Kingpin: An Enemies to Lovers College Romance (Court University Book 2)

by Eden O'Neill

  It was the least he could do.

  Stifling the growl about all that, I composed myself. I promised my mom a shower so I decided to run it for her, getting it nice and warm before picking up more scattered clothing in the hallways. Mom had clothes literally everywhere and passed me in a towel on the way to the bathroom. She nudged her little button nose against mine before hopping into the steaming room and closing the door.

  “And stop cleaning this house,” she demanded on the other side. She cracked the bathroom open, steam billowing into the hallway. “Otherwise, I won’t make your favorite chocolate chip pancakes.”

  Another reason I came home on the weekends sometimes, Mom’s cooking and baking supreme. I also knew she liked to take care of me too, and I rolled my eyes, promising I’d put what I had in my arms away, then go downstairs. She had a few clothes sprinkled outside her door so I decided to grab those too, pushing open her bedroom door to gather a discarded shirt. There were a pair of jeans as well, and those, along with the boxers next to them, gave me pause. The jeans didn’t look like my mothers, and she obviously didn’t wear boxers. It was rare she wore underwear at all under her silk dresses and designer threads.

  Despite that, I reached for them too, getting up, but the sight of a male backside halted all movements. Swallowing, I followed the curve of the most firm ass I’d possibly ever seen to a guy’s back, a pillow over his head, while well over six feet of chiseled male stretched long across my mom’s circular bed. The guy didn’t even fit on it, the back of his feet and ankles hanging off the mattress, and I stifled a gasp, nearly barking out in laughter when I realized what I was looking at.

  Oh, my God. My mom’s got game…

  This guy was beautiful—at least the back of him was. Completely naked, he was totally sprawled out on my mom’s bed, belly down with his muscular arms tucked beneath him. Groaning, he pulled those arms out, removing the pillow off his head and tossing it in sleep. A sea of blond remained, and though I couldn’t see his face at this angle, that wasn’t needed at all. This guy was gorgeous, and though I obviously knew my mom partook in a few dates here and there since the divorce, I had no idea she was bringing guys home on the weekends.

  Okay, Mom.

  Nodding my head in satisfaction, I could admire a gorgeous backside despite having a boyfriend. I had eyes, didn’t I? Snickering a little, I started to back away when my name drifted into the room from the hallway.

  “Darling,” Mom followed up with, basically screaming and making this guy twitch. “Can you get me my terry cloth bathrobe out of the bedroom!”

  Okay, so she instantly woke this guy up, and upon him turning, I got full view of his entire cock when he eased that big body around to face the direction of the noise. In fact, I was so distracted by his length and how it clearly curved up and hit the first section of some seriously toned abs that I missed his face completely. It wasn’t until I heard my name again, a husky and curious “Billie?,” that my gaze shot up, and I instantly dropped all the clothing in my hands.

  I dropped his clothing, my eyes twitching wide as I stared at a pair of baby blues.

  LJ’s smile was coy as he looked at me, and when my mom called my name again, asking what the hold up was, his gaze veered in the direction of the open door only moments before finding me again. Something of a wicked gleam hit his sleep-laced eyes as he stared at me and tucking one of those big arms under his head, he winked.

  “So beauty queen is the daughter,” he said, and like that, realization flashed. He bounced thick eyebrows beneath his bedhead. “Unexpected but a nice little surprise. You come to join us, or…”

  He actually spread out his legs, his junk on full display, and jerking, I screamed my mom’s name so loud that they had to have heard me on the other side of the world. I stormed out of her room, slamming the door, and by the time I came down the hall, she had the door open again, poking her head outside.

  “Oh my God, honey. What’s wrong?”

  “There is a guy. That guy.” Literally freaking out, I was shaking. I shot a finger in the direction of her room. “Why is that guy in your room?”

  This had to be a trick, a sick joke in front of my eyes but when my mom smiled just as devilish as LJ had I thought I’d be sick to my damn stomach.

