The Devils and The Duchess (Verona Falls University, #1)

by Marissa Farrar

To all our filthy Duchesses…who can’t wait to be told to get on their knees for the Devils.

I wish my voice sounded stronger, but it wavers as the words I’ve been practicing in my head for weeks finally make it out of my mouth. My throat is dry, and I’m trembling but trying to hide it.

I should have stood up to him sooner. The moment he started to get possessive with me, interrogating me about where I was going, who I was with, why I was wearing makeup, I should have to ended things. I can’t believe I’ve let it go so far.

This is how he always is. Demeaning. Dismissive. I clench my fists and try to stand up to him. I remember the way he treated me after my father died. The fact he got jealous of me going to my own dad’s funeral. Instead of comforting me and supporting me, this asshole was quizzing me on the length of my skirt.

How dare he? This is why I’ve struggled so hard to make myself heard. Make myself seen. He hasn’t respected a single thing about me since the day we met.

“Don’t fuck around with me, Mackenzie. I mean it. I’m not into playing your stupid little games.” “I’m not playing games,” I insist. “I’m trying to break up with you.” “And I’m telling you that you’re making a mistake. You’re not breaking up with me, Mackenzie. You’re mine. Your ass is mine, your mouth is mine, your pussy is mine. Got it?”

“No, it’s worse than that. Much, much worse. I need your help. I think I just killed my professor.”

I’m almost twenty years old. I can swear if I want. Besides, swearing is the least of my infractions.

Right now, I don’t want anyone’s attention. It’s safer to go unseen.

I wonder what he’d say if he knew the truth—that I’d killed the last man who screwed with me. I bet he’d be more careful with what he accuses me of.

I don’t tell her my life is already hell. That I’m barely holding myself together as we stand here talking as if we’re just having a chat. I want to run away, but I have nowhere to go. I can’t flee because outside these walls is a life sentence in prison.

Kill? Good God, his nickname is as scary as he is.

How far would I go, though, if I had to? To keep us here? I shiver at the answer my mind supplies.

Damn, why do all the guys around here have such an effect on me? They either make me hot and bothered or fill me with fear or rage.

Great, all three of them are here, and they make me so uncomfortable. Domenic makes me feel sneered at and looked down on. Kirill scares me, and Valentino is hot, but his friendliness holds what I think might be a mocking edge. I can’t quite tell.

“Mackenzie. What on Earth are you doing hiding away up here?” My heart picks up speed and my mouth runs dry. “Sorry, Nataniele,” I say. “It’s not Nataniele to you anymore,” he says. “When you’re around the other students, you will call me Dean Rossi, and in private here, you may call me Father, or Daddy.”

Oh, God. I’m alone, in this corridor with the one man in this place who scares me the most.

I hate her. I want her. I hate that I want her.

Maybe I’m playing with fire, but right now, I’m happy to get burnt.

Crazier than last night has me envisioning the final days of Sodom and Gomorrah.

What kind of school sanctions physical, no-holds barred fights between its students? Verona Falls University, that’s what kind.

I look up at the looming building. This is a place built entirely on money made from blood. Its foundations are soaked in it. I’m surprised the river which runs around the outside of the western quadrant doesn’t run red.

Dom is the brooding, miserable one among us. Tino is the well-adjusted one, supposedly. Someone has to be the party animal who likes a good fight.

“If I ever get you into bed naked, I absolutely guarantee you will not be waking up alone the next morning.”

“And I love seeing you blush, too. Such a pretty shade. Makes me wonder what other parts of your body would turn such an enticing color.”

What do you like, Duchess? Do you like it slow and passionate, or do you prefer a good, hard fucking?”

“I know exactly what I want, then. I want that pretty mouth around my cock. I want you to take me to the back of your throat and choke me down. I want to see your eyes widen as I spill my load.”

“We don’t have to fuck, but if I don’t get to taste your pussy tonight, I may lose my mind. You wouldn’t want to do that to me, would you?” I shake my head. “No, I wouldn’t.” “Will you let me taste your sweet cunt?”

I’m not quite sure how I went from a walk in the woods to being on my knees with a cock down my throat, but who am I to fight destiny? To fight a few moments of feeling good in a world of hurt and fear?

Sometimes, even though I’m technically an adult now, all I need is my mom.

These men are a disaster to my health, and I vow to avoid them all as much as I can.

I should have learned my lesson to stay away from toxic men by now.

“You might think you’re winning over my friends, but you’ll never get on my good side.” I break the moment and step away. I hold his gaze, not wanting him to think he intimidates me. “I never thought you had a good side.”

Fuck me. Mackenzie is beautiful. Knock out, tear my heart from my chest, tongue on the floor beautiful.

“If you’ve got someone hassling you, you know you can just send him in our direction, right? The Devils don’t let anyone mess with what’s ours.”

“Your pussy is perfection. So pretty. Like a swollen flower, full of nectar.”

“Uh-uh, don’t go hiding from me, Duchess. I want to commit this pussy to memory so when I touch myself at night, I have all the details of it stamped in my mind. Your clit is so swollen, and you’re so wet. Are you aching for me, pretty one?”

“One day,” he says, “I’ll find a beautiful toy to fuck you with, open you up for me and watch as you take it.” Dear God. “For now, my fingers will have to do,” he finishes.

I do as he says, feeling utterly debauched as he fucks his fist while he stares at my pussy like a man possessed.

“The only thing that’s missing is my cum,” he says, his gaze darkening. A muscle in his jaw flexes. “One day I’m going to see it leaking out of you. Dripping out of every hole.”

“So hot,” he murmurs. “You’re covered in me. I’d bet you’d look amazing covered in all three of us.”

“No, Duchess. I have nothing. You leave me there. Coating you. Pull your panties back up and go on back to college like a good girl. A good girl covered in Kirill.”

“I suppose you can use the leaves. Or…you could pull up your panties like a good girl. It would make me so hot to imagine you going about your day with my cum coating your pussy.”

“The only thing that would be hotter was if I’d fucked you, so you’d be carrying my cum around deep inside you. I like the idea of leaving my seed in you.”

How would Dom react to the knowledge that the man who took my V-card was so much older and more experienced, and when he tried to push me too far, I stabbed a pen in the side of his neck? How would he react to that? Would he be freaked out? Intimidated, even? Or would he be jealous? Impressed?

He left me feeling used. Fuck, he gave me an incredible orgasm first, though.

I loved my dad, but, looking from an adult’s point of view now, I understand he wasn’t always the best husband. He was away a lot, leaving all the childcare to Mom, and when he was around, he was often distracted. He got a lot of calls that seemed important, and that Mom always warned me not to interrupt when I was small. He’d always been a good dad to me, though.

Maybe I still see him through rose-tinted glasses, especially now he’s gone, but I’m grown up enough to know things weren’t always perfect in their marriage.

What the fuck is wrong with me? Am I some kind of masochist? I’d never considered it before, but I’m starting to wonder. Does a part of me enjoy being humiliated? Was that why I stayed with the professor for so long?

I open the door, and my mouth drops. The place is heaving. Strung above the bar is a banner that reads ‘Happy Birthday, Duchess.’ Duchess? Are they fucking serious? They must have had that thing specially made.