Psycho: A Dark College Romance (Hillcrest University Book 4)

by Candace Wondrak

  Fuck. She felt amazing. Better than amazing. Her wet, warm hole wrapped around me, snug like a fucking glove, and I never wanted to leave her. If I could spend every single day inside of her, I would. Buried in her pussy, feeling her inner walls tighten around my length.

  Ash had her arms wrapped around me, and she moaned once I was fully submerged, once I filled her up easily. This was bliss, pure and simple. If there was ever a problem, she was the answer. She was the answer to everything, and I had to make her see it. I had to make her believe in herself. Her importance to me was astronomical; I wouldn’t be here otherwise. I wouldn’t have spoken with Declan or tried to help Sawyer otherwise.

  All of it was literally for her.

  “I won’t let you go again,” I murmured against her ear, beginning to thrust. Each yank of my hips made her sigh out another moan, another musical note to add to the symphony that was us. This obsession, this irrational need, was as close to love as I would ever be.

  Was someone like me capable of love? You’d have to ask the experts, but I was pretty sure most of them would say no. Me, personally, I thought every human being was capable of the basest forms of every emotion. Loving anyone had seemed impossible before meeting Ash, but now…now I could see why people chased after it like lovesick puppies. She was the air I breathed, and I needed her in my life.

  What Declan said, in the future—I wouldn’t think about it. Now wasn’t the time to think of family or duties; it was the time to fuck the one girl who drove me nuts.

  I immediately wanted to lose myself in her. Buried inside her, I wanted to let myself come, and come inside of her. That, though, might only lead to other complications later on, which was something my family had taught me to avoid. No, I’d edge off my orgasm for as long as I could, and then, when the pleasure became too much, I’d pull out.

  Ash ran her fingers through my hair, tugging on its length. She moaned right into my ear, which only made me thrust into her harder, quicker, over and over until I felt a pressure start to form. It was too easy to lose myself in her. In her grey eyes, in her sly smile, in those soft, breathy moans—and in her tight, wet cunt.

  So easy to lose myself in Ash. How the hell could I blame anyone else for falling into her trap too? How could I fault Declan for feeling the same? This girl…damn it, she was more than a handful. She was almost too much.

  I let out a low groan, my balls clenching. My orgasm was on its way, and it took everything in me to withdraw from her, to pull out of Ash’s sex mere moments before my cum shot out, landing on the wooden door behind her.

  I remained motionless for a few seconds, and then I slowly helped Ash down. That was…not exactly how I expected our reunion to happen, but I’d definitely take it. I’d take it every day of the week.

  Ash said nothing, drawing her stormy gaze away from me as she started to walk down the hall. I followed her after quickly putting myself away, knowing I should call Declan, but waiting. Waiting for her to say why she left, why she was gone, why she went with that killer named Ray.

  Why, Ash, why?

  She stopped in the kitchen, and I watched as she silently pulled out what was in the hoodie’s pocket. It was not something I’d seen before, but it was an object I knew well enough. When you came from a family like mine, you tended to get shiny, sharp objects as birthday presents as early as you started to count.

  A knife. It was a knife. Some kind of hunting knife, based on the thick leather handle and heavily serrated edge. That edge, I instantly noticed, was also stained with red. I was about to open my mouth to ask, but that’s when I watched Ash sweep her hair aside, revealing a small nick on her throat. It was something I hadn’t noticed before, something her hair had hidden and I was too eager to finally be with her to notice.

  Did someone hurt her? Did that Ray try to make her his next victim? My heart rate increased, and I felt the need to strangle something. Preferably Ray, wherever the hell he was. Unless Ash got to him first.

  But, no. That blood was old, not fresh. If it was new, it would’ve stained the hoodie, and the pocket was free of stains. There was only a bit near the neckline, but not a lot.

  “I’m going to shower,” she said, sounding…almost defeated. Maybe she was just tired, but when it came to her, I’d rather take no chances.

  I followed her up the steps, noting how worn-down the bottom of her feet were. Red and blistery, parts of them bloody, a result of walking for what must’ve been hours on hard, stony concrete. She closed herself in the bathroom, and I stared at the door, feeling…strange.

