Elite

by Carrie Aarons

  “Don’t knock it till you try it. First of all, it’s a great family drama … gonna be nominated for all of the awards this year.” Nial nods, as if he’s some kind of film critic. “And it gives you a shit ton of talking points with chicks, because every single one of them watches it. Tell them you relate to Kevin and his confidence issues, his need to be taken seriously as a man, and they melt for that shit.”

  “Plus, Randall is funny as fuck. And those little girls are too cute,” Larry agrees with him.

  “You guys talking about This Is Us? Jack is the fucking man.” Griffin comes up and fist bumps them.

  I roll my eyes, still focused on the threatening demand sitting in bold text on my phone screen. Looking around, I can’t do this to these guys anymore. They’re all honest, hardworking guys … not to mention pretty top-notch friends. I was an asshole, stealing their merchandise and fucking up their season.

  I wasn’t doing it anymore. I throw my phone on the top shelf of my locker, signing my death wish not answering Mac. He’s going to bet against Jade Mountain tonight, and I’ll be the reason all of his money goes to shit. But I just can’t do it anymore.

  “All right, are we done with the feels? Because we have a game to go win.” I hook my thumb toward the hallway to the gym, and they all laugh as they follow me out to the court.

  Half an hour later, and we’re up by twelve and I’m feeling like a fucking god. It’s like my high-tops are on fire tonight, no one can stop me. My passes go exactly where I want them to, I don’t miss a single shot. I can’t slow down, the pace of my game on overdrive. It’s like getting this secret out of the dark box it’s been locked inside of, even if to just one person, has set me free. I haven’t played this well in months.

  “Killing it, brother!” Nial runs by me, slapping my ass hard as we run down the court.

  Time is ticking, the clock in our favor as we score point after point after point. Our team feels untouchable, like we’re running on water or some other kind of miracle-level shit. This is how we should be playing, this is how we have to play if we want to win a national title.

  The seconds tick down, and suddenly fans are rushing the court, the energy with which we just dominated our opponent apparently transcending the hardwood and floating up into the bleachers. I’m scooped up in the madness of it all, cheers echoing in my eardrums and Jade Mountain flags being flung all around.

  It’s not until I get back to my locker after scorching my skin in a hot shower to avoid my phone, that I finally check my text messages.

  Mac: Wrong move, kid. Wrong move.

  Dread sits like a lead bullet in my lungs, making it hard to breathe. Immediately, I text Eloise. Whether or not they know about my girlfriend, I’m not sure … but there is no way in hell I’m leaving her alone tonight.

  There is no telling what these guys will do now that I’ve crossed them.

  Twenty-Four

  Eloise

  Jubilation beats like a rhythmic drum throughout the entire bar, the energy of that stellar win suffusing everyone and everything within a fifty-mile radius of Jade Mountain’s campus.

  The Croc is packed, the building overflowing with people crammed at tables, smashed up against the bar, sandwiched on the dance floor. Smiles light up their faces, liquor invades their pores. The feelings of excitement and victory tick all of my boxes too, making me feel as giddy as a school girl.

  That is, until Colton texts me, his written words striking fear through my heart in the middle of the crowded room.

  Colton: Where are you?

  Eloise: Oh my, that game! Are you positively thrilled? You played wonderfully!

  Colton: Eloise, focus. Wherever you are, stay there. I’m coming to pick you up.

  Eloise: What’s going on? Is this some kind of post-game booty call celebration? Because if so, I’m in. Yes.

  Colton: Mac asked me to throw the game. Obviously, we both know I didn’t. I can’t do it anymore. So I stopped. And now, I’m in trouble.

  My stomach drops, the strawberry martini I just gulped down turning to bile in my throat. He’d disobeyed an order from some seriously frightening people … or so I assumed. The way he spoke about these men, in the conversations since he’d come clean about his mother and the money … I could tell that Colton, a confident, strong man, was deathly afraid of them. And while I was proud that he’d chosen himself and his team over those thugs, I was scared out of my wits now too.

