Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
“Hey, bro, where are you right now?” Maya says, her voice loud over the speaker on my phone. I quickly tap it when people start to stare and pull it to my ear.
“I’m on campus. Why? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing! Just have a job near you this morning. Can you meet for lunch?”
“Hell yes.” I know. I know. Far too fast to agree, but listen, I have no plans. Paulie is in class until this evening, and Colton hasn’t contacted me in ages—it’s been four whole hours, that asshole—so my plan was to just go sit in the library and work on some projects that aren’t due for a while.
Maybe work out.
Maybe drive by the frat house and see if Colton is around.
No, I won’t fucking do that. I’m not pathetic. I’m not a stalker either.
I did sneak out this morning, but I had to. I can’t believe I actually slept over. Like he’s my boyfriend or something. He was wrapped around me, and I around him.
I slept like the fucking dead. It was disgusting.
“Yeah, where and when?” I manage to ask.
“I’ll send you a place that looks cool. See you at twelve-thirty?”
“Yeah, see you there.”
We hang up, and a minute later, a link appears on my phone. I pull it open and scroll through the menu options. Never been to this place, but it’s a Cuban restaurant near campus and it looks delicious. I’m always open to trying new things.
It seems I really am practicing that, too, with Colton and all.
Fuck that guy. This means Maya is gonna ask questions, and there’s a reason she’s a PI. She’s good at digging up information. And she can read me like a book.
She already knows I’m into a dude.
This is going to be a shitshow.
And it is. As much as I love my sister, the minute I step into the Cuban restaurant, she clocks me.
“Oh. My. God. You’re in love!” she squeals, and I roll my eyes, feeling my cheeks flame.
“Fuck off, Maya. I am not.”
“You are in dick-obsessed man-love.”
She waggles her eyebrows at me, and I apologize to the hostess, who is trying not to laugh. At least someone can find the humor in this. Not me, though. This is fucking embarrassing.
“Don’t worry,” the woman reassures me. “You do look smitten.”
I sigh when I realize I’m not winning this one.
“It’s two against one, apparently,” Maya adds, looking smug.
“Thanks, I’m gonna—” I don’t get a chance to finish my sentence before my sister smashes into me, pulling me into a hug and then rubbing my head aggressively.
My hair is messed up now. I can feel it sticking up in all different directions, but I don’t bother tamping it down. It will only fuel her to do it again. She’s such a bully.
“Come on, table’s over here. I ordered an appetizer too. Empanadas. Delish.”
She leads me toward a table, and I take a seat, meeting her gaze and watching as she puts her chin on her hands.
“So, tell me everything.”
“No,” I say, gulping down some water. Is it hot in here? It’s fucking hot in here.
“Come on. Tell me. I wanna know.”
“No way. If I tell you anything, soon everyone will know.”
She gasps and then grins. “Yeah, you’re right, but you’ll tell me. You always do.”
I don’t deny it, just stuff my mouth full of empanadas when the waitress sets them on the table and listen as my sister talks about her most recent PI cases.
Apparently, people love to cheat with the blinds open. It’s far too easy to catch the bad guys.
I should definitely not mention Colton and his thoughts about his dad’s death to her. Absolutely not.
“Have you ever investigated a murder?” I blurt.
Her eyes widen, interest lingering there. “What? Why? Who’s dead?”
She looks almost feral, and I realize she was right. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
“Never mind.”
She kicks me under the table, and I glower at her. “That’s not gonna get me to talk.”
“It worked when you were younger.”
“Because you were a bully then and you’re a bully now.”
“I’m your sister. That’s not the same thing.”
I find my lips twitching, and so do hers.
“Fine, tell me over the picadillo and mojitos. I so wanna know what’s going on.”
I know she has me there.
Once two mojitos are ingested and the food is swirling around in my stomach, I blurt it all out.
She doesn’t even have to ask me again. It’s just word vomit while she listens, taking notes on her phone.
And when it’s all out there, my lungs inhaling a deep breath, she asks, “So, you’re telling me that the guy you’re sleeping with thinks his stepdad and mom killed his dad?”
I swallow an ice cube, feeling it burn my throat as it goes down, and nod.
“Yeah.”
“Shit. This is you asking me to investigate, huh?”
“Don’t know what you could find that the police didn’t already consider.”
“Bet they were paid off and looked the other way. Rich people do whatever they want and rarely get caught.”
“Yeah,” I murmur, finishing off my third drink and setting it down.
“I’ll look into it. What’s his last name?”
I shake my head, but end up writing it down for her when she hands me a pen that she had stashed in her purse.
It’s all going to come out now. She won’t stop until she has some kind of answer for me. She really is a good sister.
