Hooped #4 (The Hooped Interracial Romance Series, Book #4) (6 page)

“First of all, I’m making it to all of my classes,” I
pointed out, reaching up and running my fingers through Devon’s hair.
“Secondly, I am neither poor nor innocent. And third, I just like being here
with you. Sleeping in bed with you. Having so much sex I can’t even move
anymore.” Devon laughed again.

“Making up for lost time?” He kissed me again. “As
long as everything is okay, and you’re not going to get
into
trouble with anyone, do you want to just kind of stay here a
few nights? You can obviously still go to class and everything, but come and go
as you want. It’d make it easier to study.” I considered the idea and nodded.

“And it would also give us lots of chances to have
sex,” I pointed out. Devon laughed, nuzzling against my neck and then giving me
a long, passionate kiss.

“You have got a one-track mind, babe. Not that it
bothers me.” He lifted himself off of
me,
and I wished that we could spend the whole morning making love; but I knew that
even though it was still fairly early, I needed to start thinking about class.
I couldn’t let Devon distract me from the bigger focus of why I was in school.

I watched Devon walk naked towards his dresser,
enjoying the sight of his lean, muscled body moving around the room, the little
curve at the small of his back, the dimples just above his toned ass, the bumps
of his spine—all of it. He pulled a pair of pajama pants out and turned to face
me,
and I blushed as he realized I’d been
staring at him. Devon laughed. “Get some clothes on,
woman
, and I’ll fix us both some breakfast. If you keep looking at
me like
that,
I’m not going to be able to
help myself—and I don’t want to be a bad influence on you.”

I climbed out of his bed, stretching, teasing him with
my naked body just the way he’d teased me, and then went around the room
gathering up my clothes. Devon watched me just as intently as I’d watched him,
and I could tell
from
the slight bulge in
his pants that he was just as interested as I’d been—but he just gave me a
quick, lingering kiss before a playful shove towards his bedroom door.

I practically skipped down the stairs, barely aware of
the fact that the rest of the frat house was
sleeping,
and hurried out of the front door, only too eager to get back to Devon. Even if
we weren’t going to fool around again, I realized that I liked spending time
with him just as a person; he was funny, charming, smart, all of the things
that I had ever wanted in a boyfriend. So early in the morning, barely anyone
was out and about on campus, but as I got closer to the dorms, I started to
dread running into my friends, especially Kelly. I got into the dorm building
as quietly as I could, cringing as the door closed heavily behind me.

I took the stairs up to my room instead of the
elevator, trying to figure out whether or not Kelly would be awake yet. I knew
it was early—but she could have gone out the night before or stayed in, she
could be right in the common area of the room studying, ready for another
confrontation with me. I didn’t want to risk it, so for a few moments I hovered
at the door, trying to listen in. The TV wasn’t on—I could tell that much.
Taking a deep breath, I unlocked the door and plunged into the room, hurrying
past the common area to my door. Another clink, clatter, clunk, and my door was
unlocked. I didn’t have time to take a shower; and I didn’t really want to, in
spite of the fact that I could still feel the slickness between my legs,
soaking into my panties. I liked the faint scent of Devon clinging to my skin,
my hair. I stripped out of my clothes quickly and changed into a new bra and
panties, a jumper I liked with a tee shirt underneath it, and a pair of
sneakers. Looking in the mirror, I decided that I looked cute enough for the
guy I was falling for, without having to spend an hour at getting ready to see
him.

Just as quickly, and struggling to be quiet, I
gathered up a couple of changes of clothing, a pair of pajamas, a few bras and
panties, and loaded them into a little suitcase that I had brought with me—my
backpack was too full of books to be of use. I went into the shared bathroom
and gathered up my face wash, my shampoo and conditioner, and my body wash; I
figured that Devon would at least have a washcloth or something I could scrub
myself with. He wasn’t a total male savage, after all. My makeup bag went in
too,
though I didn’t wear makeup all that
often—I wanted to be ready in case he wanted to go out.

