#Rev (GearShark #2) (12 page)

One of the men who beat me cleared his throat. I smiled at him.

Oh, what a beautiful thing it is to be calm when people expect you to be enraged.

He actually looked scared.

I’m just getting started.

“I was also working on something, an opportunity for the fraternity. Something that will bring a lot more notoriety and good press to our house.”

Everyone seemed interested.

“As you all know, I’m friends with Maryland Knights quarterback Romeo Anderson and also Braeden Walker.” Everyone sat up a little straighter in their seats. “Since they’re both also alumni of Alpha U, I knew they would want to be involved in what I was suggesting.”

In truth, this was Romeo’s idea. I was taking the credit because it would make me look good with the house and gain me some extra favor in case it was needed.

“What is it?” one of the guys in the back hollered.

I grinned, my puffy lip stretching uncomfortably. “Romeo and Braeden have agreed to play in a charity football game with Omega. The money raised from ticket sales and donations will go to a charity this house will choose through popular vote. I suggest Omega makes the charity one they support annually and, every year after this, organizes at least one event to fundraise and donate one hundred percent of the proceeds to said charity.”

People started talking excitedly, and I lifted my hand. “In addition to Romeo and Braeden playing, they will be getting a few other Knight players to donate their time to come down and participate. Because of the popularity of the team here in their home state and Romeo’s legendary reputation here on campus, this will be a very popular event and a chance to raise quite a bit of money.”

“And get the Omega house back to being the most prestigious frat on campus!” Jack whooped from beside me.

Everyone cheered.

“I will set up a meeting with the Wolves coach here on campus this week and talk to him about scheduling a time for us to play the game, maybe get in some practices, etc. Teams will be divided up at a later date. Once all the details are worked out, I’ll have another house meeting to keep everyone in the know.”

“Props to our prez for not letting our rivals keep him down and for still striving to make this house better.” Jack spoke to the room.

“I am not and will not step down from the presidency that I have held for almost two years. I remain true to the Omega brotherhood and will be until I give over the honor of president to Jack in just a few short weeks.”

Everyone clapped.

I turned to Con. “Thank you, Conner, for looking out for the frat, for taking action when you thought we were leaderless.”

Con swallowed, his eyes wide.

“But as you can see, I’m here. And I’d like to decree that if anything or anyone else should question my loyalty to the frat in the coming weeks, it is Jack who should step in and act as president.”

Jack stepped forward. “Thank you, Trent. Men, keep your eyes and ears open for anything that might lead us to the scum who did this to our leader. Any information on their affiliation or motives will be rewarded. We will show this entire campus that Omega is not a house to be fucked with!”

Everyone went crazy again.

I banged the gavel, signaling the end of the meeting.

Con and his merry band of assholes left the room pretty quickly. I wasn’t so lucky. I was the last one out, having to talk to almost everyone. I answered question after question. I replayed what happened over and over, joining in plotting and speculating.

Most people were inclined to believe this was the work of a rival frat. I didn’t disagree with them. Eventually, I’d rat out the guys in this house. Until then, I’d let the rumors run wild.

By the time I was done, I didn’t even have to make an effort to look pitiful because I felt pitiful.

“I’m gonna call it a night, guys,” I said to the few remaining brothers. “I need some pills and my bed.”

“You need anything, anything at all, just yell,” one brother said and offered his hand. I shook it.

Another guy spoke up. “And don’t worry about anything tonight. Get some sleep. No one will get in this house that isn’t supposed to be here.”

“Fuckin right,” I drawled and shook his hand, too.

My ass dragged up the stairs. I wanted to go home to the familiar sounds of Prada running around, Braeden’s sarcastic jokes, and Rimmel’s hovering.

Most of all, I wanted to lie in bed with Drew. Maybe hold his hand.

I had a moment’s thought outside my bedroom door to just say fuck it and drive back over there. But I couldn’t. Not tonight. I had to be here.

As I was reaching for my keys in my back pocket (my door is always locked), I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned quickly to see Con hovering nearby.

I pinned him with a hard, cold stare. “You’ll get yours,” I vowed. “Can you guess when?”

He turned tail and ran like the little bitch he was. Fucking yanked my chain the guys actually thought I’d run out of this house and never come back.

I slid my key in the door and frowned. It was unlocked.

That peckerhead better not have been messing around in my room.
I’d call him out here and now.

The door swung open, and all my attention went to the bed.

To who was sitting in the center.

Drew

Surprise stopped him cold. The dark lashes that framed his hazel eyes pulled wide, and the expression of relief written on his face made the back of my neck tingle.

I smiled, holding a finger up to my lips, reminding him to be quiet.

