“Not interested.” Her eyes flare with rage. “Are you in charge now, Piper? Is that what’s going on? You’re in, and now you’re calling the shots?”
“Piper, you’re in?” Cassidy tries to step between us, but I don’t take my eyes off Jules. “You slept with that guy?” she whispers.
“Did you tell her about the list?” Jules’ face turns red as a pomegranate.
“What list?” Cassidy suddenly deserves an Oscar nod.
“Never mind,” Jules snarls. “Piper, go dance with your boyfriend. I’ll deal with you later.”
I glance across the room at Winston, and my stomach turns at the thought of giving him such a self-indulgent title.
“He’s not my boyfriend.” I rock on my feet, ready to propel myself across the room for that final act of deception.
“He is your boyfriend, and he will be as long as you’re an Alpha.” Jules’ eyes bulge like twin moons. “He’s your matchup, and that’s what he’ll stay. Besides, you slept with him. The entire frat house knows you’re off limits. You don’t want to be known as a girl who puts out. You’ll stay with Winston until I say otherwise.” Jules transfers her hateful eyes toward Cassidy. “Makeup off. Nobody has ever fought us on something so ridiculous. We’ve had girls with acne, for fuck’s sake, not bat a fake lash.”
“Wait”—I shake my head—“Let me get this straight. I wasn’t just supposed to sleep with Winston; I’m supposed to chain myself to him for the rest of my collegiate experience? How does that sit right with you?”
“Would you please go dance with your boyfriend already?” Jules stomps her heel in annoyance. “I’ve got a ceremony to get to in less than thirty minutes. And if you want in on it, I suggest you take off the silly putty you’ve slathered all over your face!”
I turn to look for Winston one more time, and my eyes snag on someone far more comely, far more easy on the eyes—a very gorgeous, smiling just for me, Owen Vincent.
“Cass, leave your makeup on. You’ll need it later when you’re tearing up the dance floor.”
Jules lets out an exasperated cry. “We won’t be tearing up any dance floors later, you moron! We’ll be doing the casket ritual!”
“You’ll be lying in a casket, Jules!” I snap in her obnoxious little face. “Cassidy will be right here, tearing it up at the Black Bear, celebrating the fact she’s not headed for an early grave at Alpha Chi with the rest of you morons!”
Both Jules and Lucille gag on their egos.
“Excuse me, I believe I’m obligated to dance with my boyfriend.” My feet carry me across the room as if I were gliding on ice, on wheels as I speed my way over to Owen.
“You want to dance, princess?” He gives that cocky grin he’s been wearing since day one.
“No, I’d much rather do this.” I crush my lips to his, and his tongue explodes in my mouth like an atom bomb.
It’s about time I showed everyone in this room who my boyfriend truly is, who he’s always been.
* * *
Owen Vincent’s apartment is dark and cold, but right now I don’t mind either as we stumble inside with our tongues still fused at the mouths. He flips on the lights, and I flip them right back off again.
“I want to see you,” he pants hard into my ear as he flips them on and twirls me strategically away from the switch. He pulls off my shirt, and I fumble with his jeans as our clothes come off in a train-like formation all the way to the couch. His fingers flick the back of my bra, and the girls spring out eager to see him. He gives my panties a few quick tugs, and they fall to the floor in quick obedience.
“No fair,” I chide, plucking at his boxers. “Rumor has it, you have a rod in there that you’re real good at punishing people with.”
He winces. “Low blow.” He pulls me in close and brushes a soft kiss over my lips. “You want this?” He bounces his forehead off mine a moment. “Are you okay with what we’re about to do?”
I give a quick nod. “I have a confession,” I whisper. “I’ve never done this before.” I press my lips together, hard, before my emotions get the better of me.
“You mean?” He nods out the door, and I shake my head. “Never?”
“Nope. Nothing happened last weekend. It was all pretty chaste. I’m ashamed to admit, I was sort of hoping you would pull the white knight thing and ride me away in your truck.” I shrug. “I’d still be obligated to rip your dick off for making me angry, but I still wanted it.”
