Terror claws at my insides as Carter catches me in his arms. I tried to stop myself, but momentum propelled me right into him. Now I shove against his muscular chest, struggling to get away, but he locks his left arm around my waist and keeps me trapped against him as he looks me over.

“Mm, what a thoughtful present,” Carter remarks.

“Get your hands off me, Carter,” I demand, my voice breaking with desperation.

“No,” he replies calmly, then nods at Jake. “Didn’t you hear? Parsons said I can do whatever I want to you.”

That’s a terrifying thought. My breath hitches as Carter’s amused brown eyes lock on mine, then he slowly reaches down between our bodies and unbuttons the top button of my corduroy wrap skirt.

“Please,” I say, trying to shove his hand away. “Carter, please don’t.”

Clicking at me in disapproval, Carter says, “Now, now, don’t try manipulating me, princess. I just watched you do it to him, and I’m a fast learner; it won’t work on me.”

“I wasn’t manipulatin’ anyone,” I say, the accusation making me uncomfortable.

“Mmhmm,” Carter murmurs, savoring the violation as he unbuttons the rest of my skirt, then lets the fabric fall to the floor.

Now I’m standing here, heart pounding, stripped down to a pair of thin black panties in front of these three assholes. I’m sick. Literally sick. Bile rises and I feel myself wanting to heave, but nothing comes up.

“Stop this now,” I say, trying to grasp some kind of authority. “If you stop now, I still won’t say anything. That window is about to close, though. Y’all are taking this too far.”

“Listen to her, getting mouthy,” Carter says, caressing my jaw with his free hand.

“I didn’t even do anything to you,” I snap at him. “What’s your excuse? Why do you want to hurt me?”

“I don’t have one,” Carter says, his tone indifferent, almost bored. “I just like seeing you helpless and scared. It gets me hard. Want to feel?”

So much of that sounds like the truth, I can only stare at him, wide-eyed. “You’re a psycho.”

Flashing me a predatory smile, he says, “Maybe.”

“How ‘bout all them holes you were talking about, Mahoney? Let’s see ‘em, man,” Shayne encourages, nodding at my panties.

My heart thuds in my chest as I consider Carter stripping me of the last scrap of fabric offering me even minimal coverage. At least on this, I get a diminutive measure of relief. “Sorry, Shayne, you’re guarding the door,” Carter tells his teammate.

“What?” Shayne says, disappointed. “Man, seriously? Why do I have to do it?”

Carter ignores Shayne, as if that question is too stupid even to answer, and turns his attention to Jake. My stomach pitches, thinking he’s going to invite Jake to join in, but now that he doesn’t have to share to have me, his interest in double-teaming me seems to dissipate.

“Her pussy is mine,” Carter states, then his gaze drifts back to my face. I squirm against him, trying to pull away again, but his hold on me is too effective and it’s a waste of my energy. “I want it first. I want her innocence. I want to be the one to make her bleed.”

Carter’s chilling words even make Jake a little uncomfortable, I can see it on his face. Not uncomfortable enough to back down, though. “I should get to fuck her, too. It’s my life she ruined,” Jake complains.

“Fine, then fuck her after me. Wear a rubber.”

“You’re not going to?” Jake asks, his gaze snapping to his teammate.

“Oh, no. Her blood will be the only lube when I take her. You’ll probably have to cover her mouth while I fuck her so no one hears her scream.”

Oh, my God, he cannot be serious. As hard as I try to keep it at bay, fear paralyzes me as a vision of Carter’s scenario plays out in my mind. My body trapped beneath him, Jake covering my mouth and helping hold me down while Carter violates me.

I look at Jake to see what he’ll do, hoping against hope he’ll stand up to Carter. I know he’s been reluctant up to now, but he has to realize this is definitely too far.

Again, Jake looks uncomfortable, but for whatever reason, he nods like he’ll follow Carter’s orders. Unbelievable.

Carter looks down at me, captive in his arms. My heart is pounding violently and since he has my chest pulled against his, I bet he can feel my fear. I bet he likes it. “Want to beg me one more time, princess?”

