Brawl: A Bully Romance (King of Castleton Book 3) Read online

  BRAWL

  King of Castleton

  #3

  E L L I E

  M E A D O W S

  Copyright © 2020 Ellie Meadows

  (Eli Constant Books)

  Cover © Wilde book Designs

  1st Edition Edits

  This book may not be reproduced, in any fashion, without the explicit permission from Ellie Meadows /Eli Constant Books. Ellie Meadows asserts her right to hold ownership of this work. The unauthorized reproduction and/or distribution of this work is illegal.

  This is a work of fiction. Any locations that resemble something in reality are used in a fictitious manner. Similarities to organizations and locales, existing now or in the past, are purely coincidental. Characters are creations of the author’s imagination. Similarities to actual persons, living or deceased, are also purely coincidental. The events in this book should not be construed as real in any capacity.

  songs to set the mood

  cheater – The Vamps

  bad friends – Anthony Ortiz

  love hurts – Nazareth

  half truths – Joseph

  teacher – Prettymuch

  teach me – The Oskars

  girls like you – Maroon 5, feat. Cardi B

  stone cold – Demi Lovato

  cuts like a knife – Bryan Adams

  slide away – Miley Cyrus

  forgotten love – Aurora

  fallen king – Danny Vera

  gossip columns – Marc E. Bassy, Bobby Brackins

  gossip girl – Grace VanderWaal

  king - XXXTentacion

  Listen to the playlist on Spotify

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Warning

  Blurb

  Author Note

  Prologue: Byron Castleton

  Chapter 1: Tarryn

  Chapter 2: Tarryn

  Chapter 3: Drake

  Chapter 4: Drake

  Chapter 5: Tarryn

  Chapter 6: Tarryn

  Chapter 7: Tabitha Lordes

  Chapter 8: Drake

  Chapter 9: Tarryn

  Chapter 10: Birdie Castleton

  Chapter 11: Drake

  Chapter 12: Tarryn

  Chapter 13: Tabitha Lordes

  Chapter 14: Drake

  Chapter 15: Drake

  Chapter 16: Tarryn

  Chapter 17: Drake

  Chapter 18: Tarryn

  Chapter 19: Drake and Tarryn

  Chapter 20: The Photos

  Ellie Meadows

  Also by Ellie Meadows

  Heart Notes: Sample

  W A R N I N G

  Recommended for 17+, mature readers.

  This series contains consensual sex (All sex is consensual. If it’s nonconsensual, that shit’s called rape), underage drinking/smoking, and various scenes some readers might find inappropriate.

  B L U R B

  The King of Cool has fallen.

  His crown of gold has cracked.

  And the throne he once inhabited,

  has gone a shade of black.

  #

  Things were going so well. Drake and I were trying to put the past behind us.

  We were a cotton candy date and kisses beneath the starlight.

  But then there was Tabitha with her cell phone. And a reputation-killing video.

  Drake has a past. And that past is living and breathing.

  A love-scorned girl, revenge on her mind.

  A woman that was once his entire world, who’s been living a lie.

  And a bad boy history that breeds just beneath his skin.

  I’ve forgiven him for what he did, though I shouldn’t have.

  But I wanted him. More than I’d wanted anything.

  And I thought I wasn’t a stupid girl.

  ***

  I don’t want Tarryn to see my…

  Rage.

  Anger has never been an easy emotion for me to process.

  I push it down, but it only stays beneath the surface for so long.

  I’m trying to kill one side of me—the one with the empty cavern in his chest.

  I’m trying to foster who I want to be—the guy before the mistakes, the guy before the darkness crept in. The guy before Lane broke me.

  But there are other sides of me.

  My father’s temper.

  The fists that ache for action.

  I couldn’t change anything really. I always came back around to what I was.

  Circles have no beginning, and no end.

  So that’s what I am.

  Because I’m not a square. I’m not good enough to be a square.

  A U T H O R N O T E

  Let’s talk. **wink**

  I have three daughters. Three supremely cool, aware of their bodily autonomy, freaking smart, bats-out-of-beautiful-hell daughters.

  Do I want them going to high school parties and engaging in drug use and sex?

  Not really.

  Will I teach them to be in charge of their actions, use protection, and always call me if they need help? Hell yes.

  I want my girls to know that I’ve got their backs. I want them to know that sex isn’t a bad thing and it’s not an obligatory rite of passage either. I want them to know that purity sure as hell doesn’t dictate worth. I mean, I do want my children to wait for love, for that deep connection with someone that makes them feel ‘ready’ (what parent doesn’t?), but I’ll never make them feel guilty for the choices of youth that inform their adulthood.

  ###

  THE POINT IS that this is a work of fiction. It’s not reality. I’m not a mother walking around wanting my daughters to fall in love with Drake-types. I wouldn’t mind…maybe a Sasha-type though.

  PROLOGUE

  B Y R O N

  C A S T L E T O N

  Castleton Industries, River Valley Main Street

  [perspective, first]

  A hypocrite. To the core.

  The office floor was a minefield of paperwork and supplies.

