Men Who Yearn

Chapter 1

Kayla

Every bite I take out of my sandwich becomes harder and harder to swallow because of those eyes. Those damn dark brown eyes that look up from a laptop every other minute to take a very direct, intense glance at us.

At me.

Or at least, that’s what it feels like while I’m sitting here in the grass, trying to enjoy my lunch.

It’s not often we all get to hang out together as a group.

Though, it did take me a while to get used to the fact that Penelope and Crystal are going out with boys from the Skull and Serpent Society and the Tartarus House, where some of the most notorious boys on campus have made their home.

But not even them are as unnerving as the forty-year-old suited-up man with a chiseled jaw and a neatly shaven beard staring at us from a bench in the distance.

“Goddammit …” I murmur to myself, as I take another bite.

“What’s wrong?” Penelope asks.

“Nothing,” I say, swiftly swallowing it, not wanting to make a fuss when we’re finally together again.

Especially not while Felix is sitting across from me.

Because it’s most definitely his dad working on that bench.

“So … Felix …” I try to smile but it’s only returned with a snarl.

“What?” he growls.

Penelope shoves him with her elbow and it immediately makes him loose his murderous gaze. “Be nice, please.” She looks at me. “Go on. What’d you want to ask him? I promise he won’t bite.” She chuckles.

“At least not her,” Dylan muses, and Felix throws him a deathly glare.

Felix takes a big bite out of his sandwich, and I clear my throat to get rid of the awkward silence. “So, your father is the dean, right?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Don’t you find it odd? I mean, since he’s here every day, talking with other students when they don’t even know he’s your dad.”

He simply shrugs. “I don’t care.”

“As long as he lets us do whatever we want, why does it matter?” Dylan says, raising a brow.

“He’s very strict, even though you can’t see it,” Penelope says.

I frown. “Really?”

She nods. “He’s protective over his kids.”

“He actually threatened Lana’s boyfriends,” Crystal pitches in, and everyone looks at her. “She told me she had a tough time convincing him they were all right.”

“Not the least bit surprising to me,” Alistair says, folding his arms.

“Those fuckers don’t deserve her,” Felix says, making a fist.

“Felix, chill. Please.” Penelope rolls her eyes. “It’s Lana’s choice, not yours.”

“Well, it’s good that your father cares so much about you and Lana,” I say, and I glance at him while he types away on his laptop. I wonder what’s so important that it couldn’t wait until he got back into his office. This must be break-time for him too.

“He’s watching us, isn’t he?” Felix grumbles.

I tentatively nod. “Can’t tell for sure, but I think so.”

Felix sighs out loud. “For fuck’s sake, he really doesn’t have a fucking life.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Work means everything for Mr. Rivera,” Penelope explains. “It’s just … the way he is.”

“Bullshit,” Felix says. “He just doesn’t have anything else that’s interesting enough.”

I tilt my head, brows furrowed. “What do you mean … have?”

“Hobbies. Fun …” Dylan’s brows wriggle. “A girlfriend.”

Felix rolls up the wrapper of his sandwich and chucks it at Dylan. “Shut the fuck up.” But all Dylan does is laugh hysterically.

“It can’t be that bad, right?” Crystal asks.

“Oh, it is,” Alistair mumbles from the corner, avoiding Felix’ gaze as if he’s afraid of swift vengeance in the form of a half-finished sandwich smacking into his cheeks.

I take another glance at Mr. Rivera, the sunlight casting an eerie shadow on the pavement beneath him. But when he glances up from his work again, the unease that stirs in my stomach only grows wilder.

***

Days later

I put my laptop on the study desk in the library and throw my bag on the floor, breathing out a sigh from all the homework I still have to do for the finals. But when I come back up to open up my laptop, there’s a guy a few feet away from me that I really don’t want to see.

“Motherf…” I mutter to myself as he struts towards me with those hungry eyes. “Johnny, I’m not interested. Give it a fucking rest.”

“Girl, let me buy you a drink. Please. Just one drink. One.”

I raise a brow and lower my laptop screen. “No.”

