: Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Moncl
You’re so slick. Does it make you come harder, doing it in front of the mirror?”
Vaughn Sterling’s voice was a low vibration against my back. He held me flush against him, forcing me to stare at our reflection. His lender fingers caught the trickling cream and fed it back into my core, swirling deep with a cruel, deliberate pressure.
Mm… don’t…” I gasped, my head lolling to the side. My face was flushed a deep, shameful crimson. “Can you… please stop filming?”
n the mirror, I was a wreck. My hair was a tangled mess, and my skin was a map of red marks and hickeys-bold, erotic bruises gainst my pale flesh.
While he remained perfectly composed in his suit. Next to us, his phone was propped up on the vanity, the lens focused right on he friction between us.
He paused, a dark chuckle vibrating in his chest. He hooked a finger under my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze in the glass. His yes were pitch black, shimmering with a mix of indulgence and something I couldn’t quite name.
What, are you shy?” He brushed his thumb over my swollen lower lip. “Don’t worry, babe. It’s just for me. I need something to look t when I’m missing you. Just do this for me, okay?”
“he way he whispered “babe” made my skin prickle. His voice was like a drug, a sweet, numbing poison that stripped away my bility to say no. I leaned back into him, completely under his spell.
don’t know how long it lasted. By the time it was over, my legs were shaking.
got dressed and stumbled out of the villa, the cool night air hitting my face. I’d made it halfway to the gate when I realized I’d left by purse on the vanity. I turned back, let myself in quietly, and headed toward the bedroom.
stopped dead at the door. Voices were coming from inside.
Man, you’ve been using Elara as a warm-up for three months now,” a guy’s voice laughed. “Your technique must be top-tier by ow, huh?”
Vaughn’s voice was indifferent, stripped of all the warmth he’d just shown me. “It’s fine. It should be enough to give Corliss a good xperience once she’s back.”
Damn. You spent three years biding your time just to cash in over one summer. You’re a legend. So, tell me what’s a good girl like Clara actually like in bed?”
She’s obedient,” Vaughn said, and I could practically hear the smirk in his voice. “She does whatever I tell her to. I can mold her into whatever I want. There are only ten days left. I’m going to use that time to unlock a few more positions before I dump her on the irst day of school.”
froze. A cold chill raced up my spine, turning my blood to slush.
Anyway, I’ve always wondered-why her?” the friend asked.
[aughn’s tone turned lethal. “Her brother had a heart condition. Three years ago, he got a transplant. That heart was supposed to go o Corliss, but Elara’s father is the Vice President of the hospital. He pulled strings, forged documents, and gave it to his own son. He almost killed Corliss.”
He stopped, but the sheer hatred in the silence was deafening.
Hell,” the friend muttered. That family deserves everything coming to them.”
I’ll make sure they get exactly what they earned, Vaughn replied, his voice like cracking ice. “At Freshman Orientation in ten days, the whole school is going to see exactly how she looks when she’s begging for it.”
My lungs seized.
For three months, Vaughn had insisted on recording every intimate moment. He told me it was normal. He told me he loved me.
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Chapte
He told me he needed the videos to relieve his urges whenever I wasn’t around.
It was a he. All of it.
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| wasn’t his girlfriend. I was a practice tool. I was a prop for a revenge plot three years in the making.
I fled
I didn’t even grab my bag. I just ran until my lungs burned and the world blurred into a smear of streetlights and tears. My heart felt like it was being shredded by a dull blade, inch by inch.
He was my first everything.
I remembered the first time I saw him. Freshman year. The school’s golden boy, a prodigy in Go who had just won an international itle. He was a god on campus-untouchable, brilliant, and devastatingly handsome.
I thought we lived in different universes.
Until the day I bumped into him after school. I’d knocked a box of Go stones out of his hand, and they’d scattered down the stairs.
like black and white rain.
1-I’m so sorry!” I had stammered, trembling. I’d seen him humiliate girls for less. I was terrified he’d think I was just another desperate groupie trying to get his attention.
Why are you shaking? Am I going to eat you?” He’d smiled then, a soft, teasing thing that made my heart stop. “It’s okay. I’ll pick
hem up.
That was the first time I saw his face up close. He smelled like fresh linen and expensive soap.
From that day on, I became a secret fan. I watched his matches. I learned the rules of Go. I kept my crush locked away in a box, never expecting him to notice me.
But two months later, he cornered me. He told me it was love at first sight. He said I looked cute during morning exercises on the field. He said he hated seeing my male desk-mate constantly pulling my ponytail.
He asked me to be his.
I was so blinded by the fairy tale that I didn’t see the trap.
Whenever we were alone, he couldn’t keep his hands off me. He’d rub my earlobes, squeeze my hand, or kiss me until I was breathless. Everyone said Vaughn Sterling’s world had no room for love, only his studies and the stark contrast of the black and white stones, but I thought I was the one person who saw the fire beneath the ice.
Several times things almost went too far, but he held back, saying we should wait until after the college entrance exams.
The day the exams ended, we went to a hotel and he finally took my virginity.
All summer, he’d pushed me to try new things, to go further, to let him film.
Now I realized the timing. He’d started dating me right after my brother’s surgery. He’d played the long game for three years, stomach churning with disgust every time he touched me, all for the sake of Corliss Mercer.
By the time I reached my front door, I was numb.
My parents were in the living room. My mother looked up, her expression shifting to instant worry. “Elara? Honey, why are you crying? Your eyes are bloodshot.”
“What happened? my father asked, standing up.
I forced a smile that felt like it was tearing my skin. Dad, Mom… I don’t want to go to the Academy here anymore.”
They both froze.
“But, sweetie,” my mother said, confused. “The Aria Institute of Art was your dream. You worked so hard for that admission letter
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gripped the hem of my shirt until my knuckles turned white.
Vaughn had tutored me for months. He’d pushed me to get into Aria so we’d be in the same city. He’d mapped out a future that was Kctually a prison.
I want to go to the Lumière Academy of Fine Arts in Paris,” I said, my voice steadying. I’m sorry. I know it’s late, but I need to go.”
My father studied me for a long beat. He didn’t ask questions. “Lumière is the best in the world. If you’ve got the ambition, we’ll make it happen. Your brother Rowan is already in France; he can look after you.”
I nodded and walked upstairs without another word.
The second I got to my room, my phone buzzed. A message from Vaughn.
Babe, come over tomorrow afternoon. That bunny girl outfit arrived. Wear it for me, okay?”
stared at the screen. The love was gone. The shyness was gone. All that was left was a cold, hard knot of resolve.
typed back a single word.
Sure.”
Before I left this country, I was going to get his phone. I was going to delete every single video.
And then, I was going to disappear.
