“You do know they call him the kingpin, right?” Davey asked, basically gnawing on her lip as she turned back. “As in, he is the ins and outs of everything around here? You need drugs? He knows a guy. Test answers? Again, he knows a guy. Fuck, even if you want sex—”
“Let me guess.” I propped an elbow on the counter, resting my chin on my hand. “He knows a guy.”
“I was going to say prostitutes, but yeah, same thing. The guy is a legend around here. Has been since he was a freshman.” Davey cupped her mouth. “I even heard Professor Douglas gets his weed through him.”
Well, I supposed that explained this morning.
Just my damn luck.
Wondering if that’d been Sinclair’s deal last night as well with his warning about the pair, I watched as Ni
ko arrived first and threw his long wingspan around my fellow TAs. We’d all been trying to enjoy some lunch after this morning’s disaster zone class, the hell I guess never-ending. Niko jerked his chin at me. “What’s up, Queen B?” he asked, then faced Griff and Davey. “The royal court, I presume?”
“Queen B?” I stole LJ’s personal attention with the question, arriving last when he sidled his hard body up against me.
And he was hard, chiseled from his jean-clad thighs to that baby tee that stretched just a little too tight across his broad chest. He grinned. “Miss Sweet Apple Ridge.” He bowed. “Had no idea we were in the presence of royalty.”
I rolled my eyes, my history in beauty pageants nothing secret. Everyone did them around here. Not just me. It was like you really weren’t from the Midwest unless your pushy mother forced you in one or five. Though, I supposed, maybe that was just my experience with my own. I angled my body back to the counter. “Can we help you with something, Mr. Johnson?”
“Ooh, Mr. Johnson.” And then he was close, real close when his breath ghosted the shell of my ear. “Be careful with that, beauty queen. You just might get me hard.”
What the fuck…
Jaw slacked and more than uncomfortable, I actually attempted to cover myself a little with my sweater. The nudge of the material brushed over my nipples and I forced in a curse that all the sudden they were way more sensitive than they should be. Growling, I crossed my legs, elbowing LJ until he got off me with a chuckle. I sneered. “And you’re inappropriate.”
And definitely a student in a class I was a teaching assistant for. I huffed, pushing hair out of my face. “You’re a student in Professor Douglas’s class, a class I TA for, so I’d appreciate you treating our relationship as such.”
Suddenly hard biceps hugged around me when he gripped the bar, his mouth to my ear again. “Last night you were quivering something a little different.”
If he meant that kiss he stole, that hadn’t been my choice at all and something he had no right to do. I had a boyfriend, and he’d been a jackass.
I didn’t move despite his arms around me, not intimidated in the slightest, and I noticed Griffin and Davey incredibly silent beside me. Niko still had his arms around them, watching the show, and Davey and Griff, well, I wasn’t getting any help from them. They stared forward during this whole thing. Like any sudden movements may hurt them. I had no idea if it would, but I had a feeling these would-be “gangsters” might just be all bark and no bite. They pushed drugs and sex to college students. Big whoop.
“You’re nothing but a rapey asshole,” I said to LJ, right in his face when I made eye contact. He was just as beautiful as he’d been last night, his eyes like crystals in a stark ocean-toned sea. It was only a shame such beauty was wasted on a complete D-Bag. My eyebrows narrowed. “That’s all last night told me.”
His eyes heated to a lustrous blaze, my tongue drying, but even still, I didn’t back down. I stayed until he made the first move, and he eventually did when he spun fingers in my hair.
The red curled around his lengthy digits, escaping from my updo. Letting go, he pushed off the bar. “I’d watch your step around here, beauty queen. I can make life pretty difficult for you.”
“Can you now?”
Blue fire now in his irises. “Just fucking try me.” He waved Niko to come on but not before stealing one of my fries. He popped one his mouth, sauntering his firm ass away and letting go of Griffin and Davey, Niko trailed after him.
“So long, Queen B,” he stated, bowing. He saluted Griffin and Davey. “Royal court.”
Catching up, Niko dropped an arm around LJ who didn’t once turn back around. He’d made his point and was now leaving, his bodyguard going after him.
“Do yourself a favor and don’t make an enemy out of those guys, Billie.” Apparently all lunched out, Griffin slid off his chair, Davey doing the same when she grabbed her bag. Griff frowned. “Davey’s right. They run this place and I knew that in undergrad.”
“Me too.” Davey shrugged. “Grad school is already hard enough. Pick your battles, huh?”
And let assholes treat me like crap? No way. Guys like him? Beautiful guys with swagger and a smile for days only needed to be tugged down a peg. Especially when they had money, which this guy obviously did. I knew money. I knew creeps, and if you let them throw their weight around, you were basically at the mercy of them.
I was over powerful men and their god complexes. I got to stare one in the face as he ripped my family apart. My dad used to be my superhero once upon a time.
Now, he was just the guy who raised me.
Chapter Five