Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 84289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
This semester, he was supposed to be MVP on the Crimson hockey team, and take his spot as one of the leaders of Double Daggers. Even though I’ve always made fun of him for joining a secret society, I know it means a lot to him.
I squeeze him again before I pull back. “You know, the Onyx guys say their house is better than the Daggers house, but you’ve got it pretty good here.”
“The Onyx guys are full of themselves.”
“Aren’t you Daggers guys, too?”
He gives me a look. “Weston Knox is a pain in my fucking ass. Last year he broke up a fistfight I got in at a party. Said it was a bad look for society guys to fight. Fuck that.”
“You’d fight a goddamn cardboard box, though. Maybe Weston was right.”
Sev gives me a bitter glare, and I know he wishes he could fight me right now, too.
Sevan uses his arms to shift on his seat. “Anyway. I have my own room, even if it’s small.”
“What have you been doing in here?”
“Jerking off.”
“Nice, Sev.”
“I swear the moment my legs are healed I’m going to fuck someone new every goddamn night. Not having sex has been the worst part.”
“Worse than not being able to walk?”
“Yes. Much worse.”
“Nothing’s stopping you from having someone come sit on your dick in bed, is there?”
He gestures around the room at the disarray. “I think the only thing preventing that is my own lifestyle. It’s not as if I’ve been feeling very proud of bringing anyone in here.”
“I’m sorry. It blows.”
He hums. “I might not be able to play hockey anymore, but I’m becoming a human encyclopedia.”
He nods over at his desk, which is covered in books, most of them sports biographies or books about classic cars.
“Christ. You have more books than Oliver does.”
“Who is Oliver?”
I wave a hand through the air. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t tell me you’re already dick deep in some poor, innocent Crimson guy and you’ve been here for a day and a half.”
Well, technically, yes.
I walk by the window again, and the sun has finally set completely. The clouds are rolling in fast, and I see a few tiny snowflakes beginning to hit the panes of the window.
“Oliver Ashford,” I tell Sevan. “He’s a member of Onyx, and he’s… interesting.”
“That’s how you describe every guy you hook up with.”
“Remember how I used to bitch to you about the hockey rival I had in high school?”
Sevan lifts his eyebrows. “The one who drugged you?”
“Yes.”
He blinks at me. “You’re living in the same house as that prick who drugged you?”
“Chill. It turns out he didn’t do that.”
Sevan is a year older than me, and we went to different schools growing up. He never knew Oliver, but clearly I complained about him enough to leave an impression.
“And now he’s an Onyx brother,” Sevan says, squinting out toward the clouds. “Naturally.”
“If you see me with him, don’t think anything of it. He wants me to pretend to be his boyfriend for the winter parties.”
I know I’m not supposed to tell a soul about my arrangement with Oliver.
Oliver would wring my neck if he knew I was telling Sevan.
But there’s not a chance in hell I’m lying to my cousin, so I’ll have to have that little secret from Oliver. He doesn’t need to know I’m telling Sev.
“Of course you’d get into a situation like that,” Sevan says.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re always in… interesting predicaments with your love life.”
“Sevan, for someone I love, someone I’m supposed to be taking care of, I’m two seconds away from knocking you out.”
“Sorry. How is shit with Callum, by the way?”
I bite the inside of my cheek the moment Sevan says his name.
Fucking awful.
Worst it’s ever been, actually.
He’s threatening me, he may have threatened you, and I’m planning on killing him if he comes within a hundred-foot radius of you or anyone I know.
I’ve never been good at hiding when I’m pissed. I turn away so Sevan can’t see the bitter expression on my face, and I grab the vacuum at the edge of his room.
“Callum’s a piece of shit,” I finally say.
I turn on the vacuum, glad that the sound of it fills the room so I don’t have to talk about that snake.
The truth is that I have no clue what to do about Callum, because if I did what I want to do, I’d be thrown in jail. I have no clue how real his threats are. I dated him for a couple of months, and the longer I was with him, the stranger his behaviors became.
At this point, I barely feel like I never really knew Callum at all.
When I met him, he just seemed like a rich guy who was older than me, a photographer who was addicted to harsh drugs in his teens but had really cleaned up his act. Now, I’m not convinced about that. It’s completely possible he’s started taking drugs again, and could act erratically at any point.