BriarEdge Academy: September Read online

  One half of the room was already occupied, and she raised a brow at the sparkling pink, purple, and silver décor. It looked a bit like a unicorn had thrown up in there, but who was she to judge? She was far more interested in what kind of person her roommate was than her taste in décor.

  A tall black girl stood near the desk on her side, and she was looking at Candace with interest. She didn’t walk forward, and she didn’t really smile, but she did say, “Hi. I’m Isis.”

  “Hello.” She set on her bags on the currently bare bed and walked over to hold out her hand. Isis took it after a moment of hesitation. “I’m Candace Munroe.”

  “Is it okay if I call you Candy?”

  Candace shuddered. “Please don’t.”

  Isis gave her a small smile, and that was the most blatant sign of friendliness she’d displayed thus far. “Duly noted. Candace it is. I’m going to the dining hall, since I’m already settled in. I guess I’ll see you later then.”

  Candace nodded as Isis moved to toward the door and disappeared from the room a moment later. She wondered if Isis hadn’t invited her to come along because she assumed Candace would need to unpack, or if it was because she had no interest in getting to know Candace. It didn’t matter. They’d find a way to coexist even if Isis never warmed up. Candace had survived public high school for three years, so she could survive sharing a room with someone who was only lukewarm.

  She unpacked her bags, finding the rest of her things had been delivered to the academy already. They were stacked neatly in the corner, so she unwrapped her new bedding and made the bed before hanging her clothes in the closet and folding them in the dresser.

  She’d brought to her what seemed like a silly number of garments, especially considering her uniforms were already neatly pressed and hanging in the closet, but she’d only followed the academy’s list of suggestions.

  There were knee-high socks in the drawer where she placed her underwear, and she found a sensible pair of brown shoes sitting atop the dresser. They were clearly new and her size, so it didn’t take a genius to figure out they were meant to go with her uniform.

  Uniforms. That was a horrible idea to her. At her old school, she could wear whatever she wanted. In junior high, she’d gone to school that required them all to wear polos and khakis, but even then, there’d been some freedom to choose the color of their shirts.

  Here, it was all regimented. She had to wear a short-sleeve white shirt, a red and gold plaid skirt that went almost to her knees, so definitely wasn’t the sexy schoolgirl kind, and a matching tie. She found a gold blazer hanging in the closet, along with a red sweater that matched the skirt. Oh, goodie. She got to choose whether she wanted to wear a gold blazer, red sweater, or perhaps just go without a covering on hot days. The freedom was mind-boggling.

  As she closed the drawer, she realized the socks had fallen sideways. She picked up one to fold it with its mate, and she had to giggle at the decorative band around the top. It was the same matching plaid as the skirt and tie. She was almost shocked not to see plaid something on the shoes.

  After finishing unpacking, she decided against leaving the room, at least for now. She wasn’t yet hungry, and she wasn’t eager to throw herself into the social life. She doubted she’d have much in common with any of these people, but she reminded herself to make an effort to try. That was part of the promise she’d made to her mom, extracted under a huge load of Mom Guilt.

  She moved to the window, peering out. Boys and girls played an impromptu game of soccer on the grass below, though there were no nets. A few were in their uniforms already, but most of them remained casual, so she inferred nothing was expected of them this first day.

  Looking at the people milling around below her, they seemed less different from here. From a distance, they were just teens having a good time, and she was optimistic maybe she could find a place among them. That didn’t seem likely, but she would try, and not just for Hannah’s sake, but for her own too.

  Chapter Two

  When Dalton caught the gaze of a pretty new freshman girl, she giggled, blushed, and looked away. As he walked past her, he saw her gaze return to him, and he knew she was checking out his ass. He was used to that kind of attention, since he’d been blessed with natural good looks, piercing blue eyes, glossy black hair, and a body Greek gods would envy. That hadn’t been necessarily a natural blessing, but he insured it stayed that way through healthy eating and exercise.

  All his attributes added up meant women often appreciated his form. Some as old as his mother, which was sometimes disquieting, but he usually accepted it in stride. It was the price one paid to look this good.

  He didn’t say that out loud, knowing it wasn’t the kind of thing one admitted to thinking. People would call him arrogant, but he just considered it being self-aware.

  He walked into the entry for the boys’ locker room in the swimming complex, quickly changing into a tight pair of Speedos. He grabbed his goggles and a towel, heading through the showers. After a quick rinse, he entered the pool area and froze. Some instinct had him staying in the shadows, and he quickly realized why.

  Candace was swimming. It had to be her, judging from the features he saw when her face turned his way with each breaststroke. She was clearly engrossed and didn’t see him, which allowed him time to observe her.

  At first, he watched her swimming technique, pleased to find it wasn’t as perfect as it could be. Her skills were clearly a product of either someone teaching her, or perhaps self-taught, but she clearly hadn’t had the professional instructors he and his siblings had enjoyed. That had been part and parcel of the package at the elementary school he’d attended from age eight until twelve.

