Billionaire Bad Boys: The Company Ink Series

by Kira Blakely

  I was depending on it.

  My family was depending on it.

  “Turn that shit off, Callie!” my new roommate, Lindsey, screamed just before tossing her pink, fluffy body pillow over to my bed.

  Speaking of ‘one of those girls’…

  I groaned. I knew she was pissed. I probably would have been, too. I still hadn’t turned off the blaring sound of my alarm clock, and it was annoying me, too, but in all honesty, I just hadn’t gained enough momentum to move far enough to hit the switch.

  “Now, god damn it!” she shrieked again.

  I groaned, flung my body toward the clock, and flicked my finger over the switch. My eyes were open, now, stinging and watering a downpour of tears like I’d never seen before.

  My feet touched the tile and I immediately flinched at the cold.

  Lindsey was already dozing back off again. Her hot, smelly breath hit me like a dense fog.

  I rolled my eyes and my nose scrunched of its own accord in disgust.

  Our beds were too close for comfort, but that was what was expected in a small dorm like this one. I could have paid more and gotten into something a little nicer or even – preferably – a single, but I could barely afford to come here in the first place. Extra dorm costs were a no-go.

  I had mentioned bunking our beds to Lindsey when we first met to help with space, but she didn’t seem to like the idea of it for some reason.

  So, here we were, lying side by side, divided only by a small night stand.

  “It’s time for classes,” I muttered, rolling my eyes again.

  “My classes don’t start until noon because I’m fucking normal,” she grumbled as she buried her head deeper into her pink, leopard-spotted pillow.

  I rolled my eyes again and tossed my covers off of me. My body ached as I struggled to get up. I was the normal one.

  Partying until 4 A.M. and sleeping until 11 wasn’t normal. It was juvenile. I tossed my long, brown hair up into a ponytail and walked toward the door.

  I needed a shower.

  So, I grabbed my toiletry bag from my wide-open closet and snuck out of the dorm before Lindsey could say anything else. She had a foul bitchy demeanor to go along with that foul breath, and I really didn’t want to deal.

  My insides quivered as I walked down the hallway toward the community bathroom. I clutched my toiletries tightly and held them against my braless chest. The fact that I was looking back and forth as I continued down the hall made me second guess my decision not to put a bra on before leaving my dorm room. After all, it was a co-ed dorm. Even if they boys were on opposite floors, they still loomed hallways of all hours of the night and morning. I could have very easily been spotted and humiliated before reaching the bathroom, regardless of the close proximity my dorm room was to it.

  But damn. I just really didn’t want to bother putting a bra on just to walk fifty feet down the hall and take it off all over again. And God knows I wasn’t about to sleep in it!

  As soon as my feet crossed the threshold onto the small, pebble–sized, white tile floor, I felt at ease. And I felt even better as soon as I felt the heat of the shower radiate against my flesh. I took a deep breath and smiled. There was nothing like good, hot steam in the morning to wake you up.

  It was just what I needed.

  ***

  The weather was still warm, but not scorching hot – at least, not yet. It was still early in the morning, but something told me by the nice, crisp breeze tickling over my arms that the rest of the day was going to be ideal.

  As I trekked across campus, I noticed something.

  The atmosphere surrounding me was almost alien. Although nothing out of the ordinary in particular was going on – it really was just people walking to class, bags strapped to their backs, reminiscent of high school – it was still like nothing I had ever seen before.

  I reached the towering brick building and took a deep breath, a smile suddenly plastered on my face. I honestly probably loved school a little too much sometimes.

  "Hey, how’s it going?" called a male voice, and when my head whipped to the side, I saw a man with soft, blond hair just long enough to brush the tips of his perfectly maintained brow leaning against the steps I’d just placed a foot on. He was just off to the side; one arm slung over the railing, the other in his pocket.

  He looked at me. His beautiful blue eyes glistened, and a half-smile formed over his lips.

  It was a sort of infectious smile; one that I couldn’t help but smile back at.

