“Oh my God, honey. What’s wrong?”
“There is a guy. That guy.” Literally freaking out, I was shaking. I shot a finger in the direction of her room. “Why is that guy in your room?”
This had to be a trick, a sick joke in front of my eyes but when my mom smiled just as devilish as LJ had I thought I’d be sick to my damn stomach.
She pulled wet hair out of her face. “Really, honey. I don’t need to explain how all this works to you, do I?” she asked, giggling a little before poking her head out more. “And isn’t he cute? I met him at a friend’s party last night. He’s a little on the youngish side, but…”
“Young!” I nearly growled, working my hair through my hands. “Mom, he’s what? Twenty?” He was too young for me, let alone her. At least, maturity wise. I groaned. “Mom—”
“I’m twenty-one actually.” LJ came sauntering down the hall like the sex god he believed he was in nothing but a pair of jeans and a wicked grin, his arms stretched above his head before he dropped his hands in his perfect hair. It literally looked like he styled it that way on purpose, working a few fingers threw it before propping his muscular arm on the wall. He had his T-shirt in his hands and winked at me before angling forward and pressing a kiss to my mom’s cheek. “Morning, gorgeous. You sleep well?”
The whole thing had me about to throw up in my mouth, and I got a look from Mom who obviously couldn’t understand what all the freak-out was about. After the kiss, he grabbed her hand, and I actually did cover my mouth to hold back the chunks. I whisper-shrieked. “Mom, you need to get tested. Now. You have no idea where that’s been.”
This guy was everywhere and probably had sex in the classroom the other day with those two women he had in the back.
LJ gave no reaction at all to what I said, but the audacity of the statement clearly bothered my mother. She smacked me right on the arm. “Apologize to Lance.”
“It’s cool, Gen,” he said, already on a short named basis with my mom. The only person who called my mom anything other than Genevieve had been my dad, and they’d been married for over twenty years.
Oh, God. Thoughts of LJ somehow becoming my stepdad serious made me ill, and I dizzied, actually holding on to the wall. Mom hit me again out of my stupor.
“Now, you stop it,” she said, before taking LJ’s hand again. Once in his mitts, he gave a kiss on the back that worked that flush up in her cheeks about ten dials and did nothing short of heat an inferno in me. “You gonna stay for breakfast? I’m making my rude daughter and I chocolate chip pancakes.”
Good God now she was feeding us like we both were her kids. Ugh! I was going to lose it. I was going to fucking lose my shit, but gratefully, he turned her down.
“Can’t, babe,” he said, truly gagging me. He brushed a finger under her chin, their fingers still laced. “Already got classwork for this week. Probably better get to it. I have a feeling one of my TAs is going to be riding my ass all term.”
He dashed perfect eyebrows up at me after that, and Mom frowned.
“Ah, a shame,” she whined. “Why are they always so hard on you guys?”
“No idea. But don’t want to give her a reason to hate me all semester.”
I already did, the fiery flames of Hades only hotter than what I felt brewing inside me right now. I wanted to kill him, ruin his entire world where he stood, and after he pulled her in, giving her a little hug from where she stood behind the door, I thought I would.
“We had a good time, though?” he questioned to her, and she nodded only too quick. He grinned again. “Good. Hope to see you around at another event.”
He was letting my mom down easy clearly, and I only didn’t fight that because he was letting my mom down. The whole thing was disgusting, and after letting her go and a quick nod at me, he took his leave. Mom angled her head out a little, watching him stride down the hallway. She waved a hand. “Go make sure he gets out okay.”
Oh, I definitely would, stalking down the hallway and right after him down the stairs. LJ’s legs were longer than mine, so it took me almost getting to the front door before I could grab him. He was working on his shirt when I tugged him around, and chuckling, he dropped his arms. He’d only gotten the shirt partially on at this point, half his chiseled frame hanging out of it. He lifted his hands. “I mean, we could do this in the hall,” he said, stalking when he backed me up against the wall. He pressed arms on either side of my head. “But I’d have preferred to have you in my bed, beauty queen.”
Completely mortified, I shoved at his body, and he barked another chuckle, smirking at me before pulling his shirt all the way down. I sneered. “Seriously, you have no boundaries. Screwing my mom?”
“I didn’t know she was your mom,” he said, and his shoes by the door, he sat on the wooden hall bench, putting them on one by one with his socks. He danced blond eyebrows. “Like I said, that was just a nice little surprise and funny as fuck.”
He reached for his last shoe, but I picked it up, opened the front door, and threw it outside. He watched me, unfazed as probably a two-hundred-dollar sneaker went flying out into the snow-covered lawn. He scratched his neck. “You gonna go get that?”
“No.” I strode right up to him, and he angled up from his seat. He was sitting down, but our eyesight was nearly level considering how tall he was. I hugged my chest. “This isn’t the classroom. You may have Professor Douglas in your back pocket, but you don’t have me. You’re in my house, and you’re going to stay away from my mom.”
“Your mom and I had a good time.” He stretched his arms back. “We met at party. I don’t promote anymore, but I do for a few close friends. We met during one of my events, and like I said, we had a good time. Probably won’t even see each other again. It was casual, an understanding between both of us.”
“That better be the case.”
He tugged me close after that, a hand under each ass cheek, and I stiffened, my hands easily curling into fists as he bit down on his bottom lip. He squeezed my thighs. “Fuck, what a waste this is. Why are you so uptight? You should relax more.”
He massaged the back of my thighs to the point where I almost did, my body buzzing, but when his finger traced the seam of my ass through my leggings I reared a fist back.
He grabbed it, a full hand like a baseball in a catcher’s mitt, and grinning, he brought my heated fist to his mouth and sunk his teeth slightly into it.
“I’m going to enjoy this game,” he said, and I wiggled out of his hands, bracing my fist that pulsed and burned from his teeth. He hadn’t bit me hard, not at all really, but I still felt him.
Body shaking, I shot a finger out the door. “Get out of my house.”
He stood, growing like a Redwood and about nearly as tall as one. He pressed a hand to the side of my head against the wall. “See you back on my block.”
And with that, he left me swaying, simmering, as he grabbed his coat off the coat hook, then headed outside. He pretended to not even let the snow bother him, sliding on his shoe before headed over to the garage. He just waltzed inside from the side door, and before I knew it, the garage door was opening and he was pulling a car out of my daddy’s old parking spot. An electric blue luxury vehicle charged the air, the ass winking at me through the window as he pulled out. I slammed the door before he could see my reaction to that.