Lo

DELTA PI FRAT HOUSE was exactly what I'd expected. Loud. Brash. Over the top. Music blared from every corner, drowning out the laughter and beer-fueled conversations. And it smelled worse than a boys' locker room. I knew because Maverick had snuck me into the one at school a couple of times before summer.

“This place is insane,” Laurie pushed her arm through mine as we followed the guys further into the house. Although house didn’t really do justice to the three-storey mini-mansion.

After eating tacos at the new place Maverick took us to, we returned to his dorm to get ready for the party. That was when Maverick revealed my first surprise. He’d arranged for Laurie and Kyle to stay in Jamie’s room for the night, with Jamie bunking in Darnell’s room. I couldn’t wait to be alone with him, but first I had to endure this.

“Come on, Lo,” my best friend went on, “I know we hate he-who-shall-not-be-named but can we pretend it’s not his house and at least try to have fun?” She hip-bumped me, a crazy grin plastered on her face. Laurie never could resist a party.

I groaned. “Ugh, fine but I’ll need a drink.” Lots of them if the nervous energy knotted in my stomach was any sign.

“Babe,” Laurie called, and Kyle glanced back. “Yeah?”

“We need drinks. Stat.”

“Babe,” he said dryly. “Where do you think we’re headed?”

“I don’t know. We’ve been walking around this place forever.”

Kyle leaned in and said something to Maverick and the two of them laughed. Then Maverick told Darnell and Jamie, and before long the four of them were all howling.

“Hey, no fair, what did you say?” Laurie whined but her words were swallowed by an almighty roar. We’d finally found the kitchen. Bodies were crammed into the vast space, watching as two guys went head-to-head with a beer funnel.

I pulled my arm free from Laurie’s and folded them around myself. It was crazy. I was used to parties at the Bay. But this was on a whole other level. At the centre of it all was none other than Zac Lowell as he yelled at the two guys chugging beer like their lives depended on it.

And if he had anything to do with it, they probably did.

“That’s him, right?” Laurie whispered in my ear and I nodded. I didn’t want to be here, in the same room as him, breathing the same air. He was a bully. High on power and status. It was obvious from the way those around him stood close but not too close. People were wary of Zac Lowell, and with good reason. He’d humiliated the new players. Physically assaulted Maverick, ordering one of his guys to beat the crap out of him while Maverick stood there and did nothing.

Acid burned in my stomach, rushing up my throat. But Laurie squeezed my hand. “Hey, you okay?”

Lips mashed together, I nodded. I wasn’t. Not really. But we were here now, and I didn’t want to cause a scene.

“Oh, yay, drinks.” She flicked her head to the counter although it was barely visible thanks to the rows of liquor bottles. “We may as well start as we mean to go on.” Her eye was on the vodka and my stomach knotted.

“I’m not sure—”

“It’ll be fine. I’m here, Kyle’s here, Maverick too. Nothing bad is going to happen.” Laurie smiled, completely believing her own words. But I knew better.

More often than not parties were a front. If you looked beyond the laughter and drunken smiles you saw the cracks, and tonight was just an illusion for something much uglier. Something tainted.

Maybe even something dangerous.

~

THE FIRST SIGN SOMETHING was off was when Maverick didn’t come back after going to the bathroom. “He should be back by now,” I said to Kyle and Laurie as we stood huddled with Jamie and Darnell.

After getting drinks, we’d made a sharp exit from the kitchen, finding a quieter corner in the yard. Just as I suspected Jamie was eerily similar to Kyle, just less goofy, and the four of us watched on as the two of them duked it out for title of best comedian. Darnell, however, was more of a closed book. But I liked him. I liked that he looked out for Maverick. It made me feel easier about the whole Zac thing.

“Rick’s cool.” Kyle levelled me with a look that said I was overreacting, but Darnell said, “I’m going to look for him. Lo?”

“I’m coming.”

“Guys, seriously, he’s fi—” But we were gone, moving through the crowd. Darnell was quiet beside me, his eyes scanning the yard for any signs of Maverick. I stuck close behind him as we went back into the house.

“He’s probably just—” Zac’s voice cut me off. He was still in the kitchen surrounded by barely clothed girls and tanked up guys.

“Who’s up next?” He scanned the group all vying for a piece of the Lowell show. “Tribeca get over here.” Zac beckoned to a tall kid with a white faux hawk.

“Nah, man, I’m good.” The guy held up his hands and started slowing backing away.

“You think you get a say? Get over here, Tribeca, before I drag you.”

“Seriously, Zac, I’m good, man.”

Zac’s eyes narrowed as he scratched his jaw. “A little help guys.”

I peeked around Darnell’s stiff body as I watched in horror as Maverick and another guy wrestled Faux Hawk toward Zac.

“Prince, you wanna do the honors?”

Maverick shrugged, his lips curved in a twisted smirk as he pushed Faux Hawk into a chair. He tried to break free, begging for a free pass. But his protests went unheard as Zac and Maverick laughed while he instructed another guy to fill a glass with a mixture of drinks and... hot sauce.

“Fuck,” Darnell hissed under his breath.

As if he heard his friend, Maverick found us. His eyes widened as I stepped out from behind Darnell, and we both stood there, the crowd cheering and whooping around us. But all I could hear was the thud of the blood pounding between my ears.

“Lo,” my name fell from Kyle’s lips as he and Laurie caught up with us, but I didn’t stick around to hear the rest. Pushing through the crowd, I stormed out of there and kept going until I spilled out of the house and didn’t stop until I was back at Maverick’s dorm.

Inside his room, I slammed the door behind me, tears burning the backs of my eyes. I felt like a caged animal. Restless energy bubbling beneath my skin. I’d known the party was a stupid idea.

