Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Now I was imagining him eating a big piece of watermelon, biting in and letting the juice run down his chin, down his chest. I’d enjoy cleaning him up with my tongue. Holy fuck. I had to get myself under control. “Explain what happened. Start with last night.”
Alex frowned. “It’s complicated, and you don’t want to know. It’s pretty stupid.”
“If someone drugged you, I assure you I want to know.”
His eyes lit up. “You’re worried about me?”
“Would you be lying here on my couch if I wasn’t?”
“I’ll be all right. It was probably just a stupid prank.”
Anger burned through me. I didn’t want him dismissing this. “Drugging someone is not a prank. You could’ve died.”
“I guess so, but I’m okay.”
Thank God.
“There’s this guy in my frat who has some beef with me. It’s—fuck—our families have beef, and Jesus, who knows how far back it goes.”
“You’re in a good old-fashioned feud with this boy?”
He smiled. “I mean, we’re not the Hatfields and McCoys or anything. It’s just my dad bought a company that Randall’s dad wanted, and he’s treated me like shit ever since we started pledging last year. Now he thinks I’m interested in the girl he’s interested in. I’m not, by the way.”
I smiled. “No, I wouldn’t expect you were.”
Color came back to his cheeks, and he looked away. “I’m not interested in girls. There, I said it out loud.”
“You’ve never said that before?”
“No.”
“Have you ever…” What was I doing? He was my student.
“Fucked a guy? No. I’ve sucked guys off and stuff, but not, like, anal.”
“Right.” I could not think about that. “Why does he think you like her?” I couldn’t believe I was having this conversation. I didn’t care about fucking frat-house gossip, but if someone drugged Alex, I would make sure they never tried such a thing again.
“He was pressuring her. She wasn’t interested, and I helped her get away from him. I told him to stay away from her, and he can’t imagine that I would truly be concerned for her welfare.”
If I hadn’t already hated Randall, I did now. “It sounds like this guy needs to be put in his place.”
Alex smiled. “I did knock him out this morning.”
“Alexander.”
“Yeah, I know, but he came for me first.”
“What happened?”
“Somebody told him they saw me with her. And, like, yeah—I ran into her in the cafeteria, so we sat together. He got wasted tonight, and he came back at me with a broken bottle. Another guy pulled him away, and I punched him.”
I couldn’t be upset with him defending himself. I wanted to end Randall.
“And then?”
He shrugged. “I had a med student friend fix it. It’s fine.”
“A med student? Why didn’t you go to the ER?”
“My uncle works there.”
I frowned, not liking that reasoning at all. “Is it going to scar?”
“Do you care?”
“I care that you are taking care of yourself. I care about all my students taking care of themselves.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I hope not. I’ll be in a lot of trouble if it does.”
“What do you mean, trouble?”
“My uncle wants me to have this perfect image, and he thinks I have the kind of face and charm to run for office like my grandfather.”
I’d made the assumption that Alex was a spoiled brat who thought he could drink and party his way through school, but he had as much difficult shit going on in his life as I did. At least I had a family who cared and supported me. Now I not only wanted Alex in my bed, but I wanted to take care of him too.
7
ALEX
“Tell me more about this Randall,” Dante said.
“He’s just a guy in my frat. He’s an idiot and drunk all the time.”
Dante narrowed his eyes, studying me. “He hurt you.”
“And that bothers you?”
“Fuck yes bothers me.”
I shivered. Dante sounded dangerous. He was sarcastic and could be cutting when he was in the classroom, but this was different. Was he really one of The Theriots? If my professor had mob connections, what would he do to Randall?
“Do you think he’ll hurt you again?” Dante asked.
“Maybe. He’s probably the one who drugged me today.”
Dante’s jaw tightened. “You think he’s behind this?”
“I don’t know who else it would be.”
“Tell me everything you remember about today.”
My memory of the whole day, except for those humiliating moments standing in Dante’s office, was fuzzy.
“I got back from getting stitched up, and I wrote the paper. I slept for a few hours, then came to campus, went to organic chem, and came to see you with the paper. After I left your office…” I wasn’t about to mention crying in the bathroom. “I went back to the house and started drinking.”
“Alex.”
“I know it was stupid, okay? I was hurt, and I’d hardly had any sleep, but I was just… I was mad at myself. I was mad at Randall. I don’t know.”