He Used Our Sex Tape To Blackmail Me Out Of Harvard Chapter 01
After our first time together, Preston tenderly wiped the fine sheen of sweat from my temple.
“Baby,” he murmured, “give the Harvard legacy spot to Chelsea.”
I stared at him, disbelieving. “What did you just say?”
“Chelsea was crying so pitifully underneath me. I was too far gone to think straight—I said yes without thinking.”
My blood ran cold. “And if I refuse?”
He laughed softly, cupped my hand in his, and tapped open his phone.
The video that popped up was of the two of us, tangled together only moments ago.
“Baby, the sounds you make for me are too beautiful to share with anyone else.”
“Be a good girl. Take a gap year. Next year I’ll walk you into Harvard myself. After you graduate, we’ll get married. You’re the only one I love.”
…
My fists clenched so hard my nails drew blood from my palms.
Preston didn’t know that Mom had already arranged a university for me in London.
Thousands of miles away.
The future he was promising me—it would never come.
“Baby, you know I hate having to threaten people.”
“Especially you.”
He smoothed the damp strands of hair from my temple, kissing them again and again with a doting tenderness.
But the words that left his lips cut like a razor.
“Still, you have to be a little understanding, hm? Chelsea stripped herself bare and climbed into my bed. I wasn’t about to leave a free lunch on the table.”
“And since you’re so afraid of pain, your husband couldn’t bear to hurt you. I practiced enough on her first, so I could save the best technique for you.”
I stared at him, dumbstruck.
It felt as though a blade were carving through my chest, each breath sharpening the pain.
“Why?”
My voice came out ragged and hoarse.
Preston, though, looked utterly unbothered, stroking my bloodless cheek.
“There’s no why. Chelsea has a good body, and she’s clean. She practically served herself up—no man in his right mind would say no.”
Then he chuckled, low and suggestive. “And that technique I practiced—you were enjoying it just now, weren’t you?”
A wave of revulsion rose in my throat, and I forced down the nausea churning in my stomach.
Seeing how deathly pale I had gone, Preston frowned and pulled me tightly into his arms, his voice pitying.
“Silly girl, what are you afraid of? Chelsea is nothing more than a tool for me to take the edge off. She doesn’t hold a candle to you.”
“Besides, she’s your best friend—you know her inside and out. While you’re at Harvard for that year, I’ll be with her, so I won’t have to go looking for some dirty stranger. Isn’t that better? Doesn’t that put your mind at ease?”
“Chelsea is a sweet girl. She isn’t asking for a title. She only hopes that after we’re married, she can still see me once in a while.”
A shock went through me. I couldn’t move.
I understood every word. Strung together, they chilled me to the bone.
One was my childhood sweetheart of ten years, the lover who swore he couldn’t live without me.
The other was the friend I had sponsored for three years, who had vowed she’d repay my kindness with her life—the girl I had treated like my own little sister.
Not in my worst nightmares.
An hour ago, my heart had been full of hope—love and friendship both, all mine.
Now, all at once, I had been betrayed by the two people who mattered most. I had nothing left.
I drew breath after breath, forcing down the nausea and the raw ache threatening to burst from my chest.
“Preston, I’ll give you to Chelsea. But the Harvard spot stays with me.”
The moment the words left my mouth, Preston laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You’ve been swearing you’d marry me and no one else since you were eight. You trailed after me for years and I couldn’t shake you off. Everyone up and down the East Coast knows you can’t live without me.”
“You really think you could survive without me?”
I couldn’t breathe, as though I were drowning on dry land.
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