by Tijan
“What is?” He leaned back in his chair to rest against the wall behind us. His eyes pinned me down, but not in a bad way. He was curious—and amused. His mouth lifted in a grin. He was cocky. I hadn’t lied about that, but maybe I’d gotten the other part wrong. The arrogance of a narcissist was lacking with him. He just seemed to be enjoying himself.
My eyebrows bunched together as I remembered the night before. He’d had the same look. That is, until those guys had gone after his girlfriend. Dark, brooding, and dangerous had taken over then. A shiver went down my spine as I remembered him hitting that guy.
Our professor entered the room, but Logan raised an eyebrow at me. “What what feels like?”
She cleared her throat and held up a stack of papers. “Here’s your syllabus. We’re going to hand these out and go through them before we start anything else.”
I shifted back in my seat and shook my head. I was partly grateful for the interruption. Even though I’d just gotten to this college, I knew Kade was at the top of the social ladder. Hell, he probably defined the top tier.
He walked into a room and got attention.
Kade commanded this whole room. It was overwhelming, all of that power radiating from him, and having it directed at me? It was a whole new experience. I shifted in my seat, trying to get comfortable, but I felt torched.
“Welcome to Sociology 101, the scientific study of human society,” our professor announced.
Logan leaned over and whispered, “Or as I like to call it, the tutorial guide on how to mindfuck entire groups.”
WANNA BET?
TAYLOR
“I have a bone to pick with your buddy Delray.” Kade fell in step beside me as we left class. Hooking his arms through his bag, he pulled it onto his back and rested his hands on the straps. Somehow this made him seem even taller, or leaner.
“Yeah?”
He hurried around to walk in front of me, facing backward. I could’ve looked away before, but now there was no chance. I was locked in place. Not wanting him to fall down the stairs, which were ten feet away, I stopped walking. He did as well and smirked down at me, giving me the full impact of his six feet of height.
“I wanted him to do a gambling thing with some of my guys last year. He turned me down.”
I frowned. “Okay?”
“You’re going to get him to do a gambling thing for me.”
I studied the amusement in those chocolate eyes of his. “Are you always like this?”
His smirk deepened. “Gorgeous?”
“Annoying.” But that wasn’t even true. I saw the amusement in his eyes. It was like he was laughing at me, but he glanced at the students filing past us and the look held firm. No. It wasn’t just me. “Like you’re laughing at the world.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Because I am.”
“It’s annoying.” It wasn’t, though. It was something else. Logan made me feel like I was pushed off my chair and had to go through life lying sideways on the floor. It was disconcerting. “Not much bugs you.”
He laughed. “Being called annoying? No. That doesn’t register with me. I’m not being cocky when I say that girls like me—they really do like me. I’m funny, sarcastic, quick-witted, and enough of a bad boy to make girls wet. If I like you, I’m loyal to you. If I love you—and don’t get ahead of yourself because that list is really short—I’ll do almost anything to protect you. Girls drink that shit up like it’s booze that makes you lose weight.”
“You just likened yourself to a fat-free beverage.”
“A fat-free alcoholic beverage, and yeah.” His smirk was almost adorable now. “I know how chicks think. If something like that exists—where you lose weight while you get drunk—I’m buying all the stock I can. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t be all over that, too.”
“What? The stock or the booze?”
“Both.” His grin deepened. “Or just me.”
I ignored the last statement, and began walking around him. I had to get lunch and figure out where my third class was, but he walked with me. He held the door open, so I ducked under his arm. I was just stepping outside, almost past him when I looked up. Claire was hurrying my way, her jaw clenched. When she saw me, her eyes slid to the arm I was ducking under and her eyes bulged.
I stepped past him, but I felt him moving with me. He was behind me, his breath on the back of my neck. I tried not to notice—I tried to shut my mind off. I failed. I’d been attuned to him since class started, but this went to a whole other level. He purposely moved so he was almost touching me, and my body went on high alert. My knees threatened to buckle. Sensations shot up and down my spine, and I had a full-on sauna effect going. I almost fanned myself to cool down, but Kade would’ve known instantly the effect he was having on me. I felt an ache between my legs that I hadn’t felt in nine months.
Claire slowed as she approached us.
“Ah.” His breath teased my skin. “Delray’s friend number two. I can chat with both of you then.”
“Hey,” I murmured to Claire.
“Hey,” she said, her gaze glued to him.
Logan chuckled. “You went here last year, right?”
Her gaze cut to mine, questioning.
