Mad Boys (Blue Ivy Prep, #2)(69)

Fisting my temper, I dragged on a pair of sweatpants then glared at her.

“Since when did you become a fucking prude?” Payton demanded, one hand on her hip and glaring at me. Her tits were on point and she didn’t seem to give a damn that she was naked. Fine, I didn’t really care either other than she’d been all over me. “And you never complained about fucking me before. In fact…” She started forward. “I happen to know you enjoyed it.”

“Don’t mistake enjoying getting off for actually liking you. Fucking you and talking to you? Two totally different things. How did you get into this suite?” It wasn’t the first time. “And you’d think after you threw yourself at Ramsey, you’d have gotten a clue.”

“Oh, what do you care if Ramsey fucked me,” she said with a sniff as I snagged up her clothes.

“I don’t, but he has better sense than I do sometimes. Been there, fucked that, not going back for another experience. Now, get the fuck out before I throw you out.”

“You wouldn’t.”

The fact she thought I wouldn’t, amused more than irritated. She should remember.

“Yeah, I already have and I don’t mind doing it again.” When she didn’t take her clothes, I put my shoulder into her stomach and picked her right up, then marched to the door to the suite. I didn’t exactly throw her down ‘cause that would hurt. But the hall had a fucking draft blowing through it and she squealed as I set her down.

“What the hell?” she screamed at me. “Why are you so obsessed with that bitch? Do you think she gives a rat’s ass about you? You told me once that she’d never bothered to even get to know you and now what? You pant after her like she’s in heat and you are the only one who can satisfy it?”

"Payton—fuck off.” I threw her clothes at her, and she only caught one as they bounced off and fell on the floor. “Stay out of this suite. Stay out of my bed. Don’t ever fucking touch me again. Or Ramsey, for that matter, since he may not have the balls to tell you he isn’t interested but trust me when I say he’s not.”

“I hate you,” she shouted and I shrugged.

“I can live with it.”

“You are going to regret this.” She dragged up her clothes and clutched them to her.

“I already do.”

A sound from the door to the building echoed through the hall. Payton jerked like someone had shot her and I glanced to find the woman of my dreams standing right there with a bag of food in hand that smelled fucking fantastic.

She was back early.





Twenty-Eight





KC


I’d jogged up to the gate to meet the food delivery. Coming back to campus early might have gotten me in trouble except—no one had been around to say anything. If there was an RA who stayed over the holidays, I hadn’t found them.

Since I was fine, I just settled in and used the runs to the gate to meet food delivery as a reason to head out. As it was, I’d slept late for my first day back on campus so the exercise would be good for me.

Loaded up with lasagna, ravioli, garlic bread, and tiramisu—because I definitely ordered while hungry, not my brightest move—I ran back up to the building—well, jogged. The run, wreathed in Italian spice, sweet garlic-infused bready goodness, and snow, filled me with a kind of simple peace I’d craved all week.

Seeing Bronson and Jackie had been amazing. They welcomed Aubrey and Yvette, including them in the holiday celebrations with Bronson’s rather noisy, extended family on his mother’s side.

I’d gotten to meet some of them before, but this time seemed to almost overwhelm me. I was never alone with Aubrey and Yvette right there. Bronson and Jackie had always felt like a home away from home, and Pen—well, I spent every hour I could at the hospital, gowned up and masked, visiting her.

She hated the mask and kept taking it off me. One of the nurses said it was all right, we just needed to make absolutely sure I wasn’t feeling off at all. If that meant taking my temperature each time to be in the room with her, I did. I also invested in a clear face mask. It still helped keep it sterile while letting her see my face.

It was almost acceptable to her sweet little brown eyes. Oh, I adored everything about her from the tight little curls on her head that I worried might fall out and they said would, to the chipmunk cheeks she made when she laughed.

On Christmas Day, Dix drove me to the hospital and came up while I visited with her. He kept a look out while I sang to her and played. She was asleep when I left, and I know Jackie was there regularly, Davina had been coming to see her for me, and Bronson swung by every chance he got…

I hated her in that hospital.

Hated. It.

Leaving the day after Christmas to come back here to think and to plan and to work in the relative quiet while Aubrey and Yvette went to see their families felt a little bit like running away.

Just a little.

Carrying the food toward the building, it still felt a lot like running away. No matter what, though, I’d have to just hate myself for it later. Right now, for the first time in months, I could take a deep breath. The leash of lies that had been choking me since the end of last semester had finally let go.

I could breathe.

I needed to be here right now. Just like I’d needed to be with Pen and everyone else the previous week, I needed to be by myself right now. Yvette and Aubrey had both known, hell, they’d known before I had because they hadn’t once tried to persuade me to go with them when I said I wanted to do this.