Secrets and Seduction: A Dark Boarding School Romance (Preston Academy Book 1)
Secrets and Seduction: Chapter 11

After using the remaining few minutes to tell my father about school and classes, the line finally cut off. We were only allowed thirty minutes, but those thirty minutes had been enough to make my heart feel a little lighter.

“I’m in the mood for something sweet, cake maybe,” Leilah said as she came out of the bathroom, startling me.

“I can’t help you with that one,” I replied.

“We’ll get something.” I raised an eyebrow.

“From where? The cafeteria is already closed.” She just shrugged.

“I know a way, and you’ll come with me.” How I would have loved to eat cake right now, but the fear of getting caught outweighed. Besides, Mr. Preston had said I shouldn’t wander around at night.

On the other hand, I wondered since when I listened to a man who was not my father.

“I’m in.” My roommate looked at me with a devilish smile.

“Then put on your shoes and jacket. It’s going to be cold.” I could hardly help but return her smile. Judging by her tone, her plan was pretty risky, and I was down for it.

Five minutes later, we were already hanging out the window and dropping onto the frozen earth, the moon already at its zenith. A faint mist curled around our ankles, making the setting seem almost surreal.

Leilah supposedly knew a back entrance to the kitchen, but I feared we wouldn’t replace it tonight. Judging by her hurried look, she knew that this action could break our necks.

“Hurry,” she urged, and I mentally gave her the middle finger.

I wasn’t cut out for sports, certainly not any in my pajamas in the freezing cold. My protesting thighs were evidence of that. Two turns later, we finally arrived.

In front of us was a more secluded building, its facade without a door. Only the low-lying shattered window offered a way to enter.

Hold on, she didn’t expect…

“Now don’t look at me like that and help me up.” I narrowed my eyes.

“Are you for real?” Leilah gestured for me to give her a leg up and I grudgingly did as she asked.

“Why do I have to help you up and not the other way around?” She giggled as she placed her foot on my interlocked fingers.

“That if anyone is upstairs, I’ll be the first to get caught and you can run away, dumbass.”

Okay, that was a pretty sweet of her but still…

“Alright, make it quick. If we get caught here together, I’ll drag you with me and we can share a cell.”

She muttered something unintelligible and got to work. I had overestimated myself and gasped at the sudden weight on my hands. My fingers were burning under her shoes, and I almost dropped her when suddenly she took a hold of the sill.

“There we go. Now push me up.” I groaned as I mustered the last bit of strength I had to do so.

Leilah effortlessly pulled herself all the way up. Apparently, her slender arms were stronger than I thought. With ease, she swung first one leg and then the other over the sill and disappeared inside.

A moment later, she stuck her head out and held out a hand to me.

“I can’t do that. I’m sure you aren’t strong enough to pull me up.” She considered for a moment.

“Use the nooks to push yourself up. We can do this.”

Skeptically following her instruction, I grabbed her sweaty hand and did as she ordered. “That’s it,” she said as she hoisted me up with ease. Man, the woman had strength. No matter what she ate, I wanted the same thing.

My hand finally touched the musty sill, shards of glass splattered everywhere.

In my mind’s eye, a dozen scenarios were already playing out of what could happen from now on, and what it would mean for my future.

Someone must have heard us. There was no way around it.

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk us out of it if something happens. You know I have the charms and everything,” my roommate assured me, surely looking through my concern.

“Yeah,” I said, not really convinced by her words.

My ass was already hurting from the short time I sat astride like that. “Move over, I’m coming.”

She took a step back, and I was about to steady myself when a stabbing pain drove through my palm. I drew in a sharp breath. Shit. I raised my hand and looked down at the blood streaming down my wrist. There was a large shard of glass in my flesh, and I could barely stop myself from crying out loud.

Leilah’s expression changed. Gone was the sarcastic look. Instead, something else, something dark crept into her features. She took another step back, clawing at a piece of furniture behind her.

“You need to shine a light on my hand so I can see how deep the wound is. Fuck, that hurts. Don’t just stand there, help me.”

But she did not move. Could she not stand the sight of blood? Did she feel sick? I definitely felt sick looking at my palm. “Leilah?” She didn’t respond. With wobbly legs, I stepped closer to my roommate, who stood there like a statue, her face almost mask-like.

“Don’t come closer,” she hissed. Her sharp tone, so unlike her nature, irritated me.

I tried to fish the tablet out of the pocket of my jacket and unlock it, which was hard to do with one hand. My palm was throbbing, and the pain was almost unbearable, but somehow, I turned on the flashlight function and held the bright light on the injured area.

It definitely looked as bad as it felt. The hem of my sleeve was already stained dark red, the tiny room soaked in the metallic smell. I shone the light on Leilah’s face, wanting to see if she was okay.

The sight of her made my blood freeze. Her ravenous eyes were red, the skin beneath them ringed with black veins. She seemed paler than usual, her gaze more rigid.

A moment later, her face was back to normal, and I questioned my sanity. Had I lost so much blood that I was already hallucinating? That’s how it had to be.

Before I could form a clear thought, I staggered to the side, just barely able to brace myself against a small table.

Leilah was immediately at my side, her arm protectively around me, but she didn’t speak a word. It was almost as if she wasn’t even breathing.

“I have to go to the nurse,” I stammered.

“It’s too far to get there. I can’t…,” she hissed between clenched teeth. She couldn’t do what? Accompany me?

