“Just avoid him and you’ll be fine. It’s time to go.”
She flashed me a wicked grin and I groaned.
Grabbed by the arm and pulled from my seat, Everly walked me out of our dorm room. We were halfway down the hall when I asked, “How the hell am I supposed to avoid this guy if you’re forcing me to go to his house?”
Laughing, she tugged on my arm, leading me down a back stairwell past a group of girls climbing up to our floor.
“That’s easy. You suck face with Clayton the entire time and then you won’t have to worry about coming face to face with Tanner.”
“And how will I know which one is Tanner?”
Another laugh, “Oh, trust me. You’ll know him when you see him.”
She wasn’t wrong.
There was no mistaking Tanner Caine when we walked into a large room in the Inferno House. And just as she’d described him, the man had a way of sending an ice cold chill down your spine the second you laid eyes on him.
After paying the driver of the Uber we’d taken to get to their off campus house - a sprawling three story monstrosity of a mansion, complete with winding driveway and manicured lawns - Everly led me inside the front door and dragged me through a rowdy crowd that was packed wall to wall through the rooms of the first floor.
Reaching the stairs, she continued leading me without saying a word until we reached the third floor, swung a left and walked down a hall to a large room at the end.
People lingered outside the doors of the room, talking and drinking, laughter rising up their throats as Everly shoved between them to drag me along behind her.
As soon as we passed the doors, her eyes scanned the men seated on chairs and couches, my eyes immediately taking in the half-dressed women dancing and sitting on their laps.
The scent of pot smoke filled the room, loud music pounding the walls with a steady bass beat.
“There’s Jase,” Everly whisper-yelled against my ear. “And of course, some bitch is all up on him. It’s time to teach these sluts who the Queen Slut is around here.”
Leaning into her, I answered, “I’m not sure you should brag about that.”
She laughed and tossed her hair back. Rounding her shoulders, she set her eyes on Jase, her lips pulling into a grin that meant trouble.
“Clayton should be here soon. Stick around and I’m sure you’ll find him.”
Off she went, leaving me awkwardly hovering by the doorway, my eyes scanning the room before turning to watch her approach Jase.
It wasn’t hard to see why she was practically tripping over herself to get with the guy. Relaxing on a leather sofa with legs spread and his arms stretched out over the backrest, Jase was any girl’s wet dream.
Rugged and sculpted in ways that would have made the Greeks jealous, he had disheveled brown hair that framed his face. I couldn’t see the color of his eyes, but his nose was straight, leading down to a set of lips that tipped up at the corners as if he knew a secret.
Wearing a tight black t-shirt that struggled to contain broad shoulders and a strong chest, he lifted his eyes to Everly as she crossed the room toward him, a hint of his trim waist and perfect abs peeking out from beneath his shirt when the girl straddling him ran her hand up his abdomen.
How Everly put up with that shit, I didn’t know, but it was entertaining for me to watch what she would do about it.
I stared at the scene curiously, noting how Everly approached with a clipped stride, her gaze meeting Jase’s when she was within reach. Leaning down, she whispered something in the other girl’s ear before straightening and curling her lips into a devilish smile.
The girl quickly crawled off Jase’s lap, red burning her cheeks as she turned to leave immediately. The girl brushed past me on her way out the door, tears glimmering in her eyes, barely visible beneath the low lighting.
Across the room, Jase just shook his head, crooked a finger and grinned as Everly took the former girl’s place, her hands running up his chest as soon as she was settled over his lap.
To each their own, I guessed, making a mental note to ask her what she’d said to the other girl that had her running from this room like it was on fire.
Pulling my eyes away from them as soon as she leaned forward to press her mouth to his, and his hand moved to cup her ass, I scanned my gaze over the rest of the room, noticing the four other guys that sat around, all of them with drinks in hand while women giggled and danced beside them, one set of cold dark eyes catching my attention in particular because they were focused directly on me.
It’s common courtesy among strangers to look away during moments of unwanted eye contact, but the one staring at me now didn’t seem to give a damn about courtesy. The hard lines of his face tightened as soon as our eyes met, his glare boring into mine with a ferocious intensity.
He had a devil may care curl to his full lips, shadows dipping down beneath high cheekbones that gave him an aristocratic air.
In front of him, a pretty girl danced in only a short skirt and bra, her body on display as dark red hair fell down her back in a waterfall of waves.
Even with the eye candy he had bouncing around in front of him, those dark eyes remained locked to mine, a glimmer of some unspoken thought flashing behind them.
I knew instantly that I was staring at Tanner Caine, a man known as Treachery among his friends.
Giving in to the wordless exchange between us, I was the first to look away, my arms coming up to wrap around my stomach as if to chase away the chill he conjured inside me.
Despite not looking at him, I could feel his eyes on my face, somehow knew he hadn’t let me out of his sight while I stood waiting, my legs shaking beneath me because I was suddenly terrified.
Cursing Everly beneath my breath for dragging me here, I considered leaving the room, but then worried I wouldn’t find Clayton and would end up spending the night wandering among drunk students grinding against each other.
As for this room, I felt like I’d walked into a damn orgy, all the woman slowly losing their clothes while the five men who sat around like kings in their damn harem smoked joints and sipped from glasses of different liquors and alcohol.
No, the rest of the men sat like kings in their thrones, but not Tanner. He sat in the center of the room against a far wall, his demeanor that of a dark god.
I needed to get out of here, but as the seconds ticked by, a poisonous glare pulled me back to him, my head turning just enough to see that Tanner was still staring me down, the half dressed girl no longer dancing now that she’d crawled to straddle his lap.
Running her fingers through his hair, she leaned over to kiss the pulse point in his neck, but his attention was focused on me despite the promise of sex grinding against his crotch.
And fuck me, that man was beautiful, unlike anybody I’d seen before.
With dark hair and cold eyes, he had the face of a cover model. His cheekbones were blades that ran beneath his focused stare, his cheeks sinking in to darken with the days worth of black stubble that peppered his jaw. His lips parted just enough that I could see the bottom was full, and he had soot black hair that was shaved on the sides while longer on top.
It looked like silk running through the woman’s fingers, his arms casually relaxed on either side of her body.
When our eyes met again, his narrowed just a touch from where he was watching me over her shoulder.
Knowing better than to stare, I couldn’t seem to pull my gaze away from him a second time. It was like being stared down by a predator, cornered and shaking while he licked his chops with every intention of taking a slow leisurely bite of me to make it as painful as possible.