Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Tristan

I lean against the wall, sipping the beer in my hand as I read Amy’s latest chapter on my phone, trying to drown out the deafening sounds of the party.

Fuck, I wish my little Amelia were here. I’d be free of this itching boredom, the need to burst out of here and find real stimulation. Lately, she’s one of the few places I can find it. Right now, it’s just Amy and football that truly satisfy me.

And she’s the much more satisfying outlet, which is…unsettling.

In moments like these, I wish I’d never blacklisted her from our parties. I’d love to have her at every single one of them, but it’s too dangerous. One of the guys might mention that Harper and I still hang out. Or Harper herself might show up.

The making-Harper-jealous ruse would be up.

Laughter and shouts fill the air, mingling with the scent of sweat and alcohol. Fuck, when did I start hating parties? Around the time I started spending time with ~her~, I think.

“Hey, Wolfe!” someone calls out, slapping my back, and I scowl as I turn to face them. I take another sip of my beer, wishing I had opted for something stronger.

“What?”

“Your girl is here,” the pledge whose name I can’t remember says.

My gaze darts to the doorway, but I don’t find Harper. Instead, the sight in front of me sends a chill over my skin. Holy shit, that’s Amy.

My stomach hollows out.

That’s Amy.

What the fuck is she wearing? She looks like a goddamn dominatrix in that black dress. Her huge tits are spilling out, and that black fabric is hugging her whole body. What the silly little dress covers of her body, that is.

I’ve never seen so much of her gorgeous skin exposed, and what the fuck did she do to her hair? She looks like a totally different person. Her dark-brown hair falls in soft waves around her shoulders, and her glasses have been replaced with what must be contacts, because her hazel eyes sparkle like honey.

She looks gorgeous.

Gorgeous and sexy.

I take a deep breath through my nose and release it slowly. Fuck, I hate this. She looks gorgeous and sexy enough for other guys to notice her.

Other guys to fucking maul her.

Not that she hasn’t always been gorgeous all on her own, but her beauty is like a full moon hidden behind the clouds, veiled but undeniable when you look closely. Now the clouds have parted, and everyone can fucking see it.

Anxiety grips my throat like a vise. My saving grace over these years has been that no one but me and that dipshit Cody Morris have ever seemed to notice how beautiful she is.

“Damn, she looks good,” mutters the pledge next to me, and I shoot him a glare that ought to make his heart stop beating. The uneasy weight in my chest grows heavier as a group of guys surround her. What the fuck is she doing? Her transformation can’t be a good sign.

She’s up to something.

“Move,” I bite out, pushing through the crowd and making my way toward Amy. I need to figure out what’s going on here and why she decided to crash the party. And I need to put a damn coat over that dress. As I approach her, her eyes alight with mischief.

Ah, she’s doing this to get under my skin.

“Amelia,” I say, trying to keep my voice casual as I close the distance between us. “Nice of you to drop by.”

“Tristan,” she replies, her eyes shimmering with a mix of amusement and defiance. “I thought it was about time I came to another party. I hear they get pretty wild.”

Her words make me wince internally. Yes, they do get wild, which is why I won’t be letting her drink much. She looks like she’s five foot nothing, and I doubt she drinks much. I’m not letting her leave my sight.

Especially not in that goddamn dress.

“Let’s talk,” I tell her, grabbing her arm gently but firmly and leading her away from the prying eyes of my brothers. God help anyone who approaches her.

“Someone’s grumpy,” Amy says as I pull her into one of my brothers’ bedrooms. I slam the door behind me.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” I clip out, clenching my jaw and trying to keep my emotions in check. That’s proving harder than I imagined. Jealousy where Amy is concerned isn’t new for me. I’ve been watching her hang out with Cody Morris every day since we started college. Thankfully, they’ve never gotten together, and I’ll make sure they never do.

No one will touch her but me, and certainly not one of my frat brothers.

“Don’t you think I look pretty?” she asks in a voice as sweet as maple syrup.

“You look gorgeous, and after I look my fill of you in that dress—” I let my gaze drop to her chest. Fuck, her tits look soft and luscious. “After that I’m putting a coat on you.”

She crosses her arms over her chest, but it does nothing to hide her tits. Nothing could hide them in that dress.

“No, I like this dress. I like the way I look.”

“Well, I have a really nice…T-shirt that’ll look great over it.” I grab her arm. “Come with me upst—”

She yanks her arms from my grip. “If you make me wear a T-shirt, I’m going to assume it’s because you’re fatphobic and don’t like me showing off my body.”

Heat washes over my skin. Is she fucking serious?

