Fallen Angel: An Urban Fantasy Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Dark Hearts Academy Book 1) Read online

  Fallen Angel

  Dark Hearts Academy Book 1

  Clara Connors

  Copyright © 2019 by Clara Connors

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Contents

  Fallen Angel

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Fallen Angel

  Dark Hearts Academy

  Book 1

  Clara Connors

  1

  "Harper, get your butt in here and explain this mess" Madison's voice filtered through the music's frantic beat that thudded out of the loudspeaker's lining the wall.

  With an audible groan that could only be heard by dogs and apparently Madison—judging by the furious expression on her face— when I turned around to find her staring daggers at me from Ultra’s stock room doorway. I'd already spent half the night in there, sorting the crates of booze, napkins, plastic cups, and for some strange reason the thousands of tiny colourful cocktail umbrella's we had back there and as far as I was concerned I'd done a damn fine job of it. But trust Madison to find fault with my work.

  If it had been Brad back there she'd have been right there alongside him; she might even have done his work for him. Heck, even Shayla, the girl who had started just last week got more respect from Madison. Mostly because Shayla’s parents owned some high end boutique in town and Madison was hoping to get store credit if she sucked up to Shayla enough. But also because Madison would have preferred Lucifer himself to me.

  Slopping my mop back into the wheelie bucket at my feet, I scooted it across the black sticky nightclub floor, weaving my way expertly through the dancers gyrating around me. It wasn't really policy to mop while the bar was chock full of patrons but security had had to remove a bunch of frat boys who, judging by the puddle of vomit they'd left after them, really couldn't handle their tequila.

  "What's got your goat, Maddy?" She hated when I used the same nickname Brad did and she flushed crimson beneath her Barbie doll tan.

  "How many times have I told you not to call me that?" She gritted the words out between her teeth before finally giving up and gesturing to the back room with one perfectly applied gel nail. "Just explain to me what happened in there?"

  I moved past her and stared into the stock room, expecting to see it as I'd left it not ten minutes previously. Instead, what greeted my eyes was a mess of epic proportions. Several boxes of expensive liquor lay on the floor, the glass from the bottles smashed into a thousand pieces while the liquid itself was rapidly spreading into an ever-increasing puddle.

  The boxes of little cocktail umbrella's that I had painstakingly recorded before I'd stacked them on the metal shelving were now littered across the room like some crazy ass umbrella seeking bomb had gone off in there.

  "Madison, I didn't leave it like this," I said turning to face her. She'd folded her arms across her small chest as she glared at me through narrowed eyes.

  "Oh, spare me the sob story," she said, practically spitting the words in my face. “You did this on purpose because you're pissed Brad asked me out and not you.”

  I wasn't in the least bit bothered that Brad had asked her out. I bit my tongue holding back the fact that Brad had in fact made a pass at me in the stock room roughly five minutes after he'd apparently asked Madison out on a date. She wouldn't believe me anyway, and Brad's ego was bruised enough—after I'd laughed in his face—that he'd definitely deny it.

  "Well, what have you got to say?” She said, her shrill tone shredding what was left of my hearing over the sound of the pop world's latest wunderkind who was shrieking something about being desperate for what sounded like cheese Doritos. How anyone could use that as music to hook up to was beyond me. I glanced out at the dance floor and the dancers who were practically glued to one another; obviously no one shared my thoughts on the matter.

  "I'll be taking all of this out of your pay-check," Madison said, once more dragging my attention back to the scene at hand.

  The urge to tell her to shove her job was strong but I was already struggling to make this month's rent and well if I quit, I'd be out on my ass so fast I wouldn't even have the chance to catch my breath.

  "Madison, look, I'll get it all cleaned up but I'm telling you now, I didn't do this," I said, choosing a conciliatory tone in the hopes of softening her temper. I caught Brad's eye as he served a pitcher of margaritas up to a gaggle of screaming women and the slow curve of his smile turned my stomach. That shitty little prick. The second I got the opportunity to make him pay I would take it, consequences be damned.

  "If I bring this to the manager she'll toss you out of here, so really the choice is yours." I focused back on Madison just as she finished speaking and I realised I'd missed the first half of her speech.

  Shit, the fact that she'd mentioned calling in the manager left me feeling more than a little desperate and I skirted around her and into the storeroom. "It's fine, take it out of my wages." I raised my hands in mock surrender before I grabbed my mop and bucket once more and wheeled it into the room ahead of me.

  I'd find a way to get through, even if it meant living on the olives and orange slices—we kept in trays under the bar for cocktails—for a week or two.

  Madison tutted and flicked her silvery hair back over her shoulder as she turned her attention back to the bar, happily leaving me to clean up the mess in the storeroom. While I didn't have proof that the culprit was Brad, there was no denying the grin he'd been wearing while Madison had chewed me out. But that alone wouldn't get me anywhere; I needed something better than that if I was going to serve him up a steaming hot pile of karma.

