by Laura Avery
And, damn me, if I didn’t feel tears forming behind my eyes like a fucking pussy.
I pushed them back and shook him off. “Whatever, I’ll put some ice on it.” He paused, an unsure look on his face and I sighed, knowing that there was something else he wasn’t telling me. “What?”
“I think it would be a good idea if you got into a relationship.”
"Jesus, dad," I started choking on the water I had just downed. “You want me to do what?”
“We have to prove to the media and to the shareholders that you have what it takes to be serious.” He bit down on his lip. “It’ll just be for a few weeks. You can start off as friends and then something can bubble over and turn into a relationship. Once things are settled with the paperwork you can announce a mutual split. What can go wrong?”
What can go wrong? Only fucking everything.
“Sure, let me just pull a girlfriend out of thin air, dad. Easy.”
My father glanced at the sidelines again. “Are you joking? It will take you five seconds. Any girl here would be thrilled at the idea. Just… don’t make her your usual type, Nate. She has to be naïve, almost… pure. The media loves that kind of shit. The all-star with the girl next door, the press will eat it up like moths to a fucking flame.” He nudged into me, pleased with himself.
“Dad, I don’t want a fucking girlfriend. Not now. Not ever.”
“It’s only temporary, Nate.” He started to back away before I had a chance to say anything else. “Oh,” he paused. “Have you heard about The Westfield Times thing yet?”
I froze under the stadium light, the girl from last night flashing into my mind again. “The Westfield Times thing?” I tried to play dumb but my stomach was starting to rage underneath me.
“Get this. Some loser English teacher is assigning research papers to members of your school and getting The Westfield Times to have a look at it. My contact over there called me right away and I made sure yours was one of the names on the ballot.” He winked like he had done me a huge favor. “I just wonder whose name they will pick.”
He laughed wildly and I felt my hands shift into tight fists.
“Anyway, when the bookworm who got your name comes up to you with a release just sign it and get her out of your hair.”
Hannah’s face crept into my mind and a sense of annoyance immediately came over me. No way in hell was I giving her the gift of writing an article about me after the way she had talked to me last night. The girl had the mouth of a trucker, which was surprising considering how pure she seemed otherwise.
Pure, the words rang through my mind over and over again.
“I don’t need any more press,” I growled. “I get plenty.”
“Hey, all press is good press, son.” He kept backing away from me, barely paying attention to where he was walking. “Just sign the release. I have this whole thing all set up, you’ll see.”
And then he was gone, leaving me in complete turmoil, the way he always did when he was in my presence. I kicked the basket of footballs next to me over with a swift swing. I hated the way he made me feel, despised the uneasy feeling he left me with all the fucking time.
But I didn’t really have a choice. I had to do what he told me to.
Because my father had something on me.
Something so dark that I had forced it out of my mind long ago, letting it turn my entire existence to black. Something so deep and devil like that it had forced any good in me bad years ago.
And if it ever got out, it would ruin my entire existence.
Chapter Four
HANNAH
I slapped down the piece of paper with Nathan’s name on it on my professor's desk and shook my head. “I need another name, Ms. Walsh, the topic you gave me is impossible to explore further.”
She leaned back in her chair. “Is that so?”
I nodded eagerly. The truth was that I was still pretty ticked off about what had gone down last night. The sooner I could get rid of all traces of Nathan Cummings the better and that included the little piece of paper with his name on it. “He won’t sign it, he flat out refused to sign it.”
She studied my face for a few beats, not even bothering to look at the paper I had placed in front of her. “I think you should keep trying, Hannah.” And then she looked back down at the stack of papers in front of her, silently dismissing me.
My mouth hung open. Had everyone lost their mind around here? I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. “Ms. Walsh, you aren’t understanding me, I can’t do the assignment, my subject wants nothing to do with it.” I was trying to keep my tone calm, trying to remember no matter how annoyed I currently was, she was still my professor.
“Keep trying.” She didn’t even look up.
“I can’t.”
“Then you fail.” She looked up and met my eyes.
“But I need this class to graduate!”
“Then I suggest you get started on your assignment, Ms. Parker.”
I stood there for a second, stunned into silence. Once I realized she wasn’t going to say anything else I lunged forward and grabbed the paper from her desk again before I stomped out of the room and slammed the door shut behind me.
Okay, maybe, I was being a little dramatic but could you really blame me?
My entire grade depended on the campus hottie who happened to have the biggest chip ever on his shoulder. Even if I could get him to ever talk to me again there was no way he would get over his cocky attitude long enough to actually agree with what I needed from him.
I was still fuming twenty minutes later, even with a fresh coffee in my hands. The swift breeze across the campus did little to calm my overwhelming anxiety about the situation at hand. Ms. Walsh was normally so reasonable. What was her problem? It wasn’t my fault Nathan wanted nothing to do with me!
Not that I wanted anything to do with him, either.
He was awful. He was full of himself. He thought the entire world revolved around him just because he could throw a damn football. Must be nice to live in such a bizarre fantasy land. Sure, he had managed to manipulate my body into an ecstasy of hotness last night with his smoldering face and chiseled chest but the next time I saw him it would be different.