  She pulled wet hair out of her face. “Really, honey. I don’t need to explain how all this works to you, do I?” she asked, giggling a little before poking her head out more. “And isn’t he cute? I met him at a friend’s party last night. He’s a little on the youngish side, but…”

  “Young!” I nearly growled, working my hair through my hands. “Mom, he’s what? Twenty?” He was too young for me, let alone her. At least, maturity wise. I groaned. “Mom—”

  “I’m twenty-one actually.” LJ came sauntering down the hall like the sex god he believed he was in nothing but a pair of jeans and a wicked grin, his arms stretched above his head before he dropped his hands in his perfect hair. It literally looked like he styled it that way on purpose, working a few fingers threw it before propping his muscular arm on the wall. He had his T-shirt in his hands and winked at me before angling forward and pressing a kiss to my mom’s cheek. “Morning, gorgeous. You sleep well?”

  The whole thing had me about to throw up in my mouth, and I got a look from Mom who obviously couldn’t understand what all the freak-out was about. After the kiss, he grabbed her hand, and I actually did cover my mouth to hold back the chunks. I whisper-shrieked. “Mom, you need to get tested. Now. You have no idea where that’s been.”

  This guy was everywhere and probably had sex in the classroom the other day with those two women he had in the back.

  LJ gave no reaction at all to what I said, but the audacity of the statement clearly bothered my mother. She smacked me right on the arm. “Apologize to Lance.”

  “It’s cool, Gen,” he said, already on a short named basis with my mom. The only person who called my mom anything other than Genevieve had been my dad, and they’d been married for over twenty years.

  Oh, God. Thoughts of LJ somehow becoming my stepdad serious made me ill, and I dizzied, actually holding on to the wall. Mom hit me again out of my stupor.

  “Now, you stop it,” she said, before taking LJ’s hand again. Once in his mitts, he gave a kiss on the back that worked that flush up in her cheeks about ten dials and did nothing short of heat an inferno in me. “You gonna stay for breakfast? I’m making my rude daughter and I chocolate chip pancakes.”

  Good God now she was feeding us like we both were her kids. Ugh! I was going to lose it. I was going to fucking lose my shit, but gratefully, he turned her down.

  “Can’t, babe,” he said, truly gagging me. He brushed a finger under her chin, their fingers still laced. “Already got classwork for this week. Probably better get to it. I have a feeling one of my TAs is going to be riding my ass all term.”

  He dashed perfect eyebrows up at me after that, and Mom frowned.

  “Ah, a shame,” she whined. “Why are they always so hard on you guys?”

  “No idea. But don’t want to give her a reason to hate me all semester.”

  I already did, the fiery flames of Hades only hotter than what I felt brewing inside me right now. I wanted to kill him, ruin his entire world where he stood, and after he pulled her in, giving her a little hug from where she stood behind the door, I thought I would.

  “We had a good time, though?” he questioned to her, and she nodded only too quick. He grinned again. “Good. Hope to see you around at another event.”

  He was letting my mom down easy clearly, and I only didn’t fight that because he was letting my mom down. The whole thing was disgusting, and after letting her go and a quick nod at me, he took his leave. Mom angled her head out a little, watching him stride down the hallway. She waved a hand. “Go make sure he gets out okay.”

  Oh, I definitely would, stalking down the hallway and right after him down the stairs. LJ’s legs were longer than mine, so it took me almost gettin
g to the front door before I could grab him. He was working on his shirt when I tugged him around, and chuckling, he dropped his arms. He’d only gotten the shirt partially on at this point, half his chiseled frame hanging out of it. He lifted his hands. “I mean, we could do this in the hall,” he said, stalking when he backed me up against the wall. He pressed arms on either side of my head. “But I’d have preferred to have you in my bed, beauty queen.”

  Completely mortified, I shoved at his body, and he barked another chuckle, smirking at me before pulling his shirt all the way down. I sneered. “Seriously, you have no boundaries. Screwing my mom?”

  “I didn’t know she was your mom,” he said, and his shoes by the door, he sat on the wooden hall bench, putting them on one by one with his socks. He danced blond eyebrows. “Like I said, that was just a nice little surprise and funny as fuck.”