  Ash was back, and I was overjoyed to have her here, it was true—but at the same time, the more I put it together, the less overall happy I was. If Ray hurt her, if Ray laid a hand on her—whether in violence or not—we were going to have a problem. I’d cut off his dick if I had to.

  Never thought I’d think that sentence, but here we were.

  I let out a ragged breath, reaching into my pocket to pull out my phone. I had three phones in my pockets: mine, hers, and Sawyer’s. It took a while to find the right one, as with her sudden return, my mind was a bit frazzled.

  I dialed Declan, and he picked up quickly, meaning he wasn’t asleep, either. “She’s here,” I said, cutting right to the chase. “At Sawyer’s.”

  Declan spoke, “I’ll be right over.” He hung up, and as I returned the phone to my pocket, I glanced over my shoulder, staring hard at Sawyer’s door. It was closed, and I wondered if he was passed out or laying in there miserable. Either way, I didn’t really care.

  Right now, the only thing I cared about was Ash, and figuring out just what happened to her while she was gone.

  I waited outside the bathroom while she showered. Ash didn’t linger. She was opening the bathroom door within ten minutes, her grey eyes looking up at me. The tips of her hair were faded; she’d need to go over them with pink again soon. Or maybe she was letting it go. I wouldn’t force her to keep dying them pink if she didn’t want to…although I had come to love the small splash of color on her. It made her grey eyes pop.

  I noticed she wore nothing, getting a good, long look at her wet, naked body. She was beautiful, no matter what she wore, and I felt my dick growing hard again. It took everything in me to not focus on my growing erection and to meet her eyes and pretend she wasn’t the worst kind of temptation.

  The worst, the best, whatever.

  “Can you grab some of Sawyer’s clothes for me?” Ash glanced over her shoulder, at the hoodie and lingerie slip that laid in the sink. “I don’t want to put those back on.”

  If my eyes could’ve burned holes through that tiny piece of fabric, they would’ve. Did Ray make her dress in that? Did he force her to…

  No. I couldn’t let myself overreact. If vengeance needed to be had, I would have it. I would bring the entire family down on that man and show him what true monsters were capable of. Some monsters were no better than animals, but others? Others were like fine connoisseurs, knowing exactly what to do and how to get away with it. Markus was a beast among men, and he wasn’t my only brother, either. I had lots. The family was much larger than your typical American family.

  “Sure,” I said. I tore my gaze off her, heading into Sawyer’s room. Sawyer was sprawled out on his bed, shirtless, his head off to the side. The grease had mostly been wiped from his hair; it was mostly pink now, although that color was starting to fade. His legs wore the same jeans he wore to the Halloween party, that horrible party when everything nearly fell apart. His skin looked pale, sweat beads forming. The bastard was already going through withdrawals.

  My old friend had looked better, it was true.

  I used the light from the hall to pull stuff from his dresser. Some basketball shorts, which was stupid, because I knew Sawyer never played. He only worked out like some kind of jacked-up freak. I also pulled out a white T-shirt.

  “Thank you,” Ash said once I handed them to her. Her eyes locked with mine, and I watched her swallow before closing the door again t
o change. I didn’t know why she felt like separating us, not now, not after I had her against Sawyer’s front door, but I let her close me out.

  As long as she didn’t lock me out completely, I’d be fine.

  I made my way downstairs and cleaned up the mess on the door, waiting for her to come down, and when she did, looking far too good in clothes that belonged to Sawyer, she asked, “Why are you here, Travis?” Her nipples were hard, poking through the white fabric of the T-shirt. The shorts threatened to swallow her up.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” I said. I’d moved to the living room, now sitting on the couch. A hand patted the couch beside me. “Declan’s on his way. Once he gets here, I’m going to force you to tell us everything.” I paused as she sluggishly moved to my side, sitting down and curling her legs under her. She was practically a ball on the couch.

  “You don’t have to force me,” Ash said. “I’m going to tell you everything.” Her eyes lifted to me, and even though she was merely a foot away, she felt miles apart from me in that moment. “There’s a lot you’re not going to like.”