I stepped to the side, away from Logan. I didn’t want to move. No, actually I did, but my body didn’t. I almost cursed myself, but I felt Logan’s gaze on me. It was like he could see inside of me, right past the walls I erected.
“Uh, yeah, I did,” Claire said.
“So you know Delray turned me down last year.”
“Turned you down…?” She glanced at me again.
“The gambling circuit he used to run for Park,” Logan prompted. “Is he still running it?”
“Uh…” Claire had become a statue. She was on the spot, particularly because I was present. Jason promised to quit gambling after we graduated. All three of us made a promise to each other, and that was his. I now knew that he lied, and so had Claire. She knew he hadn’t quit.
“Yeah. He’s still running it.”
“This is what’s going to happen.” Logan clapped his hands together and rubbed them back and forth. His eyes were gleaming, but it wasn’t malicious. He was being more mischievous, and that same expression of laughing at the world was there. “I’m going to take Taylor’s number down.” He pointed with both of his hands to me. “And yes, I’m using Delray to get your number. No shame in my game. I want your number bad, Bruce, but I have a message for Delray, too. He’s gotta get in touch with me via my new sociology bud here.” He put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me to his side.
A tingle shot through me at his touch.
He kept talking, “Tell him I want him to take some bets for me at a party I’m going to throw. And no, it’s not negotiable. He has to do it. I let him off last year. I understood the conflict of interest, but Sebastian is gone. The numb nuts has been squashed. So, do we all know our roles now?” He looked at both of us.
Claire seemed wary. “You’re going to call Taylor?”
“Yep.” He held his hand out. “Phone please, Miss TayTay.”
I handed it over, but tried to keep a firm scowl on my face. “I’m doing this under protest. I don’t approve of Jason gambling.”
Logan took the phone and paused, glancing at me. A slight smile flashed my way. “Why do you think I’m going through you for this?”
I didn’t reply. My gut told me to let it go. Logan Kade was even more of a whirlwind than I’d realized he’d be, and I felt a little like I was in the damn Sahara. My mouth watered, and my lips were dry. I licked them, an unconscious habit, but when Kade’s gaze lingered there, I realized what I’d done. I sank my teeth into my lip instead and forced my gaze away. It felt like I was fighting against a rubber band, stretched tight from me to him. The more I tried to break free, the stronger it became.
“Okay.” He handed my phone back, and his eyes were laughing at me. A darker promise surfaced there too. My heart picked up. “I’ve got your number,”
he added. “I’ll call you later, and I want Delray’s answer through you.”
“Why are we helping you?” Claire tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. She was trying to be stern. She was failing. “Jason’s our friend. Not you. Neither of us wants him to be part of the gambling world.”
Logan smirked at her. “You’re helping because I’m not one of those morally upstanding guys. I’m completely fine with blackmailing you, and you’ll help because I may not know your name, but I remember the dudes you were flirting with last night. My friends can get to your friends, and when that happens? Well, I won’t take your friends away, but I will ban them from campus parties. And not to be a dick, but something tells me your guy friends are a little desperate when it comes to getting into parties.”
“You’re a dick.” Claire gasped, her hand covering over her mouth. “I can’t believe I said that.”
He was, but he didn’t seem to care. In fact, I think he was loving it.
He began walking away, backward again, that smug grin still on his face. He lifted both shoulders. “Like I said earlier, I’ve been called worse. I’ll be calling later.” He wasn’t talking to Claire, and we both knew it.
He started to walk away, but his gaze held mine, and I was looking back. I shouldn’t have been, but I was...and I didn’t want to think about that either.
LOGAN
“What are you doing?”
I was walking to my next class, but swung around. Sam was standing there, her bag on her back with her hands holding on to the black straps around her shoulders. Her brown eyes were annoyed, and her mouth pressed into an irritated frown. She wasn’t looking at me, though. Her gaze was trained on the two girls I just left.
“Hey there, sister soul of mine.” I held a fist up. “How’s it hanging yourself?”
She ignored the hand and shifted, one of her hands falling to her hip. “I mean it, Logan.” She nodded to the girls. “What are you doing?”
“What?” I twisted around to look, too. The blonde seemed agitated, and the other one, Taylor, aka the hot one, looked...well, she didn’t look like anything. I paused and frowned, focusing on her even more. That was surprising. Girls usually liked it when I said I’d call them. This one didn’t seem too happy about it. “Huh.” I scratched behind my ear.
“Huh?” Sam punched my arm. “Huh what? For the third time, what are you doing?”