  And I knew just how to get my proof. I had a key to the office and if I was careful I could get in and check the cameras when Madison left me to lock up for the night. At least if I could go to her with proof, she wouldn't be able to deny it and somehow twist it all back on me.

  Or at least, I hoped she wouldn’t.

  2

  After finishing with the store room and dragging Madison in to look at it before Brad had another chance to sabotage me, I found myself the lucky recipient of cloak-room duty. It definitely could have been worse, Madison had once dumped me with bathroom duty and I hadn't washed the stink of urinal cakes and bleach off my skin for at least a full week after.

  Sitting on the high stool inside the tiny cupboard piled high with ticketed coats and jackets, I stared down at the cracked screen of my cell phone.

  Riley's text stared back at me almost accusingly. We were on again and off again more times than I could count and in the past I'd always melted when he'd sent me one of his sweet, I miss you, and I need you, texts my way.

  But not this time. This time, I'd ignored his lame ass attempt at an apology, mostly because Ivy—my best friend�
�had told me it was time to move on and some other things about turning over new leafs that I’d tuned out. We'd shared the conversation over a bottle of wine and the details of operation new leaf were more than a little hazy but I had the sneaking suspicion that she'd gotten me to agree to attend at least one hot yoga class with her. The mere thought of it brought me out in hives. Whoever the hell thought combining what amounted to a sweatbox with contorting your body into all kinds of ER inducing positions was a good idea, was obviously crazy.

  The other reason I'd ignored his text was because I'd found his collection of dick pics he'd sent to all the other girls he'd swiped right on from his dating app.

  Tonight's text had been a new low even by his standards.

  "Can you blame me for sending those pictures to other women, when you're just a frigid, uptight bitch anyway."

  I felt the lump settle in the back of my throat as my eyes blurred with tears. I'd promised myself I wasn't going to cry, that I wouldn't ever let a complete waste of good air get to me like that and yet I still couldn't help myself. He'd had his moments of being incredibly sweet and that was the part that hurt the most.

  A shadow loomed over the counter and I scrubbed the back of my hand against my eyes in an attempt to dash away the tears that threatened to spill over my lashes.

  “I’d like to check my jacket in.” The shadow was clearly male, and his voice slid over my skin like warm silken chocolate.

  Jerking my head up, I gazed into his dark grey eyes. I hadn’t heard him approach the desk but the music was thumping hard and fast and the chatter of the people moving up and down the stairs from the club definitely made it difficult to hear anything at all.

  I opened my mouth to answer only to discover a moment too late that my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. My voice came out as nothing more than a pathetic squeak and the stranger stared down at me, his gaze unreadable.

  The stranger was hot, and not in that Hollywood-clean-shaven-movie-star-hot way. Nope, the guy in front of me was sex on a stick hot and as I stared up into his grey eyes I could feel heat spreading up my neck and into my face. Was I blushing? I hadn't done that since I was in the 8th grade and Matt Parker had told me he liked my hair.

  "So, can I check it in?" He asked, a slow sensual smile curving his very kissable lips. Why was I thinking about his lips? Not five minutes ago I'd been on the verge of tears after reading Riley's text message. And now here I was mooning over some stranger just because he happened to be the most beautiful man I'd ever laid eyes on.

  "You can check it in wherever you'd like," I said, instantly regretting my choice of words. I was an idiot; there was simply no other explanation for it. An idiot who needed to be taken out, far from civilization, just so she could be put out of her misery.

  The stranger's smile turned into an all out grin and he leaned across the counter towards me. The heat I'd felt creeping up my neck exploded into an all out inferno as he leaned in close enough that his scent enveloped me. I drew in a shaky breath and was instantly engulfed by the scent of his skin. He smelled of ice and snow, the freshness of pine trees, the kind you could only get high up in the mountains and there was something else I couldn't quite pin point.

  "I'd like to put it right there," he said, sliding his hand past me, grazing my shoulder with his finger as he pointed to a spot just behind me.

  "What?" I asked, suddenly unsure if we were still discussing his jacket or not.

  "My jacket," he said, pushing it across the counter toward me.

  Accepting the item meant I had to tear my gaze away from his mesmerising grey eyes and I did so reluctantly. The moment I found myself staring down at the black leather jacket, I was suddenly far more in control of myself and the words that came out of my mouth.

  "That'll be five dollars," I said, grabbing a ticket from the machine next to me. I ripped it in half, slipping one piece over the hanger I placed his jacket onto and the other I pushed back across the counter to the grey-eyed stranger.

