Free Guilty Secrets (Campus Love and Murder Sorority Eyes Romance Book 1) by Ciara Christie

lazy. You can pick up easy points from her big toe."
    He shot me a quizzical look. "Robyn, does any of that make any sense?"
    I shrugged. "What are the rules, again?"
    His eyes widened and he took a deep breath. "OK, Robyn. You take turns to poke each other with the pointy end of the sharp stick. One poke scores one point. I restart the fight after each successful score. First to fifteen. Got it?"
    I nodded.
    I glanced nervously at Charity. She shot me an evil look.
    I turned back to Brad. "Why are you helping me?"
    "Mai says you're keeping my secret. Thanks. Besides... Charity deserves everything that's coming to her."
    Charity shouted over, "I haven't got all day to kick your ass, cherry girl."
    Brad caught my trembling gaze and whispered, "This is your chance to break the habit."
    "What habit?"
    "Every time we meet, you end up getting wet."
    He had no idea.
    Brad winked at me and walked off piste.
    We put on our masks and saluted with our swords.
    Brad was our referee. He shouted, "En-garde!"
    We adopted the en garde position by bending our knees and holding our blade points towards the opponent.
    Brad then shouted, "Fence!"
    Neither I nor Charity made a move. Not because I was following Brad's tactical advice, but because I was frozen to the spot as my eyes fixated on the swimming pool below.
    Charity tossed her head from side to side. I could hear her snorting with impatience.
    "Come on, you little fool. Attack me!"
    "You first."
    She growled and stepped forward. Leading with her front foot she slapped the floor in a sort of skipping motion, bringing both feet together, but never crossing them. Her lead foot slapped the glass floor repeatedly as if baiting me.
    Our blades danced around each other, but never touched.
    With a cry of impatience, Charity lunged at me. Without thinking, my blade came up and parried her attack. By the rules, it was my turn. She couldn't attack again until I took my turn to attack.
    "Come on you little Cherry turd, riposte."
    I hesitated.
    Her snorts sounded like erupting volcanoes.
    Eventually, I straightened my sword arm.
    "At last!"
    Charity parried my blade and circled hers around mine, before straightening her sword arm and scraping her blade along my shaft. She then rammed the tip of her blade at my eyes.
    Instinctively, I leapt backwards as I disengaged our blades. She charged on as I stopped suddenly and straightened my arm. Charity ran into my tip, forcing my blade to buckle in the middle.
    My light box lit up green.
    Brad pointed at me and shouted, "One point."
    I dropped my arm and the blade sprang back into shape.
    Charity stamped the floor and screamed.
    Brad ignored her tantrum and shouted, "En-garde!"
    We both assumed the position. The tips of our blades, not quite touching, but hovering around each other with electric frisson.
    Charity hissed, "I'm going to run my blade right up through your tiny cherry."
    "Fence!"
    Charity screamed, raised her sword above her head and charged at me. I felt my eyes widen as I sprinted backwards, away from that charging bull.
    I heard Mai cry out, "The edge!"
    All too aware that the end of the piste was fast approaching, I waited until the last possible fraction of a second. When I was sure I had not an inch to spare, I stamped my rear foot and crouched low as I straightened out my sword arm. Hoping Charity would run onto my blade.
    Charity had anticipated that of course and threw herself high into the air. She whipped her blade around her head like she was fly-fishing and brought it down on me.
    Without thinking, my blade met hers and made an awful scraping noise as it parried her blade away. I flicked the blade around the outside of her sword arm, but she was too agile and beat it away.
    With rage in her eyes, she leapt up at me again. She whipped her blade around and jabbed the tip at my eyes.
    I stuck out my blade, as she lunged down on top of me. I flicked my wrist as if turning a skipping rope. My blade encircled hers and trapped it. My arm