Chapter One
I haven’t seen Sawyer in four years. God, it aches in every part of my body how much I miss him. The stupid asshole.
We haven’t heard from them as often as we used to before. It’s all my fault, and I know it. I let my emotions get the better of me, and I slipped up. Sawyer’s a grown man and whoever he dates shouldn’t have been any of my business, but I couldn’t help my broken heart. He was bound to have lovers. Sawyer’s tall, gorgeous, rich, strong, and a gentleman who looks out for people. Who wouldn’t fall for a man like him?
Still, I made that dumb mistake that haunts me till this day, and it cost me Sawyer. It was during my first year of college and the only frat party I attended when I almost kissed Lennox Masterson, thinking it was Sawyer. For years I could always tell them apart, but that night…that night I want to forget. The last time I saw either brother.
“What’s wrong, Jill?” my college friend asks in the middle of class.
“Oh, nothing, Andi. I was only thinking about home.”
“We’re so close to graduating college. Don’t start getting the senior fever.”
“Oh, no. I was talking about after graduation.” It’s less than a month away. Then, I’m going to have to grow up and get a job, and then maybe I’ll finally get over my obsession with Sawyer. Then again, maybe not. If I haven’t gotten over him yet, I may never get over him. Those beautiful, deep eyes, intensified by his powerful glare and strong jaw, his hands on me as he scolded me with such promise. My body heats up in class as that night comes to mind again.
“That makes sense,” Andi mutters, returning to the lecture.
Thankfully, she leaves me alone with my thoughts while our professor drones on about the importance of fossils from the Paleolithic era. I’m not even sure why I took this class, even if it’s interesting. Still, my mind goes back to that night when things changed and Sawyer never came around again.
“You have to come to this party tonight, Jilly Bean,” my cute classmate Scott says. I flinch when he calls me that. He’s everything I should want to date, but my heart had been stolen a long time ago.
“What? You don’t like that pet name?” he asks, pouting playfully.
“No. Someone else used to call me that.”
“An ex?”
“No, more like a big brother. Anyway, I don’t like it.” My tone tells him not to press the issue.
He throws his hands up and says, “Sorry, Jillian. But please tell me you’ll be there.”
“Yeah, totally. I need to get out.” And forget all about Sawyer. I close my notebook and tuck it in my bag as the clock hits noon. We exit class, and I swear there’s someone following me in the distance. I ignore it and finish my day before going to my dorm room. Scott texts me the address, and I get dressed. It’s at a frat house on campus.
I make it there quickly, but the second I arrive, a sense of reservation kicks in. I nearly turn around, but Scott finds me at the door. “Hey, pretty girl, you made it. Come on.”
“Hey, guys, look who it is,” he cheers, wrangling me in with a hand wrapped around my shoulder so tightly I can’t escape his grip. On the sofa is a large gathering of about six meathead-looking jocks already in their cups. The music’s up, but not blaring yet as more people are gathered by the stairs and toward a DJ booth set up on the other side of the room.
“Gorgeous. It’s a fresh penny,” one guy says.
“Let’s get you a drink.”
“What does that mean?” I ask, tipping my head toward the couch.
“You’re a freshman. That’s all.” He shrugs off my concern, and we keep walking past the people laughing and having a good time. Nothing looks too crazy, so I try to relax.
“Oh.” We go into the kitchen where people are gathered around a beer bong contest, and someone hands us two cups of punch. It’s fruity looking, so I take a drink. It’s not terrible, so I chug the cup. I’ve never had a drink before, so I’m not sure how fast I’m supposed to be feeling the effects, but they’re coming on quick. I don’t make it down the hall when my vision is blurred and I can swear I see Sawyer, and that’s foolish because he wouldn’t be caught dead at a college campus party. They’re grown adults, and I’m sure even when they were in college, neither of them would have gone anyway.
“Jilly Bean, we’re leaving.” I gasp. He is here. He pulls me to his side.
“Hey, she’s with me,” Scotty says.
“If you don’t want to die, I’d back off, pussy,” he says.
“Your brother is overprotective,” Scotty says with a smirk, and I know that’s not going to go well from the tension rolling off Masterson.