“I can’t pay you.”
“I don’t want your money, dickhead.”
Just as she says that, she reaches over and swipes something from the corner of my mouth.
“Got shit there. Still a messy eater at twenty-one.”
It’s then that I feel eyes on me. My gaze slides over my shoulder, and I see Colton standing there, a plastic to-go bag in his hand, his head cocked.
My heart thumps in my chest almost painfully.
Shit, what’s he doing here? Is he following me?
I swallow and offer him a small wave as his lips turn into a deep frown.
“Who is that guy glowering at you? Oh. Ohhh.” My sister is whisper-squealing, and I want to shove her under the table. “Wave him over here. Hurry! Before he leaves. I wanna meet him.”
“You’re not meeting anyone. Fuck off.”
But she doesn’t listen, just stands up and makes her way over to him. I slump down in my chair, watching as she speaks to him and then holds a hand out.
Colton meets my gaze, his lips twitching up, and then he reaches out and brings Maya’s hand to his lips, kissing her softly.
That makes me fucking angry. He shouldn’t be kissing my sister.
But he does it to aggravate me, to prove a point.
I watch as they make their way over to me, and when my sister plops down in her chair and tucks her chin into her hands, I find myself sighing. Nothing I can do about this now.
She has a front-row seat to this drama.
“Witkoff, nice to see you here,” Colton says lowly, his hand falling on the back of my chair.
“She knows,” I murmur, my face flaming.
“Ah, I figured.”
“He really can’t keep anything from me,” Maya says. “He’s an open book.”
“Is that so? Well, in that case, why did you sneak off this morning?”
His hand lands on the back of my neck, and I shiver.
“Had to go to the gym.”
“We could have gone together.”
I shake my head, refusing to look at Maya, who is squirming in her seat, completely enraptured by this exchange. She’s never gonna let me live this down.
“No, didn’t wanna wake you.”
He pulls a chair from an empty table next to us and lowers himself into it, the food he bought settled on his lap.
“You should have woken me. I had plans for you.”
That makes me sputter, and I have no words when his hand lands on my thigh. Nothing inappropriate, but it gives me all sorts of ideas. His hand on my dick, his mouth on me. On my lips. My ass.
Oh god.
Not in front of Maya.
“I’m so glad you showed up, Colton,” Maya says. “This is wonderful.”
“Yeah, I’m glad I was craving Cuban. I thought this guy snuck off to meet a girl for lunch. Happy to find out it’s his sister.”
“I’m the best sister. I have two more if you ever want to meet them.”
Colton’s lips quirk up. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“How about this weekend?” Maya suggests, and I sink lower in my seat, wanting to slide out the door in a puddle.
“Can’t. Have a family commitment.”
Thankfully, Maya doesn’t blurt out what I just told her about his family and the conspiracy around it. She does have some tact.
“Shoot, another time then?”
“Definitely.”
“You’re not meeting my family,” I tell Colton, and something passes through his eyes. Hurt. It makes my chest constrict.
“Shit, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Yeah,” he murmurs, and then raps his knuckles against the table. “I have to get this back to the house, but I’ll see you around?”
I nod, and he stands up, reaching out and squeezing the back of my neck before telling Maya it was nice to meet her.
Then he stalks out of the restaurant without a backward glance, leaving me to squirm under Maya’s knowing gaze.
“He’s hot. I get why you’re bottoming for him.”
“I’m not bottoming.”
“Totally are, butthead.”
I can say nothing to deny it.
I am a bottom.
And Colton is gonna prove it to me.
When I walk outside after saying bye to Maya, I see Colton waiting by the curb.
“What are you still doing here?” I ask.
“Forgot that a friend dropped me off. My driver is busy. Wanna give me a ride back?”
The way he glances shyly at me has my cock perking up.
“Yeah, all right.”
I lead him to where I parked, and when we get into the car and I start driving, Colton pipes up.
“Your sister is cool. I’d like to have siblings like that. Not that I’m gonna meet the other ones, right?”
I stare at him. “I didn’t mean it like that…they’re…it’s not you. It’s them. They’re overwhelming and too much.”
“At least you have them. You’re lucky.”
“Yeah, I guess,” I say as I turn through a residential area and then make my way to the frat house. When I park and turn the ignition off, I want so badly for him to get out of the car.
And invite me up.
But he doesn’t move. He just leans forward and strokes the dashboard of my car, staring at his palm as if inspecting it for dust.
“You should clean this better,” he tells me, and my lips turn down.
“Fuck off. Get out of my car and stop judging me. I gave you a ride home from the restaurant and this is how you fucking talk to me?”