“I want to take you on a date,” he says, but already I can feel it — that magnetic field between us firing to life. His hand tightens where it holds me, eyes falling to my lips. “An actual date where we talk and catch up and maybe get to know something new about each other, too.”
“Okay,” I say breathlessly, and my fingers trail up the buttons of his shirt, hooking over the collar. “When?”
“As soon as you’ll let me,” he purrs, his free hand finding my knee. It trails up, slow and steady, leaving chills in its wake.
I unfasten the first button of his shirt, then the second. “This week is kind of busy at work… can I let you know?”
Jarrett’s hand splays over my thigh, fingertips so long they brush the hem of my tiny shorts. “As long as you actually let me know, yes.”
“I will,” I promise, mouth parting, eyes flicking to his. “We could talk now, you know,” I offer, but even as I say the words, I’m undoing the last of his shirt buttons and shoving the fabric back, over his shoulders, down to his elbows where it catches.
“We could,” he muses with a smirk, helping me get his shirt the rest of the way off. As soon as he’s topless, my eyes roaming the painted valleys and ridges of his abdomen, he grabs my hips and tosses me like a teddy bear back into my pillows. “Or you could take your shorts off, pull those perfect tits out of that thin little thank top they’ve been teasing me through, and let me make you come a couple times before I have to go to work.”
My pussy tightens at the words, and without me having to answer, he’s already slipping his fingers under the bands of my shorts and tugging. I lift my hips to allow him access to strip them off, and then he reaches for my tank top, roughly yanking until my tits pop up through the neckline.
He bites his lip on a moan, sucking my left nipple hard between his teeth before moving on to the right. When they’re both puckered and I’m writhing beneath him, he kisses his way down, and then flips us so that I’m on top.
Straddling that beautiful face of his.
“You’re always so hungry in the morning,” I tease, but the words lose their bark at the end when he flicks his tongue against me, his hands grabbing my ass and pulling me into him.
“Insatiable, really,” he growls.
My hands fly to the headboard to keep me steady when he licks me long and slow, seam to bud, and then sucks my clit with just enough pressure to make my legs quake around him.
And just like that, any attempt at talking is forgotten.
Jarrett’s hands are steadfast on my ass as he helps me ride his face, sucking and licking and biting and kissing like eating pussy for breakfast is his favorite pastime. I lose myself completely with him, succumbing to not one, not two, but three orgasms. The first one comes from his tongue, the second from him taking me from behind, and the third time in the shower where we’re both trying to be good and get clean.
But we’re naked, and wet, and steamy… like we could keep our hands off each other.
By the time he forces me to let him go so he can get dressed and go to work, I’m sore and aching in all the best places, my eyes ready to close for a long nap when he kisses my forehead and lets himself out.
I surrender to sleep the second he’s gone.
And somewhere in that strange state of not quite sleeping but not quite awake, I swear I can hear my phone buzzing on the kitchen counter down the hall.
“GO, GO, GO!” ERIN screams beside me, jumping up and down like a wild animal, and now that she’s stripped off her beanie, her dark blonde hair is flying everywhere — including right in my face. She nearly steps on my toes before I grab her waist to hold her steady, laughing when she turns to face me with wide eyes. “What?”
“I love that you’re excited,” I tell her. “Just… watch for other people’s feet. And faces.”
She smiles — and God, the sight knocks my next breath from my chest. It’s not a small smile or a soft, reserved one. It’s full on, eyes crinkled, teeth dazzling and lips spread smiling.
My happy Erin.
How I’ve missed her.
She whips around again in time to see my little brother get tackled to the ground about five yards from the end zone, and she throws her hands up in victory, jumping up and down again before crushing me in a hug.
“He’s amazing!” she says, stripping her scarf off. “And so tall and massive. He’s going to kill it when he gets to college. I’m sure he’ll have the ladies all over him, too.” She pauses, then starts unzipping her jacket. “Do you think he’ll go pro?!”
I laugh, stopping her before she can remove the puffy Patagonia. “Hey, don’t take off too many layers. You’re warm now because you’re jumping around, but I don’t want you catching a cold.”
“I love this,” she says breathlessly as the team lines up for the next play. “Football, cold weather, hot chocolate, fire pits, pumpkin everything… this is fall.”
“I don’t know how you do it in Florida,” Mom chimes in from next to her, shaking her head. “Still eighty degrees in November? No, thank you.”
“Ninety when we left for the airport,” Erin corrects her.
“Maybe you’ll end up here one day,” Mom says, and I don’t miss the mischievous look in her eyes when she says it. I also don’t miss how bright her smile is, how full her cheeks are, how healthy and happy she looks compared to the woman who’d run off my freshman year of college.
Whatever happened in Mexico, it seems to have set her right. And I’m thankful, at least, Clayton gets to see this side of her, gets to grow up with a mom who’s present and working and sober.
“Real subtle there, Mom,” I tease.
She shrugs. “Hey, I’m just saying, Erin has only been here two days and she’s fallen in love already.”
