Page 44 of Under the Lights (The Big Boys of BRU #2)

Thirty Five

Sierra

“Oh my fucking God!” Ella screeched as I looked up at Dom in shock. “Why am I looking at my brother’s pasty white ass?! Doors , people! They’re there for a reason! Jesus fucking Christ.”

“Sorry!” I meekly called out, Dom’s grin now positively shit-eating. Motherfucker was enjoying this.

“Where did that even come from? Wait, wait — don’t tell me. I don’t wanna know.” She fake gagged audibly. “I can’t deal with this right now. Dom?”

He looked over his shoulder, flashing her that smug grin. “Yes?”

“We’re gonna talk about this. I know this was your doing. You need to stop corrupting her.”

“Sure,” drawled Dom, but her steps were already fading in the background, followed by a door slamming with perhaps a bit more force than necessary.

“Oh my God,” I moaned, mortified, making him snort. “This is not funny!” I swatted his thigh.

“Yeah it is.” His tattooed hand wrapped around his cock, already hardening again. “Now, let’s get this cleaned up, Darlin’, I’m not done with you yet.”

***

The late afternoon sun cast soft rays through the windows of the library. Wistfully, I stared out at the clear, blue skies.

It looked like a picture-perfect day, and with the humidity mostly gone now, it reminded me of home. Instead of soaking up the fall sun, however, I was hunkered down in the library.

Between practices, games, coaching, and oh yeah, trying to finish my degree , I barely had time to study at all. I had to take advantage of every opportunity, even if it was just an hour between classes.

We weren’t close to finals yet, so at least it wasn’t packed.

The quiet atmosphere soothed me — soft murmurs, highlighters scraping over paper, and the light clicking of people typing on their laptops filled the air. I enjoyed the silence, and the understated background noise helped me concentrate.

What did not help me concentrate was the bane of my existence sitting right next to me — with his stupid handsome smile he kept flashing at me, and his stupid backwards cap on his stupidly gorgeous dark-red hair, and his stupid big inked hands making the pen in his hand look miniscule.

He claimed it was a total coincidence and said he had planned all week to study here today.

I stared at the words in front of me so hard, my eyes were starting to water. I’d been stuck on the same page for the last five minutes because Dom was just way too close.

His tree trunk of a thigh kept brushing against mine because, of course, he was fucking man-spreading, and his scent surrounded me, making me flustered.

The cocky little smirk, permanently stuck on his face, made clear he knew what he was doing. I huffed in annoyance, as if my breath didn’t hitch when I felt the warmth of his thigh pressed against me.

Like I wasn’t drooling over his forearms that flexed when he moved.

Like the butterflies in my stomach didn’t go crazy every time I felt his gaze on me.

And I hated myself for loving it.

“Do you mind?” I hissed out of the corner of my mouth.

“You’re smarter than me. I need your ambient genