by Tijan
I ran my thumb over his tip, and he sucked in his breath again.
“That.” I offered so much promise and warning in that one word. And I closed my hand back around him, holding still.
His fingers kept moving, almost ramming into me, and I felt the climax building. It was rising, increasing. I was just on the cusp of coming, and he knew it. He smirked down at me as I tried to hold him hostage. It wasn’t working.
I opened my mouth, only able to lie there, pant, and stare up at him.
I was right there. And then he slid a third finger into me, pumping it deep, and it was enough.
I groaned as I felt the sensations flood me. I rode over the waves as he watched. He looked smug, and I cursed, feeling my body tremble, but it was payback time.
I managed to keep my hold on him, and then I began rubbing. Up and down. No, that wasn’t enough. I wanted to taste him and I began to shift so I could lower my head.
He was already rock hard. He’d be delicious, but Mason swore he had other plans.
With my body still shaking, he dislodged my hand and pulled his fingers out. He undressed himself and me within seconds, then he was back. I hadn’t even had time to register his absence. His hands went to my thighs, and he spread them wide.
He impaled me in the next second, and he went deep, all the way deep. I felt him in my stomach. He lay on top of me, then with a soft kiss dropped to my shoulder, he began moving, and soon I was writhing all over again.
A little while later I whispered, “What are you going to do about the videos? About those girls?”
“Nothing.” He shifted, tightening his arm around me as he held me from behind. He kissed the back of my neck. “But if Quinn fucks with us again, I’ll do to him what he did to me. I’ll edit that video so those girls’ identities are protected, and then I’ll release it.” He slid his leg up between mine. “Oh.” He gently nipped at my shoulder. “He also thinks Nate is going after Becky, but don’t worry. He’s not. It’s just a bluff.”
I twisted around to him. “What?”
Everyone stared.
Everyone talked.
Everyone knew.
The first day of classes sucked. The second we stepped on campus, all attention was on us. Logan saw Mason and me coming—he’d come earlier with Taylor for some reason—and he came over to throw both his arms around our shoulders.
He hugged us to him with an extra squeeze. “Look, we’re celebrities. Dreams do come true.”
Mason shot him a look. “Thanks for the sarcasm.”
“I charge extra for the attitude. You get the family discount.” His arms dropped, but he bumped me with his hip before falling in line on the other side of me. “You too, Sam. Sista.” He winked.
“Lovely,” I remarked, rubbing at my forehead. A headache had already started. “Let me guess. We’re the Soul Sista Connection?”
“SSC.” He beamed back at me, puffing up his chest. “I had to ask Matteo if we could branch out, but he okayed it.”
Yep. The headache was definitely there. It kept growing the more cheerful Logan became.
“Why doesn’t the attention bother you?” I asked.
He shrugged, dropping some of his extra bounce. “Used to it since high school.” He jerked his head toward Mason. “My brother kinda set the bar, you know?” He swung his hands as we made our way to the coffee cart. Every now and then, people would call out a greeting. He pointed at each person as he responded. Most of the greetings were for Mason, congratulating him or coming over to bump fists with him in a show of support, but it didn’t matter to Logan. His head was up. His shoulders were back, and he was embracing everything with his usual Logan cockiness.
He talked as we walked. “So Taylor talked to her dad, and he told her everything is good. No investigation is going to happen since the original charges were dropped, and you ‘came clean.’” His fingers did air quotes. “That did a lot of damage control. You should be in the clear. We don’t have to worry if that other chick says anything either, about our party.”
He was talking about Nettie. I, for one, was relieved by that too. Even if she did twist things around, Mason’s press conference was already out there. People would be more inclined to believe him than her now.
I glanced up when Mason didn’t say anything. His eyes were on me. I reached for his hand, and his finger began rubbing over where my ring was supposed to go. We hadn’t fully discussed the engagement announcement yet. Images of us together, our limbs tangled up with each other, and him watching me as he slid inside—it all flashed in my head, and my body jolted at the sensation.
God. I wanted to groan. Just the small reminder and I was aching for him again. I tightened my hand with his. I was definitely and completely addicted to him. I didn’t even know if I could function without him.
“Whoa.” Logan slowed to a stop, his gaze fixed to the right of us.
I looked, then gritted my teeth.
Faith Shaw was coming our way, with Nettie glued to her side. A few other runners were with her, but no Courtney or Grace.
“Samantha.”
That one word was my greeting.
My tone matched hers, cool as ice. “Shaw.”
“What?” A faint smirk teased at her face as she raised an eyebrow. “We’re not on a first-name basis now?”
“New policy. Only friends are called by their first names.”
“Since when?”
“Since whenever the fuck I talk to you.”
Her face fell flat. “You’re still such a bitch.”
“Uh.” Logan stepped forward, half in front of me with his finger in the air. “You came to us. Us.” He pointed from himself, to me, to Mason, and he looked back to her. “We’re not really nice people. Do you think it’s a good idea for you to approach Sam and start by insulting her? We might not able to physically do anything to you, but if we see a window where we can make your life suck, trust me.” He leaned forward, whispering. “We’ll take it, with pleasure.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You can’t do anything to me.”
