“Are you okay?” he asked, shutting the door behind me. “What happened?”
“They ran away when I called the campus cops.”
“Did you file a report?”
“Yeah, but the cop was kind of a dick to me. Said they were watching my house because of all the craziness. Oh an apparently Jocelyn is on drugs.”
He put an arm around my waist. “Sadly, that makes a lot of sense. All the neediness, the attention, the partying. Her constant flip flopping of emotions.”
“You seem to know a thing or two about it,” I added.
“Yeah, a guy on the team got addicted to heroin last year. I saw him spiral, hell we all did. I should have noticed it about Jocelyn before. Always in her robe, never wears short sleeves, does she?”
I shook my head realizing he was right.
“Just tell them you were with me the night Jocelyn said you attacked someone. Trust me, you don’t want to get wrapped up in this. She needs help, and rehab or jail might be the only place she’ll get it.”
“It’ll ruin your chances of going pro, Austin. I can’t do that to you.”
“I don’t want a career if the only way I can get it is by screwing you over.”
“That’s noble, Austin, but you’re not screwing me over.”
“I will be. Do you have money for an attorney? They have no proof you attacked that woman, but I wouldn’t put it past Jocelyn to have her friends to say you were. You need to tell them you were with me that night.”
“No…”
I shook my head then rested it against his powerful chest.
“This isn’t just a college fling anymore, Brooke. I love you. More than I’d like to admit.”
I threw both my arms around him and squeezed tightly.
“That’s sweet, but you can’t make me tell them the truth. If I keep my mouth shut and deal with it on my own, you’ll be fine. Maybe we can get back together at the end of the semester.”
“No,” he said. “I can’t wait that long.”
I kissed him.
“Shh. We can talk about it later. I want to finish what we started earlier. You have a condom here, right?”
He nodded.
“Let’s go.”
I took his hand in mind and led him up the stairs to his bedroom. After closing the door behind us, I turned around and kissed him again.
He led me toward the bed, both of us stripping our clothes off, getting back into the mood after the crazy interruption earlier.
Maybe we should have been talking more about our future or something else, but the only thing I had on my mind was this last night together.
I sat down on the edge of his bed, liking it so much more than my own. He kneeled down in front of me and put his hands on my thighs.
“No,” I said. “I’m dirty.”
“I don’t care.”
He buried his head between my legs, that masterful tongue of his doing its dance across my tender flesh. Our interrupted lovemaking came back to me in a flash.