Steel Princess: A Dark New Adult Romance (Royal Elite Book 2)

My head hangs against the wall as the water beats down on me.

I let it rinse me, cleanse me, but it can’t reach the itch beneath my skin.

It’s slowly but surely ripping me apart.

Yesterday was my second session with Dr Khan. I found myself in the same vision from last time. However, my younger self’s screaming was much louder to the point my ears popped.

When I asked Dr Khan why I ended up in the same vision, he said that I could be blocking my subconscious.

The cause is probably stress.

A heavy sigh rips from me as I stare at the white tiles.

I need to get myself together. If I don’t, then I’ll be trapped as I’ve been for ten whole years.

Problem is, whenever I close my eyes, all I could think about is Aiden and Silver.

Or more accurately, Aiden fucking Silver.

My temper flares at the thought.

I want to hit something.

Scream at someone.

Because deep down? I’m bleeding.

It doesn’t help that Aiden’s been ignoring my existence for the past few days. When he walks by me, he doesn’t even spare me a glance as if I don’t exist.

Since the first day we met, I’ve always been visible to him. Even from afar, Aiden always had his attention on me. His metallic eyes followed me everywhere.

Being invisible hurts more than I’d like to admit.

Nope. I’m not going there.

This is for the best.

It’s the weekend so I’ll go home and do some homework. I was supposed to sleepover at Kim’s but they’re having a family dinner, so my weekend plans changed to me and my empty home.

Yay.

I’m about to shut off the water when a rustle comes from outside the door.

Coach Nessrine is out for the day and asked me to close up after I’m done. Maybe one of the girls forgot something.

I remain in the stall, biding my time until whoever they are leaves.

The handle to the stall’s door moves.

I gasp, my eyes widening. “W-Who is it? Tara? Coach?”

No answer.

I gulp, my heartbeat escalating.

The handle doesn’t move anymore. It’s locked. No one can come in here.

I remain rooted in place for long seconds even when no other sound comes out.

Pounding water is the only thing that cuts through the silence.

Ten seconds pass.

Twenty.

I release a breath. It’s nothing after all.

Something jams against the handle and the door flies open, hitting the wall.

I shriek, but a strong hand wraps around my mouth, muffling the sound.

My eyes widen as I stare up into Aiden’s dark metallic gaze.

It’s bottomless.

It’s a void.

Tremors jolt through my limbs and goosebumps cover my skin despite the warm water.

“You can run but you can never escape me, sweetheart.”

“Mmm,” I mumble against his hand.

That’s when I take the rest of him.

He’s naked.

The water soaks him in a second. Like an exotic model, his jet black hair sticks to his forehead.

The droplets of water travel down the ridges of his muscled chest and his abs.

His strong thigh barges between mine and that’s when I recall that I’m also naked.

My hands fly up, clawing at his arms so he’ll release me. Aiden pushes me with ease. My back hits the tiled wall.

I gasp at the violent impact.

It’s like that night in my room all over again.

This is the scary side of Aiden. The side that takes without boundaries.

The side that only leaves havoc in his wake.

“Did you mistake my silence for approval, Frozen?” His chilling tone tickles my skin like a dark promise.

If he’s calling me Frozen, then I should be scared.

This isn’t the Aiden who sometimes tries to restrain himself.

No. This is Aiden at his worst unhinged self.

The bully. The devil.

My spine jerks upright against the cold tiles and my lips tremble under his hand.

“Is it fun to defy me, hmm?” He thrusts his hips forward. An unmistakable erection slides between my legs and against my folds.

I whimper, shaking my head.

He doesn’t stop.

I’m starting to think that Aiden doesn’t know how to stop.

His chest crushes my breasts as if he can’t get close enough or torment me hard enough.

“Being mine isn’t a choice,” he says in that scarily calm tone. “It’s a fucking reality.”

He reaches his free hand between us and wraps two fingers around my throbbing nipple. He squeezes so hard, I nearly topple over with pain.

I cry out, but the sound is muffled by his hand.

He presses his fingers harder as if engraving his words into my body.

My body isn’t the only thing he’s interested in.

