James shook his head. "I need..." His voice rasped, then broke, and he cleared his throat before he tried again. "I need to be alone right now."
Evan nodded, reaching out and cupping James' face with one hand for a moment. He didn't say anything before he let go, butthe moment of solidarity made something inside of James settle a little. "See you when I get back."
James got out of the car before Evan responded, and the car peeled off down the street as he walked up to the front door, unlocking it and stepping inside. He didn't bother to turn the lights on in the living room, making his way to the stairs from memory and running both hands through his hair as he took the stairs two at a time.
"What. The.Fuck." The growl almost shocked him in the quietness of the house, but then he let out a shout of frustration that echoed off the walls before he made his way into the bathroom. He nearly tore the buttons off his shirt in an effort to get it off, and it wasn't until he was fully naked and the shower was heating, slowly filling the dark room with comforting steam that he let himself close his eyes and let out a shaky sound that sounded suspiciously like a sob.
What was it about this girl that left him feeling like this? So twisted up and out of control and like...if he didn't have her in his hands right that fucking moment, he might as well lay down and die because life wasn't worth living without her...
He had never felt this way about a woman.Anywoman. His father had beaten it into his head that feelings meant weakness. Women created feelings. Therefore, women were weakness.
James hadn't looked twice at a woman since he was fifteen, and his life had been better for it. Lonelier, maybe, but safer.
This girl...Camelia. She threw a wrench in everything that James had taught himself. That he had been forced to learn.
Even just the thought of her name made James' muscles tense with simultaneous anger, frustration, and desire, and he stepped under the scalding spray of the shower, hoping that the burning water would quiet his thoughts.
He scrubbed his hands through his hair as the strands wet, and his erection throbbed, unwilling to be ignored as James tried futilely to think of something,anythingelse.
God, she had looked good that night. Too fucking good to be out and about, where anyone else could see her. Smell her. Touch her. Her jeans had looked practically painted on and the low neck of her shirt...the way her cleavage had pressed against the too-tight fabric as she breathed rapidly had been meant to tease James.Tormenthim.
James groaned softly as his cock twitched at the memory, and he gave in, wrapping his hand around the base of his shaft and squeezing. Evan had been right, the other day; she was dangerous, and it was better for all of them if Evan and James just...kept away.
Every thought of caution had left the moment that they had been in a room with her, though. Feeling her, seeing her,smellingher...
James stroked his cock, letting out soft, breathy moans at the friction. She had smelled a little floral, a little earthy. A spicy note under it all that made James want to growl, to bury his nose in the crook of her neck where the smell was the strongest before he crowded her up against a wall andclaimed...
"Fuck..." James squeezed the head of his cock, an orgasm already boiling low in his abdomen as water dripped down his face. His hips jerked against his rough strokes, and the melodic sound of her voice as she verbally sparred with Evan played in his mind all over again. Her eyes had been so bright, but guarded, like she was trying desperately to ignore something deep inside of her as she defended herself.
She's yours.The traitorous voice of instinct whispered, curled along James' mind as his hand sped up on his cock.Yours, Evan's, yours, Evan's, yours...
How sweet she would look if she was a little less combative...If she would let that guard of hers down, just a little bit. If she softened under James' touch...God, he could show her how good it could be if she was a good girl...
"Fuck, fuck, fuck..." James slammed his free hand against the wall of the shower, bracing himself as his orgasm hit unexpectedly, a rough swipe of his palm over the head the last straw. He squeezed his eyes shut as pleasure made him shout, his cock throbbing in his hand as his release painted the wall of the shower, unseen in the dark and quickly washed away by the hot spray of water. He couldn't stop himself from moaning, low and uninhibited at how fuckinggoodthe orgasm felt, tingling down his spine and making his balls draw up all over again at the thought of Camelia and her beautiful, angry face as she put Evan in his place...
It took several moments for the afterglow to fade, and when it finally did, James released his cock with a low curse. He turned the water off and grabbed the first towel he touched to wrap around his hips, ignoring the way his hair dripped water onto the floor as he walked across the hallway to his room. Frustration and familiar anxiety and the thought of being watched filled him, and he looked around his empty bedroom, dimly lit by the moonlight, as if there were predators waiting for him to let his guard down so that they could attack.
Of course there was nothing, but the prickling sensation of being watched didn't leave as he picked up a crumpled pair of sweats from the laundry heap and pulled them on, sans underwear. He collapsed on his bed, ignoring the way the sheets immediately soaked through with the water still lingering on his body, and he clenched his hands into fists as he stared at the ceiling, knowing that sleep was far off.
Evan was right. The girl was a threat. Maybe not to them personally – she didn't look like she was the type for a physicalaltercation – but to their veryexistence. She threatened the life that James had built for himself, as tenuous and at his father's mercy as it was, and it was going to be best for both of them if she just stayed. The fuck. Away.
Chapter nine
Camelia
Camelia holed herself up in her room the entire weekend, and by the time she came out on Monday, she was all out of sorts. She had texted Aria where her car was once she had gotten back to the dorms safely, and then had proceeded to ignore every message that her friend had sent after that, content to order food to her dorm and avoid any human interaction unless absolutely necessary.
It was absurd of her to feel so affected by two men that she had only ever interacted with twice.Absurd. It didn't make any sense why her hormones were so out of whack, why it felt like something was missing deep inside of her that had never felt empty before, why she spent the entire weekend that she was alonelongingto go out and find one of them, or both of them...
No, none of it made any sort of sense, and her roommate's blatant hostility did nothing to improve her mood either. All that combined to create averyfoul mood for Camelia when she attended her classes on Monday, stomping around campus anddrawing far more attention to herself with her snarling than she really should have.
She couldn'thelpit. There was a part of her, tiny though it was, that couldsensethem. They were there, somewhere on campus, and she wasn't with them. It was wrong, it was against her nature, it was...
Fuck, she didn't know what it was. All she knew was that by the time she lunch rolled around and she was sitting next to Aria in the commons, picking at a salad that she hadn't even wanted, the only thing that she could think of was Evan and James. Not her classes, not her need to keep a huge part of herself secret until she graduated.Them.
"Mmhm." Camelia stabbed at a piece of spinach, grimacing when it fluttered away from her plastic fork. Aria continued talking, completely unbothered by Camelia's silence, and Camelia's gaze swept the room for the umpteenth time, searching each and every face for the two that she wanted to see. Not that she waslookingfor them. No, she needed to know where they were so that she couldavoidthem. That was all it was.
Speak of the devil. Camelia swallowed hard as a familiar, dark-haired head strolled into the commons, a burrito in one hand and his phone in the other, pressed firmly against his ear. He nodded to whoever he was on the phone with, taking a bite of his burrito as Camelia watched, and she swallowed against a sudden wave of lust that swelled in her stomach and made her want to stand up and leave her friend to seek him out.
