by Penny Wylder
Juno was incredibly beautiful, with her thick dark hair and curves and a dress that clearly wasn’t hers. And lips that melted against mine in the most perfect way imaginable. I craved the way that she blushed, and the way she had looked at me naked. I saw her watching me in the mirror, even though she didn’t think I did.
Listening to her try to keep herself quiet, the whispered slick movements and gasping breath that told me she found me entirely arousing as I found her. That was enough to make me want to pull her off the floor and into my bed and do absolutely everything that I had promised.
Fuck, my cock was already hard with morning wood, and all these tangled thoughts of Juno are making it impossible to even think about going back to sleep. I fling the blankets off me and grab my towel. I’m up way earlier than anyone else in the house, especially after the party raged well into the morning.
I definitely won’t be competing for hot water.
Turning it on, I make it scaldingly hot. Hotter than it needs to be so I can burn her out of my system. Even though she’s agreed to my terms, I shouldn’t be so distracted by her. I’ll take what I want, but I can’t be too distracted.
Though my cock thoroughly disagrees with that sentiment.
Grabbing the body wash, I’m barely underneath the water before I’m stroking myself, my head filling in visions of Juno for me. She’s visceral and real, and all I want to think about. Every drag of my hand just feels better thinking about her.
In my head I see her stretched on my bed, and I bind her hands with one of my ties. “My pet,” I say to her, and her eyes shine with lust, writhing that perfect body in-between my legs. She’s begging for more with every breath, licking her lips and moaning. There’s no doubt that she wants to be there. Wants me.
I love the idea of my name on her lips, and in my mind’s eye she opens those lips wide for me as I feed her my cock. Perfect, hot, wet suction. More and more and more. “Take me,” I tell her.
I’m not going to last, even in this fantasy where I can have as much stamina as I want. I imagine her lips wrapped around me, and sheer heat runs through my spine, my orgasm exploding in wave after wave and disappearing down the drain. Just the thought of her tasting me makes me go blind and numb and delirious with pleasure.
Something about her is different. I don’t know what it is. It’s not her looks, though she’s stunning. There’s plenty of hot girls on this campus that I could fuck, and have fucked. It’s something about her. A freshness and a difference from the girls I’ve encountered lately.
She doesn’t seem interested in partying. She asked for what she wanted, even if it was on a misguided dare.
This is going to be a fun year. There’s something about Juno that makes me want to tease her. Play with her. Get under that skin that tries so hard to be cool yet blushes so easily.
I would never cross the line I promised her, but she wants a taste. I can see it in her eyes. I’m going to get her to admit it. With slow teasing and gentle guidance, I’ll get her to break open that shell and give me everything. Because I can tell one thing, once she gives in, she’s going to give me everything.
She’s going to be in my bed and she’s going to stay there until I tell her that she can leave. Day and night, I’ll make her so goddamn grateful that she moved into this house.
I complete my shower routine and wrap myself in a towel before heading back to my room. She’s still on my mind and I swear that my body already wants to go hard again from just the thought of her. But if I spend any more time jacking off, I’m going to be late for class. That’s one thing that Juno and I have in common: we both take our classes seriously.
A small laugh escapes my chest as I get dressed, running through all the plans that I have for my new pet. Starting with finding out what her class schedule is, so that I can use it to my advantage. If she’s a good girl, I’ll even let her go to class in between screaming my name.
7
Juno
I step out of the library into the late afternoon air and breathe out a sigh of relief. This is exactly what I thought college would be like. I just spent a few hours studying, and I’m tired, but I’m also happy. I love my classes. I love learning. I love pouring over my biology and anatomy textbooks and absorbing all the details.
I love everything about college, except for what’s happening with Malcolm. But even that, after a day like today, can’t dim my shine. I’ll make it work. Malcolm seems like a reasonable guy. I’m sure we can come to an agreement about my duties. He said I’d be his maid. I can clean the house as long as they give me time to study. That’s fine.
Neither Bailey nor Taylor have texted me yet about dinner, but I’m craving something. I head over to the tiny coffee shop on campus to get a cup of tea, because that seems perfect right about now. The air is crisp and fresh, and I take in a deep breath as I walk through the grass. I’m almost to the shop when I hear my name. And then I hear it again.
“Juno!”
I turn to see Melody and some of the other girls from Tri Delta sitting on a blanket near the coffee shop’s patio. They look like the college girls you see in the movies, gorgeous and thin with perfect make-up and the stares of people passing by. They’re so glamorous, and I want to be one of them. I’m not even sure why. I’ve just always wanted to be that girl. The girl whose life is perfect in college.
Gets good grades, is perfect and attracts all the guys. Graduates and is successful. And has sisters for life.
I wave, and Melody gestures me over to their blanket and pats the space beside her. “I was just going to grab a drink,” I say as I approach.
“Oh, there’s plenty of time for that,” she says. “Come sit with us.”
There’s a small chorus of agreement and I can’t help but smile. They want me there with them. I drop my bag on the ground and sit beside them, relaxing. Tension I wasn’t aware that I was carrying melting away.
“How was your first day?” Melody asks.