“Fuck, do you want me to fucking bleed to death? I’m going alone.” I tore away from her, even got a few steps away before my field of vision darkened and I had to grab onto a wall.

“I’ll-I’ll get help. Wait here,” she said hurriedly, but something else resonated in her tone. Fear? No, I couldn’t name it.

Before I could blink, she was gone, and I was left alone. My thoughts were whirling, my heart hammering in my chest.

Buried images resurfaced in my mind’s eye. No, it’s not the same, I kept telling myself. But no matter how many times I recited this sentence, the rising feeling of panic did not fade away.

I couldn’t breathe and it felt like tons of weights were pressing on my chest. My legs gave way under me, and I let myself slide down the wall. She will come back, she will come back, she will come back. Leilah would not leave me alone.

My fingers went numb, and my lips tingled strangely. I just wanted to close my eyes for a minute, just a minute. Then I would get up and go to the nurse. Yes, for sure.

My eyes got heavier and heavier and before I could catch myself, I slumped to the side.

Rough hands grabbed my upper arms and shook me.

“No, she’s coming back. Leilah won’t leave me behind,” I screeched with what little strength I had left as I flailed wildly, fending off the intruder and hurting my hand even more.

“It’s me, Alexander, calm down,” a deep, threatening voice rang out. It could just as well have come from my subconscious or my imagination.

I opened my eyes a crack and saw black hair, a little curly at the ends. I could have recognized it anywhere. “Give me your hand. No, the injured one, little brat.”

I did as he asked and before I knew it, a pain straight out of hell ripped through me. I looked down and saw that he had pulled the big shard of glass out of me.

His gaze darkened as he looked down at all the blood, his eyes blazing with…. With what? I didn’t have time to think. He was already pressing a scrap of cloth onto the deep wound. Unbearable flames leeched into my flesh, tearing at my skin.

What had he soaked this cloth in? Battery acid? All too soon, the agonizing pain was replaced by pure ecstasy. A soft moan escaped my lips as sheer bliss raced through my veins.

I clung to this feeling, wanting to lose myself in it, to be possessed by it. The pain was gone. My body rode the wave of desire, of euphoria.

I looked down at myself. The bleeding had stopped. Only my blood-soaked sleeve was proof of what had happened to me just a few moments ago.

“I can’t stay here, I’m sorry,” a woman’s voice whispered from behind Mr. Preston. Leilah. She had come back. For me.

“Go. We’ll talk tomorrow,” he countered in a tone that revealed tomorrow would not be her favorite day. And not mine, either.

I was still far too dizzy to understand what had just happened, knowing only that the pain in my arm had completely subsided.

I straightened up and looked into his piercing eyes. Despite his concern, I saw the anger at our careless actions in his gaze. He crouched next to me in his gray sweatpants and dark hoodie, looking nothing like a professor with his wild hair, but more like the temptation of hell itself.

But there was also that voice in the back of my mind, screaming at me to run, to never let him near me again. This warning was like a constant presence in my subconscious.

Did I feel this way because I had overheard the conversation between the two women, or was this fear, this primal instinct, coming from within me?

“If Leilah had come just a few moments later, you’d be dead now. Be glad she was in good form,” he hissed.

In good form? What did he mean by that? Before I could ask, he straightened and pulled me up with him.

“You need to take off that blood-soaked thing before we go.” He pointed to my pajama shirt.

What was the problem with that? It wasn’t like many people would see me at this hour. He must have noticed my questioning expression because he added, “Trust me. You better not draw the wrong kind of attention to yourself.”

“I don’t exactly have a lot of choices here,” I rasped, my throat sore. “Or should I walk around the school topless?” He snorted in annoyance.

“Of course not.” His tone had dropped an octave. I didn’t have time to protest before he pulled his hoodie over his head, exposing flawless skin, chest and stomach defined.

I couldn’t take my eyes off him. “Now get undressed too,” he added, annoyed when he saw I made no move.

“Turn around,” I finally brought out, forcing myself to look in a different direction. He raised his eyebrows.

“Like I haven’t seen that already, and a lot more. Don’t be so coy.” Was he trying to test me at this exact moment?

“Turn around. Now.” He finally followed my command, but I could still hear him mumbling, “So bossy.”

With shaking hands, I took off my dirty jacket and shirt and the cold air kissed my bare skin. Apparently, there was no damn heater in this godforsaken room.

Goosebumps spread across my chest. But maybe that was just because I felt my professor’s presence all too clearly in front of me. He wasn’t looking back, and yet I felt his gaze on me.

He handed me his hoodie, and I put it on, the material like a warm embrace. His unmistakable scent hit my nose, enveloping me, and I hated myself for breathing in deeper.

I was alone with him, a potential killer, and I reveled in his scent. What was wrong with me? Was I that fucked up?

“Are you done already?” he asked, annoyed.

“Yeah, you can turn around again.” He took my jacket and shirt and crumpled them into a bundle so the blood wouldn’t show. “I’d better get back to my room. You can yell at me tomorrow, but right now, I’m too exhausted.” Mr. Preston’s eyes narrowed.

“You can’t go back tonight.” His voice was determined, almost threatening. Had I heard him correctly?

“What do you mean?” My professor looked at me as if I had asked the stupidest thing of all time. A pause formed, during which he surely weighed his words.

“You’re not safe there. Believe me, the last place you want to be right now is in your room.”

I crossed my arms, watching him, his posture, his expression.

“And where do you want me to sleep tonight, professor?”

“With me.”