The Touch of a Villain: An Enemies to Lovers High School Romance (The Boys of Clermont Bay Book 1) by Holly Renee (best short books to read .TXT) 📗

killed me that he was going to be in the same school as us this year. He should have been kicked the hell out. His ass shouldn’t be breathing the same air as her. She should have never had to look at him again, let alone go through the school year like everything was okay. Like nothing ever happened.

She let go of my fingers as the cool water lapped at our knees, and the urge to reach out and put her hand back safely in mine was overwhelming. But she looked so happy out here in the water. Her smile was genuine for the first time in a long time, and she dove into the water as if there was nothing to fear.

Olly jumped too, staying right by her side, and I pushed out into the water until it hit my chest. I stared out over the dark water and tried to think about what the hell I was doing.

My senior year was about to begin, and I should be thinking about college. I had been offered a handful of scholarships on baseball alone, but I didn’t need any of that. My parents would pay for whatever school I wanted, but I only had one choice. The local university was my only option with the way my father’s health was deteriorating. It didn’t matter that he said differently.

It was clear just looking at him.

He would need my help much earlier than any of us thought, and it didn’t matter if this wasn’t what I wanted. It was what I was destined for. Clermont Bay was laid before my feet, and I would be a fool if I didn’t realize the privilege my parents afforded me.

It didn’t mean that I still couldn’t hate it.

It didn’t mean that I couldn’t be thankful and dreadful at the exact same time.

Because I was.

I didn’t know how my dad did what he did every day. He was much stronger than I would ever be, than I could ever amount to.

I could see someone walking down the beach, and I tensed. There was rarely anyone on this beach as they all had private entrances from the homes that took up residence here. Old money. That’s what rested on this long boulevard. If you didn’t have it, you weren’t welcome.

Those weren’t my rules. It was just the way things worked. They had been that way forever.

I watched the figure get closer and closer, and my heart hammered in my chest. The Vos’s home was only a few houses away from ours, even though it felt like there were miles between us.

If I brought Frankie out here and that bastard was to walk by, I wouldn’t be able to control myself.

“Who is that?” I turned back to Frankie, and she was mostly blocked by Olly’s body. But I could still see a small jolt of terror that tore through her.

“I don’t know.” I pushed myself back toward the beach. “I’ll check it out.” I looked at Olly, silently telling him to watch out for her, and he gave me a look back that I knew meant he was offended that I felt the need to say anything.

He would protect her as wholly as I would. He wouldn’t let a thing happen to her.

I stepped out of the water and moved down the beach as I clenched and unclenched my hand. Water was dripping down me since I didn’t dare stop for a towel, but I didn’t care. The breeze was cold, but I welcomed it.

I stopped in my tracks as soon as I could see the figure enough to know it wasn’t a guy. Instead, there was a girl moseying down the beach with a book in her hand and her eyes on the water. She didn’t once look around her, not an ounce of self-preservation visible.

I watched Josie’s dark hair blow in the breeze, and she bent down to pick up something out of the sand. She hadn’t even spotted me coming closer to her, and somehow that fact pissed me off more than the thought of her brother.

This girl lived with two fucking devils and she still walked through the dark as if there was nothing to fear. It was the same way she looked at me. She looked at me like she didn’t care that I was the villain in her story, and I would take advantage of that fact. I would take advantage of every error she made.

I was only a few feet away from her when she finally looked my way. She jolted back as if I shocked her, and the fear that flushed her face in the moonlight gave me far more pleasure than it should have.

“What are you doing?” She stood, her fingers covered in sand, a dull seashell in her hand.

“What are you doing, Josie?” I pushed my hair out of my face and water trickled down my hand. She stared at me as if she was watching every fraction of movement it made. There was no shame in her gaze. She openly gaped at me as her eyes slid down my body.

She didn’t look like a girl who hated me.

Not at all.

She looked like a girl who was staring at something she couldn’t have.

Because no matter how gorgeous she was, she couldn’t have me. No matter what I led her to believe.

No matter how badly I wanted her.

She pulled her gaze away from me and looked down at the book in her hand. “I was just going for a walk.”

“In the middle of the night?”

Her fingers tightened around the paperback. “You’re out here in the middle of the night.”

“Not by myself.”

She looked behind me as if she hadn’t realized anyone else was out here, and I hated that her lack of self-preservation bothered me so much. She stepped back, looking back to where her house stood, and I should have let her go. I should have let her walk away and head back into her nest of vipers.

But there