Page 16 of Under the Lights (The Big Boys of BRU #2)

Fourteen

Dom

“Ugh, I can’t believe I only had one year of peace from you.” Ella dropped her head into her hands with a groan.

“You mean you dread the fact people at brU are going to figure out how much cooler your brother is than you?” I popped a fry into my mouth and chewed obnoxiously. Repulsed, she peered up at me.

“I swear, you were five just yesterday. How did this happen?“

“No idea,” I said with my mouth full.

“You’re disgusting.”

Just to piss her off, I stuffed another fry into my mouth and chewed it with my mouth open.

“Will you stop?”

Just as I was about to answer, her phone went off, and she held up a finger to silence me. I rolled my eyes and made a face.

“Hey girl, what’s up?”

A female voice sounded on the other end of the line, and Ella listened intently, her eyebrows drawn together.

An expression of underlying concern spread across her face. “No, of course not. No worries. I won’t be around. It’s my brother’s graduation day, so I’ll be out of town for a couple of days.”

She began twisting a piece of her hair between her fingers, a dead giveaway that she was either lost in thought or something was bugging her.

Silently, I shot her a questioning glance, but she waved me off.

“Yeah, all right,” she said. “I still haven’t moved any of my stuff in, so it’s pretty much just bare bones in there. But I can call the leasing office and ask them to have the key ready for you.”

The ice clinked in my glass as I raised it to my mouth.

“I won’t be back until sometime this weekend. I’m sorry I can’t help you move your stuff into the apartment.”

Sipping the cold Sprite, I let some ice chips slide into my mouth and chewed them with a loud crunch. Ella shot me an irritated look, rolled her eyes, and shook her head.

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later, Sierra.”

The name hit me just as the next ice chip slid into my mouth. Sierra?

My head snapped up, and the ice chip rocketed to the back of my throat like a fucking missile. I choked, coughed, and sputtered — utterly betrayed by frozen water — while Ella threw me a look like I’d just ruined her entire life.

“God, Dom. Get a grip .”

I glared at her, took a gulp of my drink to wash it down, then cleared my throat, still wheezing.

“Hoo wash dat?” I asked, garbled around yet another piece of ice because apparently, I had no self-preservation instinct.

Clearly, I didn’t know when to stop. Case in point .

She gave me another glance — this one dirtier than the last. “Nosy much.”

“Puh-lease. You’re one to talk.” Brows raised, I fixed her with a look.

“All right,” she huffed, “you’ve got a point there.”

Curiosity was eating me alive. ”Soooo…”

“ So , that was my new roommate.”

I struggled to keep my voice even and casual, prodding at the ice with my straw. “Nice. Didn’t know you found someone. When did that happen? How do you know her?”

“What’s with the sudden burst of interest?” Her eyes narrowed.

Defensively, I raised my hands. “Excuse me for wanting to make sure that my only sister isn’t shacking up with some weirdo.”

“She’s not. I’ve known her for a while. She used to live in a sorority house, but I guess she’s looking for a different place now. Called me up a few weeks ago, right when I was getting desperate about finding someone decent. She can seem aloof and a bit stuck up at times, but she’s cool.”

Huh. That sounded familiar. Could it be?

The mere possibility that this could be my Sierra had me on edge. She had embedded herself in my mind like a virus that I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to shake. But not the bad kind of virus.

Wait — was there a good kind of virus? Biology and I have never been on good terms. Shit, I was getting off track. I shook my head slightly, trying to regain my focus.

As if I hadn’t been trying to do that ever since she crashed into my life like a meteor. I was obsessed. Plain and simple. I’ve been replaying that night in my head, over and over again, sometimes not being able to sleep at all because of the way she was consuming my thoughts.

She was the only thing I could see. I couldn’t even get fucking hard without thinking of her. Every time I stroked my dick, her moans were what I heard, her face was what I saw.

“The plan was for both of us to move in this weekend, but apparently there was some kind of emergency, so she’s moving in today,” Ella continued.

I frowned. “Is she going to be okay?”

“I think so.” She flashed me a sly smile. “Since when do you care about the welfare of your fellow humans?”

“Dipshit.” I threw one of my fries at her, which she dodged with a laugh.

“Just kidding.”

“Hey, I was thinking maybe I could drive up to campus with you this weekend, bring some of my stuff up there … maybeee leave it at your place until I officially get my room?”

“I swear, you football players are so damn lucky that your program has its own dorms. We can only dream of that.”

“I thought you wanted to get out of the dorms anyway?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Sure, but it would have been nice to save on rent over the summer.”

I sucked my teeth. “Sorry, sis.”

“It’s okay. You know I don’t have a problem with working,” she said with a shrug. Her eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands enthusiastically. “Oh! If you’re on campus too, you can help me move — as a thank you for letting you dump your stuff at my place.”

On the inside I pumped my fist, but on the outside I pretended to surrender. That was exactly what I’d hoped for. “Fine,” I groaned. “If I have to.”

After Ella left, I just sat in my truck in the parking lot, my mind racing. My knuckles turned white as I gripped the steering wheel, a singular thought repeating in an endless loop.

What if it was her?

Like every day, I pulled up her IG feed on my phone. And like every day, I typed out a message. And like every day, I deleted it after staring at it for way too long.

Scrolling through her pictures only appeased the growing obsession that had sunk its teeth into me to some extent. The memories of her haunted me day and night.

All I wanted was to touch her again, to be close to her. I longed for her, devoted myself to her, body and soul.

The waiting was killing me. I was someone who took what he wanted, and what I wanted, more than anything, so much it fucking hurt, was Sierra.

I wanted everything — her sweetness and her venom, her soft side and the prickly one. Knowing I had to wait, or I might risk losing her before I even had the chance to convince her, was the only thing holding me back.

My eyes were glued to the screen, greedily drinking in her beauty, until the screen dimmed. Frustrated, I locked my phone and threw it onto the passenger seat as though it had burned me.

It wasn’t the right time. Not yet. It didn’t matter how I felt. She wasn’t going to give me a shot — not until I hit college, not until I checked the right boxes.