by K. G. Reuss
Hard Pass
A Rayton University Novel
K.G. Reuss
An Enemies to Lovers Romance
Copyright Hard Pass © 2020 by K.G. Reuss
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Art: Infinity Book Covers
Editor: N-D-Scribable Services
Contents
Newsletter
1. Lexy
2. Travis
3. Lexy
4. Travis
5. Lexy
6. Travis
7. Lexy
8. Travis
9. Lexy
10. Travis
11. Lexy
12. Travis
13. Lexy
14. Travis
15. Lexy
16. Travis
17. Lexy
18. Travis
19. Lexy
20. Travis
21. Lexy
22. Travis
23. Lexy
24. Travis
25. Lexy
26. Travis
27. Lexy
28. Travis
29. Lexy
30. Travis
31. Lexy
32. Travis
33. Lexy
34. Travis
35. Lexy
36. Travis
37. Lexy
38. Travis
39. Lexy
40. Travis
41. Lexy
42. Travis
43. Lexy
44. Travis
45. Lexy
46. Travis
47. Lexy
48. Travis
49. Lexy
50. Travis
51. Lexy
52. Travis
53. Lexy
54. Travis
55. Lexy
56. Travis
57. Lexy
58. Travis
59. Lexy
60. Travis
61. Lexy
62. Travis
63. Lexy
64. Travis
65. Lexy
66. Travis
67. Lexy
68. Travis
69. Lexy
70. Travis
71. Lexy
72. Travis
73. Lexy
74. Travis
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
In Ruins: A Black Falls High Novel
Also by K.G. Reuss
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Never give up. Never surrender.
Commander Peter Quincy Taggart
For D.A.R.
Challenge?
One
Lexy
“I’m not drinking it.” I pushed the red plastic cup back at my best friend Ava. She raised an eyebrow at me, her hand planted firmly on her slender waist.
“Drink the damn thing, you prude.”
“Ava, I’m driving—”
“Yeah, me nuts, Lex! C’mon!” she whined, jutting her bottom lip out. “We’ve been doing this college thing forever, and you haven’t once gotten drunk with me. What will we do at our graduation party next year? Crochet?”
I frowned. She wasn’t wrong. I never drank. I was always the designated driver, taking care of my party-loving best friend. We’d been friends since third grade. My dedication to her ran deep. Even with her party-loving ways and my quiet study ways, we always figured out how to be together. It explained why I was in a frat house with her on a Thursday night watching as she drank her weight in alcohol.
“One drink. Maybe two. It’ll be out of your system before we leave. Promise.”
I shook my head at her, a tendril of my long, red hair falling over my shoulder. “No. Someone needs to stay sober.”
“Lex,” she groaned. Her new onset of whining stopped short as her eyes focused on a spot over my shoulder.
“Holy hell, what a hottie. Hold my beer.” She pushed her cup into my chest. I latched onto it before she sashayed away to the hot frat boy she’d been eyeing over my shoulder.
“Great,” I muttered, staring down at the two cups of beer in my hands.
“Appears like your hands are full there, Lexicon,” a deep voice rumbled in my ear. “About time you wrapped your hands around something firm.”
I recognized that voice. I hated that voice.
“Travis, don’t be a dick,” I snapped as he moved around to stand in front of me. I took in his messy, dark hair, his ear piercings, his rippling muscles, and that six-foot-four frame all the girls swooned over.
He rolled his green eyes at me. “Whatever. What are you drinking?”
“Nothing.”
“Looks like something—”
“I’m holding Ava’s drinks.”
A smirk cut across his plump lips. I scowled and looked away. Travis Owens was my twin brother Alex’s best friend and had been for nearly as long as Ava had been mine. We all grew up together. Hell, we even all ended up at the same college together. There was nothing Travis enjoyed more than tormenting me. Our history was a brutal one. One filled with him tugging my pigtails and pushing me into the mud at our first meeting to me tripping him at our high school graduation just to laugh as he toppled in front of hundreds of people. We’d never gotten along, and we never would.
“Why aren’t you drinking?”
“Because I’m—” I started, but he silenced me with his next sentence.
“Because you’re still the same lame-ass Lexicon you’ve always been. Always uptight. Always worried about school or her pet hamster.”
“I haven’t had a hamster since you helped mine escape when we were ten.”
“Hamster is a metaphor for whatever excuse you’re using for being so lame.”
“You’re such an ass,” I muttered, looking away from him.