His grin turned evil. “You haven’t slept with a guy named Adam Quinn, have you?”
“Okay.” I reached for him at the same time Mason clapped a hand on his shoulder.
He yanked him back, saying, “Enough.”
Logan was undisturbed. He merely leaned to the side so he could see Faith again. “If you haven’t, let me know. I can hook you up.”
I’d had enough. If he stayed, he was going to get more and more mean.
“Take him with you?” I asked Mason.
He nodded. “We have psych together, right?”
“Save me a seat.” I nodded. “I’ll be there in a bit.”
“Okay.” He reached for Logan’s neck. “Come on, little brother, before we get in even more trouble.”
Logan allowed himself to be pulled backward, his eyes narrowed and locked on Faith. He finally turned around. Mason’s hand dropped from his neck then, and the two were quickly swallowed up by an entire crowd of guys. I recognized some football players, but there were others I didn’t know. I spotted Matteo heading toward them, his bag slung over his shoulder. Nate was next to him. I didn’t know where Taylor was, but I assumed she’d be busy all day in her nursing classes. We no longer had morning practices, at least for a few weeks.
Faith cleared her throat.
I sighed, looking back to her. “I hoped you would’ve vanished.”
“Like a genie?”
“Like a fart.” I wrinkled my nose. “It’s just as bad smelling.”
“Har har.” She rolled her eyes. “You and those two guys. You’re all so mature.”
“Yeah.” An image of exploding cars, burning fraternity houses, and Mason tossing a bat to me before he evaded a punch flashed in my mind. “That’s one word to describe us.” I shook my head. “What do you want?”
It was her turn to send her crew away. She did so with a dismissive bob of the head, and once they’d all hugged and wav
ed, making promises to see each other later for lunch, she faced me again. Her hands folded in front of her.
I frowned. “Let me guess. You’re here to offer congratulations?”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Apparently not.
“No.” She shook her head. “I wanted to talk to you before practice today. We have another meet on Thursday, and Coach is going to talk to both of us. I thought I should give you a heads-up, maybe discuss the developments before he does. You and I can be on the same page then.”
That was it? I almost smiled. “No.” I turned to follow where Mason and Logan had gone. That was the easiest decision ever.
“What? Wait!” She ran to catch up.
“Stop chasing me. I can beat you, if I want to.”
She groaned. “There’s that maturity again.”
Oh, fuck this. I stopped and whipped back to her. She almost ran into me, but I didn’t wait for her to regain her balance.
I put a finger up in her face. “Back off of me. There’s no way I’m going to believe anything you say.”
So much had happened over the weekend, but I remembered how she hugged me after the race. Then I remembered how cold she’d been at the restaurant the next night.
“You’re a cold, deceitful bitch. I will never trust you. Go away.” I flicked my fingers like I was shooing a fly.
A barely contained scream erupted from her throat, but she kept her mouth shut and only stomped once. I suppose I should give her a little credit there? Only one stomp, not two. She was like a five year old throwing a tantrum.
“What?” I asked. “Can’t control me? Can’t manipulate me? I’m not falling in line like all your other girls? Please.” I was the one to roll my eyes now. “Get outta here.”
“Stop!”
I had started to go again, but swung back. “Make it quick, Shaw. I have no patience for you today.”
“My God! What is wrong with you? Your attitude is tenfold what it normally is.”
I had a whole list I could’ve recited for her:
My boyfriend/fiancé’s mother was in town, who hated me.
Our engagement was out on a national scale, and I didn’t know how I felt about it yet.
That same boyfriend/fiancé went and found a camera where another old friend of mine had been videotaped having sex.
Oh, and I had some incredibly hot sex, which had left only thirty minutes for sleeping this morning.
“Talk while I’m still standing here.”
“Coach is going to make us run together.”
“No.” I started for class again.
She began walking with me. “I hate you on a personal level, but I admire you on a runner’s level, and I’m sure you feel the same—”
“Not even a little bit. I don’t give two shits about you: personal, professional, runner’s, any way.”
The group of guys that had been standing around Mason and Logan was still there. I spotted both of them, but didn’t feel like fighting to get to their side. I moved past them into the building and headed for the classroom. We’d all synced our schedules to have this class together—except for Taylor because she’d already taken it. So they’d be coming my way eventually.
I reached for the door, and Faith grabbed it as I went through. She was right with me.
“Okay, I get it,” she said. “Insults, insults, insults. I got it. I was more than a bitch to you in the beginning, and deserve this. I do. I’ll take it, but I mean it when I say that Coach is going to have us run together. He wants us to push each other even more, and if it’s just you and me, he thinks that’ll happen. If we run with the others, there’s more distraction.”
“For you.” I turned right down the hallway.
She was still hot on my heels. “You too. You get distracted because of your friend Taylor. You’re distracted when you worry about her.”
“Courtney and Grace can run with her.”
“You know what I mean.”
I kept going. The door was just in front of me.
“Hey!” She stopped behind me, her voice getting the attention of other students as they came and went from the classroom.
I braked. “What?” I looked back to her. “What do you want me to say?”
