“We’ve got plans already,” Matteo interjects, saving my ass once again.
Preston glances between us, his gaze settling on me. “If you want to swing by after these plans, we can still hang.”
“We’ll be out late,” I say. “And I need to get some studying done.”
Preston’s jaw tenses, confirming I’m the reason he’s here now. “Well, then check in with me, and we’ll figure something out.”
“Yeah, totally.”
He and Gage head off, and Matteo and I continue into the building. En route to my room, I get a text from Preston:Let us know when you can meet up. Got some things we need to chat about.
That sounds ominous. When we get into my room, I share the text with Matteo.
“Interesting how Preston was over here the day after all that shit went down,” he says, echoing my thoughts. “Or is this a regular thing?”
“They don’t ever come here to check in with me. I go to them. Maybe they know something, or maybe they want an update. Hard to tell with Pres. I’ll tell him I’ll check in tomorrow so he doesn’t think I’m acting strange. Don’t want to give him a reason to be suspicious.”
I reply to his message, then tuck my phone into my back pocket.
“It’s almost four,” I say. “I figure we both missed class already.”
“Yeah, and classes aren’t really my top priority right now.I’ll take another shower and brush my teeth again to wipe the rest of this ick feeling off me.” He rubs his arms in a way he’s done a few times since he woke up.
“What does it feel like?” I ask.
“This one time at an Alpha Alpha Mu party, this guy grabbed my ass and gave it a squeeze. It felt so gross and violating. It’s like that Farras guy did that to every part of me, even my insides.”
A chill rushes up my spine. “I’m sorry.”
“Again, not your fault.”
Isn’t it, though?
He heads for the door without even looking at me. “I’ll be back.”
I’m tempted to think, despite how much he insists otherwise, that he rightly blames me for what happened to him. If I’d just let him think I was in a cult, he wouldn’t be in this mess.
While he’s gone, I figure I should at least try to get some reading in for class. I stick the safety latch in the doorway so he won’t have to knock when he’s finished up, then pop a mint into my mouth before lying in bed with my Philosophy textbook. I quickly discover it’s not easy to get reading in when your brain’s racing with bizarre, unsettling, and confounding thoughts. I wind up back on a website about the Buford Night Stalker.
His MO was hunting young men and women around town, abducting and doing the sorts of things sick fucks like him do to innocent people. The FBI linked his DNA to one of the victims from years earlier, and when they raided hisapartment, he was shot and killed. From what little interaction I had with him, good riddance.
When I hear the door, I minimize the window on my laptop. Matteo enters, with only a towel around his waist, and drops his bag on Luke’s bed. I study his body—the sort of body that can make me forget the fucked-up shit I was just looking at. I’ve always appreciated how the guy’s sexy as hell, but between that night we shared and the bit of moisture glistening across his abs and chest, it’s hard not to salivate a little.
“Went back to my room to grab some spare clothes,” Matteo says, fishing through his stuff. “Almost didn’t because I’m not eager to see Luke or Brad just yet, but they weren’t there.”
I wonder if they’re in class, studying, working, or having a secret meeting.
Matteo pulls off his towel, exposing his ass and cock to me, and my body viscerally responds, my cock firming. He slides on a pair of trunks, which hug that ass perfectly. I envy those trunks, but I don’t get to enjoy them enough before he pulls on sweats and tosses on a shirt.
Before I saw what I had to do for the conjuring spell, I’d never considered messing around with a guy, but now I’m already wanting seconds with Matteo?
He plops down on the bed beside me, and I scoot over to make room.
I’m wondering why he came over here when he could have taken Luke’s bed, but then he says, “I’msorry.”
I’d assumed he left so abruptly because deep down, heknew this was all my fault, but now I’m thrown. Then it hits me, maybe because of what I was just looking at before he returned. “Oh, that stuff Farras said? Again, that’s not on you. It really didn’t bother me. I don’t give a fuck if the guys know what we did…unless you didn’t want them to know.”
His expression twists up, and he looks at me like he’s offended I’d even suggest that. “That’s not what I meant at all, Alexei. Of course I’m sorry for what that guy said, but I don’t give a fuck if they know. Or if they knew just how good a time we had.” A smile plays across his lips. “There go those cheeks again.”
