by Rose Croft
“Nothing. Just football.” Nick shrugged it off but cut his blue eyes behind him to Roman, which only confirmed my thoughts. They’d fought.
I tried to loosen my hair, still pulled taut to no avail. “Could you please get your knees out of the back of my chair?” I requested with an edge to my voice. If anything, he pressed harder. Daring me, challenging me. Just like he’d warned.
Then I noticed Nick was staring at my neck, and he narrowed his eyes. “Is that a—?” He signaled.
It took me a second to realize what he was talking about. Oh dear lord, please let a hole open up in the floor and suck me under. He was staring at my slightly bruised skin…
“My mark,” Roman supplied, leaning over between us and slapped Nick on the back in a friendly gesture. I heard Axel whistle low with an uncomfortable chuckle.
Embarrassment flooded me, but also a rising anger that had simmered this whole time threatening to bubble over. “He’s lying.”
“I don’t fabricate stories, unlike you.” Roman’s voice was cool and dragged his knee down the back of my chair, taking my strands beneath, causing my head to jerk back.
The gauntlet was thrown, and I wouldn’t back down. He wanted me to beg, and I would die before I ever did again.
“What the hell is going on?” Nick asked with the look of someone watching a train wreck, who might’ve been contemplating hitting his friend again. Or walking away from this, too. Other students were starting to stare as they passed by our row.
Axel pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Nothing,” I said, trying to smile against the pain of having my hair almost pulled out of my scalp. My fury trumped common sense. I was already the brunt of mortification, so I was almost past the point of caring. May as well go full throttle. “He’s upset that I wouldn’t tutor him because he’s not what anyone would call academic material. You know…a lost cause.” I signaled with my finger to my head as though he was fucking mental, which wasn’t far from the truth. “By the way, I burned myself with my flatiron.”
I knew I was playing with fire. Hell, I was playing with matches, propane, and gasoline. Everything was about to explode.
The angle at which Roman held my hair gave me a direct vision to his face, which was black, but his mannerisms were still as cool as ice. He hovered over me like a wolf about to devour me until I was left for dead. “You weren’t calling me a lost cause when you had my dick in your mouth. Remember how you moaned and sucked me off like a pro?” He casually faced Nick as though it was no big deal we were the center of attention while I felt my face burn. Roman was bringing up our past and throwing out a trump card. He spoke in a matter-of-fact cadence that only a sociopath could master. “Baby girl is embarrassed because she begged me to leave a memento the other night. You know for old times’ sake.” He trailed his finger over my exposed neck and smirked. “I couldn’t resist when she plead so sweetly, right, Corazón? I never could deny her what she asked.”
I was at a loss for words, wanting to kill him, wanting to crawl under a rock and die. Nick’s jaw tightened as he slowly narrowed his eyes at Roman. “You’re a fucking dick.”
“What’s your point?” He had less than zero remorse in his retort.
Most of the students had filed out of class. Nick stood up and flicked a look of concern my way before he turned to leave, probably thinking Roman and I had some kind of messed up history, which was true, actually. Nevertheless, degradation was a real thing right now, and detest was too nice of a word to describe him.
Nick pushed past Axel who never seemed bothered or angry regarding us both before he shrugged. “That’s fucked up.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” Roman shrugged too. He still held my hair pinned against the chair. He sure as hell had no guilt either. Who was this man?
Soon, we were the last two sitting alone in the old auditorium. “I hate you,” I whispered, throbbing with the shame of being a public spectacle thanks to him.
“Well, that makes two of us,” he retorted without emotion. “I told you not to challenge me.”
Apprehension was beginning to flow through my veins since I assumed he’d let me go and walk away, but oh no, he didn’t. He’d accomplished his mission of pissing Nick off and proving he would make good on a threat. Instead, he eased his knee back and gripped my hair in his hand. I reached up, trying to release it from his touch. “You made your point, Roman. Let me go,” I threatened. Besides not wanting to be alone with him, I was also going to be late for my next class.
