She shrugs. “He invited me.”
Bafflement makes my mind go blank. “What?”
That mischievous smile returns to her face. “We reconnected. I ran into him at the library, and he invited me tonight.” Hersmile fades. “I heard you had me blacklisted from all of your parties.”
My jaw clenches. “That has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with my frat brothers. I don’t trust them around you, especially not since the game started. They’d love to…”
Fuck.
I’m getting dangerously close to telling her about the stupid bet. I have to be careful. It’ll all be over if it gets out. She’ll never trust me again. No effusive apology—or insistence that I only made the bet in the first place because I wanted it to be true—would work. She’d be lost to me.
Even more reason to get her the fuck out of here as soon as possible.
She narrows her eyes. “Nick made sure that I was taken off the blacklist.”
Uneasiness prickles over my skin. Her rekindling her friendship with Nick can’t be a good sign. She could find out about my friendship with Harper, and how I never meant to make her jealous in the first place. Nick knows Harper and I have been over for good for a while.
And he also knows how badly I want to fuck Amy. Talking too much about my relationship with Harper would jeopardize that.
He’d never betray me though.
“Why do you even care if I’m here or not?” Amy asks. “We don’t have to hang out if you don’t want to.”
I set my hand on her shoulder. “Oh, we’re hanging out. And I’ll be making all your drinks. Nice and weak.”
The adorably baffled expression that alights from those hazel eyes makes me want to kiss her.
“This isn’t your scene,” I say. “I know you don’t party, so don’t try to lie to me. I don’t trust my frat brothers around you.”
She lifts a brow. “And you’re trustworthy?”
I smile, leaning forward and brushing my lips against her ear. “If you keep looking at me like that,” I whisper, “maybe not.”
She jerks back, her eyes widening, and oh god, I want to cradle her in my arms. She looks like this every time I flirt with her.
She doesn’t trust me. She shouldn’t, given what I have planned.
But I’ll be so good to her in the months I’ll spend fucking her out of my system. That adorably active brain of hers won’t have to worry about a thing, because I’ll take care of her like she belongs to me. I’ll spoil her with kisses and presents. I’ll worship her in the bedroom. She’ll be my queen until I tire of her.
And when that day finally comes, I’ll be kind when I break it off. I’ll tell her I sincerely want to stay friends, as I have with Harper. And eventually, she’ll find a guy who adores her and…
Oh no.
Fuck, no.
I can’t stand the thought of it. I want to kill this faceless guy.
I take a deep breath. This feeling is only temporary.
I will get her out of my system. And once I do, the idea of her with someone else won’t twist me up inside. I’m determined.
“Well, I’m going to go mingle,” she says, taking a step away from me.
I place my fingers under her chin and lift her face to look me in the eyes. “I’ll be watching.”
“Yes, my lord.” She takes a small step back and bows into what I think is called a curtsy, and laughter rumbles from my chest.
She’s so fucking cute.