“Challenge,” he retorted in a low voice.
I snapped my attention back at him to find him staring intently at me, his green eyes twinkling with the prospect of what would happen next.
Travis and I had a game. A dangerous one. If one of us challenged the other, we didn’t back down lest we be the butt of jokes for eternity. I couldn’t imagine how much worse it could get, so I always accepted his challenges. They ranged from ridiculous—dive into the pool fully clothed—to the obscene—streak at senior party night. There wasn’t a challenge Travis could throw at me I’d say no to. Giving him the satisfaction of winning would never be an option.
“Accepted." I leveled my gaze at him. “Do your worst, Owens.”
His lips tipped up into that smirk I hated. “I’ll go easy on you. Drink those two cups of beer you’re holding. And this one.” He offered me one of the two cups he was holding.
I ground my teeth at his request. Getting shit-faced at a frat party—his frat party—wasn’t on my to-do list. Ever.
“You know I don’t drink—”
He shrugged. “Figured you were scared.”
“Scared?” I growled at him.
He shrugged again and tipped his own cup to his lips. “Yeah, getting drunk makes one lose a little control. You’re a control freak. You never let go. Just an uptight college girl too good for everyone else.”
“I’m not uptight—”
“Then accept the challenge or leave the party. You’re taking up space.”
“I can’t leave. I’m with Ava.”
“I guess you kno
w what you have to do then.” He grinned again, mocking me.
With a snarl, I threw back the cups of alcohol, chugging them down like lemonade. His grin grew as I chucked the second cup aside and snatched the third one from his hand.
“Shouldn’t you be banging a sorority girl in a bathroom somewhere?” I asked, slurping more slowly on the third one.
He scoffed. “I just finished. I needed some hydration.” He stared at me as he downed his beer. Travis was the frat president. Quarterback. Popular. Man-whore. It had always been that way for him. I thought college would be a shock for him but no. He took to it rather easy and became everything he was in high school... and more. He was all dark messy hair, good looks, muscles, and sexy smiles. I hated him.
“Like what you see?” he asked, finishing his drink.
My cheeks heated, but not with embarrassment. Anger. “You wish, Owens.”
“Maybe.” Enter killer smile again. “You can find out how the other half lives if you finish that beer in your hand. I don’t mind popping your cherry, Hale. Just don’t tell Alex. He’d kill me if he knew I’d tapped you.”
Call it a knee-jerk reaction, but I couldn’t stop my hand as it shot out and splashed the contents of the red cup I held all over his face and clothes.
“You’re disgusting,” I snarled at him as he stood staring open-mouthed at me, foaming beer dripping off his tight t-shirt and jeans. People laughed around us. “I’d never want you. There isn’t enough alcohol in the world to make me crawl into bed with you.”
I chucked the cup at him and turned on my heel, my head held high, and walked away. I had to find Ava. I wanted to go home.
Two
Travis
I stood covered in beer in the frat house rec room, watching as Lexy sashayed away from me like she didn’t have a care in the world. I grinned at her retreating back. I loved pissing her off.
I figured she knew I was only playing with her. Alex would beat my ass if I ever touched his sister. She was off-limits. Everyone in high school knew it. Everyone in our college circle knew it. No one fucked with Lexy. Except me. I was the exception to the rule. And I took advantage of it whenever I could.
Lexy wasn’t like the other girls. She didn’t swoon over me. She’d shove me into a locker and knee my groin before she’d kiss me. It only made the game we played that much more exciting. Her reactions were the best. I figured I’d be wearing her cup of beer before the night ended.
“What the hell happened to you?” Alex asked, his blue eyes sweeping over me.
“Lexy.” The word was self-explanatory.
“Oh. What did you do to piss her off now?”
I chewed my cheek for a moment. If I told him what I really said, he’d be doing more than pouring beer on me. Alex and Lexy were close. He always looked out for her. I figured it was some weird twin thing they had going on. Anytime one of the guys wanted to ask Lexy out, Alex was there to vet them. Truth be told, I’d even threatened a few of the less trustworthy guys in the past when they talked about her in the locker room in high school.
I told myself I did it because she was Alex’s sister, and I’d want him to do the same for my sister if I had one. The excuse helped me sleep better at night.
“Same shit, different day,” I said.
Alex nodded. “I don’t know why you two can’t get along.”
“We get along.” We moved through the crowd until we were standing in front of the keg again. “We just do it differently than everyone else.”
“One of these days she’s going to full on punch you in the face. You know that, right?”
