All Chapters of Tempted To Claim All Three : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Cassie’s Pov My name is Cassie, or as my schoolmates like to call me, ghostie. That was the thing about being ‘the quiet girl’ people assumed you were part of the furniture, or a shadow, or maybe a faint ghost drifting too politely through hallways to bother anyone. Which was fine. Preferred, even. I was good at disappearing. I slipped into the art room before the first period. I munched on a piece of chocolate as I slowly brought out my diary. My diary? Well, more like my confidant in the whole world, the only problem was that it didn't talk back. I wrote down my deepest thoughts, my darkest secrets, and my most traumatic experiences. I snapped the diary shut, slipped into the art room, and sank into my usual corner. No one noticed I was here. They never did. That was the point. Silence was safe. Silence kept me alive. Renaissance academy was popular, in fact everyone fought hard to be here. It was meant to give me a better life. It did the opposite of that. But silence nev

Cassie's PovThis couldn’t be happening, no, no, it can’t be gone. I squeezed my eyes shut, but the panic didn’t fade, it grew, sharp and sickening. Someone took it, they had all my secrets. All my raw and unfiltered words, all my erotic texts. My vivid wet dreams documentation. And the worst part? My name was written so boldly on the top cover of the diary. I knew exactly what was written on the last page. The page I wrote not fifteen minutes ago. My throat tightened until I could barely breathe. If someone read that… if someone saw everything. I pressed my trembling hand over my mouth to keep from making a sound. Because the quiet girl’s last safe place, the only place where I was allowed to want anything, was gone. Everything seemed blurred. I hoped silently that no one had found it yet. I moved quickly, my legs barely carrying me back to the art classroom. The way the campus felt like it was holding its breath as I walked back toward the main building, every step hea

Cassie's Pov I didn’t sleep much, but by morning I felt steady enough to face school again. I showered, packed my bag, tied my hair in a bun and told myself I wasn’t going to hide anymore. If Katie wanted to play a game, I would stop running from her. Before leaving the house, I opened my phone and typed the message I’d been rehearsing in my head all night. ‘Meet me in the auditorium at 12.’ My finger hesitated for only a second before I hit send. The reply came almost instantly, short and sharp, exactly like her. ‘Bet.’ I walked into school with my heart beating like it was about to burst out of my chest. People stared, whispered, looked twice, and each time my breath seized, but I kept my head down and stayed small. I stayed in the back of every class, barely lifting my eyes, counting the minutes until lunch by 12, I made sure even Lily had no idea I was in school. I met Katie behind the auditorium after lunch, the place where people went when they didn’t want witn

Cassie's POV "Cassie Hale." My own name felt like a slap. The forum post had my full name sitting there in bold, clean letters, served to the entire academy on a plate. "Shit," I breathed as I bolted out of the auditorium. I didn't think about it, didn't plan it, just tucked my diary under my arm and moved. I heard my name behind me, their voices overlapping in a way that would have made my heart do something stupid under any other circumstance. Right now all it did was make me run faster. The hallway hit me like noise and light and too many people at once. A few heads turned. Someone whispered something to the person next to them and they both looked. I kept moving, the kind of walking that was one bad second away from becoming sprinting. I didn't make it far before a hand closed around my arm and yanked me sideways through a door I hadn't even clocked was there. The smell of mop water and cleaning supplies hit me immediately. It was the janitor's closet. “Please, I don't wan

Cassie's POVThirty pairs of eyes turned to look at me.I sat completely still with my pen still touching the paper and thought that I had not had a single normal day this entire week and it showed absolutely no signs of stopping. I stood up slowly and made my way to the head’s office.I took a deep breath and I knocked twice."Come in, Miss Hale."I pushed the door open and stopped walking the second I saw her.Katie. Sitting in the chair across from Head Daven's desk with her legs crossed and her hands folded neatly in her lap like she was posing for a school brochure. She looked up at me and smiled, a slow and satisfied smile. I wanted to turn around and walk back out, but I didn't.Principal Daven gestured to the empty chair beside Katie without looking up from the papers on his desk. I sat down, kept my back straight, and stared forward."Miss Hale." He finally looked up, folding his hands on the desk. He was a broad man with a careful voice, the kind of person who chose every