But it was too late. I couldn’t un-see Maverick taking orders from Zac. I couldn’t un-see Maverick holding that poor guy down in the chair or the amusement behind his eyes. I couldn’t un-see any of it.

“Lo, open up.” Maverick’s voice was like a bucket of ice water. I knew he would follow. The second he saw me, I knew he would come. But I wasn’t ready to see him. Not yet. Not until I’d calmed down.

“London.” It was a growl.

“Go away, Maverick,” I yelled, aware that we were in his dorm room and that people could probably hear everything.

“Not happening. Please open the door, or so help me God I will rip it off its hinges.” Despite the threat in his words, he sounded calm. Too fucking calm. But I knew it was all a disguise for the anger simmering underneath.

“I need space.” I’d moved closer to the door. Even though, in that moment, I hated him, hated this shitty situation, I still gravitated to him. It wasn’t a conscious thing with us, it was soul deep.

It always had been.

He grumbled something on the other side of the door and then it fell silent. Relief washed over me, my shoulders sagging. I’d thought Maverick hadn’t wanted me here to protect me from Zac Lowell, but this was so much worse. They were friends now?

Friends.

It made no sense. Maverick didn’t cower. I’d watched him go against his family. His father. Even the Holloways. Maverick stood up for what he thought was the right thing. Even if people got hurt in the process.

Even if people got ruined.

But he wants basketball, a voice whispered. SU was his shot at that. My mind zipped off in a million different directions and I was so preoccupied with my thoughts I missed the sound of the door handle turning.

Maverick burst into the room, his face pale, the muscles around his jaw tight.

“Get out.” I refused to look at him, giving him my back.

“Jesus, Lo, will you just hear me out?”

“Why?” I spun around, glaring at him. “So you can tell me how you and that twat are friends now?”

“We are not friends.” His voice was cold.

“Sure looked like it from where I was standing.”

“You weren’t supposed to see that. I thought—”

“You thought what, Maverick? Because I’d love to hear about how you thought I wouldn’t see my boyfriend playing happy-fucking-families with the guy who had him beaten to a bloody pulp.”

Maverick’s eyes blazed with fury, his fists clenching at his sides. It was taking everything he had not to punch something. I could see his restraint fraying around the edges. “Lo, please...” his voice was raw.

“I need to go. Maverick, I can’t do this right now. I’ll stay with Kyle and Laurie.” I went to move around him, but he snagged my arm.

“You really think that was me back there?”

I stared at him—at the misunderstood boy I’d met on a beach two summers ago—and breathed out, “Wasn’t it?”

“Fuck.” He dragged a hand over his face but didn’t let go of my wrist. The turmoil twisted into his expression didn’t make sense. Then the pieces slowly started falling into place.

“Maverick.” His name pierced the heavy silence. “What are you doing?”

He stepped closer, burying his hand into my hair, curving it around my neck. “I have no fucking clue.” He touched his head to mine.

“You mean... that, back there, it wasn’t real?”

“I hate that twat more than life.” The corner of his mouth lifted.

“But...” I swallowed trying to process everything. I’d seen him with my own eyes. Laughing with them. Helping Zac humiliate that poor boy.

“Lo.” He ran his nose along mine until his mouth hovered over parted lips. “I am many things. But I am not a bully.”

“It was a show,” I whispered. “It was all for show.”

“Yeah. You weren’t supposed to see any of it.” Guilt glittered in his eyes as my confused gaze slid to his.

“Maverick, what’s going on? I want the truth.”

He wrapped me in his arms and moved us to the bed as one, dropping down with me on top of him. “I’m going to take him down.”

“W-what?”

“I’m going to take down Zac. For good.”

“Maverick, you can’t...” Panic filled my chest. “Your scholarship... SU is your shot at going pro.”

“Which is why I need him to believe I’m trustworthy. I need leverage, Lo. Something unquestionable. Something that will hang him out to dry without any hopes of his daddy swooping in to save him.”

Framing his face in my hands, I searched for any signs that what he was saying was a joke. Some foolish fantasy. But I found nothing but conviction and determination staring back at me.

“I’m going to end him, Lo. So he can’t touch anyone again.” I’d never heard Maverick so serious. Not even when he went up against his father, the infallible Alec Prince.

“Why is this so important to you?” It was the last question I should have been asking but I needed to know. I needed to hear him say it.

“Because he made me feel weak. That sonofabitch made me feel unworthy of my place here, and I earned it.” Maverick rolled us, crushing his lips to mine.

One minute I was sitting on top of him, the next he was on me, pressed into me at the perfect angle. He slid his hands between us, clawing at my skirt, his jeans, pushing and pulling until I felt him right where I needed him most.

“I need you, Lo. I need you more than air.” He gazed down at me and I felt a pinch of guilt that I’d ever questioned his motivations.

“I’m right here,” I breathed, kissing the corner of his mouth. But Maverick dipped his head, capturing my lips in a deep unhurried kiss. His tongue swirled with mine, igniting a fire in my belly, and I hitched my legs around his hips, pressing us together. Erasing the sliver of space left between us. His fingers remained between our bodies, stroking me over my underwear until he hooked them to one side, grasped himself and pushed inside me, stealing my breath and making my back arch.

“I’m sorry,” I moaned as he slowly pulled out and pushed back inside, his eyes never leaving mine. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you.”

Maverick grabbed my hands and pinned them above my head, staring at me with such intensity, I felt paralysed. “I need you to trust me, Lo. You and me. Always.” His thrusts came quicker. Harder. Until the words left to say were drowned out by the sensations. The feel of him moving inside me. Touching places only he could reach.

I couldn’t catch my breath to say all the things I wanted to say. Needed to say.

I’m scared.

I love you.

I’m here.

Always.