“No,” I tell him, hating my voice for continuing to shake. “I hope it’s worth it to you, because if you do this to me, I’ll ruin your life, too.”

Carter smiles, a smile that would be overwhelmingly attractive if he weren’t such a monster. “Oh, you won’t ruin my life, Zoey. It’s fucking adorable that you think there’s even a shot in hell you could get me kicked off the team, but football’s not my end game. We both know I could shoot someone in the middle of a crowded stadium at halftime, and they’d rush to clean up the blood so I didn’t slip and fall while I finished up the game. Even if you could get me kicked off the team though, princess, it wouldn’t matter.” Reaching down and caressing my breast again, he murmurs, “Football’s just a pit stop for me, nothing more.”

“You’re 18.” My voice shakes again as I shove his hand away, but it doesn’t make my words any less true. “When I report you for rape, it’s gonna be much worse than a football suspension.”

Carter doesn’t appear to be intimidated, but he does appear to be amused. “Oh, you won’t report me, Zoey. You’re not that stupid. I think you know if you fuck with me, my retribution will be much worse than cornering you and fucking you in an abandoned classroom.”

I swallow, my chest working. I don’t know that, but my stomach sinks because I can’t help believing him. “Raping me, you mean. This isn’t fucking. If you do this, this is rape. It’s a violation, it’s a crime. You’ll have to live with that for the rest of your life.”

“Let me count all the fucks I give,” he says, so cavalier.

“Hey, maybe we’re takin’ this a little too far,” Jake finally realizes.

Fucking finally!

“Maybe we’re not taking it far enough,” Carter counters. “She just threatened me, and you know what, Parsons? I don’t like being threatened.”

“If you stop now, I promise not to report anybody. I won’t say a word,” I offer, only because I’m starting to suspect Carter might be a full-blown psychopath. I’m beginning to worry how far he might take this if I keep pushing back. It started at groping and intimidation, some humiliation, threats, and bullying; very quickly, it’s progressing to full-on gang-rape with Carter egging Jake on.

What’s the next escalation? Murder? Carter will convince Jake the only way to ensure my silence is to snap my neck and toss my body into a river?

I’ll be the girl on the news.

The town will light candles and hold a vigil, girls who hate me will muster tears when they tell news anchors what great friends we were, and my sobbing mother will stammer about how she can’t imagine who would do such a thing to me, how I was such a nice girl, how everyone loved me. In a few months, the town will forget me, my family will have to leave to escape the pain and try to start over, and the only lives ruined will be ours. Carter will be crowned prom king, Jake will play college ball, and I’ll get a full-page memorial spread in the senior yearbook.

Cold fear slices through me. I don’t want to be treated like this, but I don’t want to lose my life to these entitled scumbags either, and I know enough about psychology to understand Carter could convince Jake and Shayne to do something they would never do on their own. He’s appealing to their group mentality, making it them vs. me, and painting me as the bad guy. The logic doesn’t have to hold up; it only has to make sense long enough for them to act rashly, and at the rate he moves, that wouldn’t take long at all.

They could literally kill me, and I would be just another easily forgotten statistic. My life lost, all so these assholes can play a damn sport despite their horrible behavior.

Carter watches me as these thoughts flit through my mind. He’s dangerous. These other two, they’re nothing sinister, harmless assholes left to their own devices, but not with him leading them like stupid horses to a poisoned well. I never saw it in him before, but then I’ve never spent any time with Carter Mahoney. I see the same superficial side of him everyone else sees—the wealthy, privileged quarterback with a golden arm. I’ve never looked twice at him, so how would I have noticed a monster lurking beneath the surface?

I try to take a more conciliatory tone when I address him. He’s like a rabid junkyard dog with a bone, and I need him to unclench his jaws so I can run away. “Look, I don’t want to go to war with you, Carter. I don’t even have a problem with you. This is supposed to be between me and Jake.”

Carter ignores my attempt to make peace and glances at Jake.

