not,” I said finally. I was totally out of my depth here. My hand squeezed his leg lightly. There was something strangely intimate about being here with him in this swaying car. It felt like the rest of the world didn’t exist. Just us, here, suspended in the air, hidden behind our masks. I decided that distracting him might be the best option. “Tell me about the cove. You said the girls were being taken there?”

  “You’re not from around here?”

  I bit my lip. “No,” I lied through my teeth. Of course, I knew about the cove, not that I’d ever been there.

  “Down the coast, past the pier and the beach, there’s a cove at the bottom of the cliffs. Most of the tourists don’t know about it. There’s a party there later. Exclusive. Select.”

  I deflated a little. Of course. Only the elite, hand-selected by Carter and his friends, would be invited. “You’re coming with me,” he added, oblivious.

  Before I knew it, the ride was coming to a stop at the bottom. The bar lifted and I climbed from the car, my feet a little unsteady, and Carter took my hand again. “That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.” I could practically hear the smirk in his voice as he continued. “Of course, I did get to have a hot as fuck girl draping herself all over me, distracting me from the thought of plummeting to my death.”

  I didn’t even know how to respond. I was so out of my depth tonight, I couldn’t even see the bottom. The whole evening felt completely surreal, like I’d fallen into a dream. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to require a response from me because he continued talking. “Want to take the masks off for now? I want to see your face.”

  “Not yet.” I shook my head frantically. “Later.”

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to hide something.”

  There was suddenly so much suspicion in his voice, and I panicked, trying to come up with a good enough reason to keep them on. “Isn’t the whole point to remain anonymous? So no one knows who we are?”

  “Yeah.” His voice hardened. “We’re taking them off when we go to the cove, though, okay?”

  “Okay,” I agreed softly. I needed to leave before that happened. Before he found out who I was.

  I should have left already, or even better, come clean, but I didn’t want to stop. He’d said there was something addictive about me, but the Carter Blackthorne I was experiencing tonight? The guy who flipped between scarily domineering and sweet, who’d given me an orgasm in a haunted house of all places, then shown me his vulnerable side? I was already addicted to him, and I couldn’t even explain why.

  “Watch this.” I snapped out of my thoughts to see that we were now standing in front of the shooting gallery, and Carter had a gun lined up, pointing at the moving targets. With the same confident, practised ease he always seemed to have, he fired three shots in quick succession.

  “You got one hit,” the attendant told him in a bored voice.

  “One? This thing is fucking rigged.”

  I stepped closer, sliding my hand up his arm to try and ease the tension. “I was impressed.”

  “Really.” The disbelief in his voice was clear. For someone like Carter, I guess it was disappointing. I didn’t care, though.

  “Really.” I glanced idly at the shelves of prizes. “Did you win anything?”

  “Sorry, you only get prizes for hitting three targets,” the smirking attendant informed us.

  Carter bristled, looming over the attendant, who shrank back, the smirk dropping from his face. “This is fucking ridiculous.”

  “Come on, let’s go.” I tugged at his arm, needing to get him away before he did something stupid. He glanced down at me, his eyes barely visible behind the lights of the mask, but I could see the way his expression softened slightly, and he let me pull him away from the shooting gallery. The lights faded behind us as he took control and quickly moved us through the crowds, away from the carnival, past the skatepark, towards the subway and the graffiti wall that marked the edge of the skatepark.

  The sounds of the
carnival were replaced with the noise of the occasional car rumbling down the road over the subway, and the wind whistling through the trees. We came to a stop, back in front of the wall again. Reaching into the pocket of my hoodie, Carter pulled out the canister that he’d given me earlier. “Are you in the mood for some art?”

  Art?

  “Why?”

  He grabbed another canister from his own pocket, and gestured towards the wall. “Want to add to this?”

  “Are we allowed to?” I whispered.

  “We can do whatever we want. Tonight, there are no rules.”

  8

  I stared up at him, his hooded figure towering over me, the glow of his mask giving him a sinister, otherworldly vibe. But somehow, I felt…happy. Excited, even. Who knew that a mask could be so freeing? “Let’s do this.” I examined the wall, at the colourful images and words spanning the length. There was space at the far side, where the writing had faded, and I headed towards it.