“That you’ll run with me.”
“And why should I do that?” I started toward her, one step at a time. I knew when she clued in that maybe she should be wary of me. Her head straightened. Her eyes grew alert, and she began to edge backward.
“Why not? We’re running mates.”
“We’re on the same team. Unfortunately.” I advanced one more step.
She began to look around, but for what or who, I didn’t know. She stopped backing up and tucked her hands behind her back this time. Her head lowered a little too, but not much. She chewed on the inside of her lip.
“What are you saying, Samantha? That you won’t run with me? You don’t have a choice. We’re on the same team.”
“You’re right. I don’t have a choice about that, but I do have a choice if I’m going to run with only you. I don’t trust you. What part of that sentence don’t you understand? I know why Coach wants us to run together, but it has nothing to do with my distraction. I’m a pro at shutting things out. If I want to go, I will go. No, he wants me to help you. He wants to hone in on your competitiveness, and if the two of us run together and only together, only one person is going to be helped by that arrangement. You. You’ll get better.”
She swallowed, her throat moving up and down. She seemed timid, then suddenly it was all gone. Her eyes closed to slits, and she almost hissed back at me. “Because of your race time on Friday, this university now has an Olympic hopeful. Do you know what that’s going to do for this school? For money? They can blast that all over their promotions. It’s huge. And because of my increased race time, it’s proven that I can get even better than I have been. You’re helping me, yes. You will continue to help me, yes. You’re going to do that just by being on the team, but if you think you have a say about running with me, think again. This isn’t Coach’s idea. This is coming down from his boss’s boss. You will run with me, or you won’t run at all. I’m here to save some time because we both know that when Coach brings this to us later today, you’ll have the same fight we just did. But you’re new to college sports. You don’t know the politics that go on behind closed doors, and trust me when I say that you’ll find it’s easier to accept that you’re going to be running with me alone than fighting it in the long run. And you’re wrong. I will help you too, because the better I get, the more you’re going to hate it, and the more you’re going to push to destroy me.”
Matteo and Nate rounded the corner and faltered to a stop.
There were other guys with them, but they went around them. I waited. Logan and Mason came next. They stopped just behind where Faith stood, all four of them wearing varying frowns. Matteo seemed mostly curious. Nate was wary, casting furtive looks to Logan and Mason beside him, and the last two: the same dark frowns they wore when they dealt with Adam were on their faces again. This time, their target was Shaw.
She had no clue. She was almost brazen, finishing what she’d been saying and placing her hands on tiny hips. “Got it?”
Now it was my turn.
“You don’t think I know what politics are?” Did she not know who Mason was? He was almost as high up on that totem pole as an athlete could go. “If you think I don’t know how to play ball, you’re stupid. No matter what anyone says, I’m not helping you. And no one’s going to make me. Got that?”
A silence had fallen in the hallway. I knew where it came from. The sight of Mason, Logan, Nate, and Matteo drew attention and slowly, everyone else stopped to watch whatever they were witnessing. Half the attention was on Faith and me, the other half on the guys.
Faith frowned, realizing the attention we had drawn, and she turned around.
“Oh.” Her mouth fell open a little.
A part of me was smug. If
this attention unnerved her, she really was an idiot declaring I was the inexperienced one. Politics was politics. I met Mason’s gaze and knew that if orders came down that I didn’t want to follow, I’d find leverage to get my own way. Eventually. That was manipulation 101.
Mason’s eyes shifted to Faith, and she gulped, feeling the full force of his stare. She never had before, and I remembered what that felt like. He could stare at a person, making them feel like they were stripped bare so he could see into their soul and thoughts. Faith tried looking for an escape. She scooted over two steps, but the crowd didn’t budge. She was locked in place now. We were completely surrounded.
“Are you here to threaten, order, or intimidate Sam?” he murmured, his voice almost a weapon in itself.
She didn’t answer. I wasn’t sure if she’d registered that he asked a question. She only blinked a few times.
“Which one?” he asked again.
She jumped, and one of her hands rose to pat her hair absentmindedly. “Wha—huh? What did you say?”
Logan snorted. “Yep. You’re a real threat. Sam should be quaking in her boots.” He shook his head. “Don’t bother, brother. She’d piss her pants if she played in our league for even a day. The girl’s a sheltered, ignorant princess.”
“Thank you.”
He snorted again. “That wasn’t a compliment.” He stepped forward as if he were going to pass her to head into the classroom, but he paused next to her and raked her up and down. He shifted his bag to his other shoulder. “Mason and I could’ve grown up sheltered, just like you. We chose not to be because we don’t respect people who put their heads in the ground. In fact, we loathe those kind of people.” His disdain was clear. Then he brushed past and winked at me. The crowd parted, and he walked into the room.
All heads, or it seemed like all heads, swiveled in Mason’s direction.
“If you give Sam one more threat, one more order, one more time trying to intimidate her, you’ll learn how inept you are,” he said. “We’ve held back because she asked us to. We won’t anymore. You hurt one of us, we hurt you back.” Then he went past her too, but unlike Logan, he took my hand and pulled me with him.