He recovered quickly, moving into the room, hastily shutting and locking the door behind him.

I wasn’t sure how Trent would react to me sneaking into his room, especially after he told me he didn’t want me to come in the house.

When the door first opened, before he saw me waiting, I recognized definite exhaustion clinging to him. For all the convincing he’d done that this was where he needed to be right now, it was painfully clear he didn’t want to be.

It was pretty fucking heady when everything instantly changed the second his eyes found me. A complete three-sixty. The exhaustion evaporated and his hazel eyes lit up.

That crooked front tooth of his even came out to play.

I was so glad I snuck in.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, talking in hushed tones. “How the hell did you get in?”

I held up the spare key to his reinforced lock and smiled.

He laughed. “No shit! I forgot you had that!”

I made a show of slipping it back into the pocket of my jeans. “I snuck right in. No one noticed ‘cause you were too busy getting them all riled up.”

“You heard that, huh?”

I chuckled. “Most of it.”

Hearing him talk made me more impressed. He was a good public speaker. People hung on every word he said. I couldn’t even blame them; I did, too.

“I wanted to beat his ass,” Trent growled and dropped on the edge of the mattress. “When I walked in, he was trying to convince everyone how great he was.”

“Judging from the stuff I overheard, no one really bought the bullshit he was selling.”

T made a sound and glanced over his shoulder. “I thought you went home.”

“Have you seen the way you fill out my shirt?” I teased. “I’d follow you anywhere.”

Trent’s white teeth flashed. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me, too.” I rubbed my hand over this head and trailed my fingers down the back of his neck. Of course I’d be here. There wasn’t anywhere else I wanted to be. The second he disappeared into the house and out of sight, there was this spot in the center of my gut that began to ache.

The idea of him in that house, basically full of vultures, left me feeling cold. Yeah, I knew T could handle himself. But not knowing… anticipating… lying in bed all night alone, just waiting for the next time I’d hear from him to be sure—I couldn’t handle that.

I parked down the street in an overflow lot most of the houses around here used when they had parties and needed extra parking. I put the Fastback in the back of the lot, in the dark—something I didn’t like to do because I was afraid someone would mess with it, or worse, try to steal it.

But it was a risk I was willing to take tonight.

I walked right in the house and moved swiftly up the stairs and let myself into his room. It took maybe thirty seconds.

I was gonna have to get up hella early, something I hated, but at least when I woke, he’d be beside me.

Damn. I was turning emo. I needed to drive. Fast.

“You’re right,” I said, trying to keep things light. Trent would never say it or even allude to it, but he was in pain.

He frowned. “Right about what?”

“This bed is too small for you.”

The sound of his low chuckle vibrated beneath my skin. “Sorry you snuck in now?”

I’d sleep in a cardboard box in the pouring rain if it were beside him. “Nope. We’ll just have to sleep extra close.”

“Best idea I’ve heard all day.”

“Take off your shirt,” I ordered.

“I feel used, Forrester. You’re just here for my body.”

I gave him the finger, then reached for the hem of the shirt to slowly peel it over his head. I did it extra slow—you know, because of his ribs. And because the way his abs rippled when he lifted his arms was something I needed to stare at longer than two seconds.

“I want to look at your ribs, jackass.”

“They look the same as when you saw them an hour ago.” He grunted.

I tossed the shirt onto the floor, and he reached for mine. I let him pull it off but then turned my attention to his midsection. He was right; it looked pretty much the same as earlier.

“I really wish I’d been here,” I whispered, ever so lightly caressing the worst of the bruising.

He caught my hand. “I’m glad you weren’t.”

I slid off the bed and made my way around the narrow space between the mattress and the wall, around to the side where T sat. I kneeled at his feet and pulled off his shoes.

Neither of us said anything as I worked, but I felt his eyes the entire time. Once the shoes and socks were gone, my hands slid up his legs and thighs to hook around the waistband of the sweats. Our eyes locked, and Trent lifted his hips and ass so I could slide the pants down and work them over his legs and feet.

“How do you like those boxers?” I asked, a little cheeky. I sure as hell liked looking at him in them.

“You’re not getting them back.” The depth of his voice and the way his eyes roamed over my face and chest made me flush. God, he was sexy.

“I can live with that.”

He smirked because it was so obvious by my throaty tone he made my body hum.

“Get your head out of the gutter, frat boy. You look more uncomfortable than a horse with a mouthful of bees. Lay down,” I said, trying to hide the desire I felt being this close to him.

“Frankly, I’m offended your head isn’t in the gutter with mine.”