  Oh, that much I was certain of. She didn’t need to warn me to prepare me. I already knew my little Ash had been hiding things from me, from all of us. If she planned on coming clean, she best come clean about it all. I didn’t know exactly how she was involved with Ray, but I knew she recognized him. I knew she knew who he was.

  My Ash was not the innocent bird she pretended to be.

  Chapter Ten – Ash

  It was a mistake to let Travis in like that, before I told him the truth. How was I supposed to refuse him, though? How was I supposed to look that tattooed man in the eyes and tell him no? He smelled of tobacco and fire, and even though he was just like Ray, I found myself needing him. Needing to be with him. Needing to feel wanted.

  Stupid, considering who I ran from. Even more stupid, considering how Travis thought I was his to command.

  He didn’t want me running away again. Well, no shit, Sherlock, I didn’t want to run away again either. It wasn’t like I ran away and had loads of fun. No, I went to a house whose owners were murdered by my ex, slept with my ex, and regretted every single bad decision I ever made in my life. It wasn’t a vacation. I didn’t go skiing or to the beach. No Disney World trips for me.

  No, Travis wasn’t going to like what I had to tell him, and Declan…I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to see Declan right now, but it sounded like he was on his way over. I still had no idea why Travis was in Sawyer’s house, however, and so while we sat there in wait for my roommate, I tried asking again, this time in a different manner.

  “I thought you and Sawyer weren’t talking to each other anymore?” I asked.

  Travis’s lips were drawn into a line. It was hard for me to imagine those lips on mine, swallowing me up with pure passion, his lean body holding me up. It was one of the hottest things that had ever happened to me, but still. It was probably a mistake. My eyes fell to his tattooed arms, and I ran my tongue over my bottom lip.

  Those tattoos were ridiculously sexy, weren’t they? Not to mention the clear, crisp hue of his blue eyes, and the way his black hair was messed up—undoubtedly from me needing to run my fingers through it while he was pounding away at me earlier.

  Oh, God. Now that we crossed that line, we could never go back.

  “It’s not like I’m here because I want to be here,” Travis remarked, eyeing me up. “I’m here for you, Ash.”

  “Why would you be in Sawyer’s house for me?”

  “Because you obviously care for the prick more than I’d like you to, and I’ve come to the realization that I can’t change how you feel. You are…insanely bull-headed and stubborn, and I’d have to be crazy to believe that I could change you.”

  His blunt words nearly made me gasp. “I—I do not care about Sawyer.” Damnit. A lie. I was supposed to stop lying. The lies were supposed to be in the past. That one just slipped out without me realizing it. Whoops.

  Travis stared at me, his sapphire gaze unyielding. “You were dropped in the middle of us, and it seems you’ve somehow leeched onto all of us, regardless of our feelings on the matter.”

  “Leeched?” I repeated. Did he really have to describe me using that word? Ew.

  “I know what happened at the party, after the incident in the basement,” Travis muttered, turning his gaze to the window on the side of the living room. A muscle in his jaw clenched, as if it pained him to say this next part, “I’m sorry you saw what you saw. Seeing your friend and Sawyer together must’ve hurt.”

  It was my turn to move my head and stare stoically off to the side, except instead of a window, I only ended up staring at the kitchen. “I’m assuming Declan knows too?”

  “He does. He met me here. He helped me with Sawyer and Kelsey.”

  My eyes squeezed shut as I remembered my best friend’s face, plastered in ecstasy as Sawyer fucked her from behind. Was bleaching your brain a thing? If not, it so needed to be, because that was something I wanted to clean my mind of. “And Kelsey?”

  “I texted her using your phone. She’s home, safe. She thinks you’re pissed at her, but…you are, so I assumed that was fine.”

  “My phone?” I distinctly remembered tossing it from the car window as Ray drove off, not wanting anyone to find me or text me. I threw it out, and Travis had it? That could only mean…

  Travis watched me with an intense expression. “I found it on the curb. I watched you leave, Ash. I was a minute too late to stop you from going, but I want you to know that if I would’ve gotten there sooner, I wouldn’t have let you go with him.”

  Oh, fuck. Things were just too complicated right now, weren’t they?