“Let’s go.” We get close, and he has me in his arms. We’re so close that I want to taste his lips before he tells me no, but as my vision clears, I see his hazel eyes and I slap him. “What the hell?”
“Give that to your brother for me.”
“I will. Anything else you want me to give him?” He winks at me, puckering his lips.
“You wish,” I tell Nox.
“Nah. He’d kill me. You’re a little girl.”
“Yes, and he must protect me at all costs while he’s out with his fucking supermodel. Fuck off. I need to get laid.”
“Not unless you want…” I don’t know what he said because someone else carries me out to a waiting vehicle and I’m driven to my dorm.
“Stay put, Ms. Krieger.” I’m dropped off in my room, but suddenly I don’t feel so good and everything is spinning.
I lie down on my bed and pass out.
I wake up in my dorm bed with Sawyer Masterson leaning over me, my hands tied to the bedposts. “Oh my God. What are you doing?”
“Do you see how fucking easy it is to take advantage of while you’re fucking wasted?” he growls, staring at me with those caramel eyes. My body doesn’t have any shame and melts on sight when I should hate him for dating anyone else. I’m putty, but my mind knows he’s hurt me.
“I…I…only had one drink,” I cry.
He reaches up and wipes the tears from my cheeks with his tender hands, infuriating me because he’s not the man I want him to be. “You were drugged, Jilly Bean.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Why? Because I’m your big brother?” Sawyer grinds his hips against mine, and it feels nothing like a brother-sister relationship. He’s packing some serious heat between his legs, and every inch of it just licked my hungry pussy. “Little girl, you’re a temptation I don’t need.”
“You mean you’ve got enough of the supermodels?” I bite out, feeling the jealousy tear my heart out.
“I’m not fucking anyone, although that jealousy is so sexy on you.” He rubs his face against my throat before looking me in the eye. “My jealousy won’t be so fucking sexy.”
“Spare me, Sawyer.” I roll my eyes.
“Let me make it crystal clear to you, Jillian. You’re mine. If you dare let a man touch this.” He cups my sex, sliding his hand under my yoga pants and over my panties. I let out a gasping moan, orgasm on the edge with so little effort. “If you let him inside what’s mine, so help me God, there will be no fucking place on earth where he can hide.”
“But…”
“Don’t… Stop speaking… Every second he’s touching you… Every second will turn to minutes, every minute into hours, hours into days of exquisite torture. I will keep the son of a bitch alive, tending to his wounds and feeding him before I resume my punishment for taking what is mine.” He pulls his hand from my pants and spanks my mound.
Another whimper falls from my lips, but I shake it off because I need answers. “If you’re so jealous, Mr. Masterson, why would you even let someone get close to me?”
He smirks in the darkness, grinding that enormous bulge against my pussy. “Because, sweetheart. We’re too young. I have an empire to build, and you have dreams of graduating from college. Don’t ever put yourself in danger like that again. It took nearly ten years off my life. I flew back from a meeting with investors after I got the call from Lennox. I’m serious, Jilly Bean. You’re forever mine.”
“You better be, because you’ve had my heart since I was ten.” He kisses me gently and walks out of my life.
“Earth to Ms. Krieger.”
“Jill,” Andi calls my name while nudging my shoulder and shaking me out of my memory. “Girl, class is over.”
I look up to see the professor standing mere feet from me. “I know the semester is almost over, but finals are upon us, Ms. Krieger, and you still need to do well to pass them.”
“Sorry about that, Mr. Langdon.” I grab my things as he walks away. God, I don’t know why I still imagine Sawyer there when I know it was just a dream. I wasn’t even tied up or had signs of rope marks on my wrists that night. Hell, I share a dorm with a girl, and she said no one was in our room that night. Still, that dream lives rent free in my head, and it’s my favorite one.
“Seriously, you are not okay.” Andi presses the back of her hand to my forehead.
“I’m fine.” I shrug it off and finish shoving my things into my bag to leave. “I’ll see you later.”
“Okay.” I exit class with a goal in mind, and that’s to finish school so I can graduate and forget all about Sawyer Masterson.