His whore for the evening is sporting her blood red signature—eat-someone-else’s-boyfriend-for-breakfast smile. She sits back as her jaw goes slack and those tarantulas glued to her eyes bat manically at us.
“Ohh,” she drags it out in three equal parts as she glares at Knox a moment. Who the hell does she think she is glaring at the poor guy? Knox may be a douche in and of himself, but she’s out-douched him by a cock-sucking mile. “So we’re doing this.” She nods to the two of us as if expecting a showdown at high noon.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Knox picks up my other hand and lands a soft kiss over my knuckles. A sharp jolt runs down my arm straight to my belly. There is something deliciously naughty about being kissed anywhere on your body in the presence of your boyfriend—ex to be exact.
“What the hell is this?” Justin pushes the table away a good foot, thus pinning his closet whore to her seat.
“This is none of your business,” I snipe. “Just like you thought it was none of my business while you were hooking up with that insufferable evil A-hole.”
Jen sucks in a quick breath, her scarlet lips quivering like she might cry. She shoots a quick look to Knox. “You’re not going to stand there and let her call me that, are you?”
He gives a depleted smile. “Sweetie, that’s a compliment compared to what she calls you when you’re not around.” He nods to me, then to the table that just opened up next to them. “We’ll see you fools later.”
Knox and I plop down and exchange a short-lived, dare I say satisfied smile.
“How was that?” I pick up his other hand from across the table. We’re close enough to give them the full visual, but not close enough to let them in on the fact we’re about to rip them a new one.
“They’re both pissed.” He gives a sly wink and my insides burst with heat. Most likely these flames of delight have more to do with the fact we’ve just driven a stake into the hearts of our respective new exes than it does the alarmingly good-looking boy seated across from me. Justin is a good-looking boy but in a girly kind of way, complete with the baby fat still in place on his cheeks and sad puppy dog eyes that have the power to dampen your mood if you linger on them too long. I used to love those sad eyes, those puffy cheeks. A part of me still does. You don’t just turn off your emotions for someone just because they hurt you. You hone them into something deeper, something far more meaningful and safer like hate.
Knox, however, has quite the masculine features, complete with that three-day scruff peppering his face. His eyes are almond-shaped and bright, and dare I say they have that quality about them that actually makes you feel as if they’re laughing.
My eyes drift down to his broad shoulders, that chest I can already testify is tough as granite, and my heart thumps. But I don’t dare get started on that body.
“Pissed is a good start.” I steal a quick glance at our exes as the waitress drops off a couple of heaping plates of enchilada goodness their way. “But if we haven’t killed their appetites, we’re not doing a good enough job.” I ditch my seat for the one next to Knox, and Justin does a double take. My arms find themselves around Knox Toberman’s enormous chest and I’m shocked that he’s nearly twice the circumference Justin is. “You’ve really got a body on you, you know that?” I lean in until my chest butts into his shoulder. “And I’m not just saying that. Your Little Miss Sunshine over there has traded an ox for an otter. I’m sure she’ll come running back with her horns downturned and her pointed tail tucked between her demonic legs.” I make a face at the devil in question.
“She’s not coming back.” He glares out at the crowd. “She didn’t even bother with a simple text. I guess she’s not the person I thought she was.”
“You mean you didn’t realize you had a lying ho biscuit on your hands?” I squawk out an obnoxious laugh. “Most people don’t. I wouldn’t go kicking yourself over it, though. Be glad she’s out of your life for good.”
No sooner do I spit the last word out than the two chairs opposite us fill with a couple of unwanted bodies. Justin falls into the chair closest to mine with his eyes narrowed with hatred as if I were the one who cheated on him. The skank-bot sits across from Knox and glares at him as if she owns him. And judging by the mortally wounded look in his eyes, she still very well might.
“What’s going on?” She hones those razors she calls eyes on the two of us. “This isn’t real. It can’t be. It’s too soon, too fast, even for a rebound.”