  Eloise: I’m at The Croc, was waiting for you. You don’t think … do they know about me?

  Colton: I’m not sure, but I’m not taking the chance. I need to keep you safe. I’m coming to get you.

  Eloise: Colton, what happens now that you didn’t lose the game? The money they’ll have lost …

  Colton: I’m almost to you, ten minutes. And they’ll come looking for it. I’ll figure something out.

  If only he’d let me help. I could solve this so easily. But he was proud, and dammit did I find that attractive. Proud enough to get either of us seriously hurt, but I knew where he was coming from. We were cut from the same cloth; I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same in my days of living in Liverpool, when my family was in dire need of our next meal ticket. Colton felt the world on his shoulders and he’d dealt with it the only way he knew how, and I understood that.

  “Have another drink with me!” Abby slams into me, jostling my chair and hijacking the other stool at my hightop.

  “Sorry, love, I’m leaving in a few.” I smile warily at her, but she’s probably too drunk to notice my odd temperament.

  “Oh, come on, you can wait to celebrate with that hunk of a boyfriend of yours! Two cosmos!” She calls out to a passing waiter, who takes the twenty she waved at him. Who knows if he’ll even come back with drinks.

  “Right … just can’t wait to be alone with him.” I try to play it off like the hair on the back of my neck isn’t standing up, like I don’t feel the need to look over my shoulder every five seconds.

  “You got the best catch of them all, it’s not fair. Jaden got kicked out for failing to secure a boyfriend, and I’m over here stuck to Oliver from Yardsley. Sure, he’s packing down below, but he’s a bit of a brick upstairs.”

  I can’t help but laugh, because drunk Abby is kind of funny. “Wait, Jaden got kicked out?”

  She nods. “Yep, Gretchen revoked her pledging privileges after Mountain Day … the girl had refused to get a boyfriend for some ‘stupid club.’ Her words, not mine.”

  Why hadn’t I known that? I guess I’d been in my own bubble since Colton and I had become exclusive, and I’d never been one to really keep up that much with the Charter girls. But now … my curiosity was piqued again. Each time I decided I didn’t care about these petty ladies and their rules about what was in and what was out, just seemed to pull me back in. Jaden had struck me as someone who didn’t necessarily want to give up all of the notoriety that Charter had to offer, and yet she’d all but disqualified herself.

  And then the memories of the whispers, of what Blair had told me, come back. For some reason, I couldn’t drop the niggle in my head that told me to keep searching for the truth about that poor girl.

  “Well, I guess that leaves more room for us.” Abby lifts the drink that the waiter sets down on our table.

  “More room? They had five people pledge to start with, weren’t they going to take all of us?” I don’t touch the drink, and my eyes dart around the room for Colton. I suddenly wanted to get out of here.

  Abby makes a face I’ve never seen grace her kind features before. It’s almost a snarl, a sarcastic kind of mocking expression. “Oh, come on, Eloise, don’t be naïve. They were always going to cut down the herd. It’s what they do, it’s what they get off on.”

  I’m shocked to hear those words coming from her mouth. A chill goes up my spine, and I need to go. Now. I’m not sure why this feeling of dread swamps the nape of my neck, but all I want at this moment is to hold the Goliath of a man who has become more of
a rock to me than I ever realized until this very moment.

  And then he’s there, wrapping his hands around my shoulders. I smell him before I see him, the soap of his freshly showered skin consuming my senses. Instantly, the sickness I’d felt just moments ago vanishes, replaced by pure contentment and safety.

  “You okay?” he mumbles into my hair as I turn into him, scooting off my bar stool and into his embrace.

  Colton’s big body surrounds me, his long limbs almost lifting me off my feet as I snuggle into him. To anyone outside of our bubble, it just looks like PDA after his big win. But inside our connection, we know now that it’s so much more. I could have run when he’d told me about his mother, told me about what he was involved with. But I’d stayed, dammit I’d had no choice.

