Page 67 of Boys Who Taint (Spine Ridge University #5)

Grey

I’m just eating a snack at a table in the cafeteria during my short break between classes, when Xavier, Aspen’s twin brother, sits down at my table and stares me down like I have something on my face.

“What?” I take a sip of my Coke.

“You let her fuck with Apollo?”

I nearly snort up my Coke. “What the—How the hell do you—”

He slams his fist down. “The entire fucking campus is talking about it. Don’t hide it. Are you fucking for real? I told you to fucking protect her.”

“Listen bro, what we do in private is none of your business.”

“It is when the dude is a Torres. And I can’t fucking believe you took her to the Phantom Society.”

“You think I can stop her?” I snort. “Good luck trying.”

“You swore you’d protect her from Levi,” he growls.

He’s madly protective over her, and I get it, since he’s her twin and all, and they’ve all been through enough. But I’m not the one he should be mad at here.

“She’s as safe as she can be,” I reply.

“At the Phantoms?!” he rebukes. “With Apollo fucking Torres slobbering on her lips?”

I put down my drink. “You make it sound gross.”

“Because it is! You don’t even care that he’s basically staking his claim?” He scoffs. “He kissed her. Right in front of every Phantom.”

I raise a brow. “You think I don’t know?”

He narrows his eyes. “You’re into this, aren’t you?”

I shrug. “Like I said, what we do is none of your business.”

He folds his arms and stares at me. “That’s why you let him have his way with her.”

I lean over the table and hiss, “Can you not be so loud about it? Jesus Christ.”

He laughs out loud. “Oh my God, so that’s it? You have a sharing fetish? You’re a certified cuck.”

I slam my finger in front of his mouth. “The entire fucking campus doesn’t need to know.”

“Too late. They already know because those Phantoms told them what they saw when you both kissed her,” he says. “And what the fuck was she doing in Levi’s room anyway?”

“Nothing,” I reply, trying to douse the flames of whatever the hell this fire is.

“Snooping around? She must’ve been searching for something,” he mutters to himself. “Did he notice?”

“No,” I quickly answer. “He wasn’t there.”

“Good. You’d kill him if he tried to hurt her, right?”

“Oh yeah, definitely.” I nod a few times even though I’m lying through my teeth.

She’d kill me if I tried.

“What’s this about?” Apollo’s deep voice makes goose bumps scatter on my skin. He places his hand on my shoulder, and I gulp. “Talking about me again?”

“I know you smooched my sister,” Xavier says.

“And what about it?” Apollo rebukes.

“Everyone’s talking about it.”

“And?”

I guess he really doesn’t care what anyone thinks.

“Don’t you think the gossip is hurting her?”

“No. She can handle it.”

“You’d better treat her right or else …”

“Or else what?” Apollo snorts, leaning over me as he plants his hands down on the table, the viciousness on his face making even me freak out. “You’ll hurt me?”

Xavier picks up his fork and skewers his potato salad. “She’s my sister. I’m going to protect her. She’s been hurt enough,” he retorts, grinding his teeth.

“You know, you’re not the first to threaten me,” he replies, smiling. “But I appreciate the effort. It’s admirable you wanna protect her. But let’s be real, you don’t stand a chance in fighting me.”

“Whatever. A Torres can’t be trusted,” Xavier says as he shoves some potatoes into his mouth.

“Keep going, you almost sound like your dad,” Apollo says.

“Good. He knows a threat when he sees one.”

“A threat?” Apollo laughs. “The only threat I’ll pose is to anyone who dares to get between me and the things I want.”

“And what’s that?”

“Her,” he growls back.

Suddenly, Apollo grabs my face and slams his lips onto mine. And when his lips unlatch, I’m dizzy just from the way he claimed me … right in front of the entire cafeteria.

“ And him,” he adds.

“Wow,” Xavier mutters as the potato salad slowly drops off his fork.

Apollo smirks and glares at Xavier. “Any other questions?”

“Did that just happen?” Xavier mutters.

A thick, warm blush creeps onto my cheeks. “Yep.”

Everyone is looking at us, whispering words I can’t hear, but I know what they’re saying.

Apollo waltzes to the cashier, who’s right beside the lady scooping the potato salad into little bowls, and he snatches the microphone right out from underneath her nose, tapping it a few times.

“Is this on? Great. Attention, everyone. I know you already know, but I’m going to tell you anyway because I don’t fucking care.

I’m fucking Grey Westbrook and Aspen Caruso at the same damn time.

They are mine, and so help you God if you try to stop me because I will fuck you up.

” He looks around the room at all the mortified faces. “Any fucking questions? No? Good.”

He pushes the mic away again as the potato salad that was being scooped up drops from the lady’s spoon, and he struts off like it’s nobody’s business, leaving the rest of us utterly stupefied.

Levi

During the day, I pretend she doesn’t exist even though it makes me feel like I’m dying inside. How could I go back to seeing her as a someone I needed to get rid of after I just poured every inch of my fucked-up soul into her?

How can I ever forget what she does to me?

How could I ever want to go back to before?

Every so often, I watch her walk by with her friends or with Grey, squeezing his hand, and I stay on the sidelines, yearning in silence. Catching a whiff of her scent is enough for now.

My hand should be where his hand is, but it’s not going to happen. It’ll never work.

If people ever saw me by her side, word would spread as fast as the fire she started in my heart, and with Felix as the dean, her entire family would know in an instant that I’ve been near her. Any word about my relationship with her—our filthy kisses or our sinful fucks—and I’d be a dead man.