“Oh, so now you’re a relationship expert on quantity and quality.” I lean in, a suppressed laugh just below the surface. “Honey, this is as real a rebound as they come.” I toss an indifferent glance to Justin. “And we are coming over and over and over again.”
Jen gags as if she might actually be sick. She’s so pale and thin, so pasty and gaunt and haunted, I can’t imagine what Justin must be thinking when he’s with her. And vapid! My God, you don’t need a road map to know that what brain cells she does have she utilizes while looking in the mirror.
She leans in, nostrils flaring, eyes bulging, and I’m thrilled to see she’s so quick to comply with the misery we’re about to bestow upon her. “How can you sit there with this filthy piece of trash while she talks like some dirty sailor on leave?”
Knox embeds those flame blue eyes into her, and you can see his rage grow like a house fire just beneath the surface. “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” He wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me in ever so slightly. “Besides, Harper and I hardly know each other. We thought we’d load up on some enchiladas then hit the sheets.” He gives my hair a playful tousle. “I can’t wait to test out her mattress moves.”
“Shit.” Justin shakes as he takes his next breath. “Dude, you cannot have my chick—especially not on enchilada night.”
“Oh, yes, he can.” A deep laugh trembles from me. This entire scenario is so damn satisfying I’m about to pop with pleasure. “He’s going to have the whole enchilada and he can have me for dessert. In fact, tonight, while the two of you are off doing whatever it is that you do best, we’ll be taking one another for a test drive for the very first time.” I lean over to Knox and lick a line up the side of his face.
“Oh God.” Jen hides in her hands a moment.
“Oh, stop,” I bark out at her. “If you were so interested in preserving your boyfriend for yourself, you wouldn’t have trotted off like some overheated harlot and found another boy to nail you! How long has this been going on between the two of you, anyway?” My throat grows raw and it’s only then I realize I’m screaming over the music.
She looks up at Justin and he shrugs as if unsure himself. But what’s worse is the comfort level they seem to have with one another. They have that invisible, quiet, silent, couples’ speak—a gift that only true lifers seem to possess.
“I had Justin in my civics class last semester.” She shrugs while gazing up at the ceiling. You can practically see her brain attempting higher mathematics, and it’s not a pretty sight. “We were paired together for writing assignments.” She gazes up at him, starry-eyed. “It’s as if someone up there knew.”
Knew? Knew what? They were destined to bump uglies because they’re a couple of hormonal idiots?
“Hey”—Knox taps his knuckles over the table until he manages to garner their attention—“you could have told me instead of stepping out behind my back.” The cords in his neck extend like ropes, and there’s something hot about a boy who’s all worked up while telling off his rat of an ex.
“I did tell you!” she fires right back. “I told you, each and every time I went to study group, and not once did you try to stop me!”
“What?” He scoots his seat back an inch as if he’s about to launch through the ceiling. He can launch Justin through the ceiling while he’s at it. I totally wouldn’t mind. “Why would I stand in the way of a study group? Besides, you said your study partner was some chick named Justine.” He says the feminine version of the name an
d stops cold as if realizing that this entire fiasco might have hinged on a spelling error on the part of his ditz of an ex. “Shit.” He closes his eyes a moment.
“See?” Her voice rises to inhuman decibels. My God, isn’t there a law on the books that frowns upon noise that sponsors tinnitus? “I told you the truth. It’s not my fault Justin and I grew close throughout the semester.” She cozies into him as if proving her point.
Knox groans at the sight. “We were together for two years, Janelle. The least you could have done was break it off with me first.”
She bounces in her seat as if affronted. “Why would I do that? I knew the second you stepped on campus all the girls would have their eye on you, and I’m not hot on sharing.”
He shakes his head with a wild look in his eyes. “I’m not either. But you can’t have it both ways.”
“Then let’s take a tiny break.” She offers a bashful, albeit, yet again, vapid grin, up at Justine. “We can always get back together in the fall.”