He closes his eyes a moment too long. “I was there.”
“You were where?”
“At his parents’ estate. I ended up outside the gates. I shouted your name into the wind a few times before packing it in.” He winches again. “I guess I should have made a bigger effort.”
Tears come, happy tears this time, and I blink them away. “I guess you should have.” I press his lips to mine. “I want to be with you. I lo—” He lands his finger over my lips.
“I need to say it first. You deserve to hear it.” Owen pulls back, braces me with his strong as steel arms. “I’m in love with you, Piper James.” His eyes swell with tears. “I’ve been in love with you from the moment I saw you. I have a confession to make as well. That damn football—it might have been a mile from your head. I just needed to hold you at that moment and did whatever I needed to make that happen.”
“Knew it!” A soft giggle strums through me. “I love you, too.” My fingers comb through his hair. “You’re an amazing person both inside and out, and I never want you to feel judged by me or anybody else.”
He opens his mouth to say something, but I close it by way of a kiss.
“Now strip, Vincent,” I say it stern like a command. “Make it worth my while.” I bite down over my lip, my cheeks burning with heat at the idea.
Owen grinds his hips into mine in a circular motion, his eyes never leaving mine.
“I’m not dancing for anybody else but you, Piper, ever again.”
“Owen.” I shake my head, but he touches his finger to my lips to silence me before I can even protest the idea.
“I want this between you and me to be special. We’re special, Piper. I want to keep it that way.” He rotates his hips into mine and glides up and down my body, peppering my torso, my arms, my neck with kisses. He grabs ahold of the back of my neck and gently pulls my face to his.
“I’m already wet for you.” I run my finger over my sweet spot before landing it on his lips.
Owen sucks my finger down while holding back a laugh. He dots a kiss over the tip and looks right at me. “I’ve been dreaming of the things I’m about to do to you.”
“Sounds a bit too orchestrated for my taste.” Now it’s me holding back the laugh.
“You ready to know how my tongue feels in places the sun doesn’t shine, princess?” His hand glides down, and his fingers gently graze me between my legs. I buck into him involuntary. “I’m so hopped up on you, on your gorgeous face, your smart-ass self, that it’s going to be the most aggressive tonguing session you’ll ever experience. You’ll come quickly. This I promise.”
“Pity. I had such high hopes for holding you hostage between my thighs for at least an hour or two.”
He barks out a laugh. “Oh, sweetie, you can come fast and hard, but that doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere.”
“Okay. Now you’re just scaring me.”
His features soften as he pulls me close by the hair. “Teasing. I’m all yours tonight and every night—whatever you need, however you need it.” He bounces a kiss off my lips. “Undress me.”
I lean back, examining the bulge blooming in his boxers. Owen takes my hands and lands them on his waistband, forcing me to glide them down right along with him.
“I want you to watch,” he whispers as his boxers glide over the mountain growing in the front, and, out he springs, hard, surprisingly thicker than I ever imagined.
“Oh, wow.” I swallow hard. “That looks painful.”
His brows arch with amusement. “For you or
for me?”
“Both.”
“That’s not what I expected you to say.” His chest trembles with a laugh as he takes a bite out of my neck.
“Should I try again? Tie me up and ride me hard? Is that more your speed?”
A dark laugh rumbles from his chest to mine. “Anyone ever tell you that you talk too much?” He takes a hard bite out of my ear as his spare appendage stabs at my thigh, hot and hard to the touch, like flesh-covered steel.
“Nobody dares tell me anything like that.”
“That’s because everyone is too damn afraid of you.” He slips a kiss directly into my ear. Sometimes I think I’m afraid of me most. “You’re a mouthy little girl.” His brows arch with the dig.
I look deep into his soulful eyes, and our sordid past—and all the ways I’ve effectively used him—come back to haunt me. I’m sorry, Owen. I’m really sorry for what I’ve done. I might be mouthy, but that’s one thing I don’t have the guts to say out loud.
I wonder if I ever will.
