The Touch of a Villain: An Enemies to Lovers High School Romance (The Boys of Clermont Bay Book 1) by Holly Renee (best book recommendations TXT) 📕

her and tucked her in like she was the most precious thing on Earth. Even if he was currently staring down at her like he hated her.

I sat Josie on the edge of her bed, and I looked around as she balanced her hands on my shoulders. Her room looked nothing like her. It was frilly and posh, and she was, well, she was the exact opposite.

I barely knew anything about the girl, and even I knew that.

I pulled her shoes from her feet and dusted sand from her legs as she stared down at me.

“Should I pull these off too?” I tugged on the edge of her shorts, my fingers grazing her thighs, and she stiffened.

“Don’t even think about it.” Her words were firm, but her body squirmed gently beneath my hand.

“One day.” I laughed and noticed Lucas still standing at the door staring me down. I leaned closer to her as she scoffed, and I held his gaze.

“I told you that was never going to happen.” She looked up at me, and I hadn’t really noticed until that moment how the brown of her eyes was encased in swirls of green. They were enchanting and vulnerable and absolutely nothing like Lucas’s.

But that didn’t matter. It couldn’t matter.

Josie Vos was the key to everything. I couldn’t touch Lucas without her.

And even though she was looking at me like she trusted me more than she ever should, I couldn’t let it fuck with my head.

I couldn’t let some pretty girl fuck with my plan.

“I guarantee it, princess.” I nipped at her earlobe, and she released a sharp inhale that was equal parts shock and lust.

I had planned to make her life a living hell from the moment I spotted her at the country club, and I would. But she was going to make it much easier than I thought.

She wanted me, regardless of what she was telling herself, and I would use that knowledge to my advantage.

I would use her, and I would make every moment of it worth it.

Chapter Nine

Josie

There was a pounding in my head that I couldn’t ignore. It seemed to block out everything else. My alarm was going off somewhere in the background, but I didn’t care. I just wanted it to stop. The blaring, the pounding, the sudden wave of nausea.

Shit. What the hell was I thinking last night?

The pounding fell away as memories of the night before bombarded me. Memories of me drinking, of Beck, of him carrying me all the way to my damn bed.

Nausea hit me again. This time harder.

I had let him carry me through this house and to my bed. I clung to him. I had wanted him.

Oh, God.

I blinked my eyes open, and Allie was still dead to the world next to me. Her blonde hair was stuck to her face, and she let out the tiniest little snore. I would have left her there, let her not have to worry about how she felt for a little bit longer if the two of us didn’t have to be at work.

With customers and food and Beck. I hoped to God he wouldn’t be there. I didn’t want to see him. Not today, not ever again if I was being honest.

If we could just avoid each other altogether, that would be for the best. Because Beck Clermont confused me.

He hated me.

He said so. He looked at me like he did.

But there was some part of me that thought it was more than that. There was a part of me that thought maybe his hate was just a mask for something else, and that part was dangerous.

Whatever reason he had to hate me was completely lost to me. But if there was one thing I was sure of is that he did.

Even if there was more. Even if I was insane and thought that he could possibly want me.

He hated me more.

And I was going to be attending school with him in a couple of weeks. A school that I knew he ruled. A school where he could make my life a living hell.

There was only one solution when it came to him.

I needed to put my head down and avoid him like the plague. I needed to avoid him at all costs.

Or I would have to deal with the consequences, and I wasn’t prepared for that.

I had a plan.

And that plan did not include some privileged boy who hated me for no reason.

Regardless of how incredibly handsome he was. And he was. He was the most beautiful guy I had ever laid eyes on. But it was all part of who he was.

It was part of this damn persona that he portrayed.

I needed to keep my head down, study my ass off, and save as much money as I could for when I left here. I wanted to go to college. I wanted to become something more than a sum of my past and my father’s last name.

I shook Allie, trying to wake her up, and she groaned. I knew she was probably feeling doubly as bad as I did. Allie had far more to drink than me. She wasn’t even awake when we arrived back at my house.

I was so glad my dad wasn’t here. Not that he could say anything.

But Lucas had plenty to say.

I could have drunk the entire keg, and I would have still remembered his face when he saw me in Beck’s arms.

He looked like he was going to be sick before his anger took over.

It should have made me push Beck away and never look back, but it didn’t. I just clung to him harder. I clung to him as if he was some sort of savior.

And Beck Clermont was the farthest thing from that.

Deep down, I knew that.

“We have to get ready for work.” I nudged Allie’s arm, and she groaned again.

“What the hell happened last night?” She rolled over onto her side to look at me, and I couldn’t stop