Wait a fucking minute. My eyes narrowed. Shewasdressed like a mom.
I looked her over again. Slim and short, check. And even though her version of blonde was obviously from a bottle and was about three shades lighter than my boy’s, those blue eyes of hers wereexactlylike Sean’s… well, exact in terms of color and shape.
The ugly, condescending look in them, though? Yeah, no. They didn’t look anything alike.
It still didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who she was, though.
“And...upon requesting additional information from the dean, I wonder if allowing my son to share housing with you hasn’t contributed to his poor academic performance this year,” she said, managing to both confirm my guess and piss me the fuck off all over again with that dig at Sean.
Poor performance? Yeah, no. He was a goddamn rock star with all his school shit.
“No matter, though,” Mama Hell Bitch said brusquely, making a shooing motion with her hand as she took a step forward like she actually thought I’d move out of the way and let her inside. “I’m sure once he’s away from your influence he’ll—excuseme.”
Her man glanced up from the phone he’d been tapping away on as she bounced off my chest, then pressed his lips together like he disapproved of the entire fucking world but couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it. “I’ll be waiting in the town car, Bianca,” he murmured, his eyes flicking over me dismissively. “Please deal with this quickly, hm?”
Then he turned his back on the two of us, one hand going to his ear to press against his Bluetooth as he went back to his call, and walked away.
She glared at his back for a hot second, then turned the glare back on me. “You’re in my way, Mr. Graham. Please step aside.”
“What, you actually think I’m gonna let you in or something?” I asked the woman who’d fucked up my boy in too many ways to count, not moving an inch.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, Sean was still fucking perfect, okay? But any way you looked at it, the shit she’d pulled on him was still fifty shades of wrong. And even if the result was some shit that I personally got off on—because not gonna lie, even if he ever got over not being able to touch himself, I still might not let him since it was hot as fuck to be the one in charge of that pretty little cock of his—the way she’d cut him off from his own damn dick and made him feel all warped about basic sex shit definitely qualified as fucked up.
Her face got ugly. “My husband and I pay for this dormitory, so yes, Mr. Graham, Idothink you’re going to let me in,” she said sharply. “Donald and I are here to collect our son. Sean’s failure to stay in communication over the past few weeks is unacceptable, and we’ve already spoken with the dean about an early withdrawal with full credit, given that Sean’s academic performance has at least warranted that much.”
I snorted. “Yeah, no. You don’t pay for this shit, bitch. Sean’s got that covered, and if you think I’m letting you in to ‘collect’ him—”
“I really don’t see why you’d have any say in the matter at all,” she said, raising her voice to talk over me. “Sean ismyson—”
“No,” I bit out, seeing red. She had no right to claim him at fuckingall.
She blinked at the interruption. Then, “Excuse me?” she said icily. “Are you delusional? I’m hismother.”
“You don’t fucking deserve him.”
Her nostrils flared again. “Do I need to call campus security, Mr. Graham? This really doesn’t concern you. If Sean is inside—”
“Everythingabout Sean concerns me,” I corrected her in what may or may not have been a shout, getting really fucking close to losing my cool even if she was half my size and female and whatnot.
“You’re mistaken,” she snapped, getting about as close to shouting as I was. “Sean is—”
“Here, Mother.”
His hand fluttered over my bare back, nudging me to the side so he could peek out at her. And even though his voice trembled and the words were about eight million decibels quieter than the ones me and the bitch had been tossing at each other, it still shut us both up.
Well, for a second.
“Thought I told you to stay in the room, Sean,” I growled, really fucking tempted to pick him up and take him back there myself so I could keep him the fuck away from the sorry excuse for a mother who mistakenly thought she had a right to him.
Swear to God, if she laid so much as a finger on him, if she said anything that evenlookedlike it hurt him, if those pretty eyes of his welled up with one single fucking tear because of her being here, it wasover. She could call all the damn security she wanted, but no way in hell was I letting her fuck with my boy, not ever again.
“Your father and I are extremely disappointed,” Bitch said to him, pretending to ignore me completely even though she had to basically look through me to address him given that I was doing my best impression of an impenetrable wall, still blocking her access and managing to shield about ninety percent of my boy simply by refusing to move.
“I’m sorry, Mother,” Sean said, not touching me at all anymore but still standing close enough that I could feel him shaking. “I was just—”
Oh, fuck no.
“You don’t have any damn thing to be sorry to her about, baby,” I interrupted, turning my back on her and tipping his chin up. “Not ever. Remember what I told you?”
