Living at the Frat House - A College Romance

“That they do,” Malcolm says. “Speaking of parties, Juno and I need to go. The house is still a mess from the party last night and she needs to participate in the new member ritual of cleaning the whole place.”

He pulls me to my feet, and I barely have a chance to wave before we’re walking away and back toward Granite House. “You know, I was actually on my way to get a drink and then dinner.”

“We have tea and coffee at the house, and we’re ordering pizza,” he says, long legs out-pacing me so I have to jog to catch up.

“What the hell happened back there?”

“I was rescuing you,” he says with a grin. “That’s twice in twenty-four hours by the way.”

“Rescuing me, and blackmailing me. Thanks. Whatever that was was not just about me.”

He rolls his eyes. “Of course not. Melody Thomas is not someone that you should ever hang out with.”

“Why not? I’m really good friends with her sister.”

He slings his arm around my shoulder again and walks with me. “Melody is one of those people that likes control. And her favorite way of exercising control is over people. Or at least she thinks that she’s controlling people. She’s not great at it. But she loves to judge and push and try to get everyone to do exactly what she wants, and trust me when I say you’re better off not getting mixed up with her or the pack of girls that she leads.”

“Are you going to tell me how or why you think this?”

“Nope.”

His arm is warm on me, and I’m way too comfortable with it being there. I shrug it off, only to hear him chuckle. I don’t know why I’m blushing, but I am. “It’s not like you’re any better,” I say.

“Oh, do tell.”

“You like to control people too. Telling them what to do, bossing them around.”

Malcolm stops and looks at me, and the way the sun is hitting him takes my breath away. Warm brown eyes look like chocolate in the light, that impeccable jawline highlighted. He’s so fucking beautiful that it’s not fair and I look away just so I don’t have my breath taken away.

Curse my stupid brain and body for thinking that he’s attractive. He’s despicable for what he’s making you do. It doesn’t matter that he rescued you. It doesn’t matter that he let you sleep on his floor with his blankets so you didn’t have to find somewhere else. He’s awful.

Now if I could just get myself to fucking believe it.

“The difference, Juno, is that I can control people. What Melody only pretends to do, I actually do. I’m good at reading people, and I can get anyone to do anything. Not showing off or bragging, it’s just a fact.”

I shake my head. “God you’re full of yourself. Can you even hear the words you’re saying?”

Malcolm grabs my hand and pulls me off the path and around a corner. We’re behind a couple of trees next to the old brick building, obscured from the path and everyone around us. I can hear voices floating to us from the path, people shouting and laughing. The rustle of wind in the trees along this path. And yet, as Malcolm presses me into the bricks, laying his body against mine, it’s like we’re in an entirely different world.

This is so similar and so different from the way that he cornered me last night. There’s that same tension that I felt between us, but we’re connected now. He hasn’t bothered not touching me. I’m plastered between him and the brick. Trapped between the tock of his body and the hard place, and I can no longer fucking breathe.

Get your shit together, Juno.

But I can’t. My body is on override, screaming that I’m so close to him and after everything last night, that’s exactly what I want and exactly what I shouldn’t want.

Fucking hell.

Malcolm’s cheek presses against mine softly, and his breath is hot in my ear, giving me shivers all the way down my spine. “I like how bold you are, Juno. Most people wouldn’t talk back to someone like me.”

“Give me a reason not to,” I say. “You’re not in charge of me.”

“Oh, but I am. You’re mine, remember?”

I shake my head.

“If you think that I can’t have my way with you, right here and right now, you have to do some thinking.”

“You wouldn’t,” I gasp. “Not without me saying yes.”

“Tell me something, Juno,” he says quietly. “Are your nipples hard right now?”

I don’t answer. They are.

“I can feel them through your bra,” he says. “Can you tell me without lying that if I were to kiss you right now you’d say no?”

I still don’t say anything.

“I’m touching you right now,” he says, running a hand a long my ribs. “Do you want me to stop?”