  His sapphire gaze fell to my neck, the scab on it. Next were my hands, my knuckles to be exact. The only thing he didn’t linger on was my feet, and that was because he’d seen me come in shoeless. “Did he hurt you?” It probably pained him to not ask me right away. He was trying to wait for Declan, but he had to know, and he had to know now.

  I absentmindedly reached for the small nick on my throat. “No,” I said. “I’ll explain it all soon.” Yeah, me explaining to Travis and Declan about how I threatened to off myself in front of Ray didn’t sound like a fun time. They were both going to be pissed.

  Something else came to mind, something that would’ve been on the forefront of most people’s minds, but I wasn’t quite normal. I knew that by now.

  “Did I…is Brooklyn—” For some reason, I couldn’t say the word dead. Silly, considering the fact that I’d tried to kill Ray and I’d let him lead me in stabbing that girl in that basement. Me and blood—we were tight. Me and murder…also tight, not that I was proud of it.

  “She’s alive, but you might’ve given her a concussion.” Travis shrugged, and I could tell just by the way he talked he didn’t really give a shit. “I didn’t stick around to check. I was too busy trying to find you like a madman.” A harsh breath flowed from his lungs, and his blue eyes darkened as he stared at me. “You drive me mad sometimes, Ash.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, not that much sorry at all. It wasn’t something I could help. I might’ve stepped into the mess between Sawyer, Declan, and Travis, but on the flipside, they also stepped into my mess. Into Ray’s mayhem.

  Travis didn’t get a chance to say anything else, for it was at that moment that the front door opened, and Declan rushed in. He wore a wrinkled shirt that I bet he’d spent the last thirty-six hours in, along with jeans that hugged his lean frame well. His brown hair was an unkempt mess, but he looked amazing all the same. Even though Ray’s words rung in my head, I couldn’t help but feel happy to see him.

  It felt like years, stupid as it was. Picturing his face and actually seeing it were two totally different things.

  The moment Declan’s brown eyes spotted me, his lips parted and he rushed to me. It was like Travis wasn’t even in the room as he hurried to my side, swept me into his arms, held me against his body, and kissed me with a passio
n I didn’t know he was capable of. I was too stunned to move, to react, but soon enough I relaxed and let myself taste him, if only for a few moments.

  Reunions. You never could tell how they were going to go.

  Declan released me, and his hands were slow to drop off my face. He plopped himself on the coffee table in front of the couch, slowly moving his stare from me to Travis. Something unspoken passed between them, and I wondered if Declan somehow knew that Travis had fucked me against the door.

  “Wonderful,” Travis bit the word out, and I could tell he wasn’t exactly thrilled to watch Declan embrace me like that. Honestly, as long as he didn’t go Rambo on him, I didn’t care. No more attempted murder or kidnapping here. That was so last week. “Now unless you want to take her upstairs for an extended reunion, can we talk about what the fuck happened Saturday night?”

  Cheeks flushing red, Declan swallowed and turned to me. “Are you okay?” He wouldn’t drag me upstairs or fuck me against a door. Declan wasn’t like that. He was…well, at one point in time I would’ve said he was more gentlemanly, kinder than that, less wild and rough, but now I started to suspect differently.

  If what Ray said was true, if Ray hadn’t hurt Declan…was it possible Declan had done it to himself? Depressed people were on a rollercoaster; it wasn’t always a straight shot up. Sometimes you went down, and sometimes, after you went up, you actually felt worse. Maybe because you knew how bad things could get. Maybe because when things started to get better, you let yourself start to hope. There were a lot of stupid, dangerous things in this world. Love, hope, and faith were three of them.

  “I’m as good as I’ll ever be,” I told him. I let out a sigh. “What do you know about Ray Ruiz?”

  “We know who he is, what he did, how he got off,” Travis rattled away.

  “What we don’t know is his connection to you,” Declan added. “Travis said it looked like you knew him.” Dark stubble graced his jaw, as if he hadn’t shaved since before the ill-fated Halloween party. I liked a smooth chin, but for some reason, that stubble made me warm up in all the right places. It made him look older. It made him look a bit like his brother, Will.