  Nina’s slender body sprawled across the surface of my desk typically aroused me. Not that I wasn’t currently aroused, any hetero man with a functional dick would be. I was distracted today though. Yet… I wouldn’t let this opportunity go to waste. Goddamn Geneva was still out of town. She was supposed to come back a few days ago. Surprise, surprise. She’d called and said she was staying longer at the ‘spa’. We’d always had an unconventional marriage, but every year seemed to bring us one step closer to a full-on separation.

  I needed a proper fuck, needed to blow off steam.

  Absent wife. And a goddamn fuck-up of a son. The boy was going to be the death of me. First that teacher…he didn’t even know the truth about her. He had the letters. Now he knew the baby didn’t make it, but he didn’t know that…

  Fuck, I just couldn’t bring myself to tell him. I couldn’t back then, and I couldn’t now. He’d cost me so much time and money, and I still couldn’t break him by revealing all the facts. He was hurting after the letters, I was sure, but that would heal. If I told him the rest about his precious pedophile… that would leave a goddamn scar that would hurt long after the wound closed-up.

  Then there was my mother. Castleton Matriarch. Just this side of senile, one foot in the grave, but god forbid she give up power of attorney. She’d go to the grave clawing at her percentage of the empire.

  “Byron?” Nina lifted herself up on her elbows, small breasts tight to her chest and nipples a few shades darker brown than the surrounding skin. “You’ve got an eleven o’clock.” She spoke gently. That’s how she was, all gentleness at all times. The polar opposite of Geneva—whose face was startin
g to match the plastic fakeness of her blueblood soul.

  I moved over to Nina, unzipping the pinstripe suit pants and letting them pool to the floor so I could step out of them. My jacket was already off, hanging on an antique coat tree near the door of my office. My button-up dress shirt hung loosely, torso exposed.

  We were on the top floor. Private. Soundproof walls—something I’d insisted the designers add during the decor freshening-up last year. And for this exact reason. Stripes and navy blue were out, screaming with pleasure was in. Nina could be loud, door locked, and no one would be the wiser. As far as anyone knew, Ms. Greene and I were having our regular budget meeting.

  My hands touched her knees and I traced my palms down her thighs. The skirt was already bunched up around her waist, exposing a red satin thong. Just trashy enough for my liking. I pulled it to the side, leaning down and licking slowly up her pussy, tongue darting between her lips. She pushed her hips closer, urging me deeper.

  “Patience, patience,” I murmured, breathing warm air against her body and making her shiver.

  “Eleven o’clock,” she reminded me once again, voice breathy.

  I growled, leaving her warm wetness and kissing up her exposed upper body, detouring to suck each breast in turn into my mouth. She clawed at my back. “Patience is a virtue,” I said slowly, biting her right nipple hard enough to make her squirm.

  “And you know it’s not one of mine,” she groaned out, finding my face with her hands and cupping it, slim dark fingers digging gently against my throat. I let her pull my head towards hers. At the same time, she lifted her body, abs tight, to press her lips against mine.

  We didn’t kiss in the beginning. I still loved Geneva, in my own warped way. If the sex didn’t have emotions connected, I didn’t consider it cheating.

  But the closer I came to the Amazonian-tall woman who reminded me of a young Grace Jones, the less I started to care about being emotionally-faithful to my wife, about the Castleton reputation, about what a… what a goddamn hypocrite I was for telling my son to shape up and think about who he was.

  Because I couldn’t think about who I was, I couldn’t care… not when Nina was with me. The pretense of not kissing, of holding back that iota of intimacy, had long faded.

  I continued to kiss her as I found the middle drawer of my desk, sliding it fully open to find the small black and gold box tucked at the very back. I was experienced opening it with one hand and fishing out the square metallic pouch. I leaned up from her body, tearing the packet with my teeth. Pulling out the rubber, I tossed the trash and rolled the condom over myself, rubbing up and down the shaft a few times, staring down at her full cupids bow lips that were parted just enough to reveal a flash of bright white teeth.

  My gaze flicked to the ivory clock on the mantle. Ten thirty-five. Plenty of time.

  Rubbing the tip of my dick against her opening, I teased her.

  “Don’t make me beg.” She slapped my chest lightly. “Do I need to remind you again about—”

  “We’ve got all the time in the world, Nina.” I held my dick, still rubbing it as I pushed forward, then pulled back, now just letting the first few inches push into her body. She writhed, closing her eyes, a look of frustration washing over her face.

  Yielding, I thrusted fully into her; the inside of her pussy was hot and tight, wrapping around my cock and feeling like fucking home.

  I pulled her hips closer to the edge of the desk, her legs raised to wrap around my waist. Plunging in and pulling out, over and over again, I brought us both to the very edge before dropping to my knees and burying my face into her body, nose feeling the hard nodule of her clit. Nina tugged at my hair, back arching as I licked and sucked. The minute she begged me not to stop, I stood back up and thrusted into her once more. Her face was riding that line between pain and pleasure and I wondered if I was the mirror image. My eyes moved to my cock, watching it entering and exiting her gorgeous body. I reached down, thumb finding her clit and rubbing fast circular motions.

