Chapter 7
KYLEN
The Delta Iota Kappa frat house is an old Victorian mansion.
This entire region of Longwood Crossing was filled with them because Longwood Crossing is located in southern California, close to the coast, close to lakes, close to Long Bench Ridge—all of which are warm, beautiful, and close to the old gold mines.
When the gold mines ran dry, people stayed for the fertile land, temperature, and landscapes.
While most of the mansions have been converted to various establishments now, there are some still intact.
Especially around Longwood U. The two fraternities, DIK and Omega Xi Lambda, and the two sororities, Sigma Theta Nu and Alpha Zeta Psi, are located in four of the largest authentically kept mansions in the area.
A couple of LU-owned buildings are also old Victorians and mostly remain untouched to remodel.
The house DIK is in has just over fifty rooms. Most of the first floor remains a common area with an abundance of rooms that no longer have a place in today’s society.
There’s kind of a fine line between not disrupting the integrity of the building and also keeping it strong enough to hold up to the frat boy life.
Honestly, we don’t throw a lot of parties here. The Omegas throw parties. We have sex work in the basement and a shrine to the erection in the hall off the primary entrance that leads to the basement stairs.
I joined DIK because Nolan is here, and the way he talked about DIK felt reminiscent of the neighborhood we grew up in. Family, but not by blood. So you can fuck your neighbor and, generally speaking, that’s okay. But you’re still family.
Family means comfort and support. It means something warm to me, and as soon as I moved into the dorm, I knew that wasn’t where I’d be staying.
It was too chaotic. I was surrounded by strangers, and my roommate was a stranger, and I hated every minute of it.
The months I was only a pledge were long and stressful.
I primarily stayed with my older brother, Lathan, off campus.
Anyway, one of my favorite things about the frat house is all the hidden nooks.
The architectural decorations are breathtaking, of course, and I love to admire them.
But a hundred-plus years ago, they just lived differently.
Yes, so much of it wasn’t for comfort or practicality. It was a show of status.
It was beautiful, though. There are half a dozen little courtyards tucked within the bowels of the mansion, and on nice days, I love to sit in one of them to study.
The one I’m in now is maybe ten by twelve feet.
Three sides are large lead-glass windows.
The fourth wall has a large fireplace. A real one.
The one they built when the house was built, which means the mantel is elegantly carved.
Surrounding the fireplace are five big, comfortable chairs. There is no ceiling; it opens all three stories to the sky. I dragged a TV tray from inside to the courtyard, so I have a surface to set my books and shit on.
I’ve changed my course of study three times.
Last year, I finished my core classes, so now I truly need to decide on a career so I can keep on track to graduate next year.
The thing is, I don’t really know what I want to do.
My sister has drive. She wants to be the ruler of the world.
Our dads tried to tell her that it wasn’t an actual career, but she’s not deterred.
Poli sci. That’s what she’s doing.
I adjust, and the twinge in my ass makes me wince. My shirt collar bites into the bruise on my neck. A bruise from a bite that was deep enough to be just shy of breaking the skin.
Last weekend, I spent a session each day being railed by the man who calls me little kit in the dark and knows exactly how to get me off over and over again without touching my dick.
Once a day for three hours at a time, and he held me for the remaining hour, gently running his fingers through my sweat-damp hair while telling me that no one else was to touch me or he’ll kill them.
Letting my head fall back against the chair, I close my eyes. Not for the first time since Sunday, when I left Hush Anonymous, I think about this guy, who is very obviously following me. The more concerning part is that he’s somehow figured out which room I’m in each time I go to HA.
The words out of his mouth should have me uneasy. Hell, the entire thing should have me terrified. He is following me. There’s no other explanation for how he knows when I go to Hush and which room I take.
I could look it up. I could go into the electronic reports.
We do, in fact, keep records of who comes and goes and who’s partnered with whom.
It’s strictly confidential and only accessed by those working that night.
But we keep a record for safety reasons.
There are STIs to think about, and then there are more serious accusations as well. Not that STIs aren’t serious.
