Chapter 5
Ifucked up.
Pushed the limits of my self-control, thinking I was stronger than I actually was. But the monster inside of me couldn’t help it. He needed to get closer, have her eyes on him, and fuck, if I’m honest, so did I.
The clock ticked away, and with every stroke, I could feel myself getting antsy.
Edgy.
I gritted my teeth to take some pressure off, but it didn’t help.
Nothing helped. Every nerve ending in my body felt like it was awake and hypervigilant for even the tiniest speck of anything from her.
Shit, even my gums ached to get close to her again.
To see the hint of recognition in those eyes that I was more than some dumb jock she’d bumped into.
I had no idea how we lived in the same building when she didn’t play any kind of sport from everything I’d found out about her. Some kind of glitch, I assumed.
Fucking kismet, if you asked me.
My knee bounced and my foot tapped against the grassy area in the backyard of the Omega house that looked out at the party.
The Omega house was one of the nicer frat houses in the Greek system at University of the Desert thanks to its very generous and powerful alumni.
The lawn was perfectly manicured, the pool was lit and heated, the water a sparkling blue not because the guys kept it that way but because someone came in twice a week to clean it.
The whole backyard yelled money.
“What’s going on with you?” Jeremy asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned to look at him and frowned. Shit, how long has he been there?
“Nothing,” I muttered, really taking in the state he was in, and I was immediately intrigued.
Straightening my back and shifting my body towards his, I tilted my head slightly. Fuck, the poor guy looked like he hadn’t slept in god only knew how long. Dark circles were under his eyes. Hair slightly disheveled. When did this happen? I wondered to myself. Jeremy was always put together.
“What’s up with you?” I asked, seeing him through new eyes.
Shit, had something happened to him? To his family? Unlike mine, Jeremy’s folks were good people, and his siblings were fucking funny to hang out with. No, it couldn’t be that. I was out of it, but not that out of it.
I knew I’d been fucking stuck in my own obsessed stalker world, but damn, I felt like a shitty friend.
How hadn’t I noticed my roommate was obviously going through something?
Jeremy was the closest thing I had to a best friend since transferring here.
He opened his mouth and then shut it with a grunt.
Something about that, about the way he scoped out not just the partygoers but, more importantly, those who came outside from inside the house, set my radar going. I observed him for a minute and then whistled low.
I knew the look he had in his gaze all too well. His eyes bounced from to the sliding door, and he shot me a death glare.
“Shut it,” he murmured under his breath.
He was sitting next to me in the backyard for the same reason as I was.
Not because he needed a break from the obnoxious music and the rowdy shit that was inevitably going to start, but because he was waiting for someone.
Searching for someone in particular. Unless he was already watching her.
I looked around, my brows furrowing, but I couldn’t guess who the big guy would be into.
Not that Jeremy had a type. Or at least not one I would know since he hadn’t dated anyone since we started rooming together when we both transferred to U of D around the same time.
If I really thought about it, I wasn’t sure he’d hooked up with anyone.
Some of the guys on the team teased him about being a monk, but I hadn’t really thought about it.
We were both dedicated to the game. It was one of the things we had in common. Our drive and dedication. Or we had. Now I wasn’t so sure.
“Which one is she?” I asked, breaking the oddly tense silence between us. There were only a handful of girls here since it was early still.
“No one.” A muscle under his eyes twitched with annoyance, giving him away.
“Liar,” I called him out. He turned his blue eyes on me. “You’re waiting for someone.”
“Should I ask you the same question?” he countered, and my lips twitched. Touché. I shook my head.
“It’s like that?” I asked, not confirming or denying if I was waiting for someone.
“Exactly. Maybe worse,” Jeremy shared. I couldn’t really decipher what the worse could mean, but since I hadn’t been trying to be stealthy about covering my obsessive shit at home, he might know. Who the hell am I to judge?
“Shit.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Dylan was like this,” Jeremy muttered, and I nodded. Our third roommate, who was about to move in with his lady. Someone he stalked, too. Allegedly.
At the time, I thought the guy was fucking nuts. To do the shit he was doing and risk everything he’d done for a chick? Karma was a bitch, though, and it felt like Karma suddenly had me by the balls when it came to my sweet little bird.
“Now you and me,” I mumbled, peeling the label off the required beer I had to keep in my hand at shit like this.
“It’s the fucking water,” he muttered. “It has to be.” Our eyes connected, and I couldn’t help but fucking laugh. I shook my head.
“Maybe a gas leak?” I asked and watched his attention scan the crowd. He glared out at the yard like he couldn’t stand how he felt. How helpless he was, just playing some kind of waiting game.
“Maybe,” he muttered under his breath. “Something’s wrong with us, man,” he mumbled. I grunted, agreeing, but not out right because I wasn’t sure how deep he’d dived in with his own obsession.
Maybe he was just crushing on someone?
Maybe what he thought was serious wasn’t as demented as what I had been doing these last two months? Sneaking into her place, watching her sleep, breaking and entering into her room and that of her roommates. Stealing panties.
Maybe he wasn’t following her around every moment he could, especially at night when she was clueless of the dangers lurking in the shadows, hidden beneath the cloak of darkness?
Like today. Sadie had passed right by me, talking to whom I assumed was her roommate about coming here.