“Shut up and get inside me.” I pull him close as he lowers me to the sofa.
“And that’s exactly why I love you.” Owen produces a rubber from thin air, and I marvel at this beautiful man turned magician as he pulls it over that rolling pin he’s about to impale me with. His fingers find me first as he works his way inside me. “You’re wet for me. You’re ready.”
“I was ready for you that day you landed me on my back in Founder’s Square. I hated how wet you made me even then—pun intended.” That tender part of me clenches hard because it’s true. As much as I protested, as much as I screamed my head off at him, I secretly loved that it was happening. A gorgeous guy pinning me down right there in front of all of those sorority girls—I relished it.
“You realize your temper tantrum turned on half the guys there.” He guides his oversized dick between my legs, and I brace myself for the onslaught. My legs tremble, my insides ache to have him as my chest heaves up a storm.
“Were you one of them?” My voice quivers.
“I’m always one of them.” He sinks his mouth over mine as his tongue swims into me. Owen carefully presses his body into mine, and I take the burn, the stretching, the tearing as he presses in deeper. I relax back into the couch and let him burrow in before pulling up over me on his elbows. Owen looks down with his eyes clear as marbles from this vantage point. “Are you okay?” he pants out the words with a slight look of regret on his face as if he’s afraid he’s hastened my death.
“Is this the part where I yell at you and really turn you on?” My voice comes out fragile, not at all what I intended.
He shakes his head.
“I’m more than okay,” I pant, only partially lying. I’m okay in theory. I’m just not sure about the bodily trauma that may have ensued.
“I wish we could always stay this way.” He gives a pained smile.
“It would be awkward during classes and at family gatherings.”
“But think of how amazing it would be the rest of the time.” His mouth covers my lips in a dizzying kiss as his hips move over mine, making me his in the most magical way.
“I’m so glad I didn’t do this with Winston.”
He pulls up and grimaces. “Did you just say another guy’s name while I’m buried deep inside you?”
“What?” I heave, just trying to catch my breath. “Is there some law against it? Winston, Winston, Winston.” I giggle and duck behind my arm because I may have just pushed it too far.
“All right. No law, just a common courtesy. Now you’ll have to give my name a few good shout-outs just to stroke my ego back to life.” He gives a couple good thrusts before pulling out and slipping off the couch. He pushes my legs back at the knees, and I gasp at what he’s about to do. “Time to let the good folks on the fifth floor here know who I am. Go ahead, Piper. Who’s your daddy?” He dives in, no warning, and I belt out a laugh because as amazing as it feels it also tickles a bit.
“Owen!” I laugh as I thread my fingers through his hair.
“That’s an okay start. But you can do better, sweetheart.” He lashes at me with his tongue dipping in and out of my body, licking a line up to that tender part of me until I’m gasping, screaming his name at the top of my lungs. He bites, chews, and licks up an ever-loving storm as I scream his name from sheer pleasure, maybe just a touch of pain, and then I lose it. “Owen!” My entire person seizes around him until I’m convinced I’m about to use my thighs to crack his head open like a walnut. “Owen!” I shrill his name out so loud it burns ripping from my throat.
“That’s better.” He glides up and lands his lips over mine without my permission, and as much as I try to twist out of that kiss, he holds me there, making me beg for the one thing I never would have imagined, his tongue down my throat with my taste still coated over it. Owen spears himself back into my body and thrusts away time after time, making me quake on the inside with pleasure all over again. His fingers thread over mine as he pushes my hands high up over my head. His chest glides over my face as those monochromatic designs swirl by too fast for me to keep track of all those works of art he has engraved into his skin.
Owen stops abruptly. It’s his turn to seize and shudder as he comes deep inside me.
We may have started out wild, but it’s Owen who’s tamed me.
And from that first day he pinned me to the ground, I’ve always suspected he could.