  I hadn’t been looking for someone, much less a hotshot jock like Colton Reiter. But he’d worn me down, he’d surprised me. And instead of a short vacation to the States, I was wrapped up in something much more than I bargained for.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Those mixed blue-green eyes gaze down at me, serious but also reverent.

  “Not back to your place … what if they’re waiting for you?” I rest a hand on his cheek, loving the feeling of his stubble under my fingertips.

  Colton turns his head, sucking my pointer finger between his lips. “We could always go back to your place.”

  I wink at him, trying to lighten the moment a little. “My dorm room, eh? We’ll have to put a, what do they do? A scrunchie on the door? That’s so American, I love it!”

  He laughs lightly as he laces our fingers, leading me out of the jam-packed bar. “It should be entertaining trying to fit us both into a twin bed.”

  Twenty-Five

  Eloise

  “I mean, we’d have better luck on the floor. Pull the blankets down, make a pillow fort, hell, I don’t care. But I’m telling you, if we get in there, we’re going to break it.”

  Colton stands in my dorm room, dwarfing the place, with his hands on his hips as he contemplates my long twin bed as if it’s some kind of puzzle he has to figure out.

  “It’s pretty sturdy, of that I can assure you. Plus, wouldn’t it be fun to try and break it?” I wiggle an eyebrow at him.

  That seems to make up his mind, and six feet plus of solid muscle rushes me. I squeal, anticipating his attack, but the breath whooshes out of me as Colton picks me up and crashes his lips to mine.

  Now I’ve had my fair share of snogging. And my fair share of shagging. You didn’t grow up in the circles I did without the overdrive for debauchery, and sex just happened to be one of the best way to live on the edge for spoiled rich teenagers.

  But this boy, no, this man … he could kiss. And use all of his body parts in a way that I was never familiar with. We may have rushed into the whole exclusivity thing, but my lord, I was happy I got him all to myself.

  He kissed with his entire body, putting his jaw, shoulders, hands, hips and legs into the action. It was so forceful that I was almost knocked over every time, and my core tingled so intensely that I had to rub up against him as he made me part my legs and wrap them around his waist.

  “Kissing you should be illegal.” I laugh, diving back in for more.

  “Your body should be illegal. I swear, I’d do very, very bad things just to get you naked.” His eyes burn as he deposits me on the bed, shedding his suit jacket and throwing it on the floor.

  Have I mentioned another reason why I love basketball? Well, the players are required to wear suits to and from the game, and I thoroughly approve. Colton Reiter in a suit should be turned into one of those calendars that women purchase to ogle at the hot men.

  “Good thing you can get me out of my knickers with just a simple please, then.” I toe off my boots, and begin to strip myself as I watch him untie the dress shoes he dons.

  After his socks come off, the button-down shirt follows, and I have to pause to watch the bloody spectacular show playing out in front of me. Material gives way, and there is his naked chest in all of its glory. Chiseled, and smattered with a light dusting of dark hair that grows even darker as it moves south, dipping below his belt line so that I can’t get a glimpse of my favorite body part of his.

  “Don’t move another finger until I get over there.” His voice is playful, but there is a warning laced underneath.

  I shiver, his tone licking me almost as good as I know his tongue will. “Yes, sir.”

  Finally, he unbuttons his trousers and lets them fall, nothing standing between me and the enormous bulge in his pants except for a scrap of black boxers. My mouth waters, taking in the whole picture. There should be statues erected to this man … my lips tip up at the thought of the word erect in my mind.

  “What’s so funny?” Colton is on me in a matter of seconds, parting my legs where they sit on the bed as he stands on the floor.

  Before I can answer, he’s untying the ballet cardigan I have on, the soft cashmere falling off my shoulders as his fingers brush my skin, lighting me up like the most beautiful Christmas tree. Underneath, he toys with the strap of the silky camisole I’d paired with the sweater.

  “I love these two on you, the silk and the softness of the sweater. They remind me of your skin … although feeling that is my favorite texture of all.” His words are a punch to my libido, marking my flesh as he undresses me.