He’s also trying to reach into my soul and write those words in black, permanent ink.

Tears barge into my eyes, but I swallow them inside.

“You can fight me on anything, but you don’t get to fight me on the fact that you’re mine.” He runs his tongue along the shell of my ear and bites down. “Is that clear?”

A whimper claws its way out, but I gather the strength to glare up at him.

“You think you have a choice, but you don’t. Not this time.” He meets my glare with his stormy eyes. “I won’t stop. Not now. Not fucking ever. Your fate has already been sealed, sweetheart.”

Those words draw a shudder from deep inside me. The need to fight pumps through my blood, but his steel hold shackles me in place.

The pad of his forefinger runs up and down my assaulted nipple. It takes all my self-restraint to hold in a moan.

What is he doing to me?

A voice in my head screams at me to run, hide and never return.

Aiden is batshit crazy. And apparently, I’m crazier if I feel this way in his arms.

My reaction to him scares the living bejesus out of me.

I’m not this girl. I won’t be a stop in his endless stops.

I try to push him away. He pinches my nipple again. A mixture of a whimper-moan leaves my lips.

Oh. God.

I mumble against his hand and fight.

I fight everything.

The tears.

The overwhelming sensations.

The tightening at the bottom of my stomach.

But most of all, I fight the part inside me that craves surrendering to Aiden’s touch.

That’s the hardest thing to fight. How can I fight myself and not lose?

How the hell did I let Aiden engrave himself into me this deep?

“If you scream.” He licks the water off my ear as he murmurs in a chilling low range, “You won’t like what they see when they come to find us.”

I gulp against his hand, my heartbeat skyrocketing.

“Be smart, sweetheart. You’ve been stupid enough this past week.”

He slowly removes his hand, but he doesn’t step back. If anything, he pushes me further into the wall so my back and arse are glued to the tiles.

I gasp for air, breathing through my nose and then my mouth.

I stare at his punishing dark eyes.

At the cruelty.

At the determination.

At the water forming rivulets down the hard lines of his face.

A wave of sadness and injustice flares through me. Soon, all those emotions turn into boiling rage.

How dare he?

How fucking dare he?

“What part of ‘we’re over’ do you not understand?” I ask with the calmest tone I can manage.

If I scream then I’ll start crying and I promised to never show this dickhead my tears again.

He narrows his eyes. “What did I just say about being smart?”

“We’re over.” I breathe so hard, it’s almost like I’m choking on air. “We’re fucking over, Aiden.”

“I never agreed to that.”

“You never agreed to that?” I repeat, incredulous. “So in your mind, we’re still together?”

“We are.” He doesn’t even miss a beat.

“If we’re still together and you took Silver to your pool, do you know what that means?” I hit his chest with a closed fist, feeling my walls cracking. “It means you cheated on me. I told you it’s over when you cheat on me.”

“But you said we aren’t together.” His infuriating poker face is on. “It’s not cheating when you dumped me in front of the entire school.”

“Fuck you, Aiden!” I pound both my palms on his chest. “Fuck. You!”

He grabs both my wrists in his strong hand and slams them on the tiles atop my head.

His shoulders strain with tension even as his face remains a calm façade. “Nothing happened with Queens.”

“Don’t lie to me! I saw —”

His mouth slams to mine, cutting off my outburst.

He sucks my lower lip into his mouth and then plunges his tongue inside, taking claim of mine. His hard muscles mould to my softer curves as he ravages my mouth.

It’s one of his animalistic, out-of-control kisses. I can only stand there in full stupefaction as he sucks the life out of me.

A part of me wants to let go.

A part of me wants that pleasure he always wrenches out of my body.

A part of me yearns for the intensity. The freedom of letting go.

But that part is a fucking idiot.

That part forgot that Aiden has a revenge plot against me. That he took Silver to his pool when it should’ve been our place.

That part needs to be eradicated.

I bite down on his lower lip so hard, a metallic taste explodes on my tongue.

I thought that would stop him. Just like at the party.

I thought wrong.

After all, the same trick doesn’t work twice. At least not on someone like Aiden.

If I’ve taken him by surprise once, he’ll make sure it never happens again.