“She’s a stickler for consequences, this one,” Carter muses aloud, like he can read my mind. Like he knows why all of a sudden I’m trying to backpedal with him. “I’m wondering if it’s safe for any of us to let her go, Parsons.”

“It is,” I offer quickly. “If you let me go now, we can act like this never happened. Just stay away from me and I’ll stay away from you.”

“Yeah?” Carter asks calmly, flicking his thumb across my nipple and watching my face as I gasp at the sensation. “You’ll sit in history class with me tomorrow and keep your pretty little mouth shut if I let you go?”

My heart thuds in protest, but I ignore it. The time for protest has passed. It’s degrading to nod when he worded it that way, but that’s why he did it. He wants to humiliate me. I don’t care anymore. I just want to get the hell out of here. I need this whole awful experience to be over.

The thing that scares me is Jake wants to punish me and Shayne is just a joiner, but Carter? Carter wants to rape me. He doesn’t care about Jake’s thing, he’s just here for the fun. This is fun to him.

Carter walks me forward, finally releasing me long enough to push my back against the pillar Jake had me against to begin with. Then he bends his head and takes the nipple he’s been playing with into his mouth and sucks it. I gasp, closing my eyes and stiffening my body, pushing my head back against the brick pillar as this near stranger sucks on my breast. Revulsion swims through my gut, crawls up my spine and sends chills down my legs.

I shouldn’t have told him I’m a virgin. I thought it would appeal to their humanity, that they wouldn’t want to cross that line, but I think it made Carter want me more. He doesn’t want me—he wants to steal my innocence, like he said.

Carter grabs my body and tugs me closer to his, releasing that nipple and moving his mouth to the other. I push against him trying to get free, but he doesn’t budge. His muscular arms don’t even strain. He can hold onto me and keep his mouth on me at the same time, that’s how easy it is for him to overpower me.

His tongue swirls around the peak of my breast, then he bites. Not hard, just enough to make me jump and give another futile push against his broad shoulders. This is the strangest sensation. My breasts have never been in anyone’s mouth before; I never thought the first time would be against my will—and I damn sure didn’t think the mouth suckling my breast would be Carter Mahoney’s.

Jake looks away from this torrid display, I think finally realizing he unleashed a beast on me, but unwilling to help chain it back up.

I swore to myself I wouldn’t beg anymore, but as Carter’s big hand slips down inside the front of my panties, I can’t keep the words from spilling from my lips. “Carter, please don’t do this.” I say, squeezing my legs together.

“Beg more,” he murmurs, his hand still casually inside my panties. He drags his lips along my neck, his mouth shockingly ravenous, like a hungry beast about to feast on my flesh. Given the context of what I know he wants from me, it’s absolutely terrifying, and everything within me quakes.

He’s probably just fucking with me, but on the off chance I can stop him, I give him what he demands. “Please. Please, Carter. Please let me go.”

“Tell me you’ll be a good little whore and keep your mouth shut,” he says, biting my neck.

I let out a sharp cry of surprise, then start crying, not even attempting a brave face any longer. “I’ll be a good little…” I can’t get it out. His finger slips inside me and I sob harder, closing my eyes.

“Say it,” he says sharply.

My stomach sinks as I cry, “I’ll be a good little whore. Please stop. Please.”

“You won’t say anything,” he repeats, as if bored, even while his thumb presses against my clitoris.

“Please,” I beg, my broken cry humiliating me. “I won’t say anything.”

Withdrawing his hand from between my legs, Carter grabs a fistful of my hair and pushes me down to my knees. “Open your mouth, princess. You’re going to suck my dick. You do a good job and I won’t stick it in your cunt next.”

Jake shifts from foot to foot, then finally walks over to the door like he just wants to check out the window, but I think he can’t watch this. How things got from him pushing me up against the wall and intimidating me out of anger to Carter pushing my mostly naked body to the floor and unzipping his pants is probably a bit beyond him.

Grabbing my jaw, Carter warns me, “If you bite me, I’ll knock your fucking teeth out.”

