Chapter 1
When Lisanne stumbled into the lecture hall with Kirsty clinging to her arm, there were already a number of students spread out across the room. It was too early in the semester for many cliques to have been formed, but a few girls were sitting in groups for comfort, giggling nervously. The boys were too cool for that, and sat in glorious isolation.
Lisanne cast an eye over the assorted examples of humanity. Most looked average, like her, dressed in jeans and t-shirts, but there was one guy who was wearing a button down shirt and a tie. Good grief! Lisanne made a bet with herself that he had a copy of the Wall Street Journal in his backpack. She was only surprised he wasn’t carrying a briefcase. Why on earth had she agreed to take ‘Introduction to Business 101’? Oh yeah, because her parents didn’t think majoring in music was going to lead to any great career opportunities.
The response from her new roommate had been to look on the bright side.
“That sucks,” said Kirsty. “But, you never know, you might meet some cute guy who’ll turn out to be the next Mark Zuckerberg.”
“What, short, with bad taste in clothes?”
Kirsty laughed. “No, dummy: brilliant and filthy rich!”
Lisanne sighed.
“Hey, Lis! Get your head in the game!”
Her head snapped up, away from Mr. Big Time, then her expression cleared as Kirsty winked at her and kicked off her shoes.
“I’m surprised you can even walk in those—oh right, you can’t.”
Kirsty raised her eyebrows.
“Hello! They’re Manolos! They’re meant to be seen—not walked in.”
“Of course. Silly me.”
Kirsty sniggered. “Yeah, whatever. Okay, seriously—which of these guys would you hook up with?” and her arms swept out to indicate everyone in the lecture hall.
Lisanne laughed. “None of them for any of that.”
“No? You don’t think the guy with the red t-shirt is cute?”
Lisanne craned her neck. “He’s okay, I guess. Not really my type.”
“What is your type?” asked Kirsty, curiously. All cute guys were Kirsty’s type.
Lisanne shrugged. The truth was, she hadn’t dated much in high school. Okay, make that never, unless she counted her junior prom and the non-date fiasco. How a non-date could be a complete disaster remained a mystery to her, but it had been one of the worst, most humiliating nights of her life, involving vomit—someone else’s—and ... no, she didn’t want to think about that. It definitely didn’t count.
“Come on, Lis,” said Kirsty, encouragingly. “What about that guy you were chatting with on Facebook last night?”
“Rodney? No, he’s just a friend from high school.”
“So he’s not…?”
“Ugh, no! I’ve known him since kindergarten—that would just be … weird.”
“So you’re available?”
Lisanne was very available. She just hadn’t seen anyone she liked that way.
“Well, tell me what you’re looking for—in case, you know.”
“Oh, I don’t know: somebody different. Somebody…”
“Like him?” said Kirsty, nodding her head at the guy who’d just walked in.
He was different all right. In fact, Lisanne was pretty sure that he’d wandered into the wrong classroom by mistake. No way someone like him was taking the Introduction to Business class.
All eyes, male and female, swiveled in his direction as he sauntered into the lecture hall looking like he owned it. He slumped into a seat in the second row, oozing arrogance, pulling off his Ray Bans as he did so. He was tall and slim with short, spiky black hair. He shrugged out of his leather jacket, and even from that distance Lisanne could see that he had a broad back and strong, muscular arms with swirls of red, gold and black tattoos drifting down them. He turned to scan the hall behind him, and Lisanne couldn’t help noticing a small silver ring piercing his left eyebrow.
Without speaking to a soul or making eye contact with anyone, he tossed his jacket onto one seat and his backpack onto the other side. Surely there was a law that all the cool kids sat in the back row? But no, not him.
Lisanne felt her eyebrows pull together in a frown.
“Ugh, no, I can’t stand guys like that,” she said. “All emo, and thinking they’re better than everyone else.”
“Yeah, but he’s cute,” said Kirsty, licking her lips. “That boy is fine. I’m going to find out who he is.”
“Definitely not my type,” said Lisanne, with a note of finality.
Professor Walden marched into the room and immediately the light chatter quieted, and everyone started pulling out paper and laptops, ready to take notes. Everyone except the guy with the eyebrow ring. He didn’t move. He didn’t even get out a notepad to doodle on.