“I’m not taking a break with you,” Knox spits it out so fast and fueled with enough rage geared toward my ex I’m almost expecting him to try to drill his fist into Justin’s skull for old times’ sake. Old times being two long days ago that might as well have been two hundred years. It’s as if time has stalled to a crawl now that I’m secured in this nightmare and all I can do is stew in my juices. “We’re done.” His voice sounds off like a gavel. “You will never get a piece of me again.”
Her face grows increasingly pale as if she’s just realized what a grave mistake she’s made.
“Ditto for you,” I say to the turd seated to my right. “After two years, you could have at least given me the common courtesy of a breakup, or the finger.”
“What?” Justin looks genuinely perplexed. “We weren’t even together.”
My heart sinks into my feet with embarrassment. It’s the white-hot sting of rejection all over again. “We were just messing around, hanging out. There was nothing serious going on there.”
My face heats ten times hotter than I ever thought possible. All those wasted years, those wasted kisses, my wasted virginity.
“What did you think was happening when I said I loved you?” My voice grows small with shame. Here Justin had all but stripped me of the right to properly berate him as the cheating ex by way of making me look like some batshit stalker.
He clicks his tongue dismissively as he leans back in his seat. “Those are just words.” His fingers snap open and closed as if miming the fact I was merely talking. “I have ten girls a day that say those things to me. We were just having some fun.” He spears me with a heated look that asserts the fact he very much knows he’s lying. Not only is Justin into cheating, but he’s into humiliation too. “You meant nothing to me.” His lips curl to the side with an evil twitch of a smile.
“I meant nothing to you?” The words come out breathless, more of an idea—a rotten idea.
It’s as if someone turned out the lights in my world all over again. How could I not see this coming? How could I not see this monster for who he really was?
“Hear that?” Knox pulls me up by the hand until we’re standing next to the table. “That’s my favorite song. Let’s dance.” A slow melodic melody warbles through the air as Knox adheres his body next to mine. He leans in, his scruff lightly grazing over my cheek as he buries his mouth close to my ear. “Don’t let that asshole get to you. You are beautiful, strong, and smart, and he’s nothing but a waste of human flesh.”
I give a slight nod as the world blurs with tears, and I hate myself for going there so quickly.
“I think it’s time for that kiss, sweetheart.” Knox pulls back and nails those deep violet eyes into mine, and for a moment I’m mesmerized. A dirty smile comes and goes quickly on his lips as his chest pumps with a silent laugh. Knox comes in slow, his lids melting over those eyes like a sunset. He brushes his mouth over mine and I hear the chairs grinding against the floor to our right as if two very irate bodies just jumped up in a rush. “Get into it,” he says it sharp like a command before diving over me with an intensity I haven’t felt in a good long while, maybe never with Justin.
The heat of an intrusive body steps in close to the two of us. “Get the fuck off my girlfriend!” Justin riots over our faces.
But I do as I’m told and press my lips against Knox Toberman’s soft as a pillow mouth, and then I open for him like a flower before diving my tongue into foreign territory. His kisses taste warm and minty. He grips me as if he’s completely in control and a part of me loves this dominating side of Knox. My sweet spot, Sylvia, gives an unrelenting pinch of approval. Traditionally, I’ve been the aggressor when it comes to anything physical with Justin, so it’s nice to have a man who not only has his hands on the wheel, but knows how to steer the ship.
The shuffle of feet, the gagging, the undercurrent of curse words floods my senses as both Justin and Jen seem to be having a difficult time taking their own medicine. But right now, all I’m interested in is the fact I’m being kissed in a way that I never thought possible.
His hot mouth. This hot kiss. My God.
Knox rides his hands over my back in a heated rush. His penetrative kisses explore me thoroughly, setting off a tight band that shoots across my abdomen with a sweet, dull ache I have never felt before. I can’t get enough of his hot, hungry mouth. The scent of his spiced cologne is driving me wild and his greedy body doesn’t bother hiding the fact it loves the feel of mine as he rubs up against me.