I hate meeting his gaze, especially because I know expecting him to be decent is expecting too much, but I look up at him and beg one more time. “Please don’t make me do this.”

“Try not to throw up,” he advises me. “I like to go deep.”

He doesn’t let go of my hair, he keeps one hand there to keep me down, I guess, and uses the other to pull his dick out of his pants. I can’t believe this is happening. Tears stream down my cheeks as his cock comes at my face. I lean back, trying to get away from it, but when my head hits the wall, there’s nowhere else to go.

“Open your mouth,” he demands.

I keep my lips sealed shut, shaking my head, looking up at him with wordless pleas in my eyes.

“Now, or I take your virginity instead,” he says simply. “Your choice.”

My heart drops and my mind races, but there’s nowhere for it to go. Carter isn’t bluffing, and I don’t want to lose my virginity this way, to this asshole. I don’t want to give him head either, but if I have to do one or the other, there’s only once choice to make. Although it’s a struggle to wrap my head around the action, I take a deep, hitching breath and open my mouth.

“Good girl,” he says almost soothingly, grasping his cock and guiding it into my mouth. I squeeze my eyes shut, unable to look, but Carter doesn’t allow me even that much escape. “Open your eyes and watch your teeth. I’m not kidding about knocking them out. I don’t want to, but I will if you piss me off. Now, you take good care of me, all right, princess?”

I don’t even know how to do this. I’ve never let a guy do this before, and now the first time has to be him. When a moment passes and I do nothing, he punishes me, shoving his cock so deep in my throat, I can’t breathe. I panic, grabbing his hips, trying to pull him out of my airway, but he forces my face even closer to his pelvis. My eyes burn and I can’t breathe. He’s literally choking me on his dick, and now my gag reflex is working, trying to make me throw up, but I can’t even get anything up because his dick is lodged so deep in my throat.

My vision starts to go gray as panic seizes me, and I realize this might be it. I’m going to die here of asphyxiation with Carter Mahoney’s cock in my throat. And then, because he’s a fucking psycho, he’ll probably fuck my corpse.

Black starts to eat away at my line of sight and I weaken.

Suddenly, Carter yanks me back by the hair and I gasp dramatically, trying to suck as much air as I can into my deprived lungs. I sob, curling in on myself and nearly collapsing on the dingy linoleum floor.

“This is disappointing, princess. I thought there’d be more foreplay before I took your cunt.”

“Please don’t,” I say, but I sound tired even to my own ears. Tired of making pleas I know he will ignore anyway, tired of hanging onto hope that I can stop him when I know I can’t.

“This is your last fucking chance. You wanna suck me?”

I nod my head, swallowing and pushing to my knees with a shuddering breath. “Please don’t do that to me again,” I say quietly. “I’ll suck you.”

“Good girl,” he murmurs, caressing my cheek, then grabbing my hair. “I’m going to keep a hold of you, just in case you get ornery.”

I crawl forward on my knees, eyeing up his cock as I do. It’s so hard, maybe even harder after what he just did to me. I know he’ll hurt me worse if I don’t do as he says, so I take his cock in my hand and slowly start pumping it. He’s thick, that’s the most relevant thought that springs to mind. If he pushes that thing inside my unwilling body, it’s going to hurt like hell. I don’t know how long it would take for him to get off, but every thrust would be torture physically, in addition to the mental wounds he would be inflicting.

No, I can’t let it get that far. Swallowing, I take one last look at the smooth tip that was just lodged in my throat. It’s glistening from my saliva. I push down my dread, lean forward and take it in my mouth again, then I start to suck.

Carter hisses and I look up to make sure it’s with pleasure. His head is thrown back and his long fingers caress my head almost affectionately, rewarding me rather than punishing me. That must mean I’m doing something right down here. I keep sucking, figuring it’s the suction that feels good. The faster he comes, the faster I can put my clothes back on and get the hell out of here.

“Oh, princess, I like your mouth,” he murmurs, caressing my head like a gentle reward in the midst of his brutality. “Keep doing what you’re doing.”

