Roxy POV
The sharp, burning sting of a manicured fingernail digging into a dark wooden tabletop echoed the tension in the room as the elite closed ranks around us.
Chloe’s friends at the legacy table leaned forward in unison, their faces hardening into identical masks of cold, aristocratic disgust.
“I asked you a question, Jaxon,” Chloe hissed, her blue eyes drilling into our joined hands.
“What is this?”
Jaxon didn’t flinch.
His grip on my hand remained perfectly steady, his thumb continuing its slow, torturous stroke across my knuckles.
“I think you have eyes, Chloe. I’m having breakfast with my girlfriend.”
A collective gasp rippled through the surrounding tables.
Chloe let out a harsh, high-pitched laugh that sounded unhinged.
She took a step closer, the scent of her expensive floral perfume clashing with the smoky air of the dining hall.
“Girlfriend?” Chloe mocked, her eyes scanning me from head to toe with blatant, sickening judgment.
She paused on my scuffed sneakers and the faded cuffs of my cheap denim jacket.
“This charity case? Jaxon, look at her. She smells like a public bus and lives off financial aid vouchers. She doesn’t belong in this room, let alone on your arm. Did she corner you in the library and beg you for a handout?”
My body went entirely cold.
The familiar, bitter sting of elitism tasted horrible in my mouth, threatening to pull me right back to the dark, vulnerable corners of Ashenvale.
I thought about the bills at home and knew I had to fight back against these cruel people right now.
But then I looked at Chloe’s vicious, desperate face, and my defense mechanism kicked right in.
I didn’t come to Kingston Academy to be an easy target for a insecure rich girl.
I pulled my hand out of Jaxon’s grip, stepping forward to bridge the gap between Chloe and me.
“A handout?” I said, my voice cutting through the silent dining hall with crystal-clear precision.
“That’s funny coming from someone who needed her father to personally threaten the economics department just so she wouldn’t get kicked off the cheer squad last semester.” Find the original chapter at novelping . com.
Chloe’s perfect, porcelain face flushed a deep crimson.
“What did you just say to me?”
“You heard me,” I said, tilting my head, letting a cold, mocking smile touch my lips.
“You spend all your time worrying about who belongs in this room, yet your GPA is currently sitting at a pathetic 1.4. You can buy your clothes, Chloe, and you can certainly buy your friends, but you clearly can’t buy a single passing grade. If I were you, I’d spend less time looking at Jaxon and more time looking at a textbook. Your social desperation is showing, and frankly, it’s embarrassing.”
Another wave of gasps erupted through the dining hall, louder this time.
Several hockey players at the back table actually covered their mouths, muffled laughter breaking the stifling silence.
Nate Miller tilted his coffee cup toward me in a silent, grim acknowledgment.
Chloe looked as if she had been slapped.
Her chest heaved beneath her designer sweater, her manicured nails digging so hard into the wood of the nearest table that I thought they might snap.
“You miserable little—”
Right next to me, Jaxon let out a low, rumbling chuckle.
I glanced up and saw his face filled with intense amusement.
His grey eyes were fire captivated by the way I had just dismantled the campus queen without breaking a sweat.
He loved the chaos.
He loved the teeth I was showing.
To seal the lie in front of the watching crowd, Jaxon stepped in.
He didn’t just take my hand this time.
He slid his massive, calloused hand entirely around my waist, his thick fingers locking onto my hip and pulling my body flush against his hard side.
My breath hitched as the front of my jacket pressed against his varsity coat, his solid frame holding me to him.
The heat radiating through his palm cut right through my clothes, making my skin burn.
“That’s enough, Chloe,” Jaxon said, his voice dropping into a dangerous, protective rumble that left no room for argument.
“Roxy doesn’t need a handout. She’s the smartest girl in this entire institution, and she happens to be mine. Keep your mouth shut about her, or I’ll have a very long conversation with your father about how you treat my guests.”
Chloe’s jaw dropped.
She looked between the two of us, her eyes welling with tears of furious humiliation.
Realizing she had lost the room, she turned on her heel and stormed out of the dining hall, her boots clicking angrily against the tiles.
Her friends immediately scattered after her like mice.
The low hum of whispering voices returned to the room, but the weight of Jaxon’s body against mine didn’t lessen.
His hand remained firmly planted on my waist, his fingers pressing into the exact spot where the deep, dark bruise from last night was throbbing.
I went stiff, my eyes darting up to his face to tell him to let me go now that the show was over.
But Jaxon wasn’t finished playing his game.
He leaned his head down, his broad shoulders blocking me from the rest of the room.
His jaw brushed against my cheek as he tilted his face, his lips catching the edge of my earlobe.
He bit down on it, a soft, deliberate, and agonizingly slow pressure that sent a wild shiver traveling straight down my spine.
I gasped, my hands instinctively coming up to push against his hard chest, but he didn’t move an inch.
In front of the entire student body, with hundreds of eyes still glued to our every move, Jaxon kept his lips pressed tightly against my ear.
His warm, mint-scented breath fanned across my neck as his voice dropped to a gravelly, wicked purr that made my knees feel like water.
“Good girl,” Jaxon whispered, his grip tightening on my bruised hip.
“Now tell them how much you love my bed.”