Jess
“Does it feel weird, being back on campus?” Skyler asks me as she delivers our drinks. She taps her clear plastic up against mine and then we both take a sip, grimacing in equal measure at the awful taste.
“Very,” I admit. “And the drinks suck.”
I make a gesture with my tongue and Skyler snort-laughs.
“We just make ‘em stronger here. Plus, it’s an Alpha Sig event. What do you expect?”
“I’ve become so spoiled by good martinis downtown.”
“Poor baby,” Skyler mocks with her bottom lip protruding.
I shove her on a laugh from both of us, and then we’re watching the stage as the next sorority takes over, ready to karaoke and go for the gold.
It’s been a hard couple of weeks. With work being bananas and finding out that my best friend is in the hospital, it’s been hard to find anything worth smiling over.
I debated bailing on Kade a million times before tonight, but he’d given me my space since showing up at the condo that evening, and this was all he’d asked of me — that I come to his first big event as president.
He needs me, and I don’t want to let him down.
As if I’ve conjured him, Kade jogs up on stage, taking over the mic and introducing the sorority about to perform.
He’s looking fine as hell tonight, his tattooed muscles popping out under his tight Alpha Sig shirt — a royal blue one made especially for the event tonight.
He’s paired it with a light gray, flat-billed hat and matching Chubbies, and they’re just short enough to show his thigh definition.
He looks like Frat Boy Royalty, and I hate that it makes me so hot for him I have to fan my neck to keep from sweating.
I’m smiling like a loon as he does his bit as the emcee, and when he jogs off the stage again and the girls start singing, Skyler leans into me with her shoulder, shaking her head.
“What?” I ask.
“You’re so fucking smitten.”
I blush, but don’t deny it.
Skyler takes a sip of her drink before casually asking, “What about Jarrett?”
My smile slips like a sandal on a freshly mopped floor, and the joy I felt reverberating through me a moment before is doused instantly.
I sigh. “That is the question, isn’t it?”
“I can’t believe they both left you alone for the summer,” Skyler remarks. “Does he know you’re seeing Kade again?”
“No.”
“Are you going to tell him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you going to see him?”
I sigh, turning to face her. “Sky, I don’t know. Anything. Like, at all. I’m flying by the seat of my pants here and just trying to hold on. As soon as I know something… you’ll know. Okay?”
She grimaces. “Sorry. I was just trying to be a good friend and ask the right questions.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I tell her. “They are good questions,” I confess, turning back to the stage and taking a long pull from my cup. “I’m just not ready to answer them yet. Just like I’m sure you’re not ready to answer questions about Kip.”
Skyler offers me a sympathetic smile and a touché before we’re rocking along with the performance, and at least for the moment, the conversation is dropped.
The longer the night goes on, the better the show seems to get.
Not only are the fraternities and sororities battling it out for the karaoke title, but Kade has planned game-show-like events in-between each act that keeps everyone engaged.
Prizes are flying like crazy, drinks are flowing, and there’s a massive foam pit dance floor keeping the party going.
It really is an incredible event — and pride for Kade swells in my chest.
When I’m teetering on the line between tipsy and drunk, I suddenly hear my name blast over the speakers, and I snap my gaze from the foam pit up to the stage to find Kade grinning wickedly and waving me up.
I instantly shake my head.
“Oh, come on now, J-Love. We all know you’re not shy.”
That earns some laughs and cheers from the crowd, along with a few whistles that make me laugh, too, before I flip them all off.
“Someone’s playing shy. Come on, guys. Help me out. J-Love, J-Love, J-Love,” Kade starts chanting, and Skyler is the first one to join in before the rest of the crowd follows.
I pinch her ribs, but she just giggles and scurries away from me before snatching my drink and giving me a playful shove toward the stage.
I sigh, knowing the argument is pointless. So I throw my hands up and yell, “Alright, alright!”
The crowd cheers and parts for me to make my way through, and then a couple younger Alpha Sigma brothers I don’t recognize help hoist me up onto the stage.
“There she is,” Kade says with a wide, lazy smile. He pulls me into him for a kiss far too inappropriate to have thousands of people witness, which earns us a slew of cat calls, whistles, and get a room!’s before he pulls back with a grin. “Ready for our duet?”
I blanch. “I’m a terrible singer.”
“Prove it.”