  His large hand covered mine as he took the ticket gently from my grip, his touch sending sparks of desire racing over my skin. They weren't the kind of sparks you hear about in the movies. There was no explosion of butterflies in my tummy and I couldn’t hear birds singing. No, these were simply the kind you got when someone you were seriously into brushed against you.

  I glanced back up into his face, to find his smile had slipped somewhat and he was instead staring at me with an intense kind of concentration. A small furrow had appeared between his brows and his copper coloured hair flopped rakishly down over his forehead. The sudden urge to reach up and brush his hair back from his grey eyes as I smoothed the worried frown from his face was overwhelming.

  Instead, I jerked my hand back and jammed it into the pocket of the blue hoodie I wore, suddenly not trusting my body to obey the signals from my brain. Or maybe that was the problem, maybe my body was simply too good at reading and obeying the signals getting pushed down the line from my brain after all.

  "Nice meeting you, Harper," the stranger said. “Perhaps I'll see you on the way out."

  “I guess if you want your coat back you will,” I said, once more regretting my words. What was wrong with me tonight? I was like some kind of overgrown child, determined to put their foot in their mouth at every turn.

  Laughing, the stranger walked away, giving me a quick salute before he turned and stalked up the stairs like a large cat in search of its prey. God, I wanted to follow him. The thought of feeling his hands slide around my waist on the dance floor as he ground his body against mine, our hips swaying rhythmically to the primal beat of the music filled my head.

  Suddenly the music playing upstairs didn’t sound so bad.

  Staring down at the screen once more, I tapped the delete button and watched with a growing sense of satisfaction as Riley’s text disappeared.

  I was done with wallowing. Especially when there were such hot strangers out there to flirt with. Not that I had any intention of flirting with the stranger but it was definitely a more pleasant thought to focus on than Riley.

  Disappointment made me grumpy as I locked the doors of the club. Completely typical, the one night Madison chose to lock up herself was the one night I needed time in the club with no one around to ask me questions about why I was snooping in the offices upstairs.

  Not only that but the hot stranger hadn’t come back for his jacket. Or at least he hadn’t come to me for it. I’d checked the rack and the jacket had definitely been claimed but he’d obviously come back when I was on a toilet break.

  Brad leaned against the wall outside the club, the lazy grin on his face made the palm of my hand itch to wipe it off him.

  “Need someone to walk you home?” He asked, pushing away from the wall and falling into step next to me.

  “Why is ‘no’ so hard for you to understand?” I asked, picking up my pace and burying my face down into the scarf wrapped around my throat. The cold night air, bit at my skin as I jammed my hands into my pockets.

  All I wanted to do was get home and curl up in bed.

  “Because I know you’re only playing hard to get,” he said, reaching out to tuck a stray piece of my hair behind my ear.

  I jerked away from him, anger causing heat to spread into my face as I squared off against him.

  “Who the hell do you think you are?” I demanded. “Don’t touch me.”

  Brad laughed and took a step closer to me, invading my personal space as he lowered his face to mine. Without even thinking about it, I brought my knee up and in towards his body, jamming it into his crotch. His eyes widened in shock and with a muffled grunt he doubled over, dropping to the sidewalk like a rock.

  I took a couple of steps back as he clutched himself and groaned. Turning his face up to mine, his eyes were filled with rage and it took every bit of strength I had to stand my ground.

  “You bitch,” he hissed. “What did you do that for?”

  I stared at him incredulously. “You’ve
got to be kidding me, did you not hear what I said? I’m not interested in you, I don’t want anything to do with you.”

  Brad pushed onto his feet, still clutching himself and I could tell from the flinching around his eyes that every move he made hurt. Served him right. There was no way I was going to feel sorry for him, he’d gotten enough warnings and if he didn’t want a swift kick to the nuts then he’d need to pay closer attention to the signals women were giving off around him.

  “You’re a crazy bitch, you know that?” He spat the words at me, and I closed my fist around the small can of pepper spray in my pocket.

  “Better to be crazy than to make an epic mistake with you,” I said, somehow managing to keep my voice level.

  “Suit yourself,” he said, before hobbling away in the opposite direction.

  My heart slowly returned to a normal pace. He’d looked so angry, part of me had wondered if he’d take revenge. It wasn’t as though Brad had ever tried to be one of the nice guys and he’d already shown himself to be a childish jerk with the stunt he’d pulled earlier.

  Sucking in a cold breath, I started for home. My thoughts once more playing over the text Riley had sent. The momentary feeling of triumph over deleting his message had passed and now I was left with the bitter feeling of loneliness.

  I hated him. Despite our ups and downs, I’d trusted him, loved him even. He knew my history, knew how hard it was for me to trust anyone and he’d taken all the love I’d given and thrown it back in my face.

  Riley had been the first guy I’d let into my life since…