Lisanne felt unreasonably irritated with him. Her parents had paid good money for her to attend college, and losers like that guy were just there for the ride. Lisanne couldn’t stand people like that—people who were fake.
She realized that she’d already spent entirely too much time staring at ‘Eyebrow Ring guy’ and that the lecture had started.
But every now and then, her eyes were drawn back to him. She’d half expected him to fall asleep, or play with his iPod, but his eyes were trained on Professor Walden, hardly blinking during the entire 50 minutes. It was weird. Maybe he was stoned? Even though it was only nine o’clock in the morning, it seemed the most likely answer.
At the end of the lecture, Mr. Big Time asked several questions, and even pulled out his copy of the Wall Street Journal to illustrate his point. Lisanne gave herself an internal fist pump: she prided herself on reading people well.
As the lecture hall started emptying, she couldn’t help noticing that Eyebrow Ring guy didn’t speak to anyone, still not making eye contact with any of the people who shared his class. And he was wearing his sunglasses again. Indoors. What a jerk.
But she had to admit that Kirsty was right about one thing: he was a cute jerk. His hair was so black it was almost blue, and his clear skin carried a golden tan. From what she’d seen of his eyes, they were a light hazel color, framed by long lashes over perfect cheekbones and full, kissable lips. Kissable? Where was the real Lisanne Maclaine, and who the hell was having these thoughts?
With a huff, aimed at the unfairness of the world where beautiful people could get away with being jerks, Lisanne went straight to the practice rooms for her one-on-one with her violin professor.
As she hurried across the quad, she couldn’t help wondering why such a beautiful boy would want to desecrate what God had given him by covering his body with tattoos, and pushing a piece of metal through his eyebrow. True, she had pierced ears, but that was different. Obviously. She didn’t really get why the girls at school were so into tatted up guys. Lisanne just didn’t see the point, and she certainly had no intention of getting one herself. It was only going to look weird when she was forty.
She sighed, wondering why she’d been born so damn sensible.
The morning went quickly after that, and Lisanne forgot all about Eyebrow Ring guy. Her violin tutor, Professor Crawford, turned out to be amazing, and Lisanne thought they’d really hit it off. He’d given her some tips on how she could improve her bowing, and it had helped immediately. So she was in a good mood when she bumped into Kirsty again in the cafeteria.
“Hey roomy!” came the loud voice. “Sit your ass over here.”
Kirsty was slumped in her seat at a table with three girls Lisanne didn’t know. She was amused to see that Kirsty’s feet were bare and propped up on the seat next to her.
“What happened to the Manolos?” Lisanne asked, with a knowing smile.
“Let’s just say I’ll save them for an evening out where I’m going by limousine,” snorted Kirsty.
Lisanne raised an eyebrow. “I was impressed you even tried to wear them. I’d have broken my neck.”
Kirsty laughed loudly, and several guys glanced her way, checking her out. From the looks on their faces, they obviously approved. Well, there wasn’t anything to disapprove: Kirsty had wheat colored hair that curled in ringlets almost to her waist, with perfect curves, a pixie doll face and huge blue eyes. If she’d been taller, she could have been a model.
Lisanne was plain by comparison although, to be fair, most girls were when compared to Kirsty. Her own face was too square, her jaw too heavy, gray eyes ordinary, straight brown hair featureless, and even though her figure was decent, it was nothing special. Nothing special at all.
Part of Lisanne, the bitchy part that she wasn’t very proud of, would have really liked to dislike Kirsty—but the girl was just too damn nice. Ugh.
Kirsty introduced her to the other girls at the table: Trudy, Shawna and Holly. They were all fashion majors like Kirsty. Not that Lisanne would have needed the introduction to figure that out—their clothes screamed ‘designer’ from half a mile.
“How were your other classes this morning?” said Kirsty.
“Yeah, pretty good. My violin professor is awesome.”
“Violin?” sneered Shawna. “That sounds majorly lame.”
Kirsty laughed, but said briskly, “Not the way Lisanne plays it.” She smiled and winked at her roommate, but then her attention was distracted and her eyes flicked across the room.
“Check out Mr. Tall Dark and Deliciously Dangerous!” said Shawna, licking her lips, as she followed the direction of Kirsty’s gaze.
Lisanne saw Eyebrow Ring guy making his way through the cafeteria. He was still wearing his sunglasses. He was still alone.
“Oh, him,” she snorted. “He’s in our Introduction to Business class. He’s a real jerk.”
Even as she said the words, they felt awkward in her mouth. Rationally, she knew he hadn’t done anything specifically to annoy her. It was just the way he’d sat there, without taking any notes, like he was above it all.
Shawna smiled in a superior way. “For your information, his name’s Daniel Colton. He’s a local, and he’s got a rep—that’s what I heard.”
“What sort of rep?” said Kirsty, eagerly.
“He’s gotten into two fights already this week,” said Shawna, pleased to be the one to deliver the news. “Went postal on some grad student for no reason.” Then she dropped her voice. “They say he’s the go-to guy if you want anything extracurricular. You know, weed, booze, coke, speed—the guy’s got it. I wouldn’t mind spending some extracurricular time with him, if you know what I mean. I heard he’s a freak between the sheets.”
Lisanne’s lips curled down in disgust, and not just at the glazed expression on Shawna’s face. How on earth could that guy get away with being so blatant as to sell drugs on campus? It fit in with her low opinion of him, which had taken a further nosedive. But then again, if people knew about him in the first week, it wouldn’t be long before the college authorities heard about it, too. In all likelihood, he wouldn’t even make it to the end of the first semester.
“He’s certainly got the bad boy vibe going for him,” agreed Kirsty.
“Mmmhmm,” murmured Shawna. “Hot, definitely hot.”
“Mad, bad and dangerous to know,” said Kirsty, smiling. “What do you think, Lisanne? Got a thing for bad boys?”
Lisanne shook her head so hard she could have sworn her brain rattled.
Kirsty laughed, and started to talk about plans for the weekend.
Irritated with herself, Lisanne put all thoughts of Eyebrow Ring guy out of her head. Some people just didn’t know their luck.
* * *
Lisanne’s first week away from home had been hard, to say the least. She missed her family. She missed being able to talk to her mom, who was also her best friend. Sure, they talked on the phone every night, but it wasn’t the same. She missed her dad’s bad jokes and his strong, quiet presence—the feeling that whatever problem she had, he’d sort it out. Lisanne even missed her little brother Harry who, at 13, was not so little, and a real pain in the butt. Still, she missed them all.
And college was so different. For a start, she was sharing a room for the first time in her life, which meant there was little privacy, even though Kirsty turned out to be pretty nice. There was that word again. She had to get used to the communal bathrooms, and wearing flip-flops in the shower, irritated that she’d have to wait until her sophomore year for the women’s dorms to be renovated with private bathrooms. She missed being able to cook for herself, and instead having to eat all of her meals in the cafeteria. And the amount of work her professors were piling on had been overwhelming. She felt a little panicky when she realized how heavy her schedule was going to be, and the fact that, by the end of week one, she was already behind in two classes—especially business, which could have been in Ancient Greek for all she’d understood of it.
But it was Friday night, and Kirsty persuaded her to go downtown for a pizza with some of the girls. Despite the fact that Shawna was there, it was more fun than Lisanne had expected. They spent Saturday morning studying and in the afternoon hit the outlets and, at Kirsty’s insistence, Lisanne spent more than she ought to on a new pair of jeans to wear clubbing that night.
By Sunday, Lisanne was so worried about her homework that she was determined to spend the afternoon and evening at the library. Jeez, how sad was that?
Not surprisingly, the library was almost empty, the main study area echoing loudly as she scraped her chair along the floor. Three guys who appeared to be pre-med seniors, hunched over anatomy textbooks, threw her irritated looks, surprised by her intrusion, and a couple of people wandered aimlessly through the stacks. She turned off her iPod with a sigh, letting the last notes of Love and Theft’s Runnin’ out of Air die away, then Lisanne’s surprised eyes fell on the last person she expected to see in a library, let alone on a weekend—Eyebrow Ring guy.
He was sitting at a table by himself, with his business studies textbook propped open in front of him. Every now and then he’d type some notes into his laptop.
Lisanne flopped down at a table that just happened to have him in view. She’d decided he was most likely there to meet one of his druggie contacts, and if he was, she’d tell the on duty librarian. Probably. Maybe.
But she found herself mesmerized as his long fingers intermittently swept through his hair, or tugged at his eyebrow ring.