  I felt Carter’s presence at my back, and when I came to a stop in front of the wall, I heard him inhale sharply, followed by a clatter as the canisters fell to the floor. His arms came around me from behind, and he gripped my throat with one of his huge hands as he pressed his body against me. This time, I felt no fear. Only an intense rush of desire, that intensified when he tightened his grip.

  I arched back against him, a soft moan escaping my lips.

  “You want me, don’t you?” His voice held no hesitation—he knew exactly what he was doing to me. I nodded, and he pressed closer. “I can’t wait to have you. To leave my marks all over your skin, hearing you gasp for breath as you come all over my cock.”

  I gasped right then, vivid images making my knees go weak. This shouldn’t have been turning me on, but it was, and my head was spinning. No one had ever…I’d never even heard anyone speak the way he did before. Yes, my sexual experience was extremely limited, but I didn’t think I was that clueless. I already knew there was another side to Carter Blackthorne, based on the way he treated me, but this…this was so unexpected. My nipples hardened beneath my leotard, and I pressed my body back against his. He was hard already, and we were both breathing heavily. What was he doing to me?

  “I need your number. And your name.” He released his grip on my throat, sliding both his arms around my waist. “There’s something about you, something different to the other girls I know. I already know I want more than just tonight.”

  His words had the same effect as being doused with a bucket of icy water. Tears filled my eyes, again. I trembled in his grip, the guilt spiralling through me as I struggled to compose myself. I was so close to blurting out the truth at that moment, I had to bite my tongue, hard, to stop the words spilling out.

  Thankfully he seemed to sense I was at my limit, as he released me and bent down to swipe the cans from the floor. Grateful for the distraction, I took the can he handed to me and faced the wall. “What do we paint?” My voice thankfully came out steady.

  “Whatever we want.” Shaking his can, he pulled off the lid and aimed it at the wall. Directing the black paint in a steady stream, his artwork gradually took shape. It was simple as far as art went—the outline of a mask, identical to the ones we both wore. I studied it carefully, then rolled my own canister to check the colour.

  “Let me help.” I uncapped mine, and went over the black slashes he’d already painted, highlighting them in neon blue to symbolise the glow from the lights. “I can’t believe I’m doing this. What kind of influence are you having on me?”

  “Don’t you like being my little deviant for the night?” His tone was amused. He stopped what he was doing and turned to watch me as I finished up highlighting the mask. Gripping his phone, he took a quick photo of our joint efforts, then continued to stare in my direction as I sprayed the last couple of lines. “You look so fucking hot doing that.”

  I laughed self-consciously, no clue what to reply to him. My artwork complete, I dropped the canister to the floor and stepped back to look at it critically. If only I had more colours…I could have done something truly amazing.

  “I really want to kiss you right now.” Carter suddenly pounced on me, and I was powerless to stop him.

  I really wanted to kiss him, too.

  He pulled me around the side of the wall. Behind it ran a narrow gap, all along the length of the wall, between the wall and the vertical bank that led up to the road. It was just wide enough for a person to squeeze through.

  I tried not to think about exactly what was crunching under my feet as Carter tugged me into the tight space, moving deeper behind the wall. “No cameras here. No one to see who we really are.” He reached down and pushed my mask up on top of my head.

  No light, either. My shaking hands went to his neck, and after pushing up his own mask, he bent his head to mine. I felt his hot breath on my lips, and then he kissed me.

  This kiss was different. This time there was no fear, no dominance on his part, only two people who were in complete agreement. He explored my mouth, and with every stroke of his tongue, I fell further under his spell.

  The glow of a bright torch suddenly illuminated the space we were in, shining on Carter’s face. “Hey!”

  We both startled at the loud bellow, Carter tearing himself away from me and slamming his mask back down over his face, and I scrambled to follow suit. Even in my panic, I couldn’t help feeling grateful that the light had been pointing at his face rather than mine. As soon as the thought entered my head, the same rush of guilt that had been surging through me on and off all evening returned with a vengeance.