“Oh, c’mon. It’s just a drink. Why not?”

“Do you know these two fucking letters? N. O? Learn ‘em.”

I roll my eyes and open up my laptop right in his face so I don’t have to look at it anymore.

“Hey.” Suddenly, he grips my screen. Too tightly. “I’ve been nothing but nice to you, and yet you’re being nothing but a—”

“A what?” My eyes rise to meet his in disdain. “Say it. Fucking say it … Bitch.”

His eyes twitch.

CRACK.

Just the tips of his fingers break through my screen.

Fuck it. Now he’s gone and done it.

I punch him in the teeth so hard one of them flies off, and my laptop drops to the floor. But after months of being bothered by this fucker while I’m trying to study, it was fucking worth it to see his face in shambles.

“Fucking bitch!” he growls, trying to punch me back, but I jump off the stool just in time.

The librarian is already screaming at us to stop, and I know she’s called the guards, but I can’t waste time waiting on help that’ll arrive too late.

This fucker deserved that pummel, but he’s bigger than I am, and I’m not risking my own goddamn life to win this fight, so I run off through the doors and out into hallways.

“I’ve got your fucking laptop!” he screams. “Come and get it then, girl!”

He swings it around like a trophy with which he can lure me back to him.

Fuck that guy.

I ram into him with everything I have and manage to tackle him to the ground, punching him with everything I have.

He grabs my curly hair and tears at it, spitting in my face, and I shriek from the pain.

He grabs my body and rolls me over, slamming me into the wall.

I cough and heave from the sudden loss of oxygen in my lungs, but my eyes burst open at the sight of him chucking my own laptop at me.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Johnny says, spitting on the floor.

Suddenly, two guards jump on top of him and force him to the ground in front of me, while he screams at the top of his lungs, and it almost makes me want to give him another kick just for good measures.

Bystanders are just staring at him instead of helping me, until someone in a suit barges through the crowd and marches straight at me. The dean … Mr. Rivera.

“Miss Pearce, are you all right?” He holds out his hand, but for a second I’m mesmerized by those hauntingly dark eyes boring a hole into my face. Too obsessed to even move.

His eyes twitch as his fingers touch mine, and he briefly retracts them before he grips my hand firmly and helps me up. I stumble and steady myself, so I don’t crash into him.

What is he doing here?

“I heard the ruckus all the way down the hallway while I was speaking with Mrs. Rayborn.” His eyes briefly skim over my face and body. “Are you hurt?”

I shake my head and pat down my off-the shoulder orange dress, then pluck at my hair to make sure he didn’t rip it out.

“I’m fine.” I glance sideways past him at Johnny, whose being held back by the guards.

His entire face is covered in blood, and his nose is crooked now. Hopefully permanently. “He isn’t.”

“We’re going go to my office,” the dean says, and he nods at the guards to follow him. “Bring Mr. Brown.”

Under the scrutinizing eyes of my peers, I pick up my broken laptop and tuck it under my arm, as we’re both escorted up the stairs.

I feel humiliated and can’t stop throwing side-eyes at Johnny the moment we’re in Mr. Rivera’s office.

He’s snorting up blood from his nose and all they did was offer him a single napkin. Hope he drowns in his own blood.

The door slams shut and the guards put Johnny in a chair in the corner while I stay put. I’m not taking one step closer in that lunatic’s direction.

Mr. Rivera leans against his own desk, arms folded. The guards stay in the room, both sporting a stern look on their faces as they stare down Johnny. One wrong move and he’s—

“Mr. Brown. You’re expelled.”

“What?” Johnny shrieks, still dabbing his nose.

My jaw drops.

“You beat up another student in broad daylight.”

“She starte—”

“Fuck you, I didn’t do shit,” I retort, ready to whoop his ass again. “You destroyed my laptop.”

“So what, I’ve only tried to get you to like me, and all you do is throw it back in my face.”

“What don’t you understand about ‘no’?” I repeat, making a face.

“Enough,” Mr. Rivera interjects, rubbing his scruffy, chiseled jaw. “I don’t care about your reasonings, Mr. Brown. You’re not going to stay for another day.”