“I can’t.” He again curled his fingers around my exposed neck. His thumb stroked my pulse. “I don’t think you understand what it does to me having your presence here. Knowing you are in the same city as me, on the same campus. Seeing you walk to your classes.”
“Let me go,” I repeated, but this time it sounded more like a plea.
“Your pulse is hammering. I do that to you. I wonder if I ran my hand under your skirt, would your pussy be wet and quivering too?”
I closed my eyes and my thighs automatically clamped together whether as a reaction to protect myself or for some other reason I wasn’t going to explore. He wouldn’t do it, would he?
Keeping a firm grip on my neck, he released my hair with his other hand that slid over my shoulder down to my collarbone. I jerked against him, trying to free myself, and yet there was something else brewing inside me. He spread his hand wide as his fingers touched the swell of my breasts. “Don’t.” I exhaled shakily as his hand hovered over one nipple. He wouldn’t.
“Fuck, Theodora, your nipples are already as hard as rocks.” His index finger leisurely passed over one hardened point visible under my shirt and bra.
He was right, and my breaths were growing shallower and shallower. “Stop.”
“You don’t like this?” he asked like we were trying out a new restaurant and eating a foreign dish for the first time. He strummed leisurely over the diamond point again, apparently fine with us being in an auditorium where anyone could walk in.
“No.” To my own ears, I didn’t sound too convincing. I was a liar.
He knew it too. His thumb and index finger closed in on my nipple, thumbing and squeezing while warmth began to pool in my core. “I think you do. I think you like it too much, and it makes you angry that it does.”
“What do you hope to gain from this?” My voice was too husky.
His stubbly cheek touched mine as he said in a low, caressing voice, “I wanted you to remember my touch. How much you used to crave it.” His hand slid lower, slithering over my stomach. A smoldering fire was burning inside me and precious memories of us were flashing through my mind. His fingers were at the waistband of my denim skirt.
“Roman…” Whether I said his name in warning or encouragement, I didn’t know. Lines were beginning to blur.
“That’s right.” His hand drifted farther, ghosting over my core, landing at the hem of my skirt, fingers hooked under the fabric skimming over my inner thigh. “That’s the only fucking name I want to hear on your lips.” His lips grazed my cheek as his thumb glided over the delicate crease of skin playing with the elastic of my underwear. “Remember that. Remember how much you loved me until you tried to ruin my life.”
Like having ice water thrown on me, I squirmed away from his touch. “I didn’t. I didn’t mean—”
“Shh, shh,” he whispered as he grasped my chin roughly. “I don’t care, but just know—you started this, and I will damn well finish it.”
Roman
“Roman! Dammit, wake up!” My father’s voice was laced with fury as he shook the fuck out of me. That should’ve been my first warning, considering Robert Martinez never lost his control.
“I’m up.” I groaned and pushed into a sitting position, watching my father. Something wasn’t right in the world. His dress shirt was haphazardly tucked in his slacks. His normally perfectly slicked back hair was falling over his forehead. “What’s wrong?”
&
nbsp; “What did you do, Roman? What the fuck did you do?”
I had no idea what he was talking about, so I sat there in bewilderment.
“The girl. Theodora.”
Why was he mentioning her? Did something happen to her? “Is she okay?” Panic raced through me like I’d never known in my life. “Did something happen to her?” Did someone hurt her? My thoughts flew to that night I’d carried her in my arms to the ER entrance.
Dad twisted his lips in derision. “You certainly have a lot of concern for her. She’s not dead if that’s what you were wondering.”
“Is she all right?” My mind was going crazy thinking about how something could’ve happened to her.
“Not in the sense you’re asking. However, I need to know what the hell you did with her.”
I knew he couldn’t know we were seeing each other. We’d kept it well-hidden. “I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
“Cut the bullshit. Now!” he shouted. Then lowered his voice and stepped over to my closet and rifled through my shit. “Jim and Bill from the station are downstairs and want to take you in.” He threw a dress shirt and slacks on the bed. I was still not following what he said.