I made a rude noise and pushed him back onto the pillows. “It is. After last night, my head should pay rent to the gutter ‘cause it’s gonna be living there.”

Trent smirked and crooked a finger at me. When his crooked front tooth flashed, fondness and desire battled within me. I never knew I could be so incredibly charmed and turned on at the same time.

Giving in, I pulled off my sweats and T-shirt. T was on his back, so I straddled him, hugging his hips with my thighs and giving him all my weight. I didn’t have to worry about crushing him; the guy was just as strong and muscular as the pro football players I lived with.

I was sorely tempted to grip his cock and tease it with some stroking, but I held back. It wouldn’t be fair to him or me. I wasn’t going to do anything about either one of our hard-ons. Trent was way too exhausted, and I knew he was in pain. All the soreness from what happened to him last night was in full swing.

“I gotta say I like the way you look under me.” My palms flattened on his chest and rubbed upward, stroking his well-defined pecs.

“Wanna see how I look over you?” His hands covered mine.

“Right now, it’s my most anticipated moment,” I confessed.

“Mine, too.”

Just thinking about sex with him caused my hips to rock. Trent smiled lazily and palmed my waist.

I shook my head. “No way.”

He lifted a brow.

“I didn’t come here for sex,” I explained, keeping my voice very quiet.

We were in a house full of men.

“Then why are you here, Forrester?”

I liked when he called me that. I don’t know why. It was just my last name, but when he said it, it was more.

“Because I love you.”

Against my skin, his hands went slack, and his eyes closed. “I wish you knew how amazing that sounds to me.” The emotion in his voice almost made me forget about my no-sex-tonight rule.

“I do.” I promised. “It’s the exact same as when you say it to me.”

He shook his head once. “No.” He looked up, the amber of his eyes blazing with vulnerability. “You’re stronger than me, Drew. Deep down at the core.” He paused to swallow and look away.

I watched the emotion play across his features. I watched him search for the words to explain what was going on inside him, and then I watched him weigh them, as if he measured exactly what each one would cost.

“I’ve… I opened up a part of myself that was so private it physically hurt, the deepest place I feel things, the place where my most exposed feelings lie. That cost me a lot, Forrester, and I was scared.
You
are the biggest risk I’m ever going to take, so when you say you love me, it’s the biggest reward I’ll ever know.”

I grabbed his jaw and rubbed the pads of my thumbs over the skin there, reveling in his words, the moment… and the way he looked at me. “Don’t ever underestimate the power you have over me, frat boy. I promise you I’m just as powerless when it comes to you.”

“I love you,” he rasped.

After that, no more words were said. There was honestly nothing left to say. When you understood the depth of feeling and the level of connection we had, words just didn’t compare.

My head buzzed as our lips moved together. His fingertips were unsteady when they stroked over my scruff. Our tongues and mouths made love, but it was never about anything more. It was just us simply being together, exploring each other in ways we’d been deprived of until just recently.

When at last our lips stopped moving, I rested my cheek on his shoulder and flung a leg over his. The languid feeling of his fingertips dragging up and down my spine made me drowsy and lulled me to sleep.

Turns out I kinda liked a bed Trent was too small for because for us together, it was just right.

I called in sick to work.

Not because I didn’t want to get up early (though, who the hell ever wants to do that?), but because I wanted to drive.

I wanted the open road, my foot against the gas pedal, and the feeling of flying. I needed it, too—the solitude that came over me when I drove. There was a stillness that came with driving fast, a sort of mental clarity. It didn’t make much sense to say, but the only way I could describe it was the ability to literally speed up the world around me allowed my mind to only see what really mattered. All the scenery whipping by blurred together, leaving all that remained the stuff that mattered most, the stuff no amount of speed could ever blur.

I was happy—no, I was fulfilled being with Trent. But that fulfillment wasn’t without strife. I still had things to work through in my head. Decisions to make. And let’s face it. I was still beyond pissed about him getting jumped. Maybe some speed would shake loose some of the anger weighing me down.

Maybe the adrenaline rush would give me some courage.

“If I could skip classes today, I would,” T said, looking at me still tangled in the sheets.

I was enjoying the view. Though I could tell he was still sore, he was moving a little bit easier today… or at least putting on a good act.

It reinforced that what he really needed last night was rest, not us going at each other for hours.

It was early, but not as early as I usually had to drag my ass out of bed. The second my alarm went off, the familiar sense of dread about sitting in that cubicle all day with the damn noose—
I mean tie
—around my throat was too much.

I waited until more of a decent hour and called in. I told them I was sick, likely some kind of food poisoning from something I ate over the weekend. They believed me. There was no reason not to. I didn’t like my job, but I showed up and did the work well.