  He reached for his last shoe, but I picked it up, opened the front door, and threw it outside. He watched me, unfazed as probably a two-hundred-dollar sneaker went flying out into the snow-covered lawn. He scratched his neck. “You gonna go get that?”

  “No.” I strode right up to him, and he angled up from his seat. He was sitting down, but our eyesight was nearly level considering how tall he was. I hugged my chest. “This isn’t the classroom. You may have Professor Douglas in your back pocket, but you don’t have me. You’re in my house, and you’re going to stay away from my mom.”

  “Your mom and I had a good time.” He stretched his arms back. “We met at party. I don’t promote anymore, but I do for a few close friends. We met during one of my events, and like I said, we had a good time. Probably won’t even see each other again. It was casual, an understanding between both of us.”

  “That better be the case.”

  He tugged me close after that, a hand under each ass cheek, and I stiffened, my hands easily curling into fists as he bit down on his bottom lip. He squeezed my thighs. “Fuck, what a waste this is. Why are you so uptight? You should relax more.”

  He massaged the back of my thighs to the point where I almost did, my body buzzing, but when his finger traced the seam of my ass through my leggings I reared a fist back.

  He grabbed it, a full hand like a baseball in a catcher’s mitt, and grinning, he brought my heated fist to his mouth and sunk his teeth slightly into it.

  “I’m going to enjoy this game,” he said, and I wiggled out of his hands, bracing my fist that pulsed and burned from his teeth. He hadn’t bit me hard, not at all really, but I still felt him.

  Body shaking, I shot a finger out the door. “Get out of my house.”

  He stood, growing like a Redwood and about nearly as tall as one. He pressed a hand to the side of my head against the wall. “See you back on my block.”

  And with that, he left me swaying, simmering, as he grabbed his coat off the coat hook, then headed outside. He pretended to not even let the snow bother him, sliding on his shoe before headed over to the garage. He just waltzed inside from the side door, and before I knew it, the garage door was opening and he was pulling a car out of my daddy’s old parking spot. An electric blue luxury vehicle charged the air, the ass winking at me through the window as he pulled out. I slammed the door before he could see my reaction to that.

  And I did my best not to feel the sensation of his teeth still in my flesh.

  Chapter Six

  LJ

  Term passed quickly for the most part over the next two months, the days starting to warm up and the snow completely melted despite it being mid-March. Before I knew it, midterm grades were rolling in, and for the most part, nothing was a surprise. I kept up on my shit. Took school seriously but then my gaze scanned my computer down to my film 110 class.

  I don’t fucking believe it.

  A sixty-eight percent average stared back at me. Roughly a D when I’d gotten nothing short of A minus average my entire academic career. Grade school included. I’d put priority on grades. Something I could control despite my parents failed relationship and a dad who walked out on his entire family. It was something I could hold tight onto when my friends cruised around in their fancy rides and invited me out to stuff when I barely had two nickels to rub together in my pocket. School had never come easy to me despite what I led my friends to believe when coming up, but what did was work ethic and grit. That I could control, and the thing that ultimately gave me the edge over many of my affluent friends. It also got me a full ride to one of the best schools in the country, so this grade I was staring at right now? Complete bullshit.

  Seems the beauty queen came out to play.

  She obviously was still a bit sore about what happened between her mom and me at the beginning of term, and shit, had it been a delight to see her that weekend. It’d come as a huge surprise to me, of course. I didn’t particularly go looking for people’s moms to screw, but it’d been a bonus finding out Gen was hers. Billie’s mom had been nice, and though I hadn’t seen her since, a good time. I thought the feeling was mutual that day.

  My teeth gnashed at my current situation, all this grade business was Billie’s doing. I hadn’t really spoken to her since that weekend, easily blending into a sizable class, and in recitation, I didn’t care much to participate—when I showed. I had other more important classes and activities I actually cared about, but apparently that meant something to her. True, I knew participation and attendance came into affect with my film grade. I had read the syllabus after all, but I figured I could make all that shit up when midterm exams happened.