  “Hey. It’s going okay. What about yourself?”

  “Pretty good.” His smile was still causing a weird pitter patter in my heart. He was probably the most gorgeous man I’d seen on campus so far. And there had been a shit load of them.

  A much better selection pool than high school had offered.

  I continued to climb the stairs and glanced over my shoulder as I walked, so that I could smile at him just a little longer. I almost immediately chastised myself, though. I wasn’t supposed to be a water-headed idiot girl chasing after boys. I was supposed to be a lot more collected than that.

  One thing I had to give myself props on, though, was the fact that I had glanced back a lot more smoothly than I normally would have, considering I didn’t face-plant into the door as soon as I looked over my shoulder. Instead, I managed to look back at him, and then back to my front in just enough time to grab hold of the door handle rather than hit it head-on.

  I chuckled, slightly to myself went through the door, leaving the gorgeous, dreamy hunk that had just flirted with me in my wake.

  ***

  After classes, as soon as I left the campus bookstore with a box full of new books, I noticed there was suddenly a whole hell of a lot more people everywhere, especially in my dorm. There were so many people that the lobby was packed like a sardine can. Everyone sure seems to be up now that it’s after 4 P.M., I thought with a scowl.

  Unfortunately, no one was wanting to move.

  Irritated as hell, I growled and tapped the shoulder of a girl just ahead of me. “Do you know what’s going on?” I leaned in, hoping to hear her answer over the crowd.

  “We’re waiting for the elevator!” she yelled out over the mass of people.

  “Why not take the stairs?” It seems that it would have all moved a little more quickly if everyone had just piled in the stairway and climbed up a few steps. But, with the way the girl looked at me, you would have thought it was the most absurd conclusion in the world.

  I sighed. I was on the fifth floor. I loved the convenience of an elevator, but I wasn’t about to wait eons for it to arrive. The air was too hot; too thick with other people’s hot, steamy breaths and their body heat.

  I was starting to feel suffocated, like I was claustrophobic all of a sudden.

  I grabbed my bags and my freshly-bought box of books and turned course toward the semi-empty stairway.

  My arms strained almost painfully from the weight of the box, and my hands were sweaty from gripping it. I groaned. My arms were hurting to the point that I almost chastised myself from giving up on that insane exercise video I’d started at the beginning of summer.

  Each step made me realize just how out of shape I was.

  “Damn,” I gasped, stomping up one more step. “Definitely need to go to the gym for cardio and weight lifting.”

  As soon as I climbed the step leading to the fourth floor, a guy came through the stairway’s doorway and onto the stairs, almost crashing into me. “Whoa there,” he laughed, holding his arms out in front of my shoulders.

  When I finally looked at him, I realized it was the guy I’d seen right outside my morning class.

  I smiled. “What?” I squeaked, mesmerized by how attractive he was.

  His honey-colored hair had been swept to the side after the long day, and his angular jaw clenched as he looked at me with his dark brown eyes. His body was lean and thin, and he spoke in a soft voice, “Would you like some help with those?” He gestured toward
the books I was straining to hold.

  I blinked. Was I about to meet the first person that was actually nice to me?

  “They look pretty heavy,” he said with a laugh. “Let me help you.” He grabbed them from my hand. “Where’s your room?” he asked, and I immediately blushed crimson.

  “Up one floor.” I had to stop myself from giggling as he started up the stairs with me.

  The air was thick as we pounded up the stairs, and I held my breath out of embarrassment of him hearing me heaving like a six-hundred-pound man with emphysema. When we reached my floor, he turned back to look at me.

  “Which room?” His voice was a little huskier than it had been before, but it was a nice sort of husky. Masculine and shudder inducing.

  “This one.” I said, just before pointing to the room two doors down.

  He nodded and, as soon as I unlocked the door, I felt his free hand grab my waist and turn me around. I giggled nervously until I faced him.

