Behind a drink, I saw her, remembered her.
And she still managed to get mixed up with pricks.
Greer Michaelson couldn’t help getting herself in trouble, even after all this time and all these years. My frat brother Bryce’s arm was around her, the king of the entitled douchebags that roamed the halls of our frat house. I didn’t have to like every motherfucker here, and I especially didn’t like him, a special place in hell reserved for him and his lot.
I sipped at my beer, the brother guiding Greer around. Holding her like arm candy, he didn’t even acknowledge her, bumping fists with other brothers and friends. Had he actually seen her, he’d see her and sure as fuck wouldn’t be looking away.
I fucking wasn’t.
White blond hair curled a little at the ends, a pert nose and pink lips like a sweep above and below. Her chin round and her face oval, she flitted those wide eyes of hers innocently around the room. She hadn’t seen me yet and may not even recognize me, a far cry from that eleven-year-old with knobby knees and hair that couldn’t be tamed for shit. I also hadn’t lifted a weight until junior high, and needless to say, that scrawny-ass kid had filled out in the years since. I had trouble fitting through the frames of most doors these days, height or width.
Smirking at how much Greer had changed too, I drew off my beer. Curves and supple tits she hid behind a long sleeve crop top and acid-washed jeans sitting well above her navel. The things were basically grandma cut and went well with the whole nineties MTV video thing she was trying to pull. She definitely didn’t fit in this place, definitely looked like a freshman, and that was probably a big reason t
he second biggest guy in the room outside of myself preyed on her. He thought he could take advantage of that little white dove, pure and innocent as she pranced around the room with him. I hadn’t seen her in over ten years, but the memories had hardly left. I mean, she fucking lived in my house, she and her mom since her mom used to clean my grandfather’s manor. He basically raised me, and I saw that little dove often.
I shifted as Bryce guided Greer around, barely even speaking to her. The growl low in my throat, I recalled some of the last moments she’d been in my life. Things hadn’t been pretty toward the end there, and even being eleven I’d known that. Grandfather had tried to hide a lot of things from me growing up, shelter me, but even he couldn’t scrub away the real reason Greer and her mom had ultimately left. It’d been very much because of me and my grandfather’s need to keep drama out of my life. I’d been very fragile back then…
Veering my attention away from Greer and the spectacle, I transferred it to another blonde who vied for my attention. Melrose pushed her slender arms around me, a model outside of her college work, but even still she couldn’t reach my height. I folded an arm around her, an attempt to blend in and keep my attention off Greer fucking Michaelson. I couldn’t help but be intrigued. After all, I hadn’t seen her in so long and had been curious. Needless to say, a working model beneath my arm with her perfect tits pressed up against me proved to be enough to bring my head out of the past a little.
“Knight Reed. You can’t say hi to your fucking bro?”
That was until the clouds opened up and douchebag rains fell in, Bryce Coventry with the blast from my past under his arm.
“Bryce. Bro.” Ignoring Greer, I pounded the guy’s fist, very much aware that eyes that sparkled like sapphire cut jewels lingered in my direction. I couldn’t discover if Greer had put two and two together that she knew me yet, but she was definitely looking at me. Easing my arm back around Melrose, I tipped my chin at the girl with me. “You know Melrose.”
And did Bryce know her, his eyes mischief as he smoldered and grinned at one girl while holding onto another. The guy was just a tool like that, the pair of us cut from the same cloth in a few two many ways, but that was different since one of those girls today was Greer. I knew her.
And God did she know me.
Her lips parted in the most stunning of ways, her nervous lick across them inducing all kinds of fucking images and shooting them straight into my cock. My dick strained at my fly like I’d never had a pussy before, making me uncomfortable enough to hold tight onto Melrose. She might have to take care of me a little later, and with my digits brushing against her shoulder, she definitely got the point. She put a hand on my chest. “Bryce, who’s your friend?”
His friend was currently staring at me too. Like I said, she knew me. She knew our history, and the way her blue eyes bored into mine before finding Melrose told me that. She put her hand out to Melrose. “Greer Michaelson.”
“Melrose Andrews.” Her hand returned to my chest. “You’re new? I haven’t seen you around here, the campus or anything.”
“Just started actually.” Greer blinked, her attention shifting again. Oh, yeah. She definitely knew me. Her gaze drifted back to Melrose, and when she smiled, it did appear genuine. “I’m a freshman.”
“But sexy as fuck.” Bryce twirled her around, and the growl rumbled deep in my chest, more unnerved than I should be. I shouldn’t give a fuck about Greer Michaelson.
So why the fuck were my fingers digging into my beer bottle?
Maybe it was because I didn’t want to see someone so clearly pure and innocent being gobbled up by the king of the pricks, my ring restlessly tapping my beer before bringing it up to my lips. I eased the alcohol down in a thick lump, other images clouding my vision. I’d made the mistake of coming to this girl’s rescue before, something that had ultimately gotten her and her mom kicked out of my house in the first place. I remembered that thing with the dog well, my meddling well, and I brushed my fingers against Melrose’s shoulder. “I know you. Don’t I, Greer?”
Since I did, I might as well acknowledge it, and she appeared relieved that I had. At least, we wouldn’t have to pretend anymore, and she placed a hand on her chest, nodding at me. “Right. It’s been, what?”
“Ten years.” And I knew them well, my smile small. “How’s your mom doing?”
That’s when her smile fell and shifted to something else, what? Annoyance? Disdain? Honest to God, the line traveled so thin, but I couldn’t make it out. I just knew thoughts of our history were definitely playing across her mind, and whatever they entailed wasn’t making her happy. “She’s fine. Works on campus actually. That’s why we moved back here.”
And so my blast from the past had returned, her mom no doubt getting her a free education. No way could she afford the private tuition of Pembroke University, this school full of nothing but blood the pure color of blue. I was amongst that elite due to my familial ties, as most of the guys in this frat were.
The majority of us had been funneled over from my small town more than two hours away. Maywood Heights was a city of nothing but sin and the darkest elite, a brotherhood known as the Court the main reason why. Basically a boys’ club, it bred our fathers and grandfathers into some of the most powerful men in this country, not just our small town, and was the reason why myself and many others in this room wore the very rings on our fingers. It had a gorilla pressed into the chrome finish, and though there may be miles between us and Maywood Heights, that didn’t mean the values stayed behind. I liked to think I rose above some of the riffraff that came out of there, but even I wasn’t innocent. I had a past just like everyone else, and this girl before me had seen some of it.
I nodded at Greer, what she said, and when Bryce exchanged a glance between us, I smirked at him. “Greer’s mom used to work for me.”
“His grandfather,” she cut in, a little fire cat to that innocent image she portrayed. It turned me on more than I’d readily admit, her smile wide on me. “He’s actually the reason she got fired.”
“Fucking yeah?” Bryce balked, then slapped his hand against my chest. “What did you do?”