After half an hour, she had to admit that he was doing nothing more sinister than studying, even though he seemed the type of guy who would be recovering from partying hard on a Saturday night. Eventually, she turned her eyes to her own pile of homework, that hadn’t lessened during her 30 minutes of mindless gawking.
After nearly four hours of actual studying, Lisanne’s eyes felt tired and gritty—as if the pages of her books had been covered with sandpaper as she’d read them, and she wanted nothing more than to go back to her room and sleep. She really hoped Kirsty wasn’t going to come back hyper and noisy, although the odds were against her. She rubbed her face and looked up—straight into the hazel eyes of Eyebrow Ring guy.
She expected him to glance away, but he didn’t. He held her gaze, his face impassive. Much to her annoyance, Lisanne felt her skin heating with a blush. No, no, no! Not in front of him!
But her blush was badly behaved and didn’t pay any attention to her whatsoever.
She was saved by the librarian, who announced that the library was closing. By the time Lisanne looked back, Eyebrow Ring guy had already shoved his laptop and books into a black canvas messenger bag, and was on his way out.
Hastily, Lisanne grabbed her books and hurried after him, telling herself she didn’t want to be alone in the creepy old building. He was twenty feet ahead of her when Lisanne tripped over the library’s threshold, and went sprawling across the cold steps.
She cried out as she grazed her hands and landed painfully on her knees. Eyebrow Ring guy didn’t even break pace, let alone turn around to help her. Although he must have heard her yell, he ignored her completely, striding off into the darkness.
Hurt and humiliated, Lisanne gathered her books, quietly cursing the black haired boy who had distracted her so disastrously.
* * *
The next morning, Lisanne crawled out of bed far too early for someone who’d been woken, as predicted, at 1 AM. The palms of her hands were scraped raw and her knees were black and blue. But, worse than that, she felt bruised inside. How could he just ignore her when she’d hurt herself like that? Lisanne knew that she wouldn’t let a stranger lie sprawled on the ground without trying to help. What kind of person behaved like that?
She definitely didn’t want to find out.
“It’s too early,” moaned Kirsty. “And who the hell allows a construction crew to do roadwork on a Monday morning outside a dorm room?”
Lisanne glanced outside. Nope, no road crew. The pounding was all in Kirsty’s head.
Lisanne rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help a sympathetic smile slipping out as she watched her roommate nurse a grade-A hangover.
“You look like you had a good night?”
Kirsty pulled herself up to lean against the headboard, bunching the duvet around her.
“You should have been there, Lisanne, it was awesome. Our fake IDs were totally cool. Shawna was drinking tequila shots—she was a mess.”
Lisanne couldn’t help a small, superior smile, and Kirsty looked at her curiously.
“What did you do?”
“Not much. Studied.”
Lisanne couldn’t bring herself to tell Kirsty about her misadventure in the library, or rather, on the library steps. And she certainly wasn’t going to mention Eyebrow Ring guy’s part in it. Well, that was a giant non story anyway.
Kirsty groaned and Lisanne couldn’t help wincing, too. She’d been drunk once, and she hadn’t enjoyed the sensation. It had been at her cousin’s wedding and it was not a feeling she wanted to remember. Ever. Especially the part where she’d vomited down the front of her new dress.
She grabbed a bottle of water from their tiny fridge, and placed it with two Advil on Kirsty’s bedside table.
“You are a lifesaver,” moaned Kirsty, her fingers scrabbling for the pills.
She looked up as Lisanne started to open the door.
“Where are you going?”
“Classes!” said Lisanne, raising her eyebrows.
“Okay, see you later? We’re going Italian tonight.”
“Um, no thanks. I’ve got some stuff to do,” said Lisanne, evasively. “See you.”
Kirsty moaned, and gave a small wave.
* * *
It didn’t seem such a good idea, now Lisanne was standing outside the building. She bit her lip and checked the flyer again. Yes, this was definitely the address, but it didn’t look like the kind of place she wanted to enter without an armed guard. Scuzzy: that was the word. Rundown: that was another. Disreputable. Scary. A dive. Even standing outside, she could smell stale beer, and the sidewalk was littered with cigarette butts. At least it was broad daylight. Not that anyone inside would have known that fact—the windows on the street side had been painted black.
She felt slightly nauseous, and realized her palms were sweating as she rubbed them against her new jeans. This was a bad idea. She should go back to the dorms before she made an even bigger fool of herself.