He grinds his hips against mine and continues kissing me savagely. His hand cradles my face to pin me in place as he smears his blood all over my lips and tongue.

He makes me taste him. Taste what I did to him. This time, he doesn’t let me go. He makes me feel it over and over again as he twirls his tongue against mine.

The water washes away the blood, but not the lingering taste he leaves behind.

When he pulls away, I forget to breathe as I stare at his cut lower lip. At his rogue, exotic features.

“I never lie to you.”

I stare, not sure what he means.

“I don’t lie to you, so when I say nothing happened with Queens. It means nothing fucking happened with Queens.” He drags his thumb down my lower lip as if he’s still kissing me. “But if you continue acting this way, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

My lips tremble. “I told you. If you touch Silver, I swear to God, we’re fucking over no matter what you do.”

“No matter what I do, huh?” His fingers wrap around my throat as he pushes his hard cock against the bottom of my stomach. “Do you think you’ll ever get rid of me?”

“If you touch Silver or anyone else, you better be ready to rape me, then.” I deadpan.

The corner of his lip tilts in a cruel smirk. “Are you sure you want to throw that word around when you know I have no boundaries when it comes to you, sweetheart?”

I meet his gaze through blurry eyes. “I’m curious if you’ll still want the shell I’ll become.”

His left eye twitches.

“Do you know what a shell means, Aiden?” My voice raises with confidence. “It means that I’ll be your fucktoy. I’ll do everything you want without thinking about it. I’ll have no thoughts of my own and I’ll fade into nothing.”

“Shut up.”

“I’ll be good. I’ll be so good to you, Aiden. You’ll find no resistance,” I taunt. “I’ll be yours and you won’t even have to remind me of it anymore.”

“Shut the fuck up, Elsa.” He pulls my hands from the wall and slams them against it again.

“Why?” I breathe harshly. “Isn’t that what you want? Isn’t that what you’ve been trying to do since the beginning? Destroy me? So do it. Rape doesn’t scare you, right? So do it now and ruin me once and for all.”

He watches me intently with his left eye twitching like crazy.

I just hit a button.

Aiden loves the challenge I bring to his life. He said it himself that I break the endless vicious cycle. I figured he’d be pissed off if I threaten to take all the challenge away, but I didn’t think it’d hit his buttons this hard.

It takes him longer than usual to strap his reaction behind the infuriating poker face.

His mouth hovers inches away from mine. His intoxicating scent is all I can smell. His harsh breathing mingles with mine, almost muting the water beating down on us.

“Nice try, sweetheart.” He tilts his head, a smirk tugging on his lips. “You almost got me there.”

Shit. Fuck.

Still, I jut my chin. “You think I’m bluffing?”

“No. But I figured out your angle.”

“My angle?”

“You want me to rape you so that you can hate me.”

My breathing hitches. Is that what I really wanted?

Nope. He’s not dragging me into another one of his mind games.

“But guess what, sweetheart?” He licks the shell of my ear, causing a shiver to crackle down my spine. “When I fuck you, you’ll only be screaming in pleasure. With every thrust into your pussy, you’ll be chanting my name and begging for more.”

My chest heaves causing my throbbing, sensitive nipples to brush against his hard muscles.

It only makes me more aware of him and his presence. It makes me feel him straight to my bones.

He’s not right.

He can’t be right.

I didn’t say that because I wanted to hate him. I only said that to piss him off.

How the hell did the tables turn on me?

“You know. You should’ve never chosen to be a pawn.” His fingers leave my throat and trail down to my stomach. He hovers on the path leading to my folds.

I suck in a breath and fruitlessly try to get him off me. He pumps his hips against mine, killing my resistance.

He glides his erection up and down my pussy. I clench my thighs, but he slaps them apart and rubs his thumb on my clit agonisingly slow.

My stomach tightens into itself.

A pleasure so harsh and twisted shoots through my veins no matter how much I try to ward it off.

My nails dig into my palms, but I can’t do anything with him pinning me to the wall.

“Aiden… stop,” I grit out.

“Why?” He slides his cock up and down my hypersensitive folds.

Up.

Down.