I wouldn’t be filled with the same sense of heat; I wouldn’t fall for his stupid deep blue eyes or his signature cocky smirk. No, the next time I saw him I would be firm and unaffected. I would be determined and I would get exactly what it was I needed out of him. If Nathan Cummings thought he could ruin my future just because I had bruised his pussy count last night he had another thing coming.
I was so busy thinking about how different my next encounter was going to be with him that I didn’t realize I was crashing into someone until it happened. I lunged forward, my body colliding into a hard chest forcefully.
A set of muscular arms lunged out and caught me before I could lose my balance completely and I knew who it was even before I looked up into those sparkly blues. The lust and tingles that came over my thighs gave it away right away; it was the same exact feeling as last night.
“If you wanted to get on top of me you could have just asked,” Nathan breathed.
I pushed my body off of his in annoyance, so fast that I ended up losing my balance again, this time landing on my butt in the middle of the quad. An act that would have been embarrassing under normal circumstance but added to the fact that it was in front of Nathan and the rest of his adoring fans and it resulted in outright humiliation. “Crap,” I mumbled, brushing my hands again my knees.
Nathan’s large arms were under my shoulders in seconds, pulling me up like I weighed nothing. “Fuck, Hannah, can you try to stay on your feet for more than two seconds?” Something I couldn’t read passed over his features briefly –concern maybe- before his usual lazy and full-of-himself gaze glazed back to the surface.
Being that close to him again had my body feeling all star struck. I pushed my legs together and scowled myself. Calm down, Hannah, you act
like you’ve never seen a hot guy before. I tried to force my eyes away from his defined chest and up to his face but the feeling in my veins only deepened. Apparently, I had forgotten for five seconds that Nathan Cummings was more than just a hot body; he was perfect from head to toe. And that included his deep eyes, soft lips, and angled jaw.
“You,” I seethed up at him.
“Me,” he replied happily.
“You,” I said again, pushing my finger into his chest this time. “Are ruining my life.” It was only then that I realized his hands were still holding me up upright and I forced them off of me, sending the hot flash that had been overtaking my body to calm down instantly.
Nathan tightened his grip on the straps of the black bag that was slung over the back of his large shoulders and tilted his head to the side as he looked down at me. “Wow, girls usually wait until after I’ve slept with them to make such a bold statement.” And then he let out a sharp half laugh.
The sound startled me and I felt my shoulders jump slightly. Lord, was everything about Nathan captivating? Even his laugh was dominating and loud, drawing even more attention to us than before. I tried to ignore the curious looks the rest of the campus was giving us. I already knew what they were thinking. What was Nathan Cummings doing talking to a girl like me?
“My teacher refuses to give me a new subject for my research paper! Apparently, even my English teacher is obsessed with the idea of you!” I half yelled it toward him like it was an insult but it turned out to be a waste of breath since Nathan was barely paying attention to me, he was too busy winking at the blonde who just walked past him and shot him a flirty wave.
I smacked him hard across the center of the chest. “Hey, superstar, down here!”
He tore his eyes back toward me. “What? You jealous?” Then he preceded to look me up and down slowly like he was doing me a favor. His baby blues started on my feet and didn’t stop until they were resting on my face, only pausing a few times along the way. Once when he reached the spot between my legs and again when my breasts came into his view.
I crossed my arms over my chest and squeezed my legs together even tighter self-consciously. I was back to my normal self this morning, my average self. The pounds of makeup and styling products were long gone, replaced with my signature blank skin and limp brown hair. And my wardrobe? Well, let’s just say my black sweatpants and hoodie were a far reach from the tight fighting dress I had forced every part of my body into last night.
“I told you I didn’t always look like that!” I spat out before I had a chance to think about it. Ugh, why did he make me so damn nervous? He was a massive jerk! He should have been the last person in the world who I was wasting my energy on. Still, it was like a virus that had infected the entire campus, one that made you want Nathan Cumming’s approval.
What a joke.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“But you were thinking it!”
He leaned in closer to me, sending his minty scent flying further into the air. “You didn’t tell me you could read minds, Hannah. I’m not an easy man to impress but…”
“I don’t see a man anywhere.” I tried to put more distance between us.
Nathan’s eyes went dark and the smirk disappeared from his face, replaced with something deeper, something that sent shivers up my spine. He moved closer to me, moving his lips to my ear the same way he had last night. “Oh, trust me, Hannah, I’m all man.”
“Can you make me not throw up before noon?” I found myself saying even though the thought of his manhood pressed up against me wasn’t a horrible mental fantasy. I shoved him again and made a gagging sound. “You, Nathan Cummings, are going to do the right thing for once in your life and sign this damn release.”
Nathan watched in amusement as I dug through my bag, pulling out my cell phone, a bunch of pens, and a notebook before my fingers finally closed around the release. “Here!” I held it out to him, hoping he wouldn’t notice the slight shake of my hand.