  “Sorry, I’m a little forward sometimes.” He was smiling, his forehead just a centimeter from my own. “Here.” He held the box out to me and I took it with a gracious smile.

  “Thanks so much,” I said, just before he slammed me against the doorframe and sucked on my neck.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I yelled, my head snapping away from him, body stiffening defensively.

  “What?” he laughed, pulling back. “I just carried your books.”

  So much for being a gentleman. I scoffed, disgusted, “That doesn’t mean you can start sucking on my neck, you fucking weirdo!”

  What the hell! Were guys in college all such stereotypical douchebags?

  I fiddled with the door handle behind me before twisting the knob and powering in backward, making sure I shut the door square on his face.

  I smoothed my clothes and shuddered as I staggered into my dorm room, hoping that the fact I was flustered wouldn’t be completely obvious. But, it took me no time at all to realize that even if I was being obvious, Lindsey still wouldn’t have noticed.

  Music blared from her computer, and she danced around the room, still in her pink, polka-dotted shorts and oversized black t-shirt look. Her brown pixie hair was still ridden with bed head. It was clear that she hadn’t left the room at all, all day. In addition to what I remembered she’d had on that morning, she wore a pink, feather boa around her neck and a tiara on the top of her head.

  I cringed.

  She looked like a bad example of an 80s teenager from some shitty movie.

  The guy was such an asshole. Maybe I needed Lindsey’s crazy antics to forget about everything. I sighed. Seriously, I guess that will teach me to even so much as think about doing something other than studying.

  “Callie!” Lindsey squealed, her attention falling over my body for the first time since I’d walked through the door. “Pre-game with me!” She grinned and stretched her arm out toward me, a shot glass in one hand, a bottle of vodka in the other. I looked at the clear liquid and cringed.

  “Did you even go to class today?” I ignored the drink entirely, my brow cocking in her direction as I looked at her pajama-clad body. I already knew the answer. I wasn’t even sure why I was asking.

  I mean, it was clear that she was like day and night to me – completely opposite. But, to not even go to class? Was she really that different? Was she really there for that different of a reason than I was? Was she just there to party and not to work at all?

  “Nope! I was too tired. Now, take a shot!” she demanded, but I shook my head. No way in hell was I going to take a shot in the middle of the day.

  “It’s the middle of the afternoon.” It was just 4:30 and I still had studying to do.

  “God, you’re such a tool,” she groaned, just before tossing her head back and downing the shot she had held out to me.

  And you’re a dumbass bitch, I wanted to say, but I didn’t.

  Instead, I just dropped my box of books and walked over to my bed.

  “Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you!” she squealed. “Who is this?!” I looked over to where she was and rolled my eyes. “This hot tamale!” She grabbed hold of my brother’s photo off of my night stand and brought it over to me. “Your guy?!”

  I sighed and shook my head. “That’s my brother.”

  “Well, bring him by any time,” she grinned, “because mama likes!”

  She winked and skipped off toward the door, my eyes stabbing her violently from behind until I watched her disappear behind the door.

  I groaned.

  That was definitely something that was never going to happen.

  Chapter Two – Devon

  “Devon Halloway, you’re looking so good tonight,” a voice seductively whispered in my ear. I smirked and glanced over my shoulder and over the back of the couch to the gorgeous blonde I’d met just a few days prior in my dorm. She was a bombshell. Located on the floor just below mine and a total knockout.

  Basically, I was envied by every other penis in the room.

  The woman had completely held onto my every word – hell, my very existence. She had been breathing and eating to thoughts of Devon Halloway.

  Man, I loved college already.

  I felt a finger drop to my shoulder and skid lightly down my bicep as she rounded the couch and stood in front of me. Her scent wafted into my senses. It was floral, heavy. Almost too heavy, actually. It had been causing my nose to tickle for days.

  I sniffled as she wrapped her arm around my neck and leaned in for a kiss just before sitting on my lap. Immediately, I felt my body react. I wasn’t surprised.

  Not completely anyway.