  I’m helpless to do anything but sit here and take it, the magnetism of him bowling me over again and again. The light is dim on my school-issued desk, bathing the room in shadows.

  The moment he lays me back, pushing gently on my shoulders, and helps pull off my jeans, I hear the small growl emanate from his throat.

  “Christ, baby …” He puts his fist in his mouth, as if it’s too much to have me laid out here in front of him on a silver platter.

  My legs hang over the edge of the bed, my body lying perpendicular to the mattress, but they don’t dangle for long. Before I can take a breath, Colton is kneeling before me and throwing my knees over his shoulders. With a tear, he rips my underwear clean off.

  “Hope those weren’t expensive.” He smirks, knowing full well they probably were.

  I don’t care in the least, promising to the heavens that I’ll go without knickers forever if he just presses his tongue where I need it.

  “You’re so fucking perfect, you know that?” His eyes meet mine as I push up on my elbows, needing to watch him unravel me.

  He blows a hot breath across my tight bud, the jolt making me turn my head up to the ceiling and moan loudly.

  “That’s it, I love hearing you …” I feel the devilish grin between my thighs, and then he’s there, caressing me with his tongue.

  I’m lost, swimming in the space above my bed, almost out of my body. Just like his kisses, Colton uses his entire body to devour me; his teeth scrape my nub, that tongue traces patterns up and down my slit, his hands rub from my hips to my knees. The entire act is like a religious experience, and I want to worship him equally.

  “I want you.” My voice is thin and needy, and what started out as a fun romp in the sack has turned intense. As everything does when it comes to Colton, I’m learning.

  “And I want you to come all over my mouth.” His words slay me.

  The dirtiness of his intentions sends pleasure bombs zinging through my core, starting with a numbness in my toes and working their way up until I’m so close to exploding that I thrust my hands in his hair, grinding him into me. I combust, my joints and tendons going rigid and then free-flowing all at once.

  I’m barely conscious of him while the orgasm plows through me, but then he’s there, on top of me as he rolls on a condom. My eyes travel down, hazy, and spot the monster hard-on he’s sporting.

  “I can never believe that thing actually fits inside me.” My voice is sleepy, and I hear his chuckle ring in my ears.

  He has the largest cock I’ve ever seen, and just like with every other part of his body, Colton uses it like an athlete. He’s skilled, shagging
is a sport that he excels grandly at.

  “Let’s see if we can’t break this bed, then, huh?” He grunts as he pushes into me, my head all the way up in my pillows now.

  I spread wide for him, loving the pleasure and pain of his invasion. I grab the globes of his bum, squeezing the firm, smooth muscle there.

  And as he pumps into me, our eyes lock and stay there. Sex for me has always been a lustful, fun activity … a taboo hobby that ends in mutual gratification.

  But with him, it’s something more. Sure, it’s still all of those things. But as we gaze into each other’s eyes, there is something lying underneath, a meaningful connection, an unspoken bond. It both terrifies and excites me.

  When Colton gulps a last breath of air before he flings us both over the edge, I hear the splinter of wood beneath us.

  I secretly hope that we broke the bed, and at the same time, I really hope we didn’t. Oh well, if I have to sleep on the floor, this was totally worth it.

  Twenty-Six

  Eloise

  After two days of laying low, Colton and I decide we need a dose of normal. He decides I haven’t eaten the best burger Thistle has to offer, and so he takes me to some hole in the wall diner at the edge of town, right off the highway.

  To its credit, it does have a beautiful view of the other side of Jade Lake, the moon bouncing like crystals off the water, highlighting the patches of ice that are now breaking apart in the middle of March.

  “Okay, so this is bloody perfect.” I sigh around a bite of my bison burger, a glob of ketchup hitting my plate.

  “I’ll make a messy American out of you yet.” He winks, sipping from his big mug of beer.

  Colton ordered the entire meal for us, two bison burgers with extra cheese and pickles, plus the works of onions, tomato, ketchup and mayonnaise. Add in two huge mugs of the house ale, and an enormous basket of steak fries, my stomach was pretty much stretched to its limit.