  It didn’t take long for his gaze to shift from assessing her technique to her form. It was difficult to tell much when she was in the water, but as she neared the shallow end, she stopped swimming and stood up, wiping at her face with the back of her forearm. As she did so, the motion revealed the curves under the basic white swimsuit that was part of the uniform required for the school. The cut was modest, but it couldn’t hide the long length of her legs, the narrowness of her waist, and the surprising generosity of her breasts. They weren’t obscenely large, but they were bigger than he’d expected.

  He realized he was ogling the daughter of the woman who’d seduced his father and tricked him into marrying her. They were both a couple of gold-digging losers, and he resented finding anything attractive about Candace.

  His dick was hard, and he struggled to ignore that as she resumed swimming. He wanted to punish her for his reaction, and it occurred to him there were no other girls in the pool. Right now, there was no one else in the pool at all, and it was the perfect opportunity.

  With a malicious glare in her direction, he slipped from the boys’ locker room and into the girls’. He didn’t call out, but he walked softly and looked under the doors and shower curtains. He was a little envious. The girls had individual shower stalls with their own shower curtains, where the guys got one large, communal shower with multiple nozzles.

  There was no one else there, and it was easy enough to find which locker was hers. Someone, probably building maintenance, had thoughtfully put her name on it, just like everyone else’s assigned locker. He was in luck, and there was no lock on it. He wondered if she’d forgotten to pack one, or maybe she’d just forgotten to bring it with her. Either way, the oversight afforded him access to her locker.

  Without a hint of guilt, he stole her clothes and towel, whisking them into the boys’ locker room. As he dumped them in the trashcan, his finger caught on her lacy black underwear. She definitely wasn’t the granny panties-type. He had far too easy of a time picturing her wearing the black bikini pants, and he got harder still.

  He meant to leave the panties in the trash, but they somehow ended up in the nearest stall with him, wrapped around his hand as he stroked himself while thinking of her. He imagined her on her knees, forced to follow his every command. It
was an intoxicating thought, and he soon spilled his seed into the toilet. He was disgusted by his lack of control, and this time, he managed to fling the underwear into the trashcan as he walked by before washing his hands.

  Afterward, deciding he no longer felt like swimming, he changed back into his clothes and returned to his dorm. As he approached, he saw Malone waiting in the rec room for the fifth floor. That was where the opposite gender had to wait or remain for visiting, even if they were siblings of someone who lived on the floor. He walked over and dropped onto the couch beside her, letting out a long sigh.

  She put her head on his shoulder. “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah. Just the trash ruined my swim. She was tainting the pool.” He didn’t have to expound which trash he referred to, since Malone obviously knew.

  “I can’t believe they let her in.” She frowned. “I can’t believe Dad made the school take her. That’s the only explanation. She isn’t good enough for BriarEdge without dad influencing it. He probably wrote a check to get her in.”

  Dalton nodded, agreeing strongly. “It better not have come from our trust funds. I think we know our course of action, right?”

  “We sure do. We’re going to get her expelled.” She grinned, clearly delighted at the idea.

  Dalton was delighted as well, and he was still feeling anger at being attracted to her. “First, we need to make her life utterly miserable.”

  Malone’s grin widened. “Of course, we do. I’ve already started telling people the truth about her. Everyone knows she’s poor trash who doesn’t belong.”

  “I’ll make sure to let others know too, but I want to do something a little more hands-on for torturing her though.” In his mind’s eye, he imagined touching her, and he sneered, angry at himself for having the thought. “I’m not sure what to do yet, but we have to make her miserable.”

  Malone nodded. “You can count on me.”

  “And me,” said Seth, his best friend and roommate, as he sat down on the couch across from them. Gavin and Tate joined him a moment later. Happy to have reinforcements, Dalton leaned forward with Malone, and the five of them conspired on ways to make Candace’s brief stay at BriarEdge an exercise in misery she’d never want to repeat.

  She’d regret ever coming to their school, and she’d regret ever working her way into their lives. The ultimate goal was to get rid of both Candace and Hannah, but Hannah was out of his reach right now. In the meantime, Candace could bear the wrath he felt for both of them.

  Chapter Three

  Candace swam herself to the point of exhaustion, enjoying the daily routine. Before she’d moved in with Ashton when he married Hannah, her trips to the pool had been infrequent and constrained to the local public swimming pool that was only open during summer hours. She soon discovered a love for swimming when she had access to the saltwater infinity pool, so she now swam every day. Maybe Hannah hadn’t totally ruined their lives by marrying Ashton.

  When she got out of the pool, she realized she’d left her towel in her locker, which was a stupid thing to do. She padded into the girls’ locker room on bare feet. She took a few minutes to shower and rinse off her suit, and then she went to her locker.

  Her plan was to grab them and dress in one of the alcoves with a curtain covering it, but when she opened her locker, there was nothing there. For a moment, she was certain she’d just opened the wrong one. She closed it and read the stenciled name label someone had stuck there. Munroe, Candace. No, it was deftly her locker, but her clothes and towel were no longer in there.