“That’s bullshi—”

Mr. Rivera steps away from the desk in such a menacing manner that it even steals my breath away as he approaches Johnny. He doesn’t even have to touch him to make him cower in his seat.

“You hurt Miss. Pearce.” His voice darkens. “Apologize.”

I swallow away the lump in my throat.

Mr. Rivera grips his chin and forces his head to turn, and he leans in to whisper, “Apologize.”

I stare into Johnny’s fearful eyes as he mutters, “I’m sorry.”

Mr. Rivera releases his face so harshly it almost makes Johnny fall backwards with chair and all.

He walks back to his desk. “How much money did that laptop cost?”

“Um … five hundred? I can’t remem—”

“You will give Miss. Pearce a thousand.”

“What?!” Johnny gets up.

“Sit down,” Mr. Rivera growls, and his guards swiftly place their hands on his shoulders, forcing him to sit. “Either you pay up now, or I will send a letter to your family informing them no member of the Brown family may ever enter Spine Ridge University grounds again.”

“That has to be illegal,” Johnny mumbles.

Mr. Rivera looks at him from over his shoulder, the darkness in his eyes something to behold. “This is my university.”

Johnny gulps, and subsequently pulls out a checkbook. “Do you have a pen?”

One of the guards plucks a pencil out of his pockets and Johnny snatches it from his hand, then swiftly scribbles onto the paper and tears it off. “Here.” He chucks it my way, but it lands on the floor.

Mr. Rivera grunts with frustration. “Pick. It. Up.”

Johnny narrows his eyes at me, bending over to pick it up, which forces him to practically bow to me. He holds out the paper to me, and I take it before he decides he’s no longer going to play this game.

“You can grab your things from your dorm and leave,” Mr. Rivera says.

“I gave her the money,” Johnny answers.

“Was I not clear enough when I said you were expelled?” Mr. Rivera’s eyes twitch. “I don’t say things I don’t mean. Get. Out.”

Johnny gets up from his seat, the look on his face filled with rage as he marches past the guards, shoving one of them aside before he opens the door and slams it so harshly behind him the whole room shakes.

Mr. Rivera clears his throat. “Leave us.”

I get up.

“Kayla. Stay.”

Kayla? He knows my first name?

His guards exit the room, leaving nothing but silence. A deafening, heart-throbbing silence.

When he turns around, light pouring in from the window behind him scatters around his frame, and I can barely look at him without squinting.

He’s quite tall and handsome with those sharp features of his and those killer eyes that are half-mast, but something about his facial expression gives way for melancholy.

Like there is an invisible scar that runs deeper than skin.

“I’m sorry you had to witness that.” He swallows, and I don’t know why I focus on his Adam’s apple moving the way it does, or his tongue as it briefly swipes his lips.

“He’s been quite a nuisance to you, hasn’t he?”

I nod. “He’s been trying to get in my pants for months now. With no luck, or I wouldn’t be sitting here.”

“I know.”

My eyes narrow. “How, exactly?”

An unhinged lopsided smile forms on his face, and he points at the camera in the corner of the room.

Well, that makes sense. “Oh.”

“My guards and I keep an eye on everything that goes around here on campus. For the safety of the students, of course.”

“Right. A lot of shady shit happens at this campus. Yet you find time to watch me be harassed and personally come to my help.”

He leans back against the desk. “Penelope … is my son’s girlfriend. I’m keeping an eye out on her friends, for her sake.”

Interesting. I wonder why. “Is Penelope in trouble?”

“No. Let’s just say I’m making sure everyone is safe. That includes Penelope’s friends, like you.”

I take a deep breath and nod. “Thank you.”

He approaches me and places a hand on my shoulder. “If that guy bothers you again, tell me.”

He’s close. Too close for comfort, because I can feel every inch of every one of his fingers connecting with my skin. “Promise me you will, Kayla.”

I can barely collect my thoughts as I inhale a sharp breath. “I promise.”

He’s not even looking at me and yet this one simple hand on my shoulders has my knees quaking. “Good girl.”