For that reason alone, everyone who comes in has already been cleared prior to their visit. They have a file. They have a record. We can see everyone they’ve been with by design. We’re protecting everyone.
To date—knock on wood—we haven’t had reason to access the records. I think someone makes sure they’re kept properly. You know, making sure the system is working as it should be.
I jump when the door opens. Looking up, my insides turn cold when Arek Van Doren steps into the courtyard. He has a tablet in hand, his eyes locked on mine. I can practically feel where his eyes look, and my face heats when they drop to the marks on my neck.
As the man in the dark demanded, I don’t cover them with makeup. I haven’t since the first time. He doesn’t like it when I do. Which further confirms that he’s following me. Stalking me.
Looking into Arek’s eyes is chilling. There’s something cold in them. Something that frightens me to my core. Nolan likes him, though. They’re friends. The strange positions and topics they talk about that I used to walk in on often always have my entire body flushing with embarrassment, of course.
I glance down at his shirt when he brings his legs under him in the chair he takes across from me.
It reads ‘I like it raw’ and there’s a cartoon image of a piece of sushi.
My lips twitch in amusement as I look down at the tablet in my lap.
The screen is off. I’ve been lost in thought for quite a while now.
Thinking about the guy who should frighten me, but who I actually want to fuck me now.
You can find out who it is, a voice says in my head. A voice that sounds suspiciously like my sister.
Speaking of my sister… she steps into the courtyard then, too. “There you are,” she exclaims with annoyance. As if she’s spent hours looking for me. Maybe she has, but she hasn’t texted to find out where I am. I’d have told her. Probably.
Kole drags one of the chairs beside me. Her sharp gaze is locked on Arek as she does, but she doesn’t address him. Once the chair is close to mine, she drops and leans forward. “Did Lathan send you a weird text?”
I reach for my phone on the TV tray and tap the screen. No notifications. “Nope. Why?”
She frowns. “I really wish I knew what he got up to. I texted him about sibling movie night this weekend, and he said he’s not going to be home. He also said that I can’t use the apartment this weekend.” She raises a brow at me.
“Maybe he’s loaned it out to someone else,” I suggest.
“Like who? Nolan doesn’t use it anymore since he got a condo with Coach Tavis. He’s either here or there. I don’t think he’s given the keys to anyone else but the three of us.”
I shrug, but before I can respond, she continues.
“What do you think he does all day? Where does he go? He takes one class a semester. Not even enough to be considered part time. That’s a lot of time not accounted for.”
“Maybe he works.”
“Our dads pay for the apartment,” she argues. “Maybe he’s a stripper.”
“Which is still work,” I point out.
Kole waves me off. “Maybe he trafficks people.”
“That’s not something to joke about, Kole.”
“Maybe he’s a vigilante!” she says with excitement.
I frown. “There’s a reason they call you the demon twin,” I mutter.
Her answering laughter is only barely not evil. Okay, it’s probably a little evil.
“You could just ask him,” I point out.
“I have,” she says in exasperation.
“And…?”
Kole drops back into her chair, her gaze leaving me and settling on Arek. “He says that he’s home. Always studying. I’ve been here for almost five semesters now, and any time I drop in, regardless of the time of day or night, he’s not there!”
“He tracks you and runs when he sees you’re coming,” Arek says flatly.
Kole flips him off.
Arek smirks, his attention sliding back to me.
Shockingly—hear the sarcasm—my cheeks heat when he looks at me, which only seems to make his smile widen.
Thankfully, my attention is pulled away when my phone pings with a notification. I practically dive for it, just so I have a reason to look away from him. The notification is from one of my classmates, Harold. I’m amused already, knowing he’s sent me a meme or something.
Opening it, I find the words, ‘You must have been Cleopatra in a previous life. You have a nice asp.’
I snort, roll my eyes, and turn the screen off without responding.
“Who’s that?” Kole asks.
“Harold. We have a management class together.”
A chill moves through the courtyard, and I shiver, snuggling backward a little further to get away from it.
“What did he want?” Kole asks, ever nosy.
“He likes to send me memes when he finds them funny. This one was about being Cleopatra in a previous life because of a nice asp.” I hand her my phone and watch as she opens it.
