Vincent, the leanest of the five of us, asked, “What time is the funeral on Sunday?”
I took another swig. The last thing I wanted to do was think about that. My aunt Kari, who had shown up two nights ago, had been a blubbering mess as we’d gone through photos for the funeral director. The bodies weren’t in any shape for open coffins.
Suddenly, I wanted to puke. So I drank more.
Lucas slapped Vincent on the back of the head. “Did you have to go and open your flapper?”
Vincent regarded me with sad blue eyes. “Sorry, man. If you told me, I forgot. And my mom has been on me to find out. She wants to be there for you.”
“Noon,” Lucas said.
“I really don’t know how you’re upright, Ryker,” Erik added.
Fuck if I did either. Just thinking about the plane crash and what that would’ve been like was enough to keep me drinking for a lifetime. The other morbid part of all this was that I was supposed to be on that plane. I’d had every intention to fly to Tahoe with my family for the weekend. My dad had had a meeting with a client on Friday of that weekend in Reno and had wanted to make the trip a family getaway.
I shivered.
I’d had practice, which was the only reason I hadn’t gone. Coach had a rule that no one missed practice before the first game unless there was a good excuse, like a sickness or, as in my case, a death in the family.
I took another swig of the expensive scotch. I’d swiped the bottle from Franklin’s office. Actually, he’d given me the go-ahead to take the bottle. I hadn’t argued.
“Let’s kick back. Enjoy the festivities.” My voice came out scratchy, so I cleared it. “I want to see if my dick works anyway.” Change of plans. Instead of drowning in just booze, it was time to add a woman to the mix.
The four of my friends busted out laughing.
I glanced at my crotch. “I’m serious. Aside from the mornings, I can’t seem to get him to work.”
Vincent raised a reddish eyebrow. “Drinking isn’t helping.”
“Nah,” Ajax chimed in. “It isn’t the alcohol. He just needs someone to give him a run for his money. He’s always had it too easy with women.”
“What are you?” I asked. “A psychologist now?”
Lucas started for the door. “Come on, boys. We need to change the mood.”
For sure. I capped my flask and headed downstairs.
A myriad of scents overpowered my nostrils. Perfume permeated from the females, who were gabbing and laughing, while music droned in the background. But no one smelled of lilacs. Nevertheless, I searched for the redhead, but I didn’t get far before a handful of women crowded me and hands were all over me. I felt like a celebrity who had just gotten out of the limo on a red carpet.
I lifted my arms over my head. “Ladies, let me get a drink. Then we can hang out.”
Erik stuck out his big paw and grabbed me. “He’ll be right back.” He tugged me from the hungry women and had to swat off more as we headed for the coolers that were situated near a table of food on the back wall. Erik snagged two beers and handed me one. We toasted, our bottles clanging together.
“Thanks for the rescue.” I knocked back a huge gulp of the ice-cold liquid.
Lucas, Ajax, and Vincent had gotten hung up, talking to three pretty ladies near the door.
“I got your back,” Erik said.
I knew the entire team did, which sent a warm feeling spreading throughout my chest. The football team was my family now. Sure, I had Aunt Kari and an uncle, who hadn’t talked to my dad. My father and his brother had had a falling out many years ago. My grandparents were no longer living. So Aunt Kari, Franklin, and my friends were the closest I would get to a family.
“You may have to pick me up off the floor one day,” I said more to myself. That was the truth.
Coldplay belted out of the speakers.
Erik bobbed his head of shaggy brown hair. “Anytime, man.”
A beat of silence stretched between us as we drank our beers.
Half the ladies watched Erik and me. Some were debating if they should come over and talk to us. Freshmen, I suspected. They were always the shy ones until they got the lay of the land.
“You know,” Erik said, “I count eleven guys and thirty or so girls. We could play choo-choo train. Line all the girls up while us boys sample a kiss from each of them. It will give us an idea which one we want to fuck tonight.”
I practically spit up my beer. “Fuck yeah. That sounds like a great game. Where did you come up with that?”
He hiked a broad shoulder. “My old man told me he played that as a kid in his garage with some girls in his neighborhood. Only there were more boys than girls. So the girls sampled the lineup.”
I continued to look around, deciding if I wanted to sample any of the hors d’oeuvres, as Beverly had put it. But when my gaze landed on the door, my lips split into an evil grin.
Erik chuckled. “I guess you’ve chosen yours.”
I didn’t move as I watched Haven weave through the crowd. She was probably looking for that girl she’d been sitting next to.
“She has an aura about her that I can’t put my finger on,” I said. My dick knew it too.
“Man, she’s a politician’s daughter.” Erik shook his head. “That’s not a good quality for you.”
He might be right, but she had something that was drawing me to her.
8
Haven
Every voice in my head told me to go back to the dorm. But like an idiot, my curiosity pushed me to go back inside the sorority, pushed me to see Ryker, and pushed me to ask the question I needed an answer to.
I spotted Ryker before he had a chance to look my way. It was hard not to spot him or any of the guys with him. All of them stood above the rest of the crowd. Ryker, though, was by far the one that commanded attention. I loved the way his gray eyes were clear rather than cloudy and droopy like they had been the other night or even the other morning when he’d pinned me against the bannister.