Nathan glanced at it and then reached around it, grabbing my cell phone out of my hand instead and bringing the screen to life. “No passcode, really?” He shook his head in disapproval and then started typing away at my keypad.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I gasped.
He shoved my phone back at me. “I just called me from your phone.”
“What the hell for?” My voice sounded hoarse.
Ugh, why was I always swearing at him?
“Hey,” a loud voice called from across the campus. “Would you quit trying to fuck the entire freshman class, Cummings, and get your ass over here? Some of us have places to be.”
I glanced at the guy on the other side of the quad and tried to not turn an entire shade of red in the process. I had never had this many eyes on me in my life and while I knew they were only looking because of Nathan, it still made me feel extremely uncomfortable and on edge.
Nathan pushed his hand under my chin and forced me to look at him. “I’ll be in touch.” And then he slowly started to back away from me toward his boys on the other side of campus. “But, damn, don’t be embarrassed, Hannah, because you’re definitely fuckable, even when you aren’t sexed up.”
My words from last night rang through my mind and I felt like I might pass out.
Nathan smirked and shot me a wink and then he was gone completely.
Oh, I was so screwed.
Chapter Five
NATHAN
“You know, I might have to start ditching you after practice, it takes me forty-five fucking minutes just to walk 600 feet.” My best friend and running back for the team, Luke Collins, slapped his large hand on my shoulder and shook his head in disapproval, sending his blonde hair bouncing back and forth on his head.
“Oh, who are you kidding?” I shook him off and shot a wave at the group of Freshman girls who were circling around us, dying for a chance to pounce. “You love this shit more than I do.”
Luke was one of the few people on the team I actually considered a friend for life. We had met on our first day of freshman orientation and clicked right away. Unlike the rest of the assholes around here, Luke never asked me for anything. Never wanted a favor. Never needed money. And the shit I told him never ended up on the front page of a trashy tabloid.
He snickered and followed my eyes. “Sometimes.” Then he paused and looked over my shoulder to where I had just come from driving Hannah crazy. “She doesn’t seem like your usual type.”
Hannah’s big brown eyes and thick thighs flashed through my mind. “It’s not like that, I like getting a reaction out of her. She’s… different.” I wish I had a better way to describe the intense feelings that ran through my body the few times I had been around her but they were a foreign concept, even to me. How the fuck could I explain it to Luke when I couldn’t even understand it myself?
“Yeah, she looks different, and the girls around here will eat her for lunch if you let your attention linger on her too long.” Luke laughed softly, his eyebrows raised. “Anyway, looks like you got yourself some completion.”
I turned around, my eyes falling on the spot I had left Hannah moments earlier and immediately felt tension shoot up and down my body. Jeff Jonas, Freshman recruit, and my back up was standing in front of her, his head bowed low, searching her eyes as he said something to her in a tone I couldn’t read thanks to the distance between us. I was moving back toward her before I had a chance to think about it.
“Nate,” Luke warned from behind me.
“I’m fine,” I snapped.
But I felt far from it. Jeff had been one of the pricks giving Hannah shit last night when she came up to us at the party. So, what the fuck was he doing talking to her now? The guy rubbed me the wrong way and the last thing I wanted was for him to start some mind game with a girl like Hannah.
She was too innocent.
My cock twitched at the thought and I forced myself under control.
“What’s good, Jonas?” The freshman’
s head jolted forward and he took a step away from Hannah. He looked like he had just been caught committing a crime. Yeah, that’s right, motherfucker; you better back the fuck up.
“Nothing, bro, I was just heading toward the gym.” His tone sounded unsure.
“Then I guess you should get going, huh?”
He looked down at Hannah but she was too busy glaring at me.
“Are you trying to clear your answer with her?” I seethed at him sarcastically, clenching my fists at my sides in an effort to not fly completely off the handle. What the fuck did he think he could do? Treat her like shit last night and then come over here and try to get her into his bed? The thought of him touching her made me want to punch the light out of his eyes.
His eyes turned hard for half a second but then he was backing away from us, holding his hands up in mock surrender. “Nope. I’ll see you in practice.” He shot one last look at Hannah and then he was gone.
“What the fuck were you doing talking to him?” I growled down at her.
“What is your problem?” She hissed, ignoring my question.
“What the fuck did he want?” I tried again, saying the words slower this time.
Confusion clouded her dark brown eyes and she bit down on her lip, shrugging. “He just wanted to apologize to me for what happened last night.” She ran her tongue over her bottom lip. “About what he said.”
I laughed. “What a douchebag.”
Her eyes narrowed in anger. “I don’t think so! He was being nice!”
I felt my heart pick up pace in my chest. Nice? Was she joking? “That’s the problem with girls like you, you think every guy who goes out of his way to talk to you is “nice” when the reality of the situation is that he just wants to see how fast he can get you naked.”
She blushed. “Girls like me? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Naïve,” I scoffed. “Innocent. Virgin.”
“I’m not!” She choked out, barely able to control how red her cheeks grew.