Harold’s text chain is still open, so she scrolls through it for several minutes before leveling me with a look. “Baby brother, you’re as oblivious now as the day you were born.”
I frown.
“He’s hitting on you and has been since the beginning of the year.”
Rolling my eyes, I shake my head. I can feel Arek watching us, and his rapt attention has my cheeks heating. I fidget in my seat. “He’s not. He’s just messing around.”
Kole sighs as she looks down at my phone and reads one of the texts. “Want to study this weekend? I’ll grab some pizza, and we can hunker down in my dorm room. My roommate is going to his girlfriend’s, so it’ll just be us.” Her eyes meet mine with an expectant expression.
“We had a test coming up,” I say warily.
Her eyes drop again. “Want to meet up for breakfast? I know a cute little café, and there’s a private booth where we won’t be bothered.
” She looks at me again, but before I can answer, she snorts and reads out loud, “This could be us, but you’re entirely oblivious.
It’s cute but frustrating.” Kole meets my eye.
“Accompanied by a gif of two guys clearly getting it on as they kiss wildly and tear at each other’s clothes. ”
The chill in the courtyard seems to drop another couple degrees. My cheeks are hot. I glance at Arek and tense. He’s staring at me, jaw clenched, hands gripping the arms of the chair he’s in so hard that his knuckles are white.
“I think he’s just messing around,” I say quietly as I meet Kole’s gaze again.
She sighs in exaggeration and hands me back my phone. “At least he knows you’re oblivious and not just stringing him along, I suppose.”
I grip my phone to my chest and stare at the black screen of my tablet. “He’s really flirting with me?”
“Yes. Why is that so impossible to believe?”
I don’t answer. My attention snaps up as Kole asks, “What do you think, Arek? Is Harold flirting with Kylen?”
“Yes,” Arek says, his voice low, cold, and dangerous.
Kole smirks. She looks at me again, satisfied with his answer. I’m not sure what she wants me to say, though. I feel a little stupid. Apparently, I’m shit at recognizing when someone is flirting with me, even when it seems so blatantly obvious when Kole points it out.
“Well…” I begin, but I’m not sure where I’m going with that.
The door to the courtyard opens again, and the second set of twins in DIK enter.
They’re cute. Okay, cute is designated for someone small and adorable.
These two guys are big. With the kind of muscle that’s been worked on for a while.
Which is incredibly impressive since I don’t think they’re any older than twenty.
Otis and Otto Lennon look like they should be wrestlers. Maybe bodybuilders at the very least.
“Just the crazy twin we’re looking for,” Otis says. I know it’s Otis because he has blue eyes and Otto has hazel eyes.
Kole gives them an exasperated expression. “I already told you. We’re not twin dating. You’re far too big and muscly for Kylen.”
My face burns as I look at her in horror. Oh my god!
Otis and Otto look at me with wide smiles, and both twins wink at me. Arek growls quietly. Growls like an animal.
I turn away from all of them, bringing my knees up to hide myself. Fucking Kole.
“Actually, we’re shelving that conversation for another day,” Otis says as they pull the last two chairs closer to Kole and me.
I glance at Arek, and he’s staring at me. Me. Not the twins, but me. I drop my eyes back to my lap, ignoring the way my skin burns.
“We’ve been toying with the kink club idea, and I think we have a business model. We want you to be our dominatrix. You know, like the ruler of the kinky boys,” Otto says.
Kole tilts her head. I smile into my lap. I think they have Kole figured out. Telling her she’s the ruler is exactly how to make her pay attention.
Kole crosses her arms over her chest and leans back into the chair. “I’m listening.”
Otto and Otis lean in as they exchange identical smiles and begin laying out their plans. How to make it profitable. How to educate as well. How to advertise. It seems the only true hold up they have is not finding a name they like and can agree on.
I don’t know why, but I look up and meet Arek’s eyes again. He’s still watching me. Only me. The others might as well not exist. I flush, but for some reason, I don’t look away. The cold in the courtyard no longer feels chilling. It wraps around me as if welcoming me in. Bringing me home.