  She shivered, uncertain if she was cold because she was in her wet swimsuit, or because she was thinking that she had nothing to wear back to the dorms. She knew she could be in big trouble for walking around in her swimsuit. That was one of the many rules in the BriarEdge Academy student handbook. It wasn’t even the discipline so much as the thought of baring herself to all those prying eyes that made her tremble anew.

  She looked down, knowing the swimsuit was modest but still revealed far too much of her. She was secure enough with her body, but that didn’t mean she wanted to flaunt it to all the snobs in the academy. They’d probably all had plastic surgeons on speed dial since they were ten and had perfectly sculpted bodies.

  She looked around, hoping against hope that someone else was in the room, but no one had decided to swim this close to dinnertime. With a small curse, she closed the now-empty locker and ruminated about how she’d forgotten the combination lock. It was sitting on top of her desk in her dorm room, and she’d walked right past it when she’d grabbed her suit and a towel. By the time she’d realized, she was already at the building and had assumed it was safe enough to leave her locker unlocked. It should’ve been. She doubted anybody had stolen her clothes or towel because they desired to possess such basic pieces. No, this felt personal.

  If it was personal, then it had to be Malone or Dalton. Surely, it was Malone, since it was the girls’ locker room. It didn’t matter which one had done it, because it was the same indignity either way. They intended to make her miserable and make her suffer. She had a feeling this was going to set the tone for the rest of the year she had to spend here.

  Finally, with no other choice, she used the hand dryer to dry off as much as she could and started walking back. At least they hadn’t stolen her shoes, which she’d left on the floor of the locker room. She didn’t want to cross the grass or the paved walkways without shoes of some sort. It was going to be bad enough in her swimsuit.

  She hesitated near the exit, wishing there was another way, but she couldn’t think of one. She pushed open the door slowly, leaning out her head to see who was around. There was no one in the vicinity, and she hoped maybe she could run fast enough to her dorm that only a few people would see her.

  With a deep breath for courage, she stepped out of the locker room and started running. She hadn’t gone far when she heard someone say, “Hey, stop.” For a moment, she thought about continuing to run, but she forced herself to stop and turn to face the male voice that had spoken to her.

  That male voice was attached to a very nice male body. He had smooth features and overly long brown hair that seemed to curl. Wind whipped through it, blowing it around his head and making it impossible to tell if he had real curls or just waves, but it was definitely a good look for him. His copper eyes reflected his disapproval, and she understood why he’d stopped her.

  “If you run around like that, you’ll get a demerit. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first day.” He had a nice voice to go with his very nice body. It had a rough, masculine edge.

  She shivered again, certain this time it had nothing to do with the chill in the late summer Maine air. This had everything to do with the handsome man standing before her. “Someone stole my clothes. I guess she thought it would be a funny prank.”

  He let out a sigh and frowned. “Some of the kids on this place are just awful.” As he spoke, he started unbuttoning his shirt.

  Her mouth went dry as she watched his strong fingers nimbly undo the buttons of the flannel shirt. She held her breath, prepared to see his chest, and she was moderately disappointed when he opened the shirt to reveal a white tank top instead. He held out the shirt to her after slipping it off, and she gave him a wobbly smiled. “Thank you so much for coming to my rescue. I hope this will satisfy any of the faculty if I run into them.”

  As she spoke, she slipped on the shirt, finding it oversized and hanging to midthigh. It should adequately cover anything, though it was technically a few inches shorter than the uniform skirt or the mandated length for shorts worn during leisure hours.

  “I’m happy to help.” He fell into step with her. “I’ll walk with you, and then if we run into any faculty, I can vouch for you.”

  She smiled again. “Are you a student here?”

  He chuckled and then shook his head. “This place is way too rich for my blood. I’m the head groundskeeper. I keep the roses in bloom when it’s time and alive anytime.” He he
ld out his hand to her after stopping. “I’m Jonas Underell.”

  She took it and shook it. “I’m Candace Munroe. I have the misfortune of being stuck here for the next year.

  “I don’t envy you.” At least he hadn’t given her the speech about her future.

  “You seem kind of young to be head groundskeeper,” she said, strongly hinting to find out his age. He really didn’t look much older than her.

  “I’m twenty-two. I wouldn’t be head groundskeeper if my father hadn’t already had the contract, and I inherited it when I took over his business a couple years ago. He had an unexpected heart attack, so he’s not able to work anymore.” He sounded matter-of-fact about his change of destiny.

  She reached out a hand to put on his shoulder in passing. “I’m sorry to hear that. It seems like a lot of responsibility for your age.”

  He shrugged again. “Not really. I was taking some classes at the community college so I’d have a better head for business, but I always planned to take over for my dad. I was supposed to work alongside him for a lot longer to pick up all the information I needed to know beforehand though. But that’s life, isn’t it? It throws curveballs.”

  “Tell me about it. Six months ago, I’d never even heard of this place or the Westerly family, other than as my mom’s boss. When she fell in love with him and got married, they decided it would be fun to send me away to school with my new stepsister and stepbrother.” She wrinkled her nose, unable to hide her displeasure.

  “Maybe it won’t be so bad here.” He sounded like he was trying to sound sincere. “At least there are the roses.”