Page 12 of Let the Game Begin

It was Neil. It couldn’t have been anyone else.

The luminous highlights in his tousled hair gleamed in the sun, and his full lips were stretched into an insolent smile.

“Your brother is such a snack,” Alyssa remarked to Logan before lapsing into all sorts of praise for Neil. Her opinion was shared by most of the girls present; I was the only one who seemed upset or surprised about finding him here at the school.

“What the hell is he doing here?” I practically yelled. I couldn’t stand having to put up with him, even in a controlled environment like the campus. I’d never been a weak person before, but I inexplicably knew that this boy had the power to annihilate me.

“Neil’s in his senior year. He’ll be graduating soon,” Logan explained, surprised by my reaction.

I didn’t give a crap whether he was in his senior year. I didn’t want him anywhere near me. Period.

We all continued to stare at him. Though only I did it angrily. In truth, the anger was more for me than for him, because I was afraid of the effect that Neil had on me.

“I’m begging you: don’t let me run into him too often,” I grumbled, praying an unseen God would heed my plea.

“Well, you do live in the same house as him, so school is probably the least of your worries there.” Logan chuckled. I had hoped to at least avoid his insidious presence and walk carefree through the halls of my university.

I was still mourning when, a moment later, Jennifer appeared wearing a black miniskirt and slim knee-high boots. Her hair was a golden cascadeover her bombshell curves. She wrapped her arms around Neil’s neck and kissed him passionately, paying no attention to the students around her.

“My goodness…in a public place and everything,” Julie remarked, sounding prim and proper.

“You are talking about Neil Miller here. You know the reputation he’s got…” Adam pointed out.

So, he was known to be a lothario? Shocker.

“Jennifer’s body is insane…” Cory interjected, staring speculatively at her backside.

I couldn’t say exactly why, but the situation became too much for me to handle. I said my goodbyes to everyone and headed for the building’s entrance, ready to start classes. I didn’t want to hear anything more about that swaggering jerk. Our relationship had started off on the wrong foot, and I already knew it was going to continue in the same fashion. I was better off just walking away. Or running.

***

My classes flew by. In my literature course, I met the odd Professor Smith, who had a soft spot for Shakespeare. In just the first half hour, he quoted him approximately one billion times. Then I met the art history instructor, Amanda Cooper, who was less fanatical but equally dedicated. She was lively and appealing. So much so that Logan, Adam, Jake, and Cory’s observations on the class were limited to comments about the tight skirt she was wearing and debates about her possible age.

“That’s what I’m saying. She’s got to be about forty,” Adam insisted once again as we walked away from campus. I couldn’t wait to get home; there was a jackhammer pounding in my head, and all I wanted was a good night’s sleep.

“And I’m saying no way,” Jake said.

“Guys, either way she’s a MILF. Everyone knows that’s the best kind,” Cory declared.

I smiled at their debate. It was true, young men often seemed especially attracted to older women.

“You want to knock it off?” Julie grumbled in annoyance, but no one paid her any attention.

“As I was saying: she’s a dime piece,” Adam went on. Their collective hormones were running wild after getting a glimpse of their professor’s shapely bottom.

“You aren’t wrong,” Logan added, and I gave him a disbelieving look.

“So, you got the famous perv gene like all the other men, huh?” I cocked a sarcastic eyebrow at him and stifled a grin of amusement.

“Well, I make the typical male observations,” he explained with a shrug of his shoulders.

I shook my head, and at the same time, two large hands landed on my hips, startling me.

“What the…” I spun around and, to my amazement, encountered a pair of emerald-green eyes.

“Jared!” I shouted in delight, throwing my arms around his neck.

“Hey, baby,” the man I still thought of as my boyfriend whispered in my ear. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Had he really come all the way out here just to see me?