Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
In the back of my mind, I’m aware that I’m having these thoughts about a man… but he’d look so good in rope. His skin. His muscle.
I breathe deeply and evenly, watching his eyes dance over my face.
“Yo,” I hear from behind me.
Weston and Sev appear at the side of the picnic blanket, both of them carrying to-go sandwiches in their hands. I exhale, smothering my rage like I’m dousing a fire.
Back to myself.
Composed.
Numb.
In control.
“Hi,” Tate says with a radiant, warm smile that he seems capable of instantly summoning onto his face.
“Mind if we join?” Wes asks, as he and Sev are already sitting down on the blanket. “We were going to go sit somewhere on the quad, too. It’s perfect out today.”
The truth is that I want to get the fuck out of here.
Tate just dropped information on me that we need to investigate, and I am itching to look up whatever symbol he saw on that rock.
Who the fuck else is tailing him, other than me?
How could I not have noticed?
“Please join us. More the merrier,” Tate says, sliding over on the booth.
We will stay for a while.
Then I’m leaving, and Tate will stay by my side.
“Weston and Sev, this is Tate,” I say. “He transferred in.”
“Whoa,” Wes says, doing a double take and looking at Tate more closely, like he just saw a mirage. “You’re Tate Landrey. What the fuck? When did you get here?”
“A few weeks ago,” Tate says, reaching out to shake his hand. “I went to an Onyx party, but I left after a grand total of ten minutes. Pleasure to meet you both.”
“This is awesome,” Weston says. “You’ve always been my favorite Landrey brother. I mean, shit, Luke’s an awesome QB, but no one has style like you.”
Tate smiles. “Too kind. I try my best. Roman, you want these?”
He hands me his container of strawberries, and I nod, taking one.
“You also piss off all the right people, and I like that,” Weston tells him.
“Only takes one well-timed blow job to make a whole section of society clutch their pearls,” Tate says casually.
Weston and Sev both laugh.
I stay tight-lipped.
How can Tate appear so breezy and happy and talkative, lying back on his elbows in the afternoon sun?
Wes and Sev have no clue about the danger he’s in.
Right now, it doesn’t feel like Tate does either.
“Wait. You didn’t know those photos were being taken of you on the beach, right?” Sev asks.
“No. It was a genuine accident.”
When I researched Tate before he arrived, I saw the photos.
I didn’t look closely, but I saw enough.
A leaked set of photos of Tate Landrey sucking an anonymous guy’s dick got plastered all over the internet months ago, leading to him being removed from his college football team.
“I can’t imagine how violating that must have been,” Weston says. “A private moment, and suddenly the whole world is gawking at it…”
Tate shrugs. “The consequences really sucked, but I don’t mind that people saw me sucking cock. Whether they’re pissed off or jerking off to me, they’re thinking about me, right?”
Wes raises his hand to fist bump Tate.
The image of Tate’s tongue in those photos flashes through my mind, over and over again, unbidden.
He was lavishing that man’s cock. His tongue jutted out over his base, like he was hungry for it.
“You going to finish that, Roman?” Tate asks, suddenly staring at me again.
“Chto?” I say without thinking, forgetting to speak English. “Sorry. What?”
A little smile appears on the corner of his mouth. “The strawberries.”
“Take them.”
I watch his lips wrap around the fruit and I can’t look away.
The fucker knows he’s getting to me.
Weston and Sev hang around for another half an hour, and I see Tate’s social ease playing out right in front of me.
He is a natural at conversation.
He asks Weston and Sev when they started dating, then manages to compliment them both, Weston on his hat and Sevan on his leather belt.
After they speak for twenty minutes they’re already talking about childhood dreams, and how much things have changed since they were small children.
I feel like I’m witnessing a magician.
People are comfortable around Tate within moments.
I still think some Onyx Society guys are uncomfortable and intimidated around me, even ones I’ve known for years.
I pull out my phone as Weston and Sev are wrapping up their stuff to go.
Maks Petrov
Met with Yegor this afternoon, got a ride from Nata. Pick me up in a while?
Roman
I’ll be there.
Yegor says guests are coming over soon. No clue who.
Be on your guard. I don’t trust any guest he entertains.
You read my mind.
See you in a bit. Stay safe.
My own family life has felt like a distant world since Tate arrived on campus.
I have been avoiding my father’s Sunday dinners.
Avoiding a few of my cousins’ phone calls, too.
There will be consequences for that… but watching Tate has been all-consuming.