“I don’t understand.”
My father strode over to me and got in my face. “Did you fuck my employee’s daughter?”
The crudeness of his voice and how he addressed her as if she was just an entity pissed me off. I knew he thought of Theodora as a poor girl who was not anyone his son should ever associate with. I stared at him blankly.
“Roman, goddammit, I don’t have time for this. You are being accused of a serious crime. Did you do it? Did you have sex with Theodora?”
My blood chilled. “Yes.”
“She’s fifteen. You’re eighteen and just graduated from high school.” My father closed his eyes in disappointment and exhaled sharply. “Shit. Shit. Shit.” He pounded his fist against his forehead with each word. He smoothed back his hair, trying to pull himself together and lost it again. “Fuck! How could you do this? Why? Are you trying to fuck up your life and embarrass the family?”
I stared at the wall in stone cold silence, a sense of dread beginning to take over.
“Did you wear a condom?”
I nodded my head wordlessly.
He turned around and stared up at the ceiling and breathed out. “I refuse to be threatened by a little nobody…” He twisted his head to me. “Get dressed and don’t say a damn thing until Domingo arrives. I’ve already put in a call.” Domingo Alvarez was my father’s attorney who covered up any discomforts. That was the code word my dad used. Pop peered at me with his mouth turned down. “She consented to it, right?”
“Yes,” I answered flatly. Nausea was swirling around my stomach turning everything into something sordid.
“There’s a clause written in the law to protect you, if it goes that far.”
I grabbed the starched white oxford in stunned silence, robotically shoving my arms in the sleeves, drawing it together until I heard my father say, “Son, there’re pictures of the two of you in bed.”
My fingers froze on the second button, feeling I’d been fucking played. And that’s when the hate started to bloom. I knew, I knew…
The brash sound of a horn shrieked through my phone setting off my alarm cutting off the memory of three years ago. I still remembered that day like yesterday. I still remembered how humiliated I was. I almost lost everything.
Shoving all thoughts of the past aside, I kicked my legs over the bed and stood up slowly and went to the bathroom. I had class in forty-five minutes. I turned on the shower and twisted the handle on the sink to brush my teeth. My thoughts unwillingly went back to Theodora. How she’d grown up and was even more beautiful than ever. How I was always captivated by her green eyes and arresting face with the sprinkle of freckles that fell over her nose and cheeks. She was here, and I should stay as far away from her as the plague. But I had other things on my mind of how to deal with her and her betrayal. She thought she was built to play this game, yet she didn’t even know the rules. She would find this out soon enough.
I rinsed my mouth and stripped, stepping into the steam. My dick was hard as stone and thoughts of her made it almost painful. I clenched my hand around my shaft in a death grip, almost hating how my cock reacted to her, wanting to punish myself. I also wanted to get off, and when I thought about how she’d responded to my touch yesterday in class, my dick grew even harder.
I exhaled giving in and squeezed some shower gel in my hands, lathered up, and leaned back against the tile and curled my hand around my shaft yanking roughly because when I thought about her all my mixed feelings boiled down to two things—hate or lust. I wanted to hurt her and use her body. I wanted to shove my dick so far down her throat tears would form in her eyes. Then I’d fuck all her tears away because her pain was my salvation. Breaking her would in a sense make me whole.
I jerked off like a green-ass teen. “Fuck,” I groaned as ropes of cum jettisoned onto my stomach and hand. Looking down at my handiwork as water streamed around me, I should’ve felt content, satisfied, but I wasn’t really. I was always left with an empty feeling.
Later, I went to the kitchen to make a protein shake. Nick, Axel, and Dmitri were already perched around the kitchen table. “What’s up, fuckwad? Are you planning on crashing another class today?” Nick was still salty over what happened yesterday, and probably the day before. Either way, I didn’t feel the need to acknowledge his statement.
“What happened?” Oh, now that non-talking motherfucking Russian wanted to speak?