  The pressure built like a firestorm in my middle and Nina started panting, one hand covering her face whilst the other one gripped my shoulder.

  She came first, her body jerking up off the table as she orgasmed and muffled her scream, though she didn’t need to. I lost control seconds later, feeling hot cum pour out, the sensation making my body shiver. I lowered my body down against her, our chests rising and falling in tandem. “You were working on your resume yesterday,” I said jerkily, still catching my breath.

  “A girls got to keep moving up,” she mumbled, running fingers through my hair.

  “You know I’ll pay you more.” I lifted my head, resting my chin beneath her breasts.

  “It’s not just the money, it’s the position.” She sighed, sitting up. I moved with her, not wanting to lose the sensation of our skins pressed together.

  “We can try any new position you want,” I gave a lopsided grin.

  “With a smile like that… Byron something’s got to change at some point.” She tilted her face and kissed me, one quick press of lips. “You won’t leave Geneva and risk Castleton backlash. You really can’t pay me anymore without it looking suspicious. You keep telling me to wait until your mother dies and then you can divorce. And that makes me feel,” she bit her lower lip, mouth trembling slightly which made a pang rocket through my heart, “gross, Byron. It makes me feel gross.”

  I stood up, pulling my boxers up my body and snapping the waistband against my hips. She wasn’t wrong. If my mother would just fucking die, things would be easier. “We have an opening across town. I need a manager at the landscaping firm.”

  “Landscaping?” She quirked an eyebrow. “You know me, Byron. Be serious.”

  “Japan again?” I asked, a storm beginning to brew in my chest.

  “It’s always been a dream. And you have connections there.” She got up as well, repositioning her thong and pulling her skirt down into place, then she walked over to her blouse and jacket draped over one of the leather armchairs that faced my desk. Her body was a goddamn masterpiece, smooth and rich. She had the curves of a fucking model, and had been one in her teens. I knew I couldn’t keep her trapped her. Not forever.

  I followed behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist. “I can’t stand the thought of you being that far away.”

  She turned, her own arms going around my neck. “Because I’m too far to fuck or too far to be in control of?”

  Nina, despite her gentle nature, never let me get away with anything. With her… I didn’t want to. I had so much rage when it came to my wife and my mother. The only way I could deal with being a Castleton was to be in control. With Nina, I could ignore the responsibilities of my name for a while.

  Yet, there were still moments when I wanted to keep her in check, to tell her she couldn’t do what she wanted.

  I knew I’d lose her though…

  “I’ll talk to my associates.”

  “You said that a few months ago.” She reached up and gripped my chin between two fingers, shaking it back and forth a tiny fraction.

  “I will this time.”

  “Promise?”

  I pulled her to me fiercely, hugging her like I’d never get to hug her again. I needed to, was compelled to. She was the only thing I really cared about in my life.

  Drake was the next generation. I needed him to fucking act like it. I couldn’t say I cared for him like a father should.

  And Geneva was the product of family connections and there was an airtight prenup standing in the way of a clean divorce, but I’d still divorce her. As soon as I was free, I’d divorce her. Let her take half my money. I’d make it back in a year’s time.

  But my mother just couldn’t die and make shit easier.

  Nina… was the eye of the storm whenever I needed it.

  If she was gone…

  I knew I was a hypocrite. I knew every time I told Drake to respect his mother that I was eating goddamn crow.

  But I was By
ron Castleton.

  I owned River Valley. For the most part.

  “I promise,” I muttered against Nina’s hair, trying to mean the words. Trying really hard to mean the words. I’d betrayed Nina once before. It had been for the greater good, or so I’d told myself at the time.

  I needed to do right by her. I wanted to do right by her. But if it meant losing her…

  “I’ll divorce Geneva as soon as I can. And I’ll look into Japan.” That pain came again, like a hurricane in my heart.

  1.

  T A R R Y N

  We are born prey or predator.

  Circles or squares.

  Unchangeable.

  Drake didn’t call me first thing in the morning.

  Of course, I woke up at six AM like any rational teenager does on a Saturday morning. Even Dad had slept in, unusual for him on the weekends. Unusual for him any day of the week really.

  A proper workaholic who sometimes went into the office seven days a week. It’s how he succeeded. I’ve got less talent than one needs to make it big in this world, Tarryn, so I have to make up for that with willpower. I think the first time he told me that, I was still in diapers and too young to understand. It feels like he’s been feeding me that line my entire life. That and explaining to me, repeatedly, the reason why he and mom didn’t need cell phones or a new vehicle. He was… eccentric in his own way. And I loved him. It’s funny to me that these are the most important topics to my father who, generally, wasn’t a huge conversationalist while I was growing up.

  Or at least he wasn’t before we’d moved here, I thought, the changes that seemed to be happening to my father since moving to River Valley sort of dawning on me.

  Even on my first day of school, he’d been fairly stoic, his ‘normal’ self. He loved my mom, but they fought a lot. Little arguments. Mom whining, Dad shutting her down. He idolized his mom, my grandmother. We’d lived only a few minutes from her in our old town. That had always caused tension.