I want nothing to do with Ryker.
Vicki was talking with Beverly. The hairs on my neck rose. Maybe my theory that Vicki had partnered with Beverly and my father was true.
Stop being paranoid. Vicki is your roommate.
I wouldn’t put it past my father to have set her up specifically to watch me.
Vicki wants to get into this sorority. That is all.
A girl with short brown hair came up to me. “Haven. Right?”
“Who’s asking?” My tone came out rude.
The girl seemed like she belonged in high school. Then again, I was only nineteen and could pass for a senior in high school too. I suspected she was a freshman like me.
She held out her hand. “I’m April. I live in your dorm.”
We shook. No sense in being impolite to someone I didn’t know. That wasn’t my nature anyway unless someone got under my skin, which Ryker was doing by standing feet away.
“Haven,” I replied even though she knew me. After tonight, everyone would know that Senator Hale’s daughter attended Lakemont University. So much for keeping a low profile.
“So why did Ryker pick you out of the crowd?” She angled her head, batting long black lashes. I would guess she was wearing the fake synthetic kind that many women had done by a professional.
I was into makeup and self-care, like regular manicures and pedicures, but lashes weren’t my thing.
“Not sure,” I said. That was another question I wanted to ask Ryker and one of the reasons I’d decided to turn around and come back into the sorority house.
April brought the wine glass in her hands up to her red lips. “So you really think he’s a jerk?”
I chanced a look at the quarterback, and when I did, my heart rate took off.
Those swirling, stormy gray eyes were piercing through me as though he were ready to lay me out flat and do something to me that I was certain I would beg him to do again and again.
April looked with me.
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Ryker lifted his beer bottle. The guy next to him said something to him, and Ryker grinned, biting his lip.
I was about to answer April when the guy next to Ryker pushed through the crowd, heading right toward us.
“He’s hot,” April said.
The guy had a wide chest, big arms, unruly brown hair, and seductive brown eyes. Yeah, I had to agree.
“Ladies, I’m Erik.” Erik regarded me. “Big guy over there”—he stabbed a thumb toward Ryker—“wants a word with you.”
I rolled my eyes. “If he does, then he can walk his tight butt over here just like you did.”
Erik gave me a cheeky smile. “Maybe you are the right girl for him.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m April,” the girl next to me said to Erik.
Erik sized her up. “I see you’re all sunshine and flowers.”
I held back another eye roll. “Cheesy line.” Although April was wearing a flowered dress.
April giggled.
I guess his line worked. The two started talking, and Erik held out his arm to steal April away.
Instead of beelining it for Ryker, I started toward Vicki, who was now talking to another blond girl.
“Haven,” Vicki cooed. “I’m so glad you came back.”
The blond girl narrowed her beady dark eyes at me as though I were the enemy. Maybe I was since Ryker had made a spectacle of me. Then the girl left.
“It seems the women in here already hate me,” I said to Vicki.
Her hair was twisted up off her shoulders, and she dragged a hand over the side of her head, moving a wispy strand out of the way. “You know, Ryker is staring at you.”
I had my back to him, and I could almost feel his heated gaze. “So what did Beverly have to say?”
“She was going through some of the events for recruiting us freshmen. She’s a nice person.”
“She works for my father.” Irritation rode my tone. Then something occurred to me. “The night of Ryker’s party, you had a sorority meeting. I’m assuming Beverly was there.” If she was, then she couldn’t have been in two places at once.
Vicki frowned. “She left early. She got a call and then apologized to us because she had to take care of something.”
Bingo.
Vicki’s eyes widened as though a light bulb came on. “Maybe she isn’t so nice.”
I didn’t get a chance to respond because large hands gripped my waist from behind. The song ended, as did the voices.
Lips were on my ear. “You didn’t answer me.” Ryker’s voice was husky as hell.
“Take your hands off me.” My voice barely came out even.
He tugged me to him tightly. “Ladies of the house, listen up,” he announced in a loud voice.
Every hard inch of him pressed into my backside, and a heat like no other rushed to pinch my face.
“Haven has agreed to participate in our auction. So tell all your guy friends or even your gal friends if they swing that way. I’m sure she’ll go for a pretty penny considering who her father is.”
My whole body tensed, anger overpowering the lust coursing through me.
Ryker held me to him as he twirled us around as though we were slow dancing. “That’s right. Take lots of pictures. Show your friends what’s up for grabs.” He was truly and utterly the biggest jerk in the state of Texas.
I tried to pry his arm from me, but he only pressed his body into mine. “Don’t fight this, dollface. You’ve got the goods that men want.”
“And so does every girl in here,” I snapped back. “Now let go of me, or your balls will feel my wrath.”
“I rather enjoyed your hand on my dick the other night,” he whispered in my ear. “Care to replay that night back at my house?”
“In your dreams.” That was a lame line. But I had no other words because I did want to feel him again—without clothes, though.
Yes, please.
Vicki leaned into me. “People are snapping pics.”