“Goddamn it, Amelia! You know that’s not true. You know you look gorg—”

“Do I?” Her sweet smile is nothing short of malicious, and goddamn it, I want to yank that dress off her and show her with my cock what I really think of how she looks.

I let out a frustrated sigh. “I know you’re playing me right now, but I’ll allow it. You can wear the dress. As long as you understand that you’re not leaving my sight tonight.”

She scoffs. “If you want to stalk me, I can’t stop you. I’ll be with your bestie, anyway. You trust him, don’t you?”

My head grows fuzzy. “Nick?”

She nods.

“Why would you hang out with Nick?”

She shrugs. “He invited me.”

Bafflement makes my mind go blank. “What?”

That mischievous smile returns to her face. “We reconnected. I ran into him at the library, and he invited me tonight.” Her smile fades. “I heard you had me blacklisted from all of your parties.”

My jaw clenches. “That has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with my frat brothers. I don’t trust them around you, especially not since the game started. They’d love to…”

~Fuck.~

I’m getting dangerously close to telling her about the stupid bet. I have to be careful. It’ll all be over if it gets out. She’ll never trust me again. No effusive apology—or insistence that I only made the bet in the first place because I wanted it to be true—would work. She’d be lost to me.

Even more reason to get her the fuck out of here as soon as possible.

She narrows her eyes. “Nick made sure that I was taken off the blacklist.”

Uneasiness prickles over my skin. Her rekindling her friendship with Nick can’t be a good sign. She could find out about my friendship with Harper, and how I never meant to make her jealous in the first place. Nick knows Harper and I have been over for good for a while.

And he also knows how badly I want to fuck Amy. Talking too much about my relationship with Harper would jeopardize that.

He’d never betray me though.

“Why do you even care if I’m here or not?” Amy asks. “We don’t have to hang out if you don’t want to.”

I set my hand on her shoulder. “Oh, we’re hanging out. And I’ll be making all your drinks. Nice and weak.”

The adorably baffled expression that alights from those hazel eyes makes me want to kiss her.

“This isn’t your scene,” I say. “I know you don’t party, so don’t try to lie to me. I don’t trust my frat brothers around you.”

She lifts a brow. “And you’re trustworthy?”

I smile, leaning forward and brushing my lips against her ear. “If you keep looking at me like that,” I whisper, “maybe not.”

She jerks back, her eyes widening, and oh god, I want to cradle her in my arms. She looks like this every time I flirt with her.

She doesn’t trust me. She shouldn’t, given what I have planned.

But I’ll be so good to her in the months I’ll spend fucking her out of my system. That adorably active brain of hers won’t have to worry about a thing, because I’ll take care of her like she belongs to me. I’ll spoil her with kisses and presents. I’ll worship her in the bedroom. She’ll be my queen until I tire of her.

And when that day finally comes, I’ll be kind when I break it off. I’ll tell her I sincerely want to stay friends, as I have with Harper. And eventually, she’ll find a guy who adores her and…

Oh no.

Fuck, no.

I can’t stand the thought of it. I want to kill this faceless guy.

I take a deep breath. This feeling is only temporary.

I will get her out of my system. And once I do, the idea of her with someone else won’t twist me up inside. I’m determined.

“Well, I’m going to go mingle,” she says, taking a step away from me.

I place my fingers under her chin and lift her face to look me in the eyes. “I’ll be watching.”

“Yes, my lord.” She takes a small step back and bows into what I think is called a curtsy, and laughter rumbles from my chest.

She’s so fucking cute.

“I’ll make sure to remember who’s boss.” She turns and walks away, swaying her hips as she makes her way through the crowd.

Fuck, I wish I could throw her over my shoulder and haul her up to my bedroom. It’s going to be torture having to watch other guys talk to her when she’s wearing that ridiculous dress. I doubt any of them will be stupid enough to risk my ire by telling her about the bet, but who knows when they’re drunk?

As she moves through the party, I lean against a wall. Thankfully, I’m tall enough that I have a good view of her wherever she goes.

Nick approaches her with some guy I don’t know. He’s not part of our frat. Who the fuck is he, and why does it look like Nick brought him over specifically to introduce him to her?

My heart races as she starts to talk to the guy, laughing and touching his arm. I clench my fists at my side.

~Don’t go over there. You’ll look like a jealous lunatic, and your brothers will make fun of you for it for the rest of your life. ~

Amy says something to the guy with that mischievous smile she gave me earlier. The one I love. Her hand briefly rests on his chest. A wave of heat rolls through me. She’s already getting touchy? What the fuck happened to her?