“I’m not worried.” I shrugged his words off. Fiery as Lexy was, I didn’t think I’d ever piss her off enough for her to clock me in the face. Beneath all her threats was a quiet girl who only wanted to read books and watch weird documentaries. I knew Lexy.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Noted.” I took a sip of my beer. “Check out Stephanie.” I nodded to the hot blonde in the tiny skirt and barely-there tube top. She was one of the sorority sisters I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting.
“All yours.”
I glanced at him in surprise. Alex was just as bad as I was with women. Neither of us had managed to maintain a relationship past the three-month mark. We were constantly competing for tagging girls on campus. Being stars on the football team helped.
His eyes locked on a girl across the room.
“Ava, man? Really?” I snorted when I realized who he was staring at. Ava was hot, but she was Lexy’s friend. She fell into the same category I did—off limits.
“Shut up,” he grumbled, tearing his eyes off her as she danced and giggled against some random guy in the living room.
I figured I’d let him off the hook since he hadn’t pushed me to tell him why I was really wearing a cup of cheap beer as cologne. My eyes locked on Stephanie’s, and she gave me a sexy smile. She raised her finger and beckoned me forward. I knew exactly where the night would end, with me between her legs.
“Fuck,” I hissed, pushing Stephanie’s naked body away from me.
“Mm, baby, where are you going?”
“I’m late for class. You need to go home.”
She sat up, her blonde hair a hot mess, her makeup smeared around her eyes. I couldn’t count how many times I’d seen that look on a woman. It didn’t turn me on in the slightest.
“What?” Her eyebrows crinkled as I pulled my jeans on.
“I said you need to get out.”
“Fuck you, Travis!”
“Already did, sweetheart. Now, it’s time to leave.”
“You’re an asshole,” she snarled as I tugged my t-shirt over my head.
“And you’re still here. Seriously. You need to leave.”
She got out of bed, a scowl on her face as she glared at me.
I let out a sigh. “I just don’t want people saying shit about you having to do a walk of shame. I’m looking out for you,” I lied. I just wanted her gone. I hated when girls tried to stick around after. It was sex. Plain and simple. Stephanie wasn’t horrible in the sack. I’d tap it again if I got hard up and pressed for time. Why burn a perfectly good bridge?
Her face softened, and she nodded. “You’re right. I need to set a good example for the sisters.”
I internally rolled my eyes. I’d probably already plowed through most of the sorority girls on campus.
I waited for her to finish dressing before escorting her out of my room and down the back stairs.
“Call me?” she asked in a silky voice, her fingers trailing up my chest. “I had fun last night.”
“Sure,” I said. “I get busy though…”
“Travis, we’re in the same boat.” She giggled, planting a kiss on my lips that did nothing for me. “I only want to have some fun.”
I let out a breath of relief. I hated clingers. Maybe Stephanie wouldn’t be so bad. I dug my phone out of my pocket and handed it to her.
“Put your number in.”
She grinned and tapped her number into my phone before laying another kiss on me, her hand cupping my groin.
OK. Yeah. I’d call her again.
“Bye, baby,” she cooed. “If you want to meet in the stacks later, I’ll suck that delicious cock of yours.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
She grinned and pulled open the door, leaving me excited for the stacks, a remote place in the library which housed shitty reference books and documentary DVDs. It wouldn’t be the first time some hungry college girl had sucked my dick there.
I chuckled as I walked out the front door, excited at the prospect of having Stephanie on speed dial.
Three
Lexy
“I shouldn’t have drunk so much last night,” Ava moaned as we sat in sociology bright and early the next day.
“I told you.” I let out a chuckle and unearthed my book from my bag.
“Why didn’t you stop me? You always stop me, Lex.” She jutted he
r bottom lip out at me, which only caused me to laugh more. She looked like a hot mess. She hadn’t even brushed her dark hair, opting to throw it up into a messy bun.
I didn’t have time to answer her because the devil showed up.
“Hey, get laid last night?” Travis flopped into the seat next to mine.
Ava let out another groan. I wasn’t sure if she was sharing my sentiments about his arrival or was nursing her hangover.
I ignored his dumb question, focusing on the thing that mattered more. “There are a hundred other seats in this auditorium, and you sat in the one next to mine?”
“It’s the best spot. It’s near the back and in the center. Just how I like it.”
“You’re gross.”
“I’m aware.” He grinned at me and pulled open his bag and hauled a notebook out.