Lisanne had just convinced herself to turn around and leave when the steel door swung open. The biggest man she had ever seen stared down at her. Jeez, he was enormous. He looked like he could have crushed her ribs with one hand if he wanted to. His head was either bald or shaved, and his arms and neck were entirely covered in tattoos.
He smiled at Lisanne, and she automatically took a pace backward.
“Hey, girly, you here for the audition?”
“Um, yes?” said Lisanne, hesitantly.
“Come on in, honey.”
Lisanne wanted to say no. She wanted to turn and run, but somehow her feet wouldn’t obey her body. The man was still staring at her, so she took a deep breath and stepped inside. She really wished she’d left a message with someone to say where she was going—so they’d know where to find her mangled corpse. Maybe her cell phone had satellite tracking. Maybe she should hide it somewhere in the club before…
“This way, honey.”
Giganator led her into the bowels of the building, the dark walls saturated with the scent of sweat and hard liquor, or possibly liquor that had been sweated out from dancing, heaving bodies every weekend.
The lighting was dim, and no daylight had been permitted to enter the crypt like web of rooms. Lisanne tried hard to tell herself that the staining on the floor couldn’t possibly be blood.
Then she heard the echoing sound of someone laughing. It was such a happy, carefree laugh—not at all how she’d imagine a serial killer would sound. Unexpectedly, she felt her body relax.
Peering through the gloom, she saw a group of men standing on a small stage. As one, they turned to look at her, and the laughter died away.
“Another lamb to the slaughter,” came a low voice, and several of them snickered quietly.
Lisanne swallowed, then straightened her shoulders and walked forward with a determined air, belied by the way her stomach rolled and lurched.
They watched her with amusement but despite their scary appearance, their behavior wasn’t threatening. She ground to a halt when she saw one of them was Eyebrow Ring guy. Why did he have to be here to witness her further humiliation? He gazed back at her without recognition, and Lisanne felt ridiculous for thinking that he’d know her—or even remember her.
He was leaning against the piano, one foot propped up behind him, his knee bent, his stance relaxed and at ease. As Lisanne approached, he jumped down from the stage.
“I’m outta here—fucking auditions,” he said, in a bored voice.
“Sure, Dan.” One of the men spoke quietly. “Don’t be a stranger,” but Eyebrow Ring guy ignored him, pushed past her, and carried on walking, swinging a motorcycle helmet in one hand.
Lisanne felt incensed by his rude behavior. He was such a jerk.
* * *
Daniel was irritated with himself for going to the club. He knew it would just stir up a shit storm of memories, and he really didn’t need the aggravation his brother would give him when he found out: but somehow he hadn’t been able to stay away either. Even so, there was no way on earth he was going to hang around for another lame audition. He had his limits.
He’d been surprised when the latest victim had turned up. She didn’t look anything like the kind of girl who would go to their club. He loved the place but he had to be honest: it was a shit awful pit. She looked too young, for a start, and too fresh.
But Daniel knew that appearances could deceive. He was all too well aware how people judged him the moment they saw him. The reactions were predictable. Mostly, he didn’t care what people thought. No, that wasn’t true. He didn’t care what people thought about the way he looked. He knew that his tats, his piercings, the way he was dressed, gave people a giant fuck off message, and that suited him just fine. That shit was deliberate. He’d learned to be wary of people in general, and starting at the college was a big deal for him. He’d already had to lay out a couple of assholes, and Zef had given him hell when he’d come home with bruised knuckles two days running. Which was pretty fucking funny when you thought about it. Maybe ‘ironic’ was the word.
He was used to the way people reacted to him: girls checked him out, even some older chicks, which was cool; guys either avoided him or tried to prove that they were harder than he was. They rarely were. Most adults just pigeonholed him as a delinquent and passed by on the other side. His professors didn’t seem bothered, for which Daniel was grateful: tats, piercings, weird clothes and hairstyles—they’d seen it all before. But Daniel wanted to avoid trouble as much as possible at college. Unfortunately, that looked like it was going to mean avoiding people, too.
He was aware that his so-called rep was already following him around. It infuriated him, but when you were Zef Colton’s brother, there wasn’t a lot you could do about a bad rep. Which was why he’d pounded on those two dickwads last week: they’d made the painful assumption that Daniel and his brother were the same—painful for them, anyway.
