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) 📗

I hated the way she said that. I hated that she even knew him, but of course, she did. They all did. I was the outsider here.

I tried to ignore Cami for the rest of the class, but she was back on me as soon as the bell rang. Apparently, my last name had made me far more interesting than I had been before she knew it.

A name I hated would determine where I stood with these people. It would tell them everything they needed to know about me. Every single thing that they cared to know.

But I didn’t care.

One school year. That was all I had to make it through.

The opinions of these people didn’t matter. They would go on with their charmed lives, and I would be gone.

They wouldn’t even remember that I was here, and I would make sure that I forgot every single one of them.

Even Beck.

I would make sure I forgot him just like the rest.

“Walk with me.” She slid her arm in mine, no longer oblivious over whether I was following her or not, and I tried to calm my heart.

People were staring at us as I walked with her, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before every damn one of them knew my name. They would all have figured out who I was without ever saying a word to me.

The halls were crowded with people all wearing the same uniform as me, but they were still so easy to tell apart. The cliques of every other high school still present through the money and privilege.

But none of them looked like him.

I spotted him before he ever noticed me. Beck was leaning against a locker, his back to us, but I knew it was him. His uniform jacket hung from his arm, the sleeves of his shirt pushed up to the elbow, and I hated that he looked so good. Even though I couldn’t see his face, he still demanded my attention.

Cami let go of my arm just as we reached where he stood, and I prayed she would just keep walking by. Avoiding him was the only plan I had at the moment. I didn’t know how else to deal with him. Not here.

But Cami had no intentions of walking past the king of Clermont Bay. I tightened my hands on the straps of my backpack as she pressed her body into his back and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

He smiled over his shoulder at her, and I knew, I knew deep in my gut it was a smile he didn’t give anyone else. That was a smile he reserved only for her, and I felt like I was going to be sick.

She pushed to the tips of her toes, and I couldn’t stop myself from watching as she pushed her lips toward his. Beck Clermont meant nothing to me. Not a damn thing, but I could still barely breathe.

He had touched me. His body convincing mine that I wanted him without any damn effort on his part, and he had her.

Of course, he had her.

He was Beck fucking Clermont.

He turned his head at the last second before their mouths touched, and her lips pressed against the corner of his as his gaze met mine. There was a moment of shock, but I didn’t know what he had to be shocked about. I was the fool.

I knew from the moment I had met Beck that he was cruel, but I would have expected him to tell me about her.

I had no idea why.

He hadn’t cared about me from the moment I met him.

I schooled my expression, and I prayed that he didn’t see an ounce of my being affected on my face.

I refused to allow him to think I was affected when he was touching her. When she was touching him. God, she was still touching him.

She dropped back to her feet, and she looked back in my direction with a smile on her face. “Have you all met my new friend, Josie?”

“Hey, Josie.” Olly smiled at me from where he leaned against the locker next to Beck. He looked back and forth between me and where Beck and Cami still stood together. Did he know? Did Beck tell him what I had let him do?

“Hi.” I tucked my hair behind my ear and looked down the hallway for some sort of escape. Any excuse to get away.

“You’re not going to say hi to me?” My gaze snapped up to Beck as he spoke. He had a smile on his face, and I noticed that Cami was still clinging to his arm even though he wasn’t touching her. Of course, I noticed.

“Hello, Beckham.”

He grinned harder as one of the guys beside him chuckled. I didn’t know if it was Olly or Carson or someone I didn’t know. I didn’t care.

“You two know each other?” Cami looked between the two of us, and I felt bad for her. I didn’t know the extent of her and Beck’s relationship, but it was clear that she had walked in here today expecting one.

I had no such expectations, but I had assumed that there was no one else. That was my foolish mistake, and one I wasn’t willing to make again.

“Josie and I go way back.” Beck was laying it on thick, and everyone around him seemed to hang on to his every word. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t saying a single bit of truth. He was important, and that was all that mattered.

“We don’t.” I tightened my hands around my strap and pulled out my schedule. I needed to find my next class. I didn’t have time to worry about him.

“We most certainly do.”

I looked up at him and crinkled the paper in my hand. “I work for Beck’s father at the country club.” I didn’t say anything more because there was nothing else to say.

Nothing else mattered.

“Ouch.” He rubbed his hand over his chest before