I can’t do that to her. No matter how badly I want her to be mine as much as she is his, I can’t put her through this all over again.

Grey suggested we show the video evidence to her family, but I immediately shot that down. I don’t want them to think Mavis had to die because of my love for Aspen. They’d never accept that.

So I stay where I’ve always been, waiting, watching her like I always have and always will. Maybe until eternity. She’s worth it.

I breathe out a sigh and walk off when she’s gone again. Her scent has left my nostrils and I have classes to attend soon. But I will cherish the memory of seeing her again, despite not having talked the entire day.

This is how it’s going to be from now on.

Hungry looks with no words exchanged.

Just a simple glance, and that’s it. Like someone she’ll never talk to … someone she’s never even kissed.

That’s all I’m going to get in public.

But in private … God, I will fucking taint her beyond recognition.

Sauntering to my next class, which starts in about twenty minutes, I take my time while listening to the music blasting in my ears. It’s in a remote corner of the school, the farthest hallway one can imagine.

Suddenly, a door to a room that’s never used opens, and a pair of hands lunge out to wrap around my arm, dragging me inside.

“What the—”

The door shuts behind me. She lowers her blue hoodie, and when that fiery red hair appears from underneath I suddenly lose all sense of time.

“Hi,” she says, smiling briefly.

Did she just drag me in here to …?

Fuck it.

I grab her face with both hands and smash my lips onto hers without question, without saying even a single word. There’s nothing I could say that my lips can’t fix.

She practically melts into me as I kiss her deeply, uncontrollably, coiling my fingers through her hair as I spin her around and slam her against the door. Her mouth is to die for, and I am so fucking lucky I got to kiss it before it was my time to go.

Even if we only have seconds, minutes, I want to make the most of it before it’s gone.

Before someone inevitably decides my time on this earth is forfeited because of what I’ve done.

But fuck me, when I die, at least I’ll have had a taste of heaven in her.

“F-fuck, I missed you,” I murmur between kissing her senseless.

Her swollen lips pull back for just a second. “I didn’t even get to say good morning or goodbye.”

“I know,” I whisper as I kiss her lips and probe them with my tongue, trying to taste as much of her as I can before it all turns to dust.

God, I want her. I want her so badly I could scream it from the rooftops, but I can’t. It would kill me and end up killing her too just through the heartbreak. God, what have I done?

“We have to stop,” I murmur, as I try to take my lips off her, but it’s impossible.

My fingers slide underneath her hoodie, craving that touch, that closeness as I let my hands roam across her pretty body. All mine.

“Just a little more,” she whimpers. “Please.”

Her begging is enough to make a man want to go to his knees as my tongue rolls around her mouth, and a needy moan escapes her throat.

I take off her hoodie and drop it on the floor.

“I know we shouldn’t,” she murmurs as I let my tongue travel all over her neck and kiss her beneath her ear.

“They’ll kill me if they find out you’re here with me,” I whisper, biting her earlobe as my fingers find their way to her nipples, twisting them so she’ll moan some more. God, I’m so fucking greedy when it comes to her. “But if I die now, it’s worth it.”

“No,” she says with a hampered breath. “I can’t. Not after I saved you, not after I’ve …”

She swallows her words as I bite down on her shoulder, greedily taking what I shouldn’t. And I can’t help but push myself up against her, my bulge hardening more and more with every passing second.

But a knock on the door makes her pull back, and the spell is broken.

Fuck, what a mood killer.

“Enough,” a voice growls through the door. “I know what you’re doing in there.”

I frown and whisper, “You brought Grey here?”

“I told him to watch the door,” she says, swallowing. “So no one will see us exiting together.”

“It’s time,” Grey adds.

She opens the door, but I slam it closed and grab her face one last time for another kiss, just one more. One. That’s all I’m asking for. That’s all I need. All I crave.

Just. One. More. Kiss.

When her lips leave mine, it feels empty, but I know she has to leave sometime and go back to being with Grey, back to pretending I’m someone she hates.

God, how can we ever keep this up?

“See you tonight?” she asks.

I peck her on the forehead. “In my bed. I’ll bring the plugs.”

She grins and swiftly exits the room, closing the door behind her, while my heart palpitates in my throat. And fuck me, now I’m going to have to wait until the boner disappears.

After a few minutes, there’s another knock.

“You can come out now, Loverboy.”

I roll my eyes and pull open the door, where a smirking Apollo waits for me with his hand against the doorpost. “What are you doing here?”

“Making sure no one knows you were here,” he muses. “Aspen sent me.”

“Right. Because we need a chaperone.”

“Just covering our tracks, that’s it,” he says as we both walk out into the hallway.

A bunch of students passing us by giggle, and I narrow my eyes when everyone we see starts gossiping behind our backs.

“Are you noticing something?” I ask.

“No, why?” Apollo replies without even looking at me.

“They’re staring at us. And talking.”

“Can’t help it. They adore the pecs.” He flexes his arms.

My eyes nearly roll into the back of my head. “Sure, bighead.”

A fellow gym rat high-fives Apollo on the way to our next class. And when a girl walks past us, she says, “Is two enough for you or do you want a third?” She winks at him.

I frown at him. “What did you do?”

“Oh nothing,” he says, shrugging. “They’re all jealous because I just casually announced over the loudspeaker that I’m fucking both Grey and Aspen.”

I stop in my tracks. “YOU DID WHAT?”