I want to bite the fucking thing off, but I believe him when he says he’ll knock my teeth out. Instead of hurting the monster, I do my best to pleasure him. I have to break the suction, so I try to do something else that will feel good, but I don’t know what. He said he likes to go deep, so I lean forward and take more of him into my mouth, running my tongue along the underside of his dick. My teeth scrape him when I pull back and his hand fists in my hair again.

I pull back quickly. “I’m sorry. It was an accident, I didn’t mean to.”

He nods, pushing my face back onto his cock and pushing until he hits the back of my throat. I start to panic again but he doesn’t make me stay there this time, he lets me go back to the shallow end. I want to stay here, so I pump my hand faster and suck on his head while I do.

“You like having a cock in your mouth, princess? This is where you belong, isn’t it?”

My stomach sinks, but I do my best to ignore his words. I just have to get him off, then this will be over. It’s not that hard. Other girls do this all the time, so surely I can get through it once.

“How come you’ve never let anyone fuck you yet, Zoey? Is your pussy special, too?” he inquires.

My whole body heats with humiliation, but I ignore his words and labor over his cock, sucking it, licking the tip, trying everything that might feel good. My jaw is already starting to ache, and I haven’t even been sucking him for that long, but he’s so freaking thick.

“And your mouth,” he continues, his tone conversational as I suck him off. “How the fuck do you make it to senior year without sucking a single dick? Don’t you date?”

I don’t know if he needs to put me down to get off or he’s just doing it for fun, but I ignore his comments and keep working.

Finally, he stops running his fucking mouth and starts caressing my head again. “That’s good. Suck harder, Zoey. If you want to be my little whore, you’re gonna have to earn it.”

I don’t want to be his little anything, and he knows it. This is so humiliating. That I am going to have to sit in the same classroom as him tomorrow is completely horrifying. Maybe I could transfer to a different history class. Maybe I can convince my mom the torment over the Jake situation is so bad, I need to switch schools.

He groans and pushes my face closer to his pelvis, lodging more of his cock deeper in my throat as a hot jet of salty release spills into my mouth and I gag. I’m one part mortified, one part disgusted, and one part relieved.

It’s finally over.

“Open your mouth,” he demands. “I wanna see it.”

I look up at him, confused, but I open my mouth so he can see his cum inside.

“Mm, good little princess,” he murmurs, caressing my cheek approvingly. “Now swallow.”

I swallow twice to get every last bit of his release off my tongue and down my throat.

“Fuck,” he murmurs, looking down at me again. He looks like he wants to say more, maybe do more, but Jake has now reached hyper levels of freaked out.

“We need to get the fuck out of here, man,” Jake says.

Carter nods, but his dark eyes remain locked on me. I’m hunched on the floor, my palms pressed against the linoleum, still on my knees. I feel like a trained pet appealing to an abusive master for a little mercy. Looking up at him like this, he looks even more untouchable than he usually does, prowling through the halls in his letter jacket, surrounded by fans.

“Now, you’re going to keep your mouth shut about this, right, Zoey?” he asks calmly. He already knows the answer, he’s just reminding me—like I need a reminder after that.

I nod wordlessly, breaking his gaze and looking down at the floor.

“Good. If you start thinking about this later and feel I need to share Jake’s lesson about consequences, let me promise you, it will be your last crusade—and it won’t be worth it.”

I don’t say anything more. He’s already touched me, used me, and humiliated me. I know he wants to do more, and as much as I want to stand up for myself, I want to survive much more. Taking on Jake was one thing, but Carter? No way.

There’s no remorse in him for what he just made me do, so I know that whatever is rotten inside him, whichever wires are crossed in his brain to make him capable of such atrocities, he could do much worse to me without batting an eye.

Submission is so much more than he deserves, but it’s the only way I know to keep myself even a little bit safe, so as he stands over me, looking down at me, I stay on the floor and keep my head bowed like his well-trained pet.

“Until tomorrow, princess.”

And with those last parting words, the door opens and they all slip out into the hall, leaving me here to cry by myself.