  A big and obnoxious C stared at me in that department, hence my D average. Billie had marked me an F in regards to participation, and yeah, I could go to class a bit more, but that C definitely hadn’t been warranted. I hadn’t given a shit about film class all term, but I had done better than that. I showed up to every lecture outside of recitation, watched the films and absorbed what I could. I didn’t necessarily “get” all of it, but I absorbed it. I fluffed my essays up a bit, something I was good at, but obviously not good enough for Professor Douglas’s TA. This C on my written midterm examination had her name all over it, despite the fact we took the exam in lecture. The TAs were known for doing the grading.

  Niko whistled over my shoulder, coming into the living room in a pair of sweats that sat at his hips and cut across his calves in a way I knew they were mine. I may have been taller, but if this dude didn’t stop stretching the shit out of my clothes, I would very well kill him.

  Seeing my eyes on my clothes he wore, Niko chuckled before guzzling his bottle of water. He’d obviously just got done working out in our basement gym. He recapped his water. “D average? Shit, bro. You lose your IQ or something?” He whistled again. “That definitely ain’t you.”

  And not my fault. Billie Coventry definitely had it out for me, my shrug subtle before I picked up a pillow and lodged it at him from the couch. He side-swiped it, but I hit him with my second round of launches. I’d played every sport imaginable under the sun when I’d gone to high school, my aim pretty damn good. I growled. “I told you not to fucking wear my clothes.”

  This dude was bougie as fuck, had a closet full of his own expensive threads, but still had the nerve to work his way into my walk-in. Clothes were just the guy’s thing, I guess, and I’d even dated girls with less interest.

  Tossing his big body on the couch, our sectional beneath him labored at the seams. Bottle of water pinched to the side of his teeth, Niko grabbed one of the Xbox controllers on the ottoman. He let the bottle fall to cradle in his arm. “I like your stuff. Gives me more options.”

  “You mean other than the five T-shirts you have for every one of mine.” I snorted, then shot a finger. “Keep your ass literally out of my stuff.”

  “Okay, okay.” His big shoulders bumping in laughter, Niko pulled up some basketball video game. From what I understood, he’d played that at high school. He angled his head of sweaty hair back. “What’s seriously going on with that grade, though? Thought you took shit seriously.”
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br />   “I fucking do,” I growled. “It’s the beauty queen. She has it out for me.”

  “Yeah?” More chuckles, his tongue sticking out. He shook his head. “Poor Queen B.”

  Poor indeed, as I clicked to my college email for a quick draft. After plugging Professor Douglas’s name and the subject line in, I got right to work. I typed a while before Niko angled his gaze over to me again.

  “You emailing your professor?” he asked me.

  “Yep.” My grin was strong, thinking it was funny she thought she could fuck me over. Professor Douglas got weed… amongst other things from people who worked for and paid me. The whole thing was laughable really. I had him and several other educators and professionals literally by their junk. A few of the deans of Woodcreek University included. I was the first they came to for “entertainment” for their parties.

  I’d even been invited to brunch at more than one of their houses.

  Saying I held an iron fist on this campus was an understatement, and the people I didn’t have influence over were smart enough to stay the hell away. Apparently, not the beauty queen and her lip, and after hitting send, I relaxed back. I took the other game controller, playing with Niko one on one. After a few moments of me kicking his ass, he made up some sorry excuse about needing sustenance. I joined him in the kitchen for some Doritos and pizza bagels, lounging a hip against the kitchen island as I dumped the chips out into a bowl.

  “Really funny about the beauty queen, though,” he said, sliding the pizza bagels into the oven.

  I growled again. “Yeah, she thinks she’s fucking God’s gift. Little miss perfect.”

  I saw how she carried herself around in lecture and recitation when I actually went. She had an air of uppityness I’d seen more than once before in my life, and it never ceased to grate me. She definitely thought herself better, but we all had skeletons. We all had demons, and maybe it was time to look into hers a little bit more. She’d already made the mistake of giving me a little something when she most certainly kissed me back that night at the house. I had the beauty queen quivering under my mouth that night, and she’d done that despite having a boyfriend. She couldn’t get enough of me that night, and when I mentioned that, Niko chuckled by the oven.