Before I can save myself, the music starts, and someone is shoving a microphone into my hand as Kade takes his off the mic stand and starts snapping along.
To “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” by Elton John and Kiki Dee.
I burst out in a laugh as Kade jumps up, crosses his feet before he lands, and then does a full spin as the crowd goes wild. Then, he belts out the first line, and I don’t have any choice but to follow with my part.
Back and forth, we sing the lyrics, my eyes drifting to the teleprompter more than his.
After the first few, he grabs my hand and spins me into him like he’s a professional dancer, somehow holding me steady when he twirls me back out.
I’m laughing through my next line, and then he drops to his knees in front of me to belt out the pre-chorus bridge, which everyone else sings along with us.
The more the music goes on, the more I loosen up, letting my hips sway and playing into Kade’s antics.
Before I realize it, it’s just me and him up there, the stars shining bright above us, the crowd and the music gone altogether.
All I hear is my heartbeat in my ears. All I see are his warm eyes and playful smile.
All I feel is his steady grip on my body, his muscles under my hands, the familiar, comfortable buzz of energy flowing between us.
And by the end of the song, I’m mesmerized by this man, wondering how the hell the douchebag, cocky sonofabitch I first met became this coolly confident sex pot that I’m so fucking obsessed with I can’t stand it.
When the music finally cuts off, the crowd erupts, and Kade picks me up and throws me onto his shoulders. I toss my hands in the air, one still holding the microphone, as he takes us for a lap around the stage.
He starts running so fast I have to hold on for dear life, and then with a wave and a breathless, “We’ll be right back with the announcement of tonight’s champions. Until then, enjoy this special performance by Red Leather Chains!”
The crowd goes even more crazy at the announcement of an up-and-coming band that’s been all over the music charts.
I gasp, too, and try to scream over the noise to ask Kade how the hell he got them for this event, but I don’t get the chance before he runs us backstage.
Darkness hits like a train, along with a strange kind of quiet.
We can still hear the music, the crowd, but it’s slightly muted, like it’s far, far away.
My ears ring as Kade carefully helps me off his shoulders and drops me to my toes on the ground in front of him, my body sliding down every inch of his along the way.
We’re both panting, the music blasting from the stage, crowd cheering — but in the little pocket we’ve found ourselves in backstage, it feels like we’re the only ones in the whole universe.
Kade’s eyes flick between mine, and then he splays his palm across my heaving chest, running up the slick skin to wrap his hand around my throat. I gasp at the touch, letting my head fall back, and watching him through hooded eyes — eyes that dare him to keep going.
He squeezes a little harder, leaning in to hover over me as his gaze falls to my lips. “I know I promised you space,” he husks. “But I lied.”
His mouth crashes onto mine before I can tell him I don’t give a fuck what I said and that space is the last thing I want right now, so I pull him into me, meeting his kiss with equal need.
He grips my throat even tighter, cutting my oxygen short, but I fucking love it, so I drag my nails down his back and beg for more.
I yelp as Kade bites my lip hard enough to draw blood, and then I’m in his arms being carried backward in the blinding darkness until my back slams against something hard — a ledge or a shelf or a speaker case, I don’t fucking care.
All I know is my ass is half-propped on it, half hanging off, and I’ve got my legs wrapped around Kade like an anaconda.
“Do you know how mad you’ve driven me this summer?
” he asks, snapping his hands over my wrists and clamping them to my sides, my fingers curling on the edge of whatever I’m sitting on.
“How badly I’ve wanted to call you, see you, kiss you.
” He forces my mouth open with a demanding sweep of his tongue.
“Taste you.” His hard-on grinds against my core, sparking a trail of chills down the length of me. “Fuck you?”
“Show me how badly,” I dare him, and then with a monstrous growl, he rips me off the ledge and whips me around, slamming my chest into the metal this time.
I have no idea if we’re hidden from view, if we’re safe back here, or if a pledge is going to walk through at any second and see us.
But I couldn’t care less — not when Kade grabs my skirt and rips it down my thighs like a beast, not when he bends down and grabs my ass, spreading my cheeks and making me arch more so he can eat me out from behind, and definitely not when he stands again and spanks me so hard I see stars.
“I’m not going to be easy with you tonight,” he promises.
And I just spread my legs a little wider and look over my shoulder with a grin that says promises, promises.