  Carter grabbed my hand and pulled me down the other end of the wall, away from the security guard. I stumbled after him, feeling more crunching under the soles of my boots. We exited at the other end, and he led me down into the subway. Weak strip lights flickered along the walls, and the air was stale and foul.

  “When I say, you run. Through the subway, make a left, and keep going. First alley you get to, go down it. My truck’s parked at the end. Wait for me.” He was so calm, his voice sure as he instructed me on what to do. As he was talking, he was pulling out a cylindrical object from his pocket, which he lifted into the air. “Go. I’m right behind you,” he hissed, then tugged the pin out of the top of the cylinder. Thick blue smoke began pouring from it as he held it in the air.

  I didn’t wait any longer. I ran, flying through the subway, hearing a faint clatter and a shout from behind me as Carter threw the smoke grenade in the direction of the security guard. The ground began sloping upwards, and I emerged, breathless, onto the pavement by the side of the road.

  I looked to the left, where Carter had told me to run. Tugging the hoodie and mask off as quickly as I could, I dropped them in a pile by the subway exit, next to a streetlamp.

  Then, I turned right.

  As I turned, the bird perched on the streetlamp took flight.

  Behind me, I heard the heavy beat of wings and the harsh, warning caw of the raven.

  I sat up in bed with a start, my heart pounding. Glancing over at my phone, I saw it was almost three in the morning. A soft breeze caressed my overheated skin, and dread rolled through my body as the realisation hit me.

  The window was open.

  I fumbled for my bedside lamp, flicking the switch, and in the dim glow, I saw a shadow detach itself from the wall. With a shriek, I dived under my covers, my whole body shaking with fear. Then the covers were ripped off me, and Carter was there, a dark, savage look in his eyes.

  The relief at the fact that it wasn’t a murderer or killer clown was immediately doused by the complete and utter rage pouring off him, smothering me in his darkness.

  “Wh-what are you doing here?” My voice came out hoarse and shaky, and I licked my lips nervously. He stayed silent, and then he slid onto the bed, as smooth and graceful as a jungle cat, crawling up to me.

  “Do you know what I did tonight?”

  Oh, shit.

  “Where do I start?” His hands
pinned my shoulders down so I was helpless to move. If anyone heard him speaking without actually seeing what he was doing to me, they’d think he was discussing the weather with his conversational tone. But his eyes…his eyes promised retribution for what I’d done.

  “Let me see…” he continued. “I met a girl. A girl who, in my mind, was a stranger.” He paused, licking his lips briefly. “I asked her if she attended Alstone High. Do you know what she said, Raine?”

  I whimpered.

  “She said she didn’t. Then, I asked her if she was from around here. She said no.”

  Shifting on top of me, he lowered his head, his nose grazing over my cheek. I was immobile, the fear keeping me paralysed. “I thought things were going well, but she disappeared on me. All that I had left of her was this.” His hand disappeared from my shoulder, and I felt it slide down my side, before a piece of green fabric was waved in my face.

  My mask.

  “Something seemed familiar. I kept thinking, do I know this girl?” He dropped the mask next to my head, and his large hand returned to my shoulder, his grip bruising. “Then I looked at the photo I took of her when she was defacing the wall. Her boots looked familiar. Couldn’t think where I’d seen them before. Something about her voice, too. I drove around instead of doing the Halloween pranks I’d been planning for fucking months, turning it over and over in my mind. I suddenly thought of something. Caramel apples.”

  “W-what?” I whispered.

  He put his face to my hair and inhaled deeply. “Caramel apples. I should’ve known.” Drawing back slightly, his gaze returned to mine again, black and suffocating. “The hair colour threw me, until I saw you lying here. Oh, yeah, that and the fact that you kept fucking lying to me.”

  “I’m sorry.” A cry tore from my throat as he pressed his weight onto my body, making all my breath escape from my lungs as he crushed into my ribs.

  “You will be.” His dark promise slithered through me, sending tension coiling through my gut.