I’m breathing in unison with his moves. I try to tune myself out, but I can’t. I just can’t stay still when he touches me.

I’m always craving more.

Needing more.

“I hate you, that’s why,” I pant.

“I think you’re lying, sweetheart. I think you don’t hate me, but you hate how much you can’t hate this.” He pushes the tip of his erection at my entrance.

I tense, expecting him to thrust inside, but he goes back to running his cock up and down.

My stomach dips.

And no, it’s not because of disappointment.

“Do you feel your walls inviting me? Do you feel how fucking soaked you are for me?”

I shake my head frantically.

“Stop fighting what we have,” he growls at my ear. “Stop fighting us.”

Aiden increases his tempo. Shivers cover my skin, and it’s not because of the water. It’s due to the torturous slide of his cock. The way he has me at his mercy — or the lack thereof.

The moment he slaps my clit, I scream.

I don’t even know what’s come over me. I don’t know how in the ever-loving hell he made me come this fast.

The waves roll over me and I scream louder. Then, I recall we’re in school, and anyone could hear me. That’s supposed to kill the orgasm, but it’s the exact opposite.

A different type of wave slams into me. I bite my lower lip to contain the shriek.

Just like that time in my room, I’m about to die with self-mortification. I want to dig a grave and just bury myself alive.

Aiden continues pumping his cock up and down. His muscles turn rigid. I can’t help watching as his handsome features contort and he grunts. I feel his cum coating the inside of my thighs, and I close my eyes.

Not out of mortification. No.

It’s because the sensation is about to throw me over the edge again.

He releases my hands, letting them fall on either side of me. It takes everything in me not to wrap them around my midsection.

“There,” he whispers before biting down on my ear. “Good girl.”

“I hate you,” I murmur. “I hate you.”

“If you say that one more time, I’m going to fuck you in a more public place. I’ll make the entire world see how much you hate me while you’re bouncing on my cock and screaming my fucking name.”

My eyes fly open and I gasp through the sob. I know, I just know that Aiden’s threats aren’t empty ones.

The crazy psycho would do it.

“Now.” He drops a quick kiss on my mouth before he nibbles on my bottom lip with his teeth.

I stop breathing, expecting him to draw blood.

He’s not that vindictive, right?

Scratch that. He is.

Shit. I really should’ve thought of that before drawing his blood. Not once, but twice.

“Are you going to be mine?”

I want to cry.

God. I want to cry and smash his head to the ground at the same time.

For a few seconds, I remain silent, glaring up at him.

He tilts his head to the side, a slight smirk tilting his lips. The cut only makes it appear more monstrous. “The only way to stop me from going near Queens is if you’re mine.”

Screw him.

Screw the fucking bastard and his mind games.

And screw that bitch queen.

“I ha—” I cut off when I notice the gleaming look in his eyes.

“Go on,” he challenges. “Say it.”

I clamp my lips shut.

He releases my hands and pulls at my cheek. “See. You can be adorable.”

I swat his hand away.

“Hmm. And here I was contemplating telling you what you want to know.”

I blink through the water. “What I want to know?”

“The story behind what you heard from Jonathan and Queens’ conversation.”

My heartbeat escalates. He’s willing to tell me that?

Aside from Aunt and Uncle, Aiden is the only one who can shine a light on my past.

He said it before, didn’t he? That he knows a lot more than I think I do.

This is my golden opportunity.

Wait.

Aiden is a fucking psycho and he’s probably playing a mind game.

“What do I have to do in return?” I ask.

“You’re learning.” He smiles, and it’s more proud rather than sadistic. “You should’ve done this from the beginning, you know.”

“As if you’d tell me.”

“I would’ve. For the right price.” He strokes my bottom lip and for some reason, it feels intimate. Too intimate, it’s scary.

I step back from his touch. The tenderness in his eyes is creeping me out. What is that supposed to mean? Another mindfuck?

Don’t you dare fall for it, Elsa. Don’t you fucking dare.

I need to deal with this opportunity logically.

I stare up at him. “What’s the price?”

“Not so fast.” He grabs me by the waist and pulls me to him as he shuts off the water. “First, you have to pay.”