Chapter 5
5
LUKE
I take a sip of my drink as I scan the crowd at Alpha Alpha Mu’s party.
When Alexei first told me about it this afternoon, I struggled. Since I flipped out in the shower yesterday, I haven’t bumped into Brad, Seth, or Cody. Not in the dorms, nor around campus. Not that I’m trying to avoid them, but I wonder if they’re trying to avoid me after the stunts they pulled.
I must’ve mistaken your responses for someone else’s , Prof. Strauss wrote back after I emailed to ask him about my mysterious A+. Can’t really say. Sorry about that. I’m certain Seth, Brad, or Cody did something to him, just like Seth did to me last week on the field.
Since Cody did whatever the hell that was, my internet searches aren’t about the psychology of persuasion or the subconscious anymore, but about—impossible as it seems—magic. Googling that made me feel like I was out of my goddamn mind, but I feel like I have to be open to any possibility. And it’s all such a clusterfuck of mixed messages and varying perspectives that it’s hard to know where to even begin as far as sorting out the bullshit from the truth.
There are spells for everything , from influencing someone’s thoughts to making someone lust after you. Maybe all three of them have cast spells on me, but whereas Seth’s and Cody’s wore off quickly, Brad’s lingers. It’s been fucking with my head and dick since he seized my wrist.
But they’ve all got me freaked out. If it really is magic, given what I’ve witnessed already, who knows what they’re capable of?
Despite having all this swirling in my brain, I try to enjoy some beer pong with Alexei and my St. Lawrence peers. But even as I chat up new acquaintances, I keep searching around, knowing damn well who I’m looking for.
Brad fucking Henning.
I’m probably an idiot for planning to confront a guy who’s actively using magic against me.
I may not be able to fight off what Brad did to me, but I fought off Cody in the shower, and I could feel he was freaked out over it. So maybe if I let Brad know I’m figuring them out, they’ll know I can google my own defenses against their powers, and they’ll have to move on to a new, unsuspecting victim.
Is that the smartest move? Who knows? There’s no rulebook for when your peers are trying to bully you with fucking magic.
Of course, even as I tell myself I’m here to warn Brad to get off my back, I fear I have some subconscious ulterior motive. That whatever he did to me makes me want to approach him. Just to be close to his body again. To feel the warmth emanating from his flesh. His hot breath against my face. Get a surge of that energy when he touches me.
Fuck, I need to stop thinking about that because it’s making me hard again.
After beer pong, I head out to the back porch and struggle to focus as I chat up a girl who was on my team. Jess is so hot. Dark-brown hair, glasses, gorgeous smile. The sort of girl I’d be interested in if I wasn’t so distracted. But as we’re starting to get to know each other, my gaze shoots over her shoulder, drawn right to Brad, as if my body is now primed to find him.
“Oh, is that for me?” Jess asks, pulling her gaze away from my crotch and moving closer.
I chuckle awkwardly. “Yeah…” I lie because I know who it’s for, and I hate myself for being this hard for that asshole.
I try to be discreet about looking at Brad. Hot as hell in his black biker jacket and jeans, he’s talking with some guys I’ve seen around campus. Not his regular crew. He keeps glancing my way, but I can tell he’s trying not to.
I want him to look at me again, but this desire is definitely whatever spell he has me under.
I’m craving his gaze.
I want him to get his ass over here. I want him to press his body against mine again. Treat me like shit, if that’s what he wants. I don’t care. He could bend me over right now and force himself into me—
Stop it!
“So what did you say your major is?” Jess asks.
“English.”
“Really? What kind of work are you planning to go into?”
“English professor. That’s the long-term plan.”
I sense Brad’s gaze burning into my cheek—or maybe that’s just what I want to feel, but when I look over her shoulder again, he’s staring at me, heading toward us.
“What are you majoring in?” I ask Jess as Brad steps up beside us, catching her by surprise.
“Sorry to interrupt,” he tells Jess, “but do you mind if I steal this guy for a minute?”
She insists we swap numbers before I go, so while she takes my phone and inputs her digits, Brad and I stare each other down. He looks like, at any moment, he’s gonna attack me. After she hands me my phone, Brad heads off into the yard, and I follow. He continues on through the back gate, leading me on a path into the woods.
Probably not a smart move to go with him into the woods, where he could kick my ass and leave me for dead. I wonder if I’m just feeling confident I’ll be able to put up a good fight and escape, or if this is part of this sick lust I have for him, drawing me to him without regard for my safety.
We walk for a few yards before he spins toward me. He moves fast, and before I know it, he snags my shirt collar and shoves me against a tree. By the time my mind catches up with what just happened, I feel something sharp against my neck.
A blade?
Fuck.
I should’ve thought this through instead of blindly following; although, considering how it feels being close to him, I’m not sure I had a choice. Even with the threat of him slicing through an artery, I can’t deny this chemistry and that it’s hot as fuck being up against the tree like this. My body’s as stiff as my cock.
“What the hell did you do to Codes?” he grits out, some of his spit landing on my bottom lip, and I try to play cool as I lick it off.
Is it just in my mind, or does he taste delicious?
“Codes?”
“Cody. You did something to his head.”
“He was fucking with my head. I was just trying to make it stop.”
