“You know I’ll give you the money, Carillo. Just say the word,” I said quietly. Austin’s eyes darkened with embarrassment.
“Rome, I know you mean well, but there is no way I’m taking a hand-out from you. I’ll deal with it. I always manage to work something out.”
Yeah he does, but it ain’t often legit.
“You need us to pay your brother a visit? Talk to him, figure out a way to get him out of all that shit?” Jimmy-Don offered.
Austin shook his head. “No getting out once you’re in. Hell, look what they still expect me to do.” He placed a hand on Jimmy-Don’s shoulder. “I appreciate it, though, but this is family business. I’m not involving you two.”
Shifting impatiently off the couch, Austin asked, “We going?”
“Done deal. Let’s go,” I replied.
Jimmy-Don stood and offered his hand to me. He pulled me from the couch with a huge, happy grin, and once Reece got his ass back downstairs, we headed out the door.
“Hey, guys! They’re all waiting for you in the back room,” Ally said as we walked through the door of the sorority house, my cousin looking bored out of her mind as she sat on a stool at the entrance, acting out her role of “welcoming committee.”
She walked over to me, rolled her eyes, and kissed me on the cheek. “Didn’t think I’d see you here. It’s not exactly your thing.”
“Yeah, kind of forced to come.” I watched as the guys filtered into the room, then tipped my chin to the door. “What’s Shel having them do this year?”
Ally shook her head in disgust. “Kissing a brother and guessing what they’ve just eaten.”
I ran my hand across my head. “Shit, how old is she?”
“I know, right? Anyway, there’s all ages pledging this year. We needed upperclassmen. Well, that and transfers. Even bagged ourselves some genius Brit or something. Most of the girls are happy with that acquisition, seeing as though all the other charters wanted her with them to fill their quotas. I haven’t met any of the newbies yet, though. I’m just hoping they’re not all mini-Shels and at least one of them has a brain and doesn’t get all tied up in her games.”
Running a hand through my hair, I asked, “Genius Brit?” I tried to sound casual, but, yeah, I came off sounding like a douche.
Ally’s eyes narrowed and she tilted her head, regarding me shrewdly. “Yeah, she’s on a master’s program or something. Apparently she’s a TA in our philosophy class too. I don’t know. Why you being so weird all of a sudden?”
I sniffed and crossed my arms across my chest. “No reason.” I pointed to the room. “Pledges in there?”
Ally stepped back and crossed her arms, mimicking my stance. “You’re going in?”
“Yeah.”
As I walked past my annoying cousin, she grabbed my arm tight, wrenching me back. “You’re going in?”
“Yeah! What’re you not getting?” I bit out, jerking out of her grip.
“Mr. I f**king hate all the Greek shit—direct quote!—suddenly wants to get involved in Shelly’s messed-up initiations?”
“I’m just curious,” I answered, trying to sound casual, but she just continued to look at me with an unnervingly suspicious glint in her brown eyes.
I pounded away from my pain-in-the ass cousin, shoulders bunched with tension at her questioning, and marched through the doors of the back room.
Looking up through the thick crowd, the first thing I noticed was a long line of pledges decked out in tight togas and opposite them, a line of football players, most sporting hard-ons as they waited their turn to kiss the blindfolded girl before them.
Shelly was such a child at times, and I couldn’t believe she was having these girls do this shit.
“What the f**k? You’re actually coming to enjoy the show? You feeling okay?” Austin said from his place lounging against the wall, sounding more than shocked at my presence. I decided to ignore him too as I searched along the line.
Bingo.
Molly was at the very end, standing awkwardly, fidgeting nervously, but still looking her unique kind of hot under that thick, black blindfold. And hell if my mind didn’t wander to what I could do with that piece of material and all the ways to make her scream.
Shelly walked past each pledge, grinning and snickering as she went. I saw her signal to Brody MacMillan, the worst-looking guy on the team—a guy who waits at least two weeks before showering. His drunken face brightened and he stood before Molly. On instinct, her hand flew to her mouth, and I knew she’d smelled him, his body odor and his complete disregard for hygiene. Mac didn’t care, though, never had.
He leaned in, but my feet were already moving, and just as their lips were about to touch, my hands landed on his chest, and I launched him out of the way, his fat ass hitting the floor, his flailing arms bringing down the table of spare blindfolds as he went. “Move, MacMillan. I think you’re in my spot,” I said in a way that invited no backchat.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Molly as her thumb went to her mouth. I was hard, real f**king hard, and couldn’t wait one damn minute longer to taste her.
“Ah n-no… B-bullet! Shelly said… said…” I glanced at him on the floor, his beer belly flopping over his too-tight pants, eyes rolling all over the friggin’ place.
“I don’t give a shit what she said. Go get a f**king drink, or pass out, or something. You get me?”
He sagged to the floor, and I signaled for a few of the freshman players to get him the hell out of this room and into a bed. “I-I get you. I get you, man,” he slurred as they dragged him out by his arms.
“Wait! Mac has to—”
I held up my hand and glared at Shelly as she approached.
“Shut the f**k up, Shel!” I bit aggressively, and she slinked back to her friends, face outraged and seething at Molly. I still couldn’t have cared less.
Turning back to Molly, I edged in. She still smelled faintly of vanilla, and I couldn’t remember a time I wanted to kiss anyone more.
Moving her hand from her mouth to my waist, I almost groaned as her fingers inched up my sides, her lips parting on a small breath. At that small reaction, I knew she was feeling this weird energy too.
I cupped her cheeks so she couldn’t get away and so I could control our every move, then leaned in, brushing a kiss across her lips. I was trying to be soft, gentle—Christ knows that’s not how I usually operate. But then her hand dropped to my stomach, accidently skimming the tip of my cock, and I lost it. Plain, outright lost any ounce of control I was holding on to.