I swallowed my ire and dug deep for my sweet Southern voice. “Ryker, baby, can you please let go?” Then shove me against the wall and have your way with me.
He loosened his hold slightly. “I like the word ‘baby’ off those lips of yours. Feel that?” His erection poked into me.
Holy hell. I’m doomed, not only by him, but my father is going to have a cow.
My face burned like a wildfire.
Lucas came up beside Vicki. “Dude, we’re heading back.” He flashed his tawny-colored eyes at me as though he were trying to say he was sorry.
“We’re having a fundraising meeting next week,” Ryker said in my ear. His damn voice was giving me goose bumps. “Lucas will send you the details.” Then he let go of me.
I had every intention of telling him to stick that fundraiser where the sun didn’t shine, but he left without so much as a look over his shoulder.
Suddenly, I felt used and needed a shower, or maybe fresh air to get my lungs working again.
Vicki fanned herself with her hand. “Man, that was hot.”
I glanced around the room, finding all the women with jealous looks on their faces.
So much for not drawing attention to me.
I went in search of a beer or hard liquor, whatever I could get my hands on first—anything to calm my nerves, anger, and lust, although the latter wouldn’t go away until Ryker James had his way with me.
9
Ryker
I covered my face in my hands as I sat in the front row of the church. I felt dizzy, nauseated, and so fucking angry. I didn’t know how I’d gotten from the house to the church. My body was about to give out.
I didn’t want to look at the pictures on the four coffins in front of me. I didn’t want to listen to the speeches that some of our close family friends were about to deliver. I didn’t want to hear anything except my sister Leigh’s voice, or my mom’s, or any of them.
“Ryker, you got to be kidding me.” That had been Leigh’s line many times. “You can’t go out with girls who only want you for your body.”
I would laugh and ruffle her hair with my hand, something I’d done many times since she was a kid.
Franklin was on my left, bouncing his knee. My aunt Kari was on my right, rubbing my back, which did nothing to take away the pain I was feeling.
Since I’d left the sorority party four days ago, I’d been a hermit. As the funeral drew near, I couldn’t function. I couldn’t even go to practice like I’d thought I could. I had thought running, working out, and throwing the ball would help, but I’d barely been able to get out of bed. Plus, I didn’t want to see the sorrow on the faces of my teammates.
“Take the week off,” Coach Chapman had ordered. “Actually, take as much time as you need.”
I would need a lifetime before my head was screwed on properly again. Still, I hated that I hadn’t played in our first game of the season, which had been the day before. It was probably best for the team, although the loss yesterday wasn’t a great way to start the season.
“Why don’t you sit back?” Aunt Kari asked softly.
I shook my head, lowered my hands, and eyed the woman who resembled my mom only younger. “I can’t. I’m not sure I can even sit through this whole service.” I’d thought about bagging the funeral, but then I would be a schmuck. I would be dishonoring my family, and my old man would be so disappointed.
“Ryker,” Franklin whispered as the sounds of rustling behind me scraped along my nerves. “Are you going to be able to speak?”
I straightened, staring at my brother’s picture. His gray eyes stared back. The boy had only been fourteen, into football, baseball, and basketball. He’d loved video games and learning how to play golf with my dad. He’d even loved to cook, something my mom had taught him.
“Probably not.” I had a speech ready, but I couldn’t get up there and talk or say one word.
“I’ll let the pastor know, then,” Franklin said.
“Ha
ve you even cried yet?” Aunt Kari asked. “You need to let out all the pent-up emotion.”
Easier said than done. “I’m dealing.” If she or Franklin brought up that liquor wasn’t a way to cope, I would go off like a madman.
Franklin shifted in his seat. “This place is packed.”
I was afraid to look. I knew the football team would be there. I knew Coach Chapman would be too. I also suspected several of my friends from high school had shown up. I’d gone to school in this town, and my family and I knew lots of folks. When I’d been offered a free ride to one of the big universities in California, I’d turned them down. I had wanted to go to Lakemont University whether I had a full ride or not because I’d wanted to stay close to my family.
Lucas had also factored into my decision. We’d promised each other since high school that we would play football together. The university in Cali that had wanted me had turned him down. Money was tight for him and his family, and the tuition at Lakemont was reasonable for in-state students.
Some of my friends had thought I was crazy not to take a full ride to a NCAA Division I school. But as much as I wanted to play football, I also wanted to be around my family, and I could do both right there in Lakemont.
A hand gripped my shoulder from behind. “How you holding up, man?” Lucas asked.
I turned slightly, my gaze bouncing around the room. Wow! Standing room only.
Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. I jumped up and ran around the altar to the restroom. My family and I had never been devout churchgoers, but Mom and Dad had attended this church occasionally.
Once inside the restroom, I splashed water on my face.
The door squeaked open before Lucas appeared. He was dressed in a sharp black suit like me, with a white shirt and black tie. His wild curls were slicked back.
I ran my hands through my hair, blowing out a huge breath. “I can’t do this. I’ve got to get out of here.” I loosened my tie, ready to tear it off. The fucking thing felt like it was choking me.
Lucas handed me his flask. “Drink. I shouldn’t be giving this to you, but you need to calm your nerves.”
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