Touch Me Not (Manwhore, #1)(9)

The girl in question was curled up on her bed, her old stuffed bear held tightly against her chest as she sobbed brokenly. Her blonde hair was matted to her head and her dress wrinkled.

“What’s wrong, honey?” she asked, sitting down next to the girl.

“Go away,” she cried. “I’m too ashamed to talk about it.”

Lily’s instincts went on alert. “Did someone do something to you, Stephanie?”

She hiccupped and nodded her head. “I was so stupid, Lily. I knew better, and I did it anyway, thinking it’d be different with me. That he couldn’t be as bad as everyone said he was.”

Lily’s gut clenched. She had a feeling she knew exactly what happened. “Tell me,” she said slowly.

“I was going to eat lunch and he caught me before I went in.” She sniffled. “I couldn’t help it, I wanted to say no, really I did, but ohmygod, he’s so hot.”

“Nikoli Kincaid?” Lily asked, resigned.

Stephanie nodded. “Yeah. After, he just threw my dress at me and left. His friend told me to leave and not bother leaving my phone number. I’m so stupid, Lily. Why did I think I could make him look at me any differently? I know his reputation.”

Lily sighed. She’d heard all this before. “Every girl thinks that, Steph. They all think they’ll be the one to finally catch and hold his attention for more than a couple hours.”

“It wasn’t even that long,” she said forlornly. “It was only an hour, and he didn’t even bother to say good-bye. He had his friend throw me out.”

“Just check it off your bucket list,” Lily told her. “You had sex with BU’s very own manwhore. Everyone else has, so why not you?”

That caused Stephanie to giggle. “He is hot, and the sex was really great.”

“See, it’s not the end of the world, is it? Now you know what all the hype was about, and you can go on and find a nice guy this semester to fall for, yeah?”

Stephanie smiled before lunging up to hug Lily, who went completely still, fighting the scream that rose in her throat. “You’re the best, Lily. I’m glad you’re our dorm mom!”

“Just promise me you two won’t have any more beer parties this year, please.” She gave Stephanie a strained smile and disentangled herself as fast as she could. She winced at the conspiratorial look Stephanie and Mandy gave each other. Dear God, they were going to give her white hairs before she was even twenty-two.

“We promise to try to behave as long as it doesn’t get in the way of our fun.” Mandy gave Lily a grin and pulled Stephanie to her feet. “Come on, Steph, you need to wash your face before we join everyone.”

Lily sighed and followed them out. They were good girls, just a little too mischievous for their own good. And they did ridiculously stupid things in the name of fun, like having sex with the slutty manwhore.

She and Nikoli had a lot of things to talk about, and if he had any thoughts of seducing her, they’d die as soon as she told him in no uncertain terms she’d never be a throwaway he forgot in less than five minutes. She refused to be the one on the bed crying because she let her guard down.

No way in hell was she sleeping with him. He just didn’t know it yet.





Chapter Five




Lily glanced at herself in the mirror and grinned. Worn, baggy jeans and one of Adam’s jerseys over her black tank top was probably not what Nikoli had in mind when he asked her to dinner. Comfortable sandals completed her outfit, her toes shining from the pink nail polish she’d put on yesterday. Nikoli probably expected a dress and heels. She pulled her hair back in pigtails and then slipped on her 1950’s style black rimmed glasses. She screamed nerdy geek going to a high school football pep rally. So not Nikoli’s style.

“Well, you certainly aren’t going to inspire any lustful thoughts.” Janet laughed from the open doorway of Lily’s room.

“My point,” Lily said with a grin. “Plus, I’m going prepared to wage war.”

Janet arched a brow in question.

“You remember Stephanie and Amanda from last year? The ones who had the beer party that nearly got us all kicked out?”

Janet laughed. “Oh, yeah, I don’t think I’d ever seen you that mad.”

“Well, seems our boy accosted Stephanie and left her in tears.” Lily shook her head. “Why will they never learn? Women are just his toy of the hour.”

“He’s too pretty for his own good,” Janet agreed. “I love Mike dearly, but if Nikoli gave me one of those sex filled stares of his…” She shrugged. “I don’t know what I’d do, honestly. I know how bad that sounds, but he is just one of those men…”

Lily sighed. Nikoli was a man who could potentially destroy a woman without a second thought and she’d go into it with her eyes wide open. He never gave them any expectations. They did bring it all on themselves.

“Speaking of Mike, he said Adam put his foot in his mouth.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Yeah, he went into over-protective big brother mode and tried to forbid me from going out with the manwhore.”

“Oh, God, I never thought about him like that,” Janet giggled. “Now every time I hear his name, I’m going to think manwhore.”