Owen
The morning light rips through my lids as I turn over and bury my face in Piper’s hair. We finally made it to the bed, but only after I bent her over the kitchen table, and then had her against the wall in the hallway. For a virgin, Piper was pretty wild and up for anything. I just hope she doesn’t have major regret this morning. As gentle as I tried being, I hope to God I didn’t hurt her. It was hard to contain my emotions. Our bodies were at war last night, making love like it was a battlefield. It felt good. Scratch that. It felt fucking great.
My lips find her temple, and I drag a kiss all the way down to her lips. “You okay?”
Piper moans as she rolls her body next to mine. “Of course, I’m okay.” Her groggy, heavy lids crack to slits. The blue of her eyes illuminate like flames as the morning sun brands itself over her face. “I’m with you, aren’t I?” She gives my ribs a quick pinch. “Winston.”
“Stop.” I buck as I cuff her wrists with my hands. “All mention of him is forever banished from this bedroom—hell, this apartment.” I press a kiss to her lips. “Did you have a good time?”
“Are you nuts?” Her arms pull me in tight just as my phone starts buzzing. It’s just a text, so I let it go. “I had the best time. I vote we skip classes, and you can continue to impress me with your body.”
“What time is your first class?”
“Ten.”
As tempting as it is to keep Piper hostage in my bed, I don’t want to be a party to her scholastic downfall.
“We’ll catch up after. We’ve got the internship, and I’ll take you to dinner. You’re more than welcome to stay the night anytime you want.”
“Thank you.” Her legs rope around my back. “I may never leave.”
“That’s the answer I was hoping for.” I land a heated kiss over her mouth and feel the steam rising from her body to mine.
Piper’s phone rings from somewhere in the living room just as mine starts buzzing again.
“What the hell?” I reach over in frustration as she gets up and heads out of the room buck-naked and not hiding it—not that she has anything to hide. Piper is the work of a master sculptor. Most girls rally up all the sheets they can or use their arms to hide their parts. Piper simply isn’t ashamed; she’s damn proud and flaunting it the way she should be.
I give a hard blink before looking at my phone. Six texts from Jet, three from Rex.
The most recent one from Jet reads, Dude, call me ASAP. Let’s grab breakfast if you’ve gotta minute. Sorry. This sucks.
“What sucks?” I whisper. Scrollin
g through a plethora of vague texts from both of my friends.
“Shit.” Piper comes in, halfway dressed. “I have to go.” She bolts back to the living room, and I follow her out, hopping into a pair of sweats on the way.
“What’s up?”
Piper is pissed, distressed, and why do I suddenly sense a big brother and a shotgun at the other end of this abrupt departure?
“It’s a stupid lie.” Tears burst from the sides of her eyes, and she wipes them away with an aggressive move of her arm. “I’m not fucking with you.” She points her finger hard at me. Her face is ground down to nothing but pure fury. “This is not what it looks like.” She snatches her purse off the floor. “I’ve got some asses to kick.” She speeds to the door, and I jump over the sofa and slam my body against it.
“You’re not going anywhere, sweetie, until you explain what the hell has gotten you so upset.” Now it’s me who’s pissed. I want to know who or what has her so riled up. Who the hell dared to rip her from my bed after the best night of our lives and follow it up with a shit morning?
Piper drops her face in her hands a moment. “I love you, Owen.” Her watery eyes blink up at me. “I’m not a cock-tease. I didn’t do any of those things to use you—I mean, it might have started out that way, but this”—she points hard at the apartment she helped trash last night with our bodies—“this was real.” Her voice breaks, and I wrap my arms around her.
“I know this is real. What are you talking about using me?”
“It’s ridiculous. It was never my idea.” She maneuvers past me and ducks out the door. “I’ll talk to you later!” She bolts down the stairwell before I can get a chance to stop her.
* * *
I text both Rex and Jet and ask to meet up with them. Rex is in class for the next hour, but Jet offers to meet me at the Black Bear at eleven. I shower, dress, and run out the door. I don’t have any classes today, with the exception of some online assignments that I need to turn in, but I can’t focus until I get to the bottom of this. My mind is racing with the possibilities. Piper’s cryptic words have had me on edge ever since she left.