Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
THORNE
The frat house looks lively as fuck as I walk up the driveway.
There’s no party or anything, but a lot of the guys who I recognize as Chance’s frat brothers are hanging out on the porch, laughing and doing that dick measuring thing rich kids do.
“Oh yeah?” one of the guys—Priest, a swimmer on Chance’s team, says, puffing up his chest. “Well, my dad got me a Ferrari last year and—hey, where do you think you’re going?”
It takes me a moment to realize he’s talking to me. Glancing over at him, I size him up, realize he’s not worth an answer, and push inside the house, making my way to the third floor.
“What the hell! Hey!” Priest and a few others follow behind me, yelling and questioning me. But I’m not here for them. I’m here to see my Golden. I’ve missed him and Firebird these past few days. We’ve texted, but that’s not nearly enough. I want—
“Hey!” Priest shouts, grabbing my arm to spin me around.
My free hand shoots out, and I wrap it around his throat, pushing him against the wall with a snarl. “Make that your last fucking time putting your hands on me.”
The other frat brothers stand there and watch, but I keep my gaze on Priest. His eyes flare, fear dancing in the orbs.
I hold him for a few more seconds until a surprised but familiar voice sounds behind me. “What the fuck? Thorne?”
Glancing over my shoulder but still keeping my hand around Priest’s throat—his rapid pulse fluttering under my hand makes me want to laugh aloud—I grin at my Golden. “Hey. I was coming to see you.”
He lets out a long breath. “Let him go, please.”
I drop my hand and step toward Chance. Looking at the crowd gathered, I smile and say, “Boo.”
A few of the guys jump, while Priest rubs at his quickly reddening throat and glares at us. “He’s not allowed in here,” he says in a raspy voice.
“He’s here to see me,” Chance says, puffing his chest up. “He’s allowed.”
“Get your stuff, Golden. We’re going.”
Priest stares incredulously at Chance. “You can’t. We have a meeting in twenty minutes.”
Ticking up an eyebrow while not taking my eyes off the asshole keeping me from what’s mine, I say, “You comin’, Golden?”
“Yeah,” Chance says in a shaky voice. It takes a moment to realize I’m fucking outing him in front of all his brothers.
Fuck, this isn’t what I wanted for him. Maybe I should have told him to meet me outside, but I had a single-minded focus being so close to him.
A week has been too long without tasting him.
“Come inside while I get my shit together.”
He yanks against my arm, and I walk backward into his room, not removing my gaze from the crowd in the hallway.
The door shut, Chance gives me a dry look. “That was unnecessary.”
Chuckling, I shrug and walk slowly around his room. My eyes land on the bed and I grin, remembering how he looked when I sucked his cock down my throat. “Maybe. But I wanted to see you.”
I walk back over to him and press him against his door, slotting our bodies together. Then I kiss him softly, loving the rumble of his moan on my lips.
“Pack your stuff,” I whisper against his mouth before stealing one more kiss.
He smiles warmly, then steps around me to pack a bag. “I’m glad you came.”
My smile drops as I say, “Sorry to make a scene. I’m sure they’ll have a lot to say about me coming up to your room and choking someone out that got in my way. I’m sorry I outed you. I wasn’t thinking.”
Chance sighs, but shrugs. “They’d have found out anyway. I’m not ashamed to be with you.” He turns around, a shirt halfway in his bag. “We are together, right?”
“Of course we are, Golden.”
The smile that lights up his face warms my chest. There’s something his perpetual happiness that makes me feel a modicum of the emotion. When my bloody business is over, maybe I can let myself feel…more.
Picking up a tennis ball from his desk, I toss it into the air over and over while I watch him. “Are you going to get into some shit for missing your frat meeting?”
He shrugs nonchalantly, but I can tell by the set of his shoulders that it bothers him to leave. “It’s my father’s frat. I never wanted to rush. Maybe I should have left a long time ago.”
I want to ask why he didn’t, but that’s a conversation that can wait until we get with Warren.
I wish I could have brought Firebird with me, but I don’t want him to lose his job just because I can’t stay away from him.
But I am itching to know something. “So why join?”
He looks over at me, looking older than his years. “Can’t give a good answer.”
“Sure you don’t want to stay? I can hang out here until it’s done.”
“Nah, I wanna leave. We goin’ to see Warren?”
“Yep.” Chance grins happily.
We leave his room, some of Chance’s brothers calling after him. He looks conflicted until I thread my fingers through his. Then he grins and follows me happily.