I smile. “Pretty good, I think. Mostly syllabus day, but I think I’m going to love all my classes.”
“Aww, that’s great,” one of the other girls says.
I look around at all of them, and every one of their faces seem open and friendly and supportive. This is where I belong. I just know it.
“Now,” Melody says, leaning forward, “we’re all dying to hear about last night, you know.”
She really reminds me of Taylor the way that she’s perched like that. Her eyes are filled with amusement and passion, and something about it makes me uneasy. But I don’t have any reason to be nervous. I did the dare, even though I don’t have the proof. “I—”
“You don’t have to be coy,” she says, cutting me off. “Taylor already filled me in about some bits of it. I just want to know the grey details.”
“A lot of things happened fast,” I say. “I did ask to pledge, and I did stay overnight, but I don’t have anything to prove it.”
“But,” she says, lowering her voice, “are you really going to live there with a bunch of guys?”
I swallow. “I think so, yeah.”
Everyone shrieks in unison. It seems like excitement, but I’m not sure. “Oh my god,” Melody gushes. “Taylor said it but I didn’t think it could possibly be true, what a badass you are.”
“It’s just another room,” I say. “I’ll be sleeping there, it doesn’t really matter.”
“Yeah,” a pretty blonde on my right says, “but you’ll be sleeping there with a bunch of guys. Granite House guys. I don’t think that I would be able to keep my hands to myself.”
“I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” I say.
It won’t, if any of the guys are in the same category as the one that Malcolm saved me from, then I want absolutely nothing to do with them. No, my mind whispers. You want nothing to do with them because you’re already interested in Malcolm.
I shove the thought aside. “It’ll be fine,” I say. “I’ll have a big room alone which will be perfect for
studying.”
“And fucking,” Melody says.
Blood rushes to my cheeks. Not everything is about sex. Even as the memories of last night flood my mind, I know that not everything is about that. “Will you still let me pledge Tri Delta?” I ask.
Melody waves a hand. “Sure. When people are rushing you’re free to put your name in.”
My stomach plummets. That’s a far cry from what she made it seem like yesterday, like if I did what she asked that I’d be as good as already in the sorority. But it doesn’t matter. She probably has a lot on her mind, and at the very least she didn’t say that I was disqualified because I wasn’t going to be living with Bailey.
“I still can’t believe that you’d do that,” Melody says. “I mean, I don’t need any proof now that you’re going to be living in the house. But don’t you want to have a normal college experience before you sell yourself out?”
I gasp, the words lodging like a bullet in my chest. “That’s not what I’m doing,” I say. “Is that what you think I’m doing?”
I have to rein myself in if I want to remain on their good side, because they only reason that I’m even in this position is because they put me there. They’re the ones that asked me for the fucking proof. I could have curled up in a corner of the house and just slept there without that fucking vase and none of this would have happened.
Melody doesn’t have a chance to respond, because she’s looking behind me, and then a large body lands beside me with a thud. An arm is slung around my shoulders, and I’m wrapped in smoky cologne. I already know who it is, my gut dropping and twisting in some strange combination of longing and anxiety. “How’s my favorite girl?” Malcolm asks while the sisters of Tri Delta gape.
“I’m okay,” I say.
“Good,” he says, pulling me closer. I try to wiggle out of his grip, but he holds me fast. “I overheard Melody asking you some questions, and I realized the Tri Deltas were circling you like sharks smelling blood, the way they do with all their victims. But, given that Juno here is the newest member of Granite House, you should know that she’s not bait for you or anyone else, so stop picking on her.”
That is…the last thing that I ever expected to come out of his mouth, but I’m glad he said it. Warmth fills my chest. Does belonging to him mean that he will defend me too, because if it does, then I’m on board with at least this part of our arrangement. I’m no longer trying to wiggle out of his grasp.
“Malcolm,” Melody says, her voice overly sweet, “we were just commenting that it’s strange that you would take in someone like Juno.”
He raises his eyebrows. “Why is it strange?”
She’s still smiling. “It’s just…weird that she’ll be the only girl in a house full of guys, you know.”
“Juno is awesome,” he says, “and we’re happy to have her. And if she pledges Tri Delta, you all would be lucky to have her.”
“I’m sure we will,” Melody says.
“Who knows,” Malcolm says, “maybe if Juno makes it into Tri Delta, I’ll even consider letting you come to Granite House again.”
Melody goes pale, and everyone in the group goes deadly silent. Slowly, she smiles again. But this smile looks brittle and not at all friendly. “Of course,” she says. “I look forward to an invitation. You know that everyone loves your parties.”
“That they do,” Malcolm says. “Speaking of parties, Juno and I need to go. The house is still a mess from the party last night and she needs to participate in the new member ritual of cleaning the whole place.”
He pulls me to my feet, and I barely have a chance to wave before we’re walking away and back toward Granite House. “You know, I was actually on my way to get a drink and then dinner.”
“We have tea and coffee at the house, and we’re ordering pizza,” he says, long legs out-pacing me so I have to jog to catch up.
“What the hell happened back there?”
“I was rescuing you,” he says with a grin. “That’s twice in twenty-four hours by the way.”
