Making my way back across the parking lot to my Range Rover, I ignore my hard fucking dick straining against my jeans and catch sight of Eli leaning up against the passenger door talking to Demi. She has her head thrown back in laughter when I approach them.
“What did I miss?” I ask.
Her laughter cuts off, and her blue eyes settle on me. I watch them turn hard as stone. She ignores me and looks at Eli. “I’ll see you around.” She slaps his chest playfully and then walks off.
I make my way around the front of my car. “She’s too young for you, man.”
He laughs at that, but his eyes stay on her bubble ass as she sashays across the parking lot with her long blond ponytail bouncing across her back. “The best ones always are.” Then he turns, gets into the passenger seat, and winks over at me. “That’s what makes them so much fun.”
CHAPTER TWO
DEKE
Present- Eighteen years old
IPULL MYRange Rover into the driveway and look down at my phone ringing in the passenger seat.Fuckerlights up my screen, but I press ignore just as I have the other hundred times he’s called me. I have nothing to say to my father. And I know he has nothing to say to me either. He just hates that I won’t answer him—my lack of respect for him knows no bounds.
Grabbing my phone, I get out of my SUV and walk into my best friend’s house. I live with him, his little sister, and his fiancée. We all moved to Austin, Texas, three months ago after high school graduation. Cole and I attend the University of Texas on swimming scholarships. Austin, his fiancée, is still trying to decide what she wants to do with her life.
I throw my gym bag down at the front door, and call out, “Cole?”
That stupid Halloween decoration Austin put out makes a noise when you activate its motion sensor. The fucker gets me every time I come in late, drunk off my ass. Pretty sure I threw it away last weekend, but she found it and put it back. Its red eyes glare up at me with its ugly mouth open, showing off its vampire-looking teeth and growling at me again. The first time I saw it, I thought the damn thing was a ghost, but I’m not even sure what the hell it’s supposed to be. Austin seems quite attached to it, but I’m hoping to get rid of the thing before Halloween next year.
“Kitchen,” he answers.
Walking down the hallway, I take the first right, entering the kitchen to see him bent over at the stainless fridge looking for something to eat. “I’ve got plans for us tonight.”
He groans. “I don’t feel like going to a party.”
“Even better.”
Straightening, he shuts the door and turns around to face me. His blue eyes give me a pointed look as he tears open a container. My best friend hasn’t been himself lately. His temper is shorter, and his mood darker. Worse than usual. Cole Reynolds has always been a ticking time bomb, but there’s more to it now. And I hate that he hasn’t come to me about it. Things just haven’t been the same since we left Collins.
“I’m not going to a strip club,” he deadpans.
I smile at him. Tits and some ass in my face are exactly what I need, but I shake my head. I’m trying to get him out of the house, and I knew he would never go for that. Plus, I don’t want to be on Austin’s shit list. And taking Cole to a place like that will get my name at the motherfucking top of hers. I’m quite fond of my balls, and they would be the first thing she’d go for. “Although that is a fantastic idea, it’s not what I have in mind.”
He sets the container on the countertop next to him and crosses his arms over his chest, arching a dark brow. “I’m waiting.”
I open my mouth to fill him in, but it closes the moment Austin enters the kitchen, and she’s not alone. Becky is with her.My ex.
The girl who I fell in love with. What started as a dare and ended up being so much more. I wish I would have known then what a lying whore she was. I guess a part of me knew. I just thought I’d be the exception.Fuck, when did I turn into a chick?
Junior year
“Dude, let her go,” Eli all but growls as he sees what I’m drooling over.
“She’s with David now.” I say it like it fucking matters. It doesn’t.
“Let him have her ass. You can do better.”
I frown at his tone. Since when does Eli hate Becky?
When I say nothing, he turns his attention to Cole and Maddox as they walk up after leaving the cafeteria.
I lean up against my locker and watch the blonde come down the hallway. I kissed Becky last year by the football field because Eli dared me to. And now I can’t get her out of my mind. It didn’t happen suddenly. No, it was more like a sickness. She slowly took over my mind and body with no cure in sight. Maybe it’s because I know she’s unavailable now. Three months after that kiss, she started seeing David, and now that he has her, I want her. I watch her in class and at parties. And I catch her watching me too. She comes to swim meets but doesn’t speak to me. Instead, she ignores me completely. Just like we agreed.
Her boyfriend, David, comes up behind her and places his hand in hers. She looks up at him but doesn’t smile. He’s too busy talking to Maxwell, his friend walking beside him. I feel my heart begin to beat faster as she approaches me, but he brings her to a stop and then says a few more words to his friend. Once Maxwell walks away, David turns to face her. He leans down and kisses her, pulling her body into his, and her arms come up and wrap around his neck. Just as they did when I kissed her last year. Then just as quickly, he lets go of her hand and walks away, leaving her all alone in the middle of the hallway.