When we get into my car, Chance looks over at me with a wide grin. “Did you really break into Warren’s house?”
“Nah,” I say, pointing us in the direction of the nearest overpriced grocery store. “I picked the deadbolt.”
Chance gapes at me for a moment, then bursts into laughter. “Oh, my god. You really are unhinged.”
“Does that scare you?”
He shakes his head slowly. “It probably should, but you’ve always been nice to me. Even when I got your name wrong.”
I chuckle as we pull into the grocery store parking lot.
We walk around, Chance chatting to me about his classes, swimming, and whatever else pops into his head while I stuff the cart full of dinner ingredients.
When I was a kid, it was me and my sister for a long time. My sister was too young, and I didn’t want her to use the stove while dad was at work, so I did all the cooking. I got pretty good at it, making a lot of recipes out of nothing.
Until…
Yeah, I’m not going there. Not when I have my Golden and we’re going to see my Firebird. It’s something I can take out on the motherfucker I’m visiting this weekend.
After I pay and we pack up my car, we head to Warren’s. If he’s not home, I’ll open the door and we’ll make ourselves comfortable until he is.
He really should get a new deadbolt though. It took me no time to find the internal pin and drop it, gaining entrance. We’ll talk about it after I feed them.
Warren’s unassuming sedan is parked in his driveway. I park behind him and Chance, and I grab the bags and head to the door.
Warren opens the door before we knock, a confused look on his face. “Uh, did we have plans?”
“No, I missed you,” I murmur when he steps back to let us in. After dropping the bags in the kitchen, I wrap my arm around his waist. I kiss Warren soundly, loving the surprise in his moan.
When I pull back, his eyes are glazed and a dopey smile crosses his lips. “Missed you too.” He walks over to Chance and kisses him, nice and easy, like it’s something we do every day.
It’s something I want to do every day. Yeah, Firebird is a professor, and Golden has more money than I could fathom, but there’s a thread, a connection, something binding us together.
“What are you doing here?” Warren asks as he looks inside the bags.
“Cooking you two dinner,” I answer as I move around his kitchen, peeking into drawers and cabinets to get my bearings. “Keep me company while I try to feed you.”
“You’re smart,” Chance says as he pulls up a stool, “good looking, and you can cook. Be still my heart.” He places his hand on his forehead and pretends to swoon.
“According to your friends, I’m also scary as fuck.”
Chance’s smile slowly fades as he shakes his head. “They’re not my friends. Not really. I told you, only one person wished me a happy birthday and he’s not a frat brother.”
“That skinny kid you’re always with?” I ask as I grab a cutting board and knife from Warren’s extensively organized drawers.
“Yeah, he’s cool. Nothing like Priest or my other pretentious frat brothers.”
“So why rush?” Warren asks, giving Chance his full attention.
“Long story,” he mutters.
I go to the sink and rinse the vegetables. “Good thing dinner will take a while.”
“What are you making?” Chance asks and I allow him to change the subject.
“Baked spaghetti.”
His eyebrows shoot up. “You can bake it?”
Grinning, I turn to the stove and say, “Waiting on the long story.” I quickly chop the veggies and add them to the heated pan.
Chance’s sigh sounds heavy. “My father has always been overbearing. He’s wanted me to follow in his exact footsteps but also hates it when I do better than him.
He’s done his best to make sure I’m his carbon copy, but that people know he did it first. I rushed because he belonged to the same frat, but he forbid me from trying to be president because he was only vice president.
He was on the swim team but I couldn’t try for captain because he was overlooked when he attended Meadowbrook. ”
“How could he do that?” Warren asks, disgust coloring his tone. I share his sentiment. His father sounds like an asshole.
“He bitched enough about me ‘knowing my place’—” he air quotes the words— “that I didn’t want to try,” Chance says.
“It was easier than to spite him by doing it anyway. I would never have heard the end of it. It’s different now though.
I got my trust from my grandfather, so I don’t depend on my father’s money anymore.
I’m slowly trying to get away from him.”
“That’s something,” I mention. “You’re going to graduate soon. The sooner you cut ties, the better off you’ll be.”
Chance snorts. “You don’t know my father.
But I’m going to do it because I have to.
I can’t keep living under his thumb. Once he finds out I don’t want to go to the Olympics, he’ll lose his shit.
I need all the time between now and then to prepare myself.
” He sucks in a long breath, then looks at us with a forced smile.
“Enough about my dad. I don’t want to think about him tonight, here with you both. Thorne, do you have any siblings?”