That girl had looked at him the way everyone else did: she checked him out but thought he was trash, too. Bitch.
It was only when he’d pushed past her on his way out of the club, and saw the flash of anger in her eyes, that he recognized her: Library Girl. He’d seen her there on Sunday evening. In fact, he was pretty certain that she’d been staring at him for at least 20 minutes. It had started to freak him out, and he’d just about decided to say something when she’d finally started concentrating on her own work, and he was able to relax.
She’d been reading the same business studies textbook as him, which meant they must share at least one class. But she’d also been surrounded by orchestral scores, which made her a music major.
What a fucking waste of time. Daniel didn’t have any room in his world for people like her.
Despite his insistence that he had no interest in Library Girl whatsoever, he found himself wondering how her audition had gone. He couldn’t imagine that she’d have what the guys were looking for, but he wasn’t in a position to judge either. And that thought pissed him the hell off.
He’d text Roy later to find out.
Daniel would have liked to just go home and chill once he left the club, but Zef had told him to get lost for the whole evening, having some business to take care of at the house. Daniel was used to that and it didn’t really bother him. Zef was pretty cool most of the time.
So instead of going home and to his books, Daniel rode to the campus fitness center. He parked his motorcycle, locked away the helmet, and strolled inside. Throwing some weights around and running 10 miles on the treadmill would burn off some of his ever present nervous energy.
In the locker room, Daniel changed into sweat pants and a tank top, and carried his towel and a bottle of water into the weight room.
Two guys from the football team were already in there, but they ignored him and continued with their bench presses.
After nearly an hour, he headed to the training room where the treadmill, rowing machines, and fitness bikes were arranged in rows. There was a small group of girls already there, all wearing tiny boy shorts and crop tops. They eyed Daniel hungrily, and he automatically checked them out. The one with red hair was hot and definitely interested in him.
Daniel sighed and looked away. She wouldn’t be interested if she knew the real him. Besides, he preferred anonymous hookups to coeds. It was easier.
He focused on the treadmill and began pounding away, adding up the miles. He’d been in the zone for 25 minutes when he felt someone touch his arm, and he jumped.
It was the redhead.
“Oh, wow, sorry!” she giggled. “I said ‘hi’ like three times! You must have been really concentrating.”
Daniel smiled awkwardly, slowing the machine and springing down. “Yeah, something like that.”
“So, I was wondering: do you want to get a coffee? My friends have to go and I hate drinking coffee all alone.”
Daniel was internally assessing how to answer.
“I have to be somewhere right now,” he replied, thinking quickly.
He found he didn’t want to blow her off entirely, but he needed time to think about how to play it.
“How about we meet up tomorrow night instead? The Blue Note on West River Street, you know it? Bring your girlfriends.”
“Um, isn’t that place, like, dangerous?”
Daniel smiled.
“No, it’s cool. My friend works there.”
The girl’s face brightened.
“Well, okay, that sounds great. I’m Terri.”
“Daniel.”
She giggled. “I know.”
He frowned slightly, wondering if it wasn’t him she wanted to hook up with, but what his brother could offer. Well, if she was after anything else, she’d be disappointed.
“So, um, Daniel, what time will I see you there?”
“I’ll be there after 9 pm.” Your move, beautiful.
“Cool! I’ll see you there.”
She walked away, her hips swaying, and Daniel licked his lips.
As a general rule he didn’t date. Which wasn’t to say he didn’t have women, because that would be a fat ass lie. But maybe it was time to turn over a new leaf and try that dating shit. Maybe. It felt like he was taking a huge risk, what with everything he wanted to keep hidden. But this year was all about new beginnings. Right?
The relaxation he’d found during his workout evaporated as his uncertainty grew. Irritated with himself, he hit the showers and let the hot water heat his skin, calming him.
When he’d finished, he draped a towel around his slim waist and headed back to his locker.
“Hey, man.”
Daniel eyed the two jocks warily, mentally assessing how much room he’d have to swing a punch if they started something. They weren’t any taller than him, but they were both heavier by about 20 pounds.
The expression on Daniel’s face had the jock backing up and raising his hands.
“Whoa, easy, man! I just, um, wanted to ask you something.”
Daniel took a breath. “What?”
“Well, um, just wondering if, um … we heard girls really get off on that.”