Nick clammed up glaring in silence, but Axel sure as hell didn’t have a problem speaking out. “Roman went straight stalker and marked his territory on the girl my boy here wanted to ask out.”
“That’s fucked up,” Dmitri said.
“I know.” Axel laughed and slapped Dmitri on the shoulder. “That’s what I said.”
They were discussing me like I wasn’t standing in front of them. I would gladly remind them I was here, if they didn’t shut up.
“What’s the story, Roman?” Dmitri’s ice-cold eyes were on me, waiting impassively for a response.
This was bullshit. I turned and searched the cabinet for a coffee cup. Out of all three, he was the one who wanted to know? “We share a history. That’s all.” That wasn’t all.
“What kind of history?” Nick leaned back in his chair.
“We were close in the past. What the fuck does it matter?”
“You could’ve told me that shit the other night, dickhead.” Nick scraped his chair back, standing up, striding my way, and shouldered past me. “How the hell was I supposed to know?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t think it was important, but now it is. Stay the fuck away from her.”
Nick paused and faced me. “You’re still a dick.”
“And your vocabulary is lacking.”
He leaned in and snarled, “Does your girl Taylor know about this?”
She did know of Theodora, but it wasn’t what Nick was thinking. Taylor and my relationship was…different. “What’s your point, Nick?” He was very competitive and didn’t like to lose. Especially when I gave him a warning. It was almost like he would’ve been fine backing off Theodora, but since I told him to stay away, it got under his skin. That’s just how that fucker rolled. All of us were hell-bent on proving someone wrong when we were given an ultimatum. Blame it on our make up. That’s why we were all football players. We loved the challenge. Probably why we got along so well, too. Okay, most of the time.
Why was I issuing ultimatums to begin with?
Because she had been mine long ago, and she fucked me over. I loathed her, but I didn’t want anyone else to have her either. Think of it as falling on the sword for others. Least of all, my friend who she didn’t care about in the first place. Theodora would have to have a heart to care which she didn’t. Nick didn’t need to deal with that shit. I was better equipped to deal with her. I kne
w her better.
“I’m beginning to think you’re fucked in the head.” Again, with this guy who was all up in my grill.
“I’m beginning to think you’re one giant pussy,” I goaded.
Nick gripped my shirt and slammed me against the refrigerator. “Roman, I’m at my limit of your sadistic bullshit. Whatever mind fuck you’re trying to throw out there…I’m calling your bluff.”
Nick was breathing heavy, but had a fake smile on his lips. He was my friend, yet he was pissing me off in the worst way. I forced a laugh, baring my teeth. “You’ve already folded, fucker, and ran out of poker chips.” I knew I was burning a hole in our friendship with each word that fell out of my mouth, but if he wanted to pursue this shit with Theodora, then our friendship would go south real quick.
Nick and I glared at each other. Daring the other to make the next move. Do it. Do it, Nick. I was ready to show him how fucking serious I was.
The corners of his mouth lifted, portraying the carefree motherfucker everyone thought him to be. He released my shirt, making a deliberate show to smooth the wrinkles out. “I’m not out, yet. And I never fold.” With that he walked away, and I was about to tackle him, but Dmitri and Axel were there to hold me back.
“What the fuck, bro?” Axel gazed at me like I was crazy. Which I was…about to lose my shit again and attack Nick’s self-serving, cocky ass.
I half-heartedly struggled, knowing I looked like the ultimate tool. “Let go,” I rumbled, already plotting the next time I’d see Theodora. I knew her schedule, and maybe I’d see her on campus. Who the fuck was I kidding? I would see her again. Soon I’d have all of her information. Down to her goddamn meal plan.
“You need to get yourself together, man,” Dmitri warned, staring at me with his ice-blue eyes. This was probably the first time he’d ever shown he cared enough to say something so profound (although not that profound, seriously, only seven words?) to one of us.
“I’m good.” I held up my hands.
“You sure?” Axel peered at me with a little smirk on his face. This fucker thrived on drama but was quick to call you out if you were making a douchebag of yourself.