The anger, the rise of voices, the storm of fury grows to our right, but neither of us is all that interested in the high-pitched screams, the guttural expletives being hurled around us.
Then just as I’m about to melt in the nirvana of the world’s most perfect kiss, a bath of ice and Diet Coke washes over the top of our heads.
A gurgle-like scream works up my throat, but Knox just pulls me closer.
Then as if to say the drinks were just for starters, something hot and cheesy is dumped over us as we jump apart for good. An entire platter of enchiladas, complete with rice and beans, drips off the two of us like vomit.
A fleet of waitresses comes at us, angry-faced and stern as they escort both Justin and Janelle toward the exit.
Justin turns around, resisting his every step, and looks Knox in the eye. “You’re going to pay for this!” And just like that, they’re out the door, and as much as I’d like to have them out of our lives for good, deep down I know that wouldn’t be nearly half the fun as having them on the sidelines.
Knox and I head to the restrooms to clean up with dull laughter bucking from us. Lucky and Ava help get the rice out of my hair—which turns out to be nearly impossible. I say an awkward goodnight to Knox, not quite able to look him in the eye, as Ava, Lucky, and I head off to The Row as fast as our heels will let us. The two of them talk at once about how cruel, how brilliant that kiss was—describing in detail the looks on both Justin’s and Janelle’s stunned faces. But I’m not too interested in that at the moment. All I can think about is that kiss. I can still feel him there over my lips as if it’s still happening.
I touch my fingers over my mouth, trying to stop those ghost kisses from throbbing over me. But I don’t really want it to stop. In fact, I wouldn’t mind a reprisal of that mind-blowing lip-lock.
Knox Toberman knows how to dole out kisses as good as he chases a ball down the field.
Go figure.
Gwen jumps to her feet as soon as we get in the door of Kappa G and lets me know my roommate has already settled in.
“Try to be nice to her,” she fires the words off at me as if I’ve got a reputation for being anything but.
“I’m always nice.” I sneer at Ava and Lucky as if daring them to contest the fact.
Lucky raises a brow. “I bet Knox thinks you’re really nice.”
“Yeah”—Ava laughs it off—“very friendly. That’s quite a welcome you gave him to Briggs.”
“Please. That boy will h
ave every skirt on campus chasing him come fall. All he has to do is don that jersey.” Or take it off. God, what would that kiss have been like without a stitch of clothing between us? As much as I find the thought naturally arousing, the three of us head off to my room to greet the new girl.
Sitting on my bed, crossed-legged and barefoot—I’m a bit abhorrent to the fact anyone would land their naked toes on my comforter—is a squatty brunette, pretty in a bullish way, her hair coiled up in a bun.
“Hi, I’m Harper.” I extend my hand for a friendly shake just as I notice it’s not my comforter she’s squatting over, yet one similar in nature, and for a moment I’m stumped as to why she’d change my bed cover.
She looks up from her oversized book and gives the three of us a rather bored once-over. “I’m taking the bottom bunk.” She stares at my hand dangling in the air as if it were a rotten fish. “I also took the top two drawers. I’ve got slight scoliosis, so I can’t be expected to bend over.” Her tiny inset eyes narrow in on me as if somehow I were at fault for her spinal anomaly.
Crap. The top two drawers were all I was utilizing at the moment, as I too hate to stoop down like Quasimodo while digging for a clean sports bra to wear in the morning.
But instead of complaining and bitching, like a childlike part of me wants to, I simply force a grin to come and go. “That’s totally fine. I’m all up for accommodating you in whatever way necessary.” I can practically see the halo popping over my head. I’ve never had a roommate with disabilities before, and seeing that I have a brother with a very serious condition, I plan on being an ambassador of kindness to those in need whenever I can. It’s not like I’m consciously trying to be a saint—it’s just called not being an asshole.
“Good,” she grunts up at me. “Because that’s why I took the bottom bunk.”
I suck in a sharp breath without meaning to. I glance up at the top bunk, which might as well be on the ceiling, and my life flashes unceremoniously before my eyes.