He gestured toward Daniel’s chest.
“Some, yeah,” said Daniel, holding back a smirk, knowing exactly what the guy was going to ask him next.
“Dude, it must have really hurt!” said the other jock.
Daniel shrugged. “It was worth it,” and this time he couldn’t help a huge grin slipping out.
The football players raised their eyebrows and grinned back.
“You get that done in town?”
“Sure. TJ’s tattoo parlor will do it for you. They’ll do any type of piercings.”
The bigger guy went white, and Daniel wondered if he was going to faint.
“Seriously, dude?”
Daniel laughed. “Yeah, nipple rings are normal stuff for TJ’s. They’ll pierce pretty much anything if you ask them. Anywhere.”
“Man, I gotta sit down,” said the big guy, crashing onto one of the benches.
Daniel shook his head and smiled to himself. Pussy.
Pulling on clothes over his still damp body, Daniel checked his cell phone. Zef had texted the all-clear—he could go home.
He strolled into the parking lot and couldn’t help smiling at the sight of his motorcycle. She was a 1969 Harley Davidson that he’d bought as scrap and restored. It had taken him two years of saving up money from working weekends and summers at a garage, but he’d done it.
As he mounted the sleek machine, he saw Terri giggling with her girlfriends. She waved and he nodded back at her, feeling a shiver of anticipation mixed with anxiety.
When he drove up to his home, the road outside was lined with bikes and cars—looked like it was open house at Zef Colton’s. Again.
It was a well known secret that you could get pretty much anything you wanted at one of Zef’s parties. And Daniel had done a lot of partying over the summer. Luckily, the brain cells he had left after all the pot he’d smoked and all the booze he’d drunk, seemed to be in good working order. His college classes hadn’t presented him with any problems.
He looked enviously at the joint that was being passed around, but stuck by the promise he’d made himself not to get high or wasted on a school night. College cost good money, and he wasn’t about to piss away his future.
He felt someone tugging on his arm.
A pretty blonde girl was leaning against him to keep her balance. She looked like she was about the same age as him and Daniel wondered if she was a student. He hoped they didn’t go to the same college—he was trying to keep home life, such as it was, separate from school.
“Hey, handsome! You want to party?”
She held up a small plastic bag of pills and ran her hand down his chest invitingly.
He hesitated, then smiled and shook his head.
“Another time, beautiful.”
Daniel sighed. One thing that Zef’s parties had going for them—he never had any trouble getting laid.
He winked at the girl and headed up the stairs before her obvious charms changed his mind. At least his bedroom was private. He was glad Zef had agreed it was necessary to put a lock on the door. Pulling out his key, he stepped over a couple of bodies that were slumped in the hallway.
Music was pulsing through the walls of the house so loudly that Daniel could feel the vibrations in his bones. It didn’t bother him: he was used to it. His room, by comparison, was an oasis of calm.
He locked the door behind him and threw himself backward onto his bed. He had some homework to do before classes in the morning and afterward, well, he’d be hooking up with Terri. He tried to ignore the hardening of his cock as he thought about her rosebud mouth and the things she could do with it—trying to study with a boner was a bad idea. He needed to concentrate.
But before he could open his books, Daniel’s phone buzzed in his pocket. His brother.
Wearily, he stood up and unlocked the door. He knew what was coming next and he didn’t feel like fighting.
“What the fuck you doin’, Dan? You were at the club!”
Daniel shrugged. “Yeah, so?”
His brother’s face was tight with anger.
“I told you to stay the fuck away from there.”
“Seriously? You’re going to do the parent thing here?”
“Don’t piss me off, Dan.”
“Jeez, I was just hanging. Don’t get all bent out of shape.”
“I mean it: stay away.”
“You can’t tell me what to do, Zef.”
“You better fucking believe I can.”
“Besides, I’ve got a date there tomorrow.”
His brother paused, his expression changing to one of surprise.
“A date? Like … a date?”
Daniel nodded.
“Huh. Is she hot?”
Daniel raised one eyebrow.
“Okay, little brother. But next time, take your date to a different club. Understand?”
“Whatever.”
Zef pushed him hard in the center of his chest and Daniel landed with a crash on his bed.
“Asshole!” coughed Daniel, rubbing his chest.
His brother grinned and motioned for him to lock the door behind him again.
Well, that went better than he’d expected.