I left my room as quietly as I’d come in, taking the
elevator down to the ground floor this time, relieved that Kelly had either not
been awake or not in the dorm. I hurried back across campus, grinning to
myself, wondering what Devon was making for breakfast for us both. It was
strange to think that even a day before, I was utterly convinced that I wanted
nothing at all to do with him ever again; it seemed that we were always on the
verge of breaking up and then getting back together, and we had only been
seeing each other for a week or two. But I was happy. I was absolutely happy to
be with someone, and especially with Devon. Considering what we had already
been through, I had to think that if Devon could pass the ACT, and do well
enough to vindicate himself, that we could continue to be together.

When I got back to the frat house, there were a few
guys already awake; I hesitated at the door but didn’t make myself knock—I
would have felt too silly, considering I was now allowed to come and go just as
I pleased, at least for the next several days. A few of the guys were seated
around the TV, just like before, watching and joking about some morning news
show while they ate cereal or pop tarts or whatever they had decided on for
breakfast. I could smell something delicious cooking in the kitchen. “He said
we can’t have any,” a guy whose name I thought was Jeremy said. “You need to
teach your boy how to share with his brothers.” I chuckled.

“
Well,
I don’t want
him sharing everything with his brothers,” I joked. “I’m a one-man woman, he
ain’t
sharing me.” The other guys in the room laughed as I
walked through, headed to the kitchen.

Devon was still hard at work, but I could see he’d
already brewed a fresh pot of coffee, and he had waffles cooking in a waffle
iron, along with a whole bowl full of more batter, and sausage frying in a
skillet on the stove. “Just in time,” Devon said, leaving the stove to kiss me
hungrily. His hands wandered over me, slipping up underneath the skirt of my
jumper, teasing me.

“I thought you wanted to have breakfast, not make
love,” I murmured, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. Devon nipped at my
throat, nibbling lightly
at
my sensitive
skin.

“I do want to have breakfast. But when you come up in
here with that skirt on
,
well, it’s a
little distracting, babe.” He pulled back, giving my hair a quick tousle. “And
if you distract me anymore, the food is going to burn.”

He went back to the stove, turning the sausages and
checking on the waffles. I poured myself a cup of coffee, adding milk and sugar
and watching Devon hard at work making breakfast for us both.
 
“One of your brothers told me I should teach
you how to share,” I told him, grinning a little. Devon laughed again.

“There are some things that no man in his right man
would share,” Devon told me, picking up his own cup of coffee and taking a long
sip. “Food for his woman?
No
way.” He
served up three hot waffles, loading them up with
butter
and adding a few links of sausage to the plate. “Eat up,
Jenny.” I rolled my eyes.

“You keep calling me that, every time I tell you not
to,” I said tartly, taking the plate and sitting down at the table. I waited
for Devon to finish cooking, serving himself an even bigger pile of waffles and
sausage. We both drowned our breakfasts in maple syrup, and as I cut into my
waffles, I shook my head in amazement. “You know, I don’t think anyone would
ever think you’re a good cook—it seems so unlikely.”

“I’ve had to learn, you know,” Devon pointed out,
taking a bite of his food. “It’s important to know what I’m eating. Garbage in,
garbage out.” I nodded.

“The same thing with education, by the way,” I raised
an eyebrow, smiling slightly. Devon grinned ruefully.

“Yeah, I get that now. No more garbage in my academic
career.” We chatted about what we would do that day; Devon couldn’t do much on
campus, since he was suspended, but he was planning to get some laundry done,
get some studying done, and be productive. “Maybe I’ll get a workout in, if I
can get into the gym,” he told me.

“That sounds good. Sounds like a nice, relaxing day. I
almost envy you.” Devon grabbed my empty plate and carried it to the sink,
rinsing it along with his own.

“Hey, do you want to come with me to the game
tonight?” I frowned.

“Game tonight? But you’re suspended.” Devon shrugged,
smiling almost uncertainly.