“How did you know that, though? Who the fuck are you? What are you doing to us?” He presses the blade against my neck.
“What the fuck is the point of this knife when I’m telling you what I know?”
“I don’t believe a goddamn word that comes out of your mouth. And to think I was trying to help you.”
Help me? If his goal is to confuse the hell out of me, mission accomplished.
His breath fogs before him as his gaze shifts to my lips. He wants me. I can feel it with every fiber of my being. And I want him. So fucking bad it’s making my balls sore.
His gaze shifts down. “You’re fucking hard right now?”
I check his crotch. “You are too.”
We stand there in silence. His hot breath rushes against my face again. As it hits me, my body vibrates with desire.
He grunts. “I can’t even think straight.”
“I’ve been having that problem recently too, but I don’t figure we mean the same thing. Now put the knife away, and let’s have a fucking conversation.”
His jaw tenses. I take his free hand and press it against my crotch, urging him to stroke me, and his eyes shut as his body trembles. He takes a breath, like he finally has some relief from the thick tension between us. Whatever he’s done to me, it’s clearly affecting him too.
“Fuck,” he grunts. “I can’t do this. I don’t fucking like you.”
“And I’m straight. But let’s just rub one out, and then we can talk. Deal?” I can’t believe I’m saying this. I’m just that desperate.
He grits his teeth, his head shifting either way before he says, “Fuck it.” He pulls his blade back and folds it up, sliding it into his jacket pocket.
After having a knife to my throat, the smart thing would be to run, but my rational mind isn’t in control, just this potent, feral desire for this asshole. It’s so powerful that I can’t even blame myself for whatever’s about to happen.
And I can blame him for all this once I get some relief.
I check to make sure no one at the party can see me behind this tree.
Brad unfastens his fly in no time, and as he starts to help with mine, I grab hold of his shaft.
“Damn, that’s big,” I say.
“The hardest you saw was in the showers, and that was nothing.”
I pull my hand back and lick my palm, tasting him— God , he tastes good—before putting it back around his cock and giving him a few strokes.
He finally gets my fly undone and his hand under my boxers, rubbing my cock.
“Thank Christ,” he says, as though we just needed to get to this moment so he could have some peace. Angry as I am that this is my life right now, at least I can enjoy the fact that Brad has to suffer too.
He shoves me against the tree, pushing close, until his chest is against mine. He leans down, his face settling near my cheek before he slides his nose across it, inhaling. “You smell so good,” he whispers before rocking his hips, his cock stiffening even more as he offers a bite against my throat.
I roll my head against the tree.
His teeth push into my flesh, shooting sparks from the spot right through me. It’s the sort of experience that makes me forget all about our issues. Makes me forgive him every asshole thing he’s done to me—even having a knife to my throat—as long as he doesn’t fucking stop. Because if he does… that I’ll never forgive him for.
“That’s right, just like that, Pretty Boy,” he says as I continue working his cock. “So fucking pretty.”
My cock firms in his hold as he says the words, which sound like a confession rather than trying to drive home an insult.
“I shouldn’t want this,” I tell him. “I’m straight.”
He snickers against my neck. “You mentioned. Mmmm. Not my Pretty Boy then, my Straight Boy. Even better.”
He offers another nibble, then an open-mouthed kiss to the flesh.
His tongue and lips send waves of sensation through me. Can only imagine how good it’d feel wrapped around my cock, taking me to release.
I start to call out before his hand clamps down on my mouth, and I’m relieved one of us was thinking fast enough to keep me from alerting the party to come out and watch the two guys jerking off behind the tree.
We work together in a wild frenzy—we’re just strokes, breaths, pulsing cocks, and this steady rush of sensation that assures me this was the best way to end our agony. He presses his chest tighter against my body, and with my free hand, I grab on to the back of his head, drawing him closer as he continues making out with my neck.
“I’m about to come,” he whispers into my skin before he bites at my jaw, and I feel his hips jerk and his cock throb before the warm sensation rushes against my abs.
I keep jerking for a few moments, reveling in the sensation of him marking me.
Like the only thing I ever needed in my life was to have a man dump his load on my body.
What is this?
What is happening to my goddamn brain?
I can hardly think straight before he pulls his cock away and releases me.
“That’s fucking cruel,” I say. “I got you off.” He drops to his knees. “Brad, you fucking asshole—”
Before I can go any further, I feel a warm, wet surprise around my dick.
He doesn’t hesitate. Doesn’t question anything. Just goes to work.
All wet, wild tongue and lips.
This is a fucking pro, and he’s so good, my eyes fucking water as my nerves celebrate his expertise.
He keeps going at it, then with his free hand, cups my balls. The pressure mounts quickly. Too fucking quickly.
“Brad, I’m gonna—”
He pulls off and says, “In my mouth. I don’t care. I need it,” before his lips slide back down the shaft, and he takes me to the hilt, deep throating me as my hips jerk about, and I feel the pressure finally release.
I place my hands on either side of his head, holding him in place, gasping from the intensity of the high. And even after swallowing me, he’s still lapping my cum off my cock like a goddamn popsicle.
As I catch my breath, reeling in what lingers from the explosive release, all I can think is—
What the fuck did we just do?