“What?” My hand fell to where she hit me, and I rubbed there, absent-mindedly. Why didn’t that girl seem to care? But then again, I remembered her at the party. There’d been something different, something dark about her. Something about why I sat next to her today.
“Logan!”
“Oh, yeah.” I cleared my thoughts. “You remember Delray from last year?”
“No.”
I shrugged. That didn’t matter. “He was one of Sebastian’s lackeys, and he turned me down for a job last year.” I gestured to the girls. “They’re his buddies.”
“You’re not.”
“What?”
The ends of her mouth pinched together in disapproval. Sam cocked her head to the side, giving me that slanted look of when she was really disappointed in me. “Don’t use them to get back at him.”
“What?” I furrowed my eyebrows together. That was the farthest thing I was thinking. Well, maybe not. “No. That’s not it. I’m using him to get the hot one’s digits. That’s all.”
“Since when do you need to use manipulation to get someone’s number?”
“Since it became fun, and besides…” I flashed her a grin. “Don’t worry. I’m not planning on using that girl for anything. She won’t get hurt. I promise. I’m just taking a few extra steps to make Delray squirm. That’s it.”
Her shoulders lifted up and slowly lowered. She continued to scrutinize me, but I saw the softening, and by the time her shoulders were all the way down, she was grinning back at me. She shook her head, rolling her eyes. “I like that girl.”
“You remember her?”
She nodded, her eyes hardening. “She was going to step in and help me last night. I don’t know her, but that’s not normal, you know. Not many people would step in when it’s one girl against three guys. People don’t help like that anymore.”
I nodded. I knew. We both knew how much I knew. Loyalty ran deep in our group for a reason. I held up my hands. “I’m not going to hurt her. I promise.”
“Okay.”
I smirked. “But I might bang her.”
“Logan!”
“If she’s down for it.”
LOGANISMS AND KAPOW!
TAYLOR
The house was dark when I walked inside with two bags of groceries. Hitting the lights with my elbow, I toed the door shut behind me.
“Dad? I got food.”
He didn’t answer, but he could’ve been in his office watching tapes. He always seemed to be there. Or else he was still on campus.
“Dad?”
I put a pot on the stove and put away the milk and orange juice. I unloaded meat for sandwiches, vegetables, fruit, and yogurt. After I pulled out the noodles and set them on the counter for dinner, I realized one thing: My coffee was still in the sink. I’d dumped it there this morning, and a small stain still sat around the drain. Dad hadn’t been home all day.
He still wasn’t home.
It was eight at night. Normal dads got home around six. My dad’s last practice ended at three on Mondays. He’d spent last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with the football team. Sunday was church, then he’d had his friends over, and I went out.
But today was my day. This was supposed to be my night with him.
I moved to turn off the stove, but I paused. I imagined flinging the not-yet-boiling water across the kitchen. For a moment, one moment, I considered it. Who cared if water got over everything? Who cared how hot the water was? Who cared, in general, about any of it?
I did, but the need to do something crazy was there—
“Taylor?”
My breath hissed, leaving me. That wasn’t him, but I wanted it to be. Jason knocked on the door again as I turned.
He said, “Claire said I’m in deep shit with you.”
“Yeah,” I coughed out, my voice not quite working.
“Hey,” Jason murmured when I appeared. His hand had been lifted for another knock, but he dropped it to his side. “You look, uh, a little…” He faltered and stepped inside when I opened the door. “What’s wrong?”
I groaned. “Don’t tell me I look like crap.”
“You look sweaty and pale. You look good in most anything, but this ain’t a good look for you.”
He followed me back to the kitchen, and slid onto a stool, propping his elbows on the counter. “What happened today?”
Nothing.
“I mean, I heard about Kade,” he added. “He remembered me after all?” He chewed on his bottom lip. “Claire said you both got the wham-bam-thank-you-and-maybe-I’ll-call-you-later-ma’am vibe from him? That’s called a Loganism, by the way. You got the drive-by version of it. He kapows people with whatever he wants to say, and they do what he wants— whether that’s to get pissed at him or drop their pants for him.” He quieted, cocking his head to the side. “I’m not getting that vibe from you. Taylor, what’s wrong?”
My mom was dead.
My dad was absent.
My boyfriend left me.
I shook my head. “Nothing.” Normal voice. Be charming. Be… Remember why he’s here in the first place. Use that. I locked eyes on him and scowled. “Kade’s going to ask you to do a gambling thing for him.”