  There was something about her that I wasn’t quite interested in, but damn it all, she was hot. So god damn hot that I almost forgot where we were – completely surrounded by people – when she began grinding against my hardening groin.

  Not that anyone would have noticed. A lot of people were doing the same thing; their bodies moving in unison to the loud, rhythmic beating of the music causing the whole house to pound.

  Everyone was getting trashed. It was great.

  We were all young and having fun, and to me, nothing was better than that.

  “Come with me,” I half-yelled into her hair, slightly blowing on the spot I knew her ear had to have been tucked under.

  She looked at me, mesmerized or something, just like they all did, all the time. The son of an NFL star was all I’d ever be to women like this, but that was fine. For now, at least, while I was in college and having fun…

  One hand reached around to cup her ass – what little of one she had – and the other forked strands of blonde hair away from her cheek and tucked it behind her ear.

  I didn’t usually go for blonds. Not really. Brunettes – curvy, with large chests – that was what I really liked. A fucking figure.

  And this girl… Well, she didn’t really have one.

  But, she was hot. Hot enough to make an exception.

  She followed me up the stairs of the large three-story fraternity house; the frat I had been groomed into joining for all eighteen years of my life. My father’s legacy. One out of a million others, but this one I’d actually been looking forward to.

  I slid off her dress in one single, fluid motion the moment I closed the door. I was pretty proud of myself, especially given how completely hammered I was.

  “Lay back. Relax.” She sounded just as seductive as ever. Her hand grazed my chest, and she pushed me backward onto the bed.

  ***

  Grinning like a complete idiot, the blonde and I came downstairs, arm in arm to find my future brothers huddled around the coffee table in the living room.

  “Hey, Devon!” Charlie horned over the crowd. “Truth or dare?!”

  I smirked. “A little too old to be playing that, aren’t we?”

  Charlie chuckled and stood tall, his chest puffed out toward me. “Chicken shit?! Choose one!”

  “Dare!” I yelled, feeling eyes on me. I hadn’t realized when we had desc
ended the stairs, but the music had been turned down to a point where it was almost non-existent.

  Charlie laughed. “Okay guys, what should we make him do?” he asked, glancing back to some of his brothers – both younger and older. Wicked smiles spread across their faces, and I heard a couple whispers from behind them. “I think we have a winner!” Charlie exclaimed, looking back at me, pure amusement the only expression visible.

  “And, what’s that?” I laughed.

  “You need to run naked all the way back to your dorm room!”

  “Oh, come on!” I said, laughing. Truth was, I didn’t have one single, solitary problem with it. But I knew that if I didn’t act like it was a big deal, the next dare would be off the wall. “You know the press will have a field day if I’m caught!” I was drunk, so I really didn’t care about that. Hell, I was surprised I was actually able to have such logical thoughts in the first place – whether I actually cared or not.

  “You said, ‘dare,’ bro!” Terry yelled over the music, holding up his red plastic cup.

  I smirked. “I guess I did!” I leaned forward and grabbed the closest drink I could find, not caring whose it actually was, and downed it in one quick, head-tilted-back motion. “Let’s do this shit!”

  ‘TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF!” That’s all I heard and, in all reality, that’s all I had to hear. My audience wanted me to take it off, so damn it all, I took it off.

  I started with the shirt, tugging at the hem and pulling it upward over my head, and I was only fueled more by the squeals and cheers of the women in the room.

  “Ok, girls,” I joked, grabbing hold of the waistband on my boxers, “for the big unveiling. Big being the keyword here!” I walked to the blonde girl I’d been upstairs with earlier, and danced around her face. “You can do the honor, beautiful.” I thrust my hip toward her face gently, and acted surprised when she grabbed hold of the waistband and did just as I asked.

  “Damn!” a couple of voices echoed in the air, fueling my ego. Jaws were dropped, and I watched the enjoyment flicker over several women’s faces. I smirked. A whole new sense of cockiness seemed to form and rear its ugly head.