“It’s true. I mean, how could I not? Just driving through that tunnel, being in the country one second and then bam,” Erin says, illustrating with her hands splaying wide like a panorama. “A whole city!” She looks at me and shrugs. “Who knows where life will take us after I graduate.”
My heart flips in my stomach at the thought, at the way she’s watching me, at the fact that she sees me in the picture after graduation, sees a future where we might possibly move to my home city.
The ball is snapped on the field, and we all turn in time to watch the quarterback throw a perfect spiral to Clayton, giving him the touchdown he almost had on the play before.
We go wild, along with the rest of the stadium, and Erin jumps into my arms, pressing a celebration kiss to my lips that makes me wish for my little brother to get at least a dozen more touchdowns just like that one.
After the game — which we win by a landslide — we all go to our favorite family-owned sports bar for a late-night dinner. Clayton might as well be a celebrity for how many people want to shake his hand or take a picture with him or get his autograph when we walk through the door. He gets interrupted the whole time we’re there, but I don’t mind at all.
I’m so fucking proud of him, my chest is the size of a hot air balloon.
“Stop looking at me like that,” he teases, his voice a deep baritone I’m not used to. He’s grown up so fast, in the blink of an eye it seems, and that stubborn, cocky teenage attitude I had is settling in on him just the same. He’s got longer hair now, dreaded and styled, and when a few girls walk by giggling, I laugh at the lazy-eyed smile he gives them.
If Palm South thought I was trouble…
“Like I’m proud of you?” I shrug. “No can do, little brother. Going to have to get used to it.”
Clayton throws a French fry at me.
“Did you see the scouts?” Mom asks him, eating a sweet potato tot from her own plate. “This is the third game that one from Alabama has been to.”
Clayton shrugs. “He can come to as many as he wants. I’m going to PSU.”
“I love that you love my alma mater so much,” I tell him, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “But there’s nothing wrong with exploring options.
Alabama is a D1 school.”
“Doesn’t matter. I know where I’m going. I’ve known since I was twelve,” he says, meeting my eye.
The admiration there, the respect… it’s enough to make my throat squeeze tight like there’s a fist around it.
Erin smiles, leaning her head on my shoulder as she says, “Well, I for one think you’ve got your head on straight. Palm South is the best university there is.”
“And they’re going to be the best football team there is when I’m there,” Clayton says.
The two of them high five across me, and Mom and I shrug, knowing that — at least for now — we’ve been beat.
I’m on a high after dinner, and with Clayton going out to celebrate with his friends and Mom going to sleep, it leaves only Erin and me. Once I confirm she’s as far from sleepy as I am, I bundle her up and pack a few blankets, taking her to my favorite rooftop.
“Wait, wait, wait,” she says through a mixture of laughter and tears around midnight. The moon is hidden behind thick, navy-gray clouds tonight, but it somehow illuminates her just enough for me to see that beautiful smile. “You’re telling me that you,” she says, pointing at me. “And Skyler?”
She laughs again before she can even get the rest of the sentence out.
I nod. “Yep. Right here,” I say, patting the rooftop under our blanket. “It was her first time coming to Pittsburgh with me. She was single at the time, and so was I, and we were very, very drunk.” He shrugs. “Everyone always asked if we had ever had feelings, I think we just got curious.”
“And did you?” Erin asks, her voice a little tinged with something akin to jealousy. “Have feelings for her, I mean?”
“God, no,” I say instantly, shaking my head. “Not like that, anyway. We made out, got about as far as me taking her shirt off, and then we both burst into laughter.”
“Sounds like you two.”
“We’re best friends,” I explain. “We’ve been through a lot of shit together. I’d kill anyone who hurt her, and I know she’d do the same for me.”
“So I should call Kip and warn him?”
I sigh. “Don’t get me started on that fiasco.”
Erin chuckles, then crawls over from where she was reclining on the blanket to cuddle with me. “Okay. Now I’m cold,” she says.
“We can go back to the hotel,” I say softly in her ear, dragging the tip of my nose up her neck. “I know many ways to warm you right up.”
“Mmmm,” she says. “Yes, please. But let’s stay here a while. This view…”
We both sweep our gazes over the city lights, the way they dance over the river and twinkle like stars all around us.
“You really think we could end up here one day?” I ask her after a while.
“I think it’s as possible as staying in Florida. I mean, it’s not like you’re super in love with your job, right? And I could go anywhere after graduation.”
“You know,” I say. “I’ve been thinking about that, actually. My job. You know the account manager I work with, the one who hired me as her personal trainer?”
“Giselle, yeah?”
I nod. “Well, she thinks I might be onto something with my training and nutrition. She thinks I could open my own business.”
Erin goes stiff in my arms, then turns to face me, her eyes wide. “Oh, my God. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that first.”
“You really think I could do it?”
“Are you kidding me?” she asks, knocking on my abs like a wooden door to illustrate.
I laugh.
“Look at you! You know more about fitness and nutrition than anyone I know. I’m in the best shape of my life since we started dating, and I didn’t even have to hire you.”
I shrug. “I don’t know.”
“I do. And you have the graphic design skills, the coding experience to do a website. You might need to hire some help eventually, but you could get started on your own. For sure.”
“Giselle said the same thing.”