“I can’t play, but I owe it to the team to be there,
cheering them on. It’d be nice to be there with you at my side, watching
with
me. It’s been forever since I was in the
audience.” I grinned. His choice gave me a whole new perspective on him; I
would have assumed that he would want to be miles away from a game he couldn’t
play.

“Sure, I’ll go with you,” I said, smiling more deeply.
“I’ll buy us tickets when I get back to the campus.” Devon shook his head,
dismissing the idea.

“I’m
down,
but
I’m not out. I can still get one of the other guys on the team to set us aside
some tickets.” He kissed me and gave my hand a quick squeeze. “You’ve probably
got
class
, right? I’ll bring your
suitcase up to my room, so it’s right where you need it.” Devon kissed me
again. “And I will see you around, right?” I grinned.

“I’ll text you when I get to class.” He nodded, one
hand slipping up under my skirt once more to caress my inner thigh.

“I’ll come and see you later. Now go to class, nerd.”
He kissed my forehead and went back to cleaning up the kitchen.

Chapter
Eight

All day it felt like I was walking on air; I was so
happy, so satisfied with my life. I couldn’t wait to be with Devon again, and
the thought of going with him to the game that evening was even better. I was
certain that with a little more studying, he would be prepped to re-take the
ACT, and that everything would work out for both of us. While I was in class,
we texted back and forth, joking with each other and giving each other updates
on our day. I barely even thought about my friends at all; what they would
say—especially Kelly—or what they would do when they found out I was dating
Devon Sealy.

I found out from the reactions of some of the girls
around me that the word was starting to trickle around campus, in spite of the
fact that I hadn’t said anything about it, and Devon had only just begun to
introduce me to his frat brothers and friends. But then, I thought, they had
girlfriends too—the word would be common knowledge before long.
Whe
n I looked up from my phone with a little
grin because of a flirty little comment from Devon, suggesting what we could be
doing instead of me being in class and him hanging out at the frat playing
Xbox, I saw a handful of girls watching me enviously. When I laughed at a joke
he’d sent me, on my way from one class to another, I heard a jealous whisper
from someone I didn’t know, telling her friend that I would crash and burn like
all the rest of Devon’s conquests.

I didn’t even try and tell them off; it didn’t bother
me. Yes, Devon had
a past
, and yes, he
had slept around, but I had complete faith in him. He was serious about
me—hadn’t he proved that? He was serious about becoming a better person; someone
who didn’t just think that winning was the only goal. He wanted to be a good
student, he wanted to earn my trust, he wanted to be the kind of guy that I
knew he was capable of being. There was no point in trying to sort out which of
the girls around me was a spiteful, envious ex, and which was a jealous girl
who wanted her own shot at the basketball star. Devon was with me, and I was
with him, and that was all that mattered.

I didn’t mention anything about it to the other girls
when I met them in the dining hall; they would find out soon enough, and our
relationship was still in the early days. I didn’t want to hear anything from
them about what a mistake I was making, or that Devon would just treat me the
way he had all the other girls he’d been with. I knew it wasn’t true, but the
last thing I wanted was to fight with them. I didn’t bring Kelly up at all,
instead focusing on gossip about the professors—like Dr. March dating a former
student, or Dr.
Fowles
pitting the anthropology kids
against each other to compete for the chance to join her on a research
expedition.

I went to the rest of my classes for the day, wishing
that I could see Devon,
thinking
of how good it would
be when we were back together. I missed him the most in the class he had
transferred into with me—but I knew that I’d see him again soon enough, and
after all, that night we’d be at the game together, cheering for the team. I
knew that he would be a great boost to morale, watching them even if he
couldn’t be making the winning baskets himself. I was happy; I thought to
myself that while it was great watching Devon play, it would be even better to
see him cheering the team on, to get his insights as to the game. I wanted him
to succeed in
retaking
the test, but I
liked the little break that his suspension brought. It was nice to know that I
could have his attention almost completely, that he wouldn’t have to focus on
the game and staying at his peak of ability for just a little while.