She’s taunting me. That’s what all of this is. Her hair, that insane dress, and the uncharacteristic flirtatiousness.

I have to take action, even if it makes me look like a lunatic.

I push off the wall and stride toward them, my eyes locked on her. “Amy.” I grab her arm. The guy looks at me, his eyes wide and perplexed, but he retreats without a word. Amy shoots me a scowl, but I don’t wait to let her scold me. I make my way to the staircase, guiding her up the first few steps.

“Cops!” I shout. “Cops are here!”

A wave of curses ring out through the room, but it grows mostly silent. Just like I planned.

As people start quietly looking for exits, I raise my voice even louder. “No, not really. I just wanted to get your attention, because I have something to say. Do you see this woman right here?” I point to Amy. “No one flirts with her. No one touches her. She belongs to me. Are we clear?”

A wave of laughter descends over the room, but my point hits home. No one will have the balls to go after her after I staked my claim. Not even people outside of the frat. I’m well-known on campus, and not for being nice.

I don’t mind that I have a dickish reputation—even though it’s mostly undeserved—because at the moment, it serves me quite nicely.

When I turn to Amy, her lips are parted, and her cheeks are pink. It’s too much to hope that she’s as turned on as I am. I’ve been dreaming of calling her mine in the bedroom for as long as I can remember.

As if recalling herself, Amy yanks her arm from my hold. “That is the most medieval, misogynistic bullshit I’ve seen in my life.”

I turn to her, smirking. Though she’s scowling, I catch that sparkling amusement in her eyes. I know this girl’s expressions well after watching her from afar for so long.

I shrug. “We have an agreement, Amelia. We’re supposed to make Harper think we’re falling in love.”

The brightness in her eyes dims, and I must be an asshole, because it makes my heart soar.

She doesn’t like that I’m supposedly making Harper jealous.

Maybe ~she’s~ jealous.

The thought makes heat uncoil low in my gut. I’ve coveted Amy for years. Anyone blessed with one of her smiles made me want to rage. If she felt even a fraction of that for me, I could die happy.

Fuck. Now I’m getting sappy again.

“Right,” she says. “Well, I think I’m going to head home. I came here to flirt tonight, and you just cockblocked me.”

I laugh. “Damn right I did. I’ll walk you home.”

“No.” She lifts her chin. “I’ve had enough of you tonight.”

I look at her sternly. “You’re not walking home alone, I’ll tell you that.” I glance around the room. When I spot one of the pledges, I flick my fingers to beckon him. He immediately makes his way over to me. “Walk her home,” I say when he gets close.

Amy scowls at me. “I’m going to make out with him.”

I chuckle. “The fuck you will. He’ll be out of the frat. Do you really want to do that to him?”

The pledge’s expression grows baffled. Fuck, I’m being a dick, but I can’t help myself.

This woman makes me crazy.

As Amy walks toward the door, the pledge keeps a careful distance as he follows her. A strange dejection pulls at my chest. I need to just tell her about the damn bet. About my friendship with Harper. These lies keep me from having her with me every moment of the day, which is all I’ve ever wanted.

“Damn,” a voice to my right says. I turn and see Dom, one of my least favorite brothers. “You’re really all in with her, huh?”

I roll my eyes. “Either get me a beer or go away.”

He smiles. “I didn’t get it before tonight, but she’s actually pretty damn cute. Maybe I’ll steal her from you and win that five K.”

I’m able to keep my jaw from clenching. He’s only doing this to piss me off.

“I’ll bet she’s wild in bed,” he says. “The nerdy girls always are. I’d love to see those big tits bouncing when she rides—”

The world is a black haze. Dom is already against the wall before I even know what I’ve done.

“Shit, dude!” He looks down at my hands, which are clenched on his shoulders. “Are you insane?”

I must be, because the area around me has gone quiet. I’m making a scene.

I can’t seem to stop myself.

“Did you hear what I said earlier? If you go near her, I’ll end you. I’ll make sure you’re out of this frat. I’ll tell our chapter president you give alcohol to minors.”

His eyes grow huge. “Everyone in this frat gives alcohol to minors.”

“Yep, and you’ll be the one taking the fall for it.”

“I was just fucking with you. Put me down.”

Reality seems to descend over me suddenly. I’m standing here with a brother pinned against the wall because he teased me a little bit. Plenty of guys have said shit about Harper over the years, and I’ve never lost my cool like this.

Fuck, I’m drowning. I’m so deep in my obsession with little Amelia that I can’t even think straight.

This has to stop.

I will fucking conquer this. I’ll get her out of my system, or she’ll be the death of me.