I should’ve been lost in it. Blending in, like every other girl in jeans and a hoodie with a laptop clutched against her ribs. Instead, I felt as if every pair of eyes was waiting for me to slip.
Then I saw him.
QB10. He was standing with Dustin and Noah like he belonged on a billboard — a Lions-blue hoodie stretched across his shoulders, easy grin locked in place. He looked untouchable. Polished. Perfect.
But his jaw? I saw the tightness in it as he talked to his friends. His eyes? His eyes found me across the quad, and in an instant, the air thickened, hot and heavy, like we weren’t in the middle of campus but back in his dorm room with my hands on his skin.
I should’ve looked away and not made it obvious that I was thinking about the quarterback on his back while I rode his cock. My head tilted back as he pulled me down onto his body, fucking into me, like he had last night when I was supposed to be studying, and he was supposed to be preparing for a test in Education Policy and Governance.
I hadn’t gone back to my dorm to sleep. I’d spent the last three nights with Dante and the guys. Dustin and Noah didn’t care that I was in his room or eating their food; they weresympathetic to the fallout with my dad and were being great friends.
I didn’t even care that I was obviously hiding from my father. I refused to talk to him, had ignored his text messages, and I knew he wouldn’t allow me to avoid him for much longer.
A loud laugh pulled me back. I walked toward Dante and the guys. A dozen voices around me, calling his name, asking for a photo, wanting a handshake — all of it blurred as his gaze stayed locked on mine.
“Sav,” Dante said, warmth threading through his voice when I stopped in front of them.
“Hey,” I managed, even though my throat was dry.
Dante’s smile didn’t falter, but when he slid his hand down, fingers brushing mine before catching — solid, sure,public— I knew exactly what he was doing.
He pulled me toward him, his mouth on mine, slow, sensual,exactlywhat I needed from him. Claiming me. Out loud. In front of everyone.
The noise around us shifted, sharp and sudden. A couple of whispers and I just knew somewhere, a camera phone would be angled higher.
I froze, pulse jackhammering in my ears. Dante pressed a quick kiss to my lips, pulling back, a gleam in his eyes I recognized too well. He was daring me to let go. Daring me to prove that this wasn’t what it looked like.
But I didn’t let go, and the murmurs grew louder.
“Is that his girlfriend?”
“Who is she?”
“Isn’t that Dean Cole’sdaughter?”
Every word cut sharply in the back of my skull. His hand stayed warm against mine, thumb brushing once, deliberate, like he was telling me to breathe.
I wasn’t sure I could.
“You good?” Dante asked, his voice pitched just low enough for only me to hear. That calm, even tone he used on the field when the noise was deafening, and the clock was bleeding out.
I nodded once, sharp, even though ‘good’ was the last thing I felt.
“Then stop looking like you’re about to bolt.” His grin was still for the crowd, but the command was for me.
I wanted to snap at him, tell him he didn’t get to order me around like one of his plays, but my hand stayed tangled with his, stubborn and rooted. I didn’t pull away. I wasn’t sure I could anymore.
Noah’s gaze flicked between us, one brow arched, but he remained silent. Dustin, though, rolled his eyes.
“So, you’re out, and we’re going to head out,” Dustin said to Noah. “Let these two...” He looked between us. “Yeah.”
“Spence,” a voice called, sharp with authority. We all turned, and I recognized him as a booster. Beau Jones — I’d sat beside him at many a function. He was one of the few I didn’t mind talking to. He wore a nice gray suit, a wide tie, but his expression was one carved into disapproval as he approached us. “Need a word with you, son.” His eyes flicked down to our joined hands. “Alone.”
Dante didn’t move. Not until I turned to look at him again, his grip tightening just enough to make my pulse trip.
“You okay if I go?” he asked me, casual as if he hadn’t just been more or less given an order.
I swallowed hard. “Of course. I’m going to head to the shed anyway.”
