Bow Down To Your King

Chapter 27

ZEKE POV

Point Total: 0

Julia ended our date with a kiss, a soft, maybe I'll let you see me naked later, kiss, and shut the door.

I thought that we would go up to the roof, talk—fuck, when she suggested that we should leave the glorified pool party. Instead, she asked me to walk her home, and I agreed because we had plans to see each other in the morning–because she couldn't wait to see me again.

I walked down the quiet hall to my dorm where Jared was busy playing online poker, swearing as I stepped inside.

I didn't bother talking to him; there was nothing to report. After spending another evening, half-naked, with Julia, I was no closer to earning twenty-thousand points than before.

So, I locked myself in the bathroom, stripped, and showered, imagining her sweet lips on mine, kissing down my body, promising that I was the guy she had been waiting for all those years.

The fantasy plagued me as I crawled into bed, glad that Jared preferred to keep the lights off. If the ugly, harsh LED bulbs were screwed in, he would have seen my boner and known I was losing my mind over a girl.

Just some girl.

I sighed, turned over, and shut my eyes, willing myself to sleep.

The sooner I fell asleep, the sooner I could see Julia.

And for a moment, before my thoughts drifted into darkness, that was all I wanted, and all that mattered.

***

JULIA POV

Point Total: 8, 325

"Nothing else matters," Katie said, giggling as we hurried down the hallway, weaving through the streams of students heading in the opposite direction.

While most of the school headed to a lengthy, stuffy basketball game, we were going to rendezvous with the man with the second-highest point value on campus: Dorian.

He had graciously agreed to help me beat Zeke and pledged that he would do anything we thought would increase my chance of winning.

Katie had explained that at the end of the games, if there was a tie, the bylaws said that the council would reevaluate the rarity of the sex acts and distribute extra points to the 'dirtiest player'.

She said it had never happened before, but it was worth sprucing up my kink resume, and I went along with it.

"Nothing?" I asked, snickering although I wasn't sure I agreed.

"He'll bounce back," Katie said, guiding me through the library and dropping her voice, "Upper-middle-class white men always come out on top. Zeke will be fine. You just have to trust me."

I smiled despite the guilt starting to creep over my heart. "What do you have against him anyway?"

She glanced at me, meeting my eyes for a split-second before turning away, then said, "He's just so entitled."

I raised an eyebrow. "You sparked a revolution for being too entitled?"

Katie laughed, stopping in front of the back wall where a large painting, almost as tall as me, hung just a foot off the ground. "Didn't you do it for the same reason?"

Did I?

I paused, barely processing her in front of me, turning to knock on the silver frame. Then, just as I was deciding if we had both lost our minds, the painting creaked open, revealing Dorian, the man of the hour.

Katie wasn't surprised or impressed; she was in a rush and pulled me toward her.

"What the-"

She shushed me with a smile tugging on her pink lips, "We're in a library."

Right.

Before I could continue disrespecting the library, and all its nearly abandoned glory, Dorian stepped backward, almost disappearing into the dark hallway behind him.

Katie gestured for me to step into the wall, like fucking Coraline. I shook my head.

This is how people get buttons sewn into their eyes.

"Julia," she said, reaching for my hand, "We only have a few hours, come one."

Katie went first, tugging me behind her. As soon as we were out of the way, Dorian shut the painting behind us, sealing me into what was beginning to feel like a tomb.

I'm going to die in here.

"Don't freak out," Dorian said, his voice low, but comforting. "I'm turning on the lights now."

The lights?

Apparently, Dorian was a lot of things, but a liar wasn't one of them. As soon as the words left his lips, green rope lights flickered on, illuminating the path in front of us, revealing a large, dark door at the end.

"What is this?" I asked, wondering what kind of school had depraved sex games and secret passageways.

"The club," he answered, not bothering to explain more than that before leading us a few feet down the narrow hall, and placing his watch on the lock to the left of the door.

It flashed purple, and he turned the knob, freeing me from the creepy passage before my claustrophobia fully set in.

I followed him into what looked like a living room decorated to resemble a dark, moody extension of the library. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined the walls, almost distracting me from the tables scattered across the room, the tea sets in a china cabinet, and a chest, tucked away in the corner.

I knew about the so-called Host Club, but I didn't know they had a Hogwarts Style Common Room tucked away in the walls of the library.

Does Zeke?

He had to, he was King—for now.

Katie was the last to step down the two stairs in front of the door. She didn't seem surprised, or shocked, by the room.

"Thanks for meeting with us today," she said, guiding me toward one of the many couches and insisting that I should relax.

As if it was that simple.

"Anything to help," Dorian said, offering us tea, coffee, and wine, before giving up on being a host.

"About that," I said, finding my voice buried underneath the layers of guilt piling on top of me, "We need to think a little bigger than fucking."

I couldn't let my conscience get the best of me, not when I was so close to the cut-off and stopping Zeke from competing in the games altogether.

Dorian's grey eyes shifted to mine, curious at the sudden change of plans. "What do you have in mind?"

We were supposed to fuck, maybe use some rope, earn a couple thousand points, and call it a day. But there were only a few hours before the game ended and witnesses flooded through the school, potentially catching me leaving the library a dirty mess, disheveled and smelling like loveless sex.

And Zeke, who had spent the whole morning waiting for a text from me, would be fed up with my behavior and maybe, finally move on, letting me beat him fair-and-square.

"Pegging," I said, unblinking, and certain that he would turn me down, but needing to try anyway. Silence fell over us, Katie reached for the wine bottle, and my heart thrummed in my chest.

"Alright," Dorian said, smiling, undisturbed by my invasive request, "If that'll help the most."

Fuck.