“Well, she’s a smart woman.” Erin kisses my cheek. “I can help you with a business plan.”
“Will you be my sexy little lawyer on call, too?” I tease, biting her neck when she turns back around and leans into me.
“I’ll wear your favorite pencil skirt and everything.”
That earns her a moan from me, and she chuckles, but then goes silent for a long while.
“They’re questioning me this week,” she says.
I swallow. I don’t have to ask who. The case has been slow going, but the detectives and lawyers have already questioned me, the girls, and the fucking assholes who raped Erin, as well as their disgusting friends. Who would go to bat for them, I can’t imagine — but they have to be pure scum.
“You’re going to crush it,” I whisper.
“It’s going to crush me,” she whispers back.
I hold her tighter, kissing her neck and wrapping her up as much as I can, letting her know I have her, that she’s safe, that it will all be okay.
“I just… what if we go through all this, and they win anyway? What if we go to court and the judge rules in their favor?” She pauses. “What if it doesn’t even make it to court?”
“They won’t win,” I tell her. I don’t say anything further. Those three words are everything she needs to know, everything I firmly believe.
“I love you,” she whispers into the night, those words sweeping up on a soft breeze to caress my ears.
“I love you,” I tell her. “And I’m proud of you, for stepping forward, for speaking out against them.”
“I hope I don’t regret it.”
“No matter what happens, you shouldn’t,” I tell her. “Win or lose, court or no court — you’re an example for other victims, an inspiration for other women to tell their stories, too.”
Erin nods softly, but I don’t miss the single tear that wells up and rolls down her right cheek.
I thumb it away, tilting her chin until she’s facing me, and seal my admiration for her with a long kiss.
“So,” I ask her, knowing she needs a break in the subject. “Will we live in the city, or the outskirts?”
“City, of course,” she says. “How about that building there?”
She points at one across the city that I know costs at least a half-a-million dollars for a two-bedroom condo, but I nod anyway.
“Looks perfect.”
Erin turns, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Perfect is wherever I am with you.”
I CAN’T TELL IF Skyler wants to wrap me up in the biggest hug ever…
Or strangle me.
On the one hand, I know her heart is full that I’m taking a Little, that our family is growing, that our legacy in Kappa Kappa Beta will live on after we’re gone. Erin never took the news well that I didn’t want a Little, but Skyler supported me no matter what. Still, I know deep down she’s always wanted me to take a Little, too, and I know she was ecstatic to hear I’d changed my mind.
On the other hand, I made her dress up like Ron from Harry Potter for the reveal.
With a gold and garnet scarf around her neck, a long black robe down to her knees, an orange wig, a stuffed toy rat in one hand, and a wand in the other — she looks absolutely adorable.
And also ready to kill me.
“She should be here soon,” I promise Skyler, checking the time on my watch. “If she followed all the clues and spells correctly — which I’ have no doubt she did — we’ve got maybe ten minutes.”
“I’m fine, Little,” Skyler says, and her smile tells me maybe she is closer to wanting to crush me in a hug rather than cut off my oxygen supply.
“You really do look great.”
She chuckles. “Your hair is ridiculous.”
I laugh at that, touching the frizzy curls I pulled off to complete my Hermione look — thanks to an overwhelming amount of teasing and hairspray.
“You’re excited,” she says after a minute, that small smile holding firm.
>
I nod. “I really am. Tera is awesome. If anyone is going to take on our family number and reputation, I couldn’t have asked for anyone better than her.”
“She’s lucky to have you for her Big.”
I frown. “For a couple more months. Then, we both leave her.”
A light flashes in Skyler’s eyes at something behind me, and her smile grows. “Something tells me she’ll be just fine.”
We’re on one side of the reflection pond, the water backlist and spraying up into the night, and when I turn to look where Skyler’s gaze has fallen, I can’t help but burst into laughter.
I set up a scavenger hunt of sorts for Tera all across campus, giving her clues of where to find hidden mystery items to complete her Harry Potter costume — like his glasses, a gold lightning bolt tattoo for her forehead, her robe, her Gryffindor scarf, and even a stuffed Hedwig. Along with finding the objects, she had to perform “spells” to random people I had in on the event in order to get her next clue.
And the last task? Defeat the cardboard Voldemort I had printed out and staged in the middle of the pond.
It looks like a scene out of a movie, the way her hair is flying back behind her, scarf in the wind, her wand held high as she banshee screams and runs through the water toward the cardboard cutout. In dramatic fashion, she stops right in front of him, the most determined look in her eyes, and then she holds her wand right to his nose and screams, “Avada Kedavra!”
When nothing happens, she pauses, breathing heavy and looking around.
So, I take my cue, sprinting from our hiding spot and splashing into the pond, too.
Tera’s eyes light up at the sight of me, and to match her energy, I land a kick right to the cardboard cutout Voldemort’s chest, bending him in half before he falls into the water.
Then, Tera and I are screaming and laughing and hugging and crying and all the memories of when I found out Skyler was my Big rush back to me in the most vicious, most beautiful flood.
Greek: A New Adult College Romance (Palm South University Book 7) Page 14