Night one turned into every night that week, every damn night, and the more evenings Knight accrued the more people he brought, guys and girls. My dorm room was turning into the hottest spot to be at in the freshman dormitory, and I’d even caught a few of the building’s resident assistants frequenting through, wanting to see what was up when they were supposed to be keeping order. The whole thing was madness, and the whole time I’d taken to nothing but barricading myself into my room. I had to. The last time I went out, I’d caught actually Haley on Knight’s lap instead of under his arm.
He’d cradled her hip, barely looking at me when I left to go get dinner that night, but he’d definitely seen me. Nothing but a devious smirk curled his lips as he braced Haley’s hip and brought her closer. He played Xbox around her, the two of them peas in a pod. I’d feigned nothing but annoyance when I snapped the door closed, but something had my heart racing and laying my head back against the door. Something had me gripping my dorm keys like a lifeline, and whatever it was, I didn’t fucking like it. Knight Reed was nothing but sin, cancer, and fuck, did I hate him.
Fuck.
I went to bed that night like I had most nights, no sleep and nothing at all allowing me to focus. I was angry. I was frustrated, but not only could I do nothing about it, I was sure I’d get protests if I did try to do something. The other girls clearly wanted him and his friends around, so what did it matter what I wanted? I just had to hope one day Knight might get over his little obsession with me and torturing my life, move onto something else, and I thought that’s what I had by that Saturday. The dorm was miraculously empty, but I definitely hadn’t questioned it and decided to take full advantage of the fact when I brought my school things out and set them up in the living area. I wasn’t failing all my classes yet, but was definitely on my way. I was still sleeping in most of my classes where I could get away with that, and so behind in psych it wasn’t even funny. I’d actually failed the last quiz entirely.
Completely Knight Reed’s fault, I grumbled over my textbook, trying to Google some of these vocabulary terms to get some clarity. If I didn’t start understanding some of this shit, I couldn’t use any of this shit for the term paper that was coming due. It was worth half my grade in combination with my final exam, so I really needed to start getting my crap together. I was finally kinda starting to get some of it when some giggling behind me caused me to stop. It drifted out of one of the girl’s closed bedrooms, a deeper laugh right behind, and I closed my eyes.
A squeak of the bed, and my stomach’s contents basically filled my throat, my fists curled over laptop keys. I was shaking as the door creaked open and a landmass filled Haley’s door frame, Knight coming out of her room with tousled hair and his muscles stretching a T-shirt to the brink of its seams. It pulled taut over his massive chest, especially when he stretched, working his shoulders and back like he’d been laying down. He noticed me right away, of course, smirking before closing Haley’s door. I didn’t see her, but that must have been her inside, giggling…
Ignoring the fact that I cared something about that, I eased back behind my laptop monitor, Knight casually cutting past me. He’d taken it upon himself to make himself at home over the past few days. I mean, he’d basically solidified himself as a fifth roommate outside of paying rent. Heading over to the fridge in the kitchen across from me, he opened the door. “Working hard, Greer?”
No thanks to him. I said nothing, scrolling through my screens. Peeking above my monitor, I watched as Knight opened a carton of milk and downed the whole thing, his Adam’s apple working the whole thing down, and rolling my eyes, I forced myself to concentrate on my work. There was no going to my room now that he was here. He’d might say something about that, poke at me more than he already did, and I was so damn tired of him getting the upper hand when it came to my life. In fact, it freakin’ maddened me, more of his psychological warfare he was clearly playing here. He was winning this game between us, but hell if I’d ever let him know how much it was bothering me.
“Going over vocabulary terms,” I said causally. I clicked around. “You know, since that’s what people do in college? Go to classes and actually work?”
A chuckle as he closed the fridge. He crushed the carton with a hand, tossing it in the trash, and when he came over, I shook my head.
“Hope you’ll be buying another one of those.” He’d been eating us out of house and home too, like seriously a vacuum. He and his friends consumed food like locusts, but the difference between us and them was that they could afford to do shit like that. My tuition may be taken care of by Ben and Mom, but my food budget wasn’t. He and his friends were bleeding us dry, and as far as I knew, my other roommates hadn’t fared better on scholarships and grants themselves.
“I’m good for it.” Knight hugged his heat up against my side, tilting my screen back to read it. “Psych, huh? Sounds fun.”
“Don’t you have stuff to do?” I pulled the screen back, another goddamn chuckle rolling its gravelly tones into my ear. I shook my head. “Other people to bother? Sounds like you and Haley were having fun.”
Annoyance pricked at me when I heard an octave raise my voice, and even more when Knight’s arms pulled around me. My heart leaped. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing. Just trying to hear it, your jealousy…” he said, his nose running along the shell of my ear. His biceps hugged my shoulders. “I mean, if you want me all to yourself, Greer. You just gotta ask.”
“I don’t want you.” I simmered, my body heat rising like three hundred. More of his games, more of his evil. I pulsed. “I hate you.”
“Do you?” His teeth tugged at my earlobe this time, his breath wintry and cool. He hugged my body with his big arms and hands. “Wish I actually believed that.”
But I did, so much it made me blind. Made me crazy, and even more that no matter how much I wanted to push him away, I wanted to tug him right back to me, his heat and his draw making me just as mad as he clearly was. This was nothing but a game to him, but for whatever reason, my own heart couldn’t get the reality check. I shoved at his hold, laughter in my ear when he let go of my earlobe. My jaw worked. “Get off me. I need to study.”
“Sure.”
“I do.” I elbowed him for emphasis, and though he did back off, he smiled. My nostrils flared. “I’m on the cusp of failing half my classes thanks to you and your nightly parties.”
“Well, that sounds like personal responsibility if I’ve ever heard it.” Dark eyebrows dashing up, he tugged at my laptop screen. “What are you studying vocab for? A test or something?”
“A paper. Why?”
He shrugged. “Just figured I might be able to help. You know, since it’s my fault?”
Well, that was rich. The big, dumb rich boy trying to help me. “And what would you know about psychology terms?”
Over my shoulder, he tugged up my failed psych quiz from under my computer, smiling again. “A lot more than you. Yikes—”
I ripped the quiz away. “I don’t need your help, and I’m sure Haley’s missing you.”
His smile left as he stared at me, his big arms folding over his chest. “I was actually helping Haley with one of her computer classes. Was pretty into that stuff in high school.”
“Yeah?” I turned, staring right at him. “Was that before or after you fucked her?”
Eyes darkened right away, a pulse shooting straight into my chest when he reached around me and grabbed my computer.
“Hey!”