Getting closer to her after she passed me had been risky, especially when I had already been in the elevator with her this morning.
But I hadn’t been able to resist. Curiosity got the better of me, needing to know who she was talking to, who made her laugh that way.
Unable to help myself, I’d reached and opened the door for her with the complete intention of her muttering thanks and passing by without sparing me a second look. Instead, our eyes had connected, and she’d said it’s you like she remembered me.
Like she had been thinking about me, too.
My teeth ground together at the reminder of what that moment had felt like. The way our bodies had swayed closer to one another, how her fruity sweet scent had wrapped itself around me and dug its claws into every one of my senses. If that wasn’t enough, the attraction was definitely mutual.
Magnetic.
Everything in the world disappeared, and it was only her and me in that moment.
Hearing she would be here had forced my hand to get my ass here as well. I wasn’t going to risk something happening. For the most part, the Omegas were okay, but there were always snakes in the wild, and I wasn’t about to let my bird get bitten. Unless it’s by me.
A commotion sounded from where the beer pong tables were, and I rolled my eyes.
“Why are your brothers like this?” I asked. Jeremy sighed with a shrug.
“They’ve probably been drinking since they woke up today,” he shared, and I shook my head.
I could understand a party frat like Sigma Laus doing stupid shit like that; they were heavy-party guys with heavier-pocketed alumni who could back them. But the Omegas? They had a rep for being a little more… serious. Or as serious as Greek life could be.
“It’s the new president,” he explained.
“The guy from the basketball team?” He nodded.
“He’s a dick.”
“You moving in here?” I finally had the balls to ask. I hadn’t wanted to before, worried it would sound like I was being pushy or clingy. Not to mention having been extremely occupied with my little bird.
“I don’t think so,” he replied before glancing in my direction. “That cool with you?”
“Hell yeah.” I tipped my beer at him, and he did the same in a silent toast. “Your dad cool with that?” I asked. His dad and grandfather were Omega legacies. It was one of the reasons Jeremy was in the frat.
“I don’t think he’d care where I live.” I was about to say something when a deep voice cut through the yard before silence hit the noisy yard.
“Oh my god! Where have you been all my life, pretty girl?” a guy I couldn’t really see from where I was obnoxiously yelled.
Both of us shifted and straightened from where we sat. Then I frowned. His eyes were directed right at the two girls who had just walked into the backyard, each holding a red Solo cup in their hands.
One of them was my little bird.
My Sadie.
Mine, the animal inside me growled.
“What the fuck?” we both said as we turned to face one another.
“She’s mine,” we said almost simultaneously.
“The hell she’s yours,” Jer growled and stood.
“Man, I’m not playing,” I answered, forgetting that Jer was my roommate, teammate, and best friend as we started to square off.
“You think I am?” Jeremy leaned closer. If I had been thinking straight, I would have backed off.
Thought a little clearer about what was happening.
He was my best friend. My roommate. But I didn’t think straight when it came to Sadie.
I’d kill my roommate before he could lay a hand on what was mine.
“She’s mine,” I said, hands fisted at my sides because I knew if I raised them, there would be no coming back from that.
She was more important than everything—friends, family, the game.
“The hell she is.” He chest-bumped me, and even if the fucker was bigger than me, I knew how to handle myself. “Teresa is—“
“Teresa?” I cut him off. My gaze quickly scanned who Sadie had walked into the party with. Relief struck through me.
Teresa, the soccer-playing roommate.
“I don’t want her. That’s not who I was talking about,” I quickly amended.
“What?” His body stilled, and the two of us looked towards our girls. “Who do you—“
“Sadie,” I shared. Jer’s head turned to me so fast I heard it whip through the air, his eyes wide as they locked with mine. The energy in the air changed dramatically.
“Her roommate?” he asked with a quiet whisper. I nodded and held my hands up in peace. “Sadie. Not Teresa,” I repeated and saw the relief in his eyes. Both our shoulders relaxed as we leaned against the brick wall we’d been sitting on.
“What are the fucking chances of that?” he muttered. “Roommates becoming obsessed with other roommates on the same goddamn floor.”
“Hmm,” I grunted, taking a slow swig of my beer.
“Something about that fucking building,” Jeremy said before he stood, stretching his back, and even though all I wanted to do was keep my eyes on Sadie, something washed over my best friend’s face. I’d never seen it look that way.
He literally changed into an almost stranger right in front of my eyes. His features darkened, transforming him to a colder version I didn’t recognize.
“Jer, you good?”
“Talk to you later,” he grunted then started to walk away without another word. I hated the ease with which he took every step towards them. My hands fisted, clenched tightly in a white-knuckle hold as I tried to breathe.
Everything inside me wanted to follow him, go talk to Sadie, formally introduce myself and find a way to pull her into my arms or tuck her close to me until it was time for me to walk her home.
This wasn’t a place for my sweet little bird.
Too many guys looking. Checking her out. The thing inside of me wanted to lash out, stab their eyes out of their sockets for daring to even catch a glimpse of what the monster inside me believed was his.
I should have kept my distance.
Watched Sadie from afar and made sure I made it clear to all the assholes here that she wasn’t to be fucked with. But I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I stepped out of the darkness of the backyard and straight into the light.
Her light.