I yelp again. “Royce!” My heart is jumping around in my chest, heat flushing through my body. “I’m sorry!”
He flies forward, his arm hooking around my back and his heavy body falling onto mine. I land on my bed with a thud, the puffy yellow comforter serving as a landing zone.
“Royce!” I shove at his chest, a laugh vibrating through me.
He brings his hands to my wrists and pins my arms above my head. “Tell me you won’t fuck him.”
Finally, my laughing subsides, and my eyes collide with his. He’s so close that I can feel the heat radiating off the tip of his nose.
“What?” I ask, searching his eyes. “Why would you even say that?”
The muscle in his jaw tenses. “Just promise me, Duchess.” His tone is soft, but his voice is cloaked in pain. Why does this matter to him so much?
“Royce,” I snort, searching his face. From his soft tanned skin to his sharp-edged jawline. His skin is free from tattoos, but he always talks about getting ink. When he doesn’t smile, or smirk, or even look away from me, I shake my head. “I promise, but Roy, you don’t have to worry about that.” I widen my eyes at my invasive brother.
“Oh really.” His blue eyes work their way down my neck to my breasts. He comes back to meet mine. “I beg to fucking differ.”
“Royce…” I warn.
“Jade,” he whispers, parroting my tone.
“You don’t have to worry about that. Like at all.” I widen my eyes again, hoping he would catch what I’m meaning.
“What, you don’t think I know that you’re a virgin?” Finally, the worry lines fade and a smirk creeps onto his mouth. “Baby, who the fuck do you think scares them off?” My smile drops, but before I can answer him, his weight is off me and he’s heading for the door. “Be ready in two hours and leave Sloane behind.” Yeah, he knows for sure that I won’t be leaving Sloane behind.
He slams my door behind himself and I flip him off while flicking through my contacts list on my phone. I open a message to Sloane, but before I can type out the words, a text pops up.
Royce: I mean it. Don’t invite her. I will throw her off the boat.
I shake my head, rolling onto my belly while scrolling through my music playlist. I connect via Bluetooth to my sound dock, pushing play on “Sacrifice” by Jessie Reyez.
Me: I need a friend with me.
Royce: Since when have you ever needed a friend, and besides, you don’t need friends when you got big brothers. One hour and fifteen minutes.
I toss my phone onto my bed and cuss under my breath. He’s right, but he also doesn’t understand girls. Especially girls like Sloane, who will lose her shit and see it as a complete betrayal in the trust factor.
Moving across the room, I begin gathering everything that I will need. In short, I actually love going out on the boat, I would just rather go out when the sole purpose of it isn’t getting blackout drunk with idiots. Although, I did manage to get my phone back. I could just skip the boat trip and run out now…
My door swings open, hitting the back of the wall in my room. Royce stands at the threshold, smirking. “Don’t even think about it.”
Sighing, I swoop up my bikini. “Give me a few minutes.” Shutting the bathroom door behind myself, I slip into a pastel pink two-piece and shorts. I don’t bother with a shirt since my boobs aren’t exactly spilling out. Pulling open the last drawer under the counter, I take out my little white scarf and wrap it behind the back of my head, tying the rest of my long brown hair onto the top of my head.
“Hurry up!” Royce bangs on my door, and I jump, flipping him off.
“I’m coming!” Quickly grabbing a towel, I make my way into my room, swinging the bathroom door open. “Whose boat are we taking?”
Royce’s eyes fall down my body. Other girls would blush from having the attention of Royce Kane, I don’t want it. Why? Because he’s only summing up what he doesn’t like. Bet he’s already decided that I need to wear a burlap sack. His lashes fan out over his high cheekbones as his eyes hit my feet before traveling back up to mine. “It gets cold on the water, you know that.”
Scooping up a hoodie, I shove past him. “Fine.”
Royce finally follows behind me as we make our way downstairs to the front door. We’re heading out when Mr. Kane comes out from the kitchen.
“You kids taking out Green Stone?” Mr. Kane asks both of us, but his eyes remain on Royce. Green Stone is the name of Royce’s gloss black and jade green Nautique G25 aka, his baby.
Mr. Kane’s eyes meet mine, blue ocean flecks so deep they could swallow me whole. For the most part, I don’t have much of a relationship with Mr. Kane, and when it’s just he and I, the atmosphere is somewhat tense. Either he didn’t want to adopt me, or maybe I simply wasn’t what he wanted.
“Yeah, it’s been a minute.” Royce nudges Dad with his other shoulder. “Wanna come? Or are you getting too old for the board?”
Dad shoves him back, chuckling while tensing his bulging arm muscles. “I can bench press you, Orson, and that little shit Storm.” His eyes come back to mine. “Throw Jade on there too.”
Royce chuckles, his hand grabbing mine. He slides me behind him. “Nah, Jade might fall and hurt this pretty little head.”
Dad laughs, disappearing back into the kitchen while we head to the ten-car garage. The sun pelts down over my skin, not a cloud in the sky to interrupt it as Royce flicks open the power box to open the garage door. From what I’ve been told, this home has been in the Kane family for a few generations, only added to and modified on its way through the years. The garage was Dad and Mom’s addition. They needed it when Royce found he loved all things fast, including cars and boats, and what Royce wants, Royce gets. Of course, that included me too. When I was ready, I could take my pick on what car I wanted, but it never felt right, so I dragged my feet with it. Mom has said I’ll be taking the BMW, whether I want it or not.
Royce tosses his keys into the Ford Raptor and I jump up to the passenger side, shutting the door behind me.
Pulling out my cell, I flicked off a message to Sloane, who was more than likely going to be really pissed at me for not bringing her with me, but Sloane is friends with everyone. She’ll busy herself with something else tonight.
I’ve been dragged into going out on the boat. Sorry! See you later?
Leaning to turn the key over in the ignition, I flick through my playlist as Royce jacks the boat up. Fifteen minutes later, Orson and Storm are slipping into the back and we’re on our way. I hit play on Tech N9ne, needing his aggressive tone to mellow out my thoughts. Cranking down my window and kicking my feet onto the dash, Orson hands me a wine cooler from the back.
I shake my head. “What is that? Purple Jack Daniels?”
Orson pops off the lid and takes a swig. “Yeah, pretty sure you’d like it.”
Royce squeezes my leg from the driver’s seat, and I watch as the sun catches behind his head. He has his ball cap flipped backward, his lips glistening from his tongue being pressed to the top only minutes ago. His two dimples distract me for a split second as we pull into the harbor where a few people are gathered from school. Royce, Orson, and Storm rule over the school like gods, but they’re different. They’re not assholes, or entitled, or even a little bit snobbish. You would expect them to be. Orson is the son of Larken, who is number four on Forbes Billionaires, and that’s shortly followed by Bessen, Storm’s mother who is snug at number ten, and then Royce, or I should say Royce and me, whose father is number two. You would expect them to be this way. Assholes who carelessly treat everyone like shit, but they don’t. They take care of Stone View High as if it’s their home. They are all good people.