“Rescuing me, and blackmailing me. Thanks. Whatever that was was not just about me.”
He rolls his eyes. “Of course not. Melody Thomas is not someone that you should ever hang out with.”
“Why not? I’m really good friends with her sister.”
He slings his arm around my shoulder again and walks with me. “Melody is one of those people that likes control. And her favorite way of exercising control is over people. Or at least she thinks that she’s controlling people. She’s not great at it. But she loves to judge and push and try to get everyone to do exactly what she wants, and trust me when I say you’re better off not getting mixed up with her or the pack of girls that she leads.”
“Are you going to tell me how or why you think this?”
“Nope.”
His arm is warm on me, and I’m way too comfortable with it being there. I shrug it off, only to hear him chuckle. I don’t know why I’m blushing, but I am. “It’s not like you’re any better,” I say.
“Oh, do tell.”
“You like to control people too. Telling them what to do, bossing them around.”
Malcolm stops and looks at me, and the way the sun is hitting him takes my breath away. Warm brown eyes look like chocolate in the light, that impeccable jawline highlighted. He’s so fucking beautiful that it’s not fair and I look away just so I don’t have my breath taken away.
Curse my stupid brain and body for thinking that he’s attractive. He’s despicable for what he’s making you do. It doesn’t matter that he rescued you. It doesn’t matter that he let you sleep on his floor with his blankets so you didn’t have to find somewhere else. He’s awful.
Now if I could just get myself to fucking believe it.
“The difference, Juno, is that I can control people. What Melody only pretends to do, I actually do. I’m good at reading people, and I can get anyone to do anything. Not showing off or bragging, it’s just a fact.”
I shake my head. “God you’re full of yourself. Can you even hear the words you’re saying?”
Malcolm grabs my hand and pulls me off the path and around a corner. We’re behind a couple of trees next to the old brick building, obscured from the path and everyone around us. I can hear voices floating to us from the path, people shouting and laughing. The rustle of wind in the trees along this path. And yet, as Malcolm presses me into the bricks, laying his body against mine, it’s like we’re in an entirely different world.
This is so similar and so different from the way that he cornered me last night. There’s that same tension that I felt between us, but we’re connected now. He hasn’t bothered not touching me. I’m plastered between him and the brick. Trapped between the tock of his body and the hard place, and I can no longer fucking breathe.
Get your shit together, Juno.
But I can’t. My body is on override, screaming that I’m so close to him and after everything last night, that’s exactly what I want and exactly what I shouldn’t want.
Fucking hell.
Malcolm’s cheek presses against mine softly, and his breath is hot in my ear, giving me shivers all the way down my spine. “I like how bold you are, Juno. Most people wouldn’t talk back to someone like me.”
“Give me a reason not to,” I say. “You’re not in charge of me.”
“Oh, but I am. You’re mine, remember?”
I shake my head.
“If you think that I can’t have my way with you, right here and right now, you have to do some thinking.”
“You wouldn’t,” I gasp. “Not without me saying yes.”
“Tell me something, Juno,” he says quietly. “Are your nipples hard right now?”
I don’t answer. They are.
“I can feel them through your bra,” he says. “Can you tell me without lying that if I were to kiss you right now you’d say no?”
I still don’t say anything.
“I’m touching you right now,” he says, runnin
g a hand a long my ribs. “Do you want me to stop?”
Speak. I beg myself. Say something. My mouth is frozen shut.
“If I wanted to fuck you, I think you’d let me, Juno. I know you want me. I know that I turn you on. I know that you touched yourself thinking about me. You would beg me not to stop.”
I shiver, my body committing absolute betrayal as heat pours down between my legs with the silk in his voice. I hate it and I love it. I hate him and want him.
“You’ve already decided to be my pet. No matter how I treat you in public, I know you’re mine.” He pauses. “And because I read people so well, I know you love it.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I’m wet. Wetter than I even was last night. My breath is shallow and gasping, trying to resist the pull of him, but that wall is crumbling fast.
I can’t believe he knows what I did. He sounded so asleep…I was so sure. “You heard me?”
“Yes,” he says. “I heard you fuck that needy little pussy of yours with your fingers until you came. You didn’t need to do it alone. I gladly would have helped.”
My cheeks and chest are on fire with a blush, but I can’t stop looking at his lips and imagining what it would be like to really kiss him.
“What do you say to me?” he asks.
It’s phrased like there’s only one answer. And that’s because there is. If there was any reason in the world for me to say no, he would listen. But we both want this, and it’s stupid to pull back rather to sink into it. If we try to resist, something might explode.
That could be problematic living in the same house.
Might as well get it over with now.
Or at least that’s how I’m rationalizing it.
Shit. I realize that he’s completely right. I’m his, even though I hadn’t realized it or knew why. I am in so much trouble.
For a moment, the intensity in his eyes fades, and instead of this powerful pull, it feels like an easing. Like he can’t help but lean forward and kiss me. As soon as he does, all that intensity and passion comes roaring back, and suddenly we can’t get enough of each other. It’s like flame and gunpowder colliding.
