Page 50 of Notorious Man on Campus

As my arms take hold of him, I press him back into the bed, lying half on top of him. He jerks away at first, but I don’t let go. In fact, I hold on tighter.

“What the hell?” he puts his hands on my hips and tries to move me off him, but he’s not trying very hard, because I don’t budge, and he could move me if he wanted because I’ve seen those bulging muscles of his. Holding on tight, I murmur into his chest, not sure if he can hear me, not sure if I want him to hear me.

“It’s okay, Brick. Those women weren’t trustworthy and they weren’t your mother. But they’re only a spec and nothing compared to you and what you deserve. There’s plenty of trustworthy women in the world. Your real mother was one of them. She loved you, She never betrayed you.”

“Nyla.” His voice is strangled and I look up at him, cup his face in my hands. “How would you know about my mother? How would you know about any of this?”

“Your brother—”

He lets go of me like I hit him with a cattle prod and pushes me off him. I end up sprawled next to him.

“My brother. Your boyfriend. The one who for whatever insane reason is head over heels for you as you come in here trying to seduce me. And you’re lecturing me on how there’s trustworthy women out there? How would you know? You’re the epitome of the kind of woman not to trust.”

This time I do slap him, on his blind side, with my left hand.

“That’s not fair and you know it. I’m not trying to seduce you.” Or am I? No, I’m trying to console him. “Besides, your brother doesn’t own me. I can’t help the way he feels. Can’t help the way I feel.” I plead with my eyes for him to understand. He stares at me, a hand touching his face where I slapped him, a hot red mark.

“And how do you feel, Nyla?” his words aren’t innocent, they’re beyond flirting and I suddenly feel overwhelmed with need. I need to kiss him.

“I feel… I’ve fallen for you, Brick. I never for a minute felt this way about Jimmy.” His eyes go dark and I lean into him again, blow on his cheek to cool it off, feel his strong hard body hot against mine and somehow feel the vulnerability inside seeping through the tension.

He doesn’t push me away. In fact I get close enough to tell he’s warmed up to me. His cock is rock hard and erect between us and it makes me dizzy. I wrap my arms around him again.

“You’re crazy,” he says. But his voice vibrates with that tension, the same kind I feel running through me. I lift my chin and kiss his jaw, the rough skin salty and erotic.

When his lips cover mine, I know he owns me. Possibly forever.

* * *

The next morning I wake up to the bedroom door opening and Mr. Blanick walking in. I’m in Brick’s bed, and though I’m fully clothed, there’s no way to explain my way out of it.

Mr. Blanick stands there looking from me to Brick and shouts over his shoulder to Jimmy to turn on the Miami game. “I’ll join you in a minute as soon as I wake Brick.”

“You need to leave.” He stares at me, his voice cold as he shakes Brick awake. I scramble from the bed. “Go out the back door and for fuck’s sake don’t let Jimmy see you. I’ll keep him busy. He just looks at Brick and shakes his head. Brick is barely awake, pale and speechless, and jumps from bed in his boxers and t-shirt.

“I didn’t touch her, I swear.”

“Does it matter?” his father says and Brick stands mute. When he glances at me he’s angry and confused. I put on my coat and grab my things, shoving them in my back pack, I fling it over my shoulder. I thank god I brought everything into his room with me.

“I—”

“Take this,” Mr. Blanick says, pulling bills from his wallet. “Walk to the corner and get a cab. And don’t come back. Ever.” My mouth opens and all the blood and life is drained from my face. Joe Blanick turns to his son and says, “And you, it goes without saying, will never speak to her again or even look at her. She’s dead to us.” Then the gentlemanly even-tempered Mr. Blanick who I once admired leaves the room and turns and leaves to join Jimmy in the family room to keep him occupied with football, of course.

“Brick—”

“You heard him.” His voice is raspy. “You need to leave. This was wrong. I never should have let you stay with me.” There’s no tenderness in him. The boy I was with last night is gone. Tears stream down my face and I want so badly to kiss him good-bye, to shake him and make him change his mind, to defy his father and explain. I so badly want to run out to the family room and yell at Jimmy to tell his family his secret, but I don’t. Because the cold mask on Brick’s face is filled with loathing. I know he’s ashamed of betraying his brother, I know he thinks I’m an evil seductress, a two-timing woman, but he’s wrong.

I stare at him another second while we both breath hard and heavy with tense emotions cutting us off when it should be connecting us, but the hate emanates from him, poisoning whatever seeds we had for something beautiful between us and I weep as I leave the room and then run for the back door. And I don’t stop.

Chapter 21

Nyla

“Oh. My. God.” Dooley, who never hugs girls, leans in and wraps his arms around me because I’m crying now, because every emotion I felt that day I feel now down to my bones. “That is the most tragic thing I ever heard.”

“I know.” My voice is teary and muffled, but I push my sleeve across my cheek and Dooley drops his hug and after one more sniffle, I straighten my spine. “But that was then and this is now and I’m not giving up so easy this time, Dools. Brick is like gold and not just because he’s the hot captain of the football team, the star QB who’s going to the NFL next year—”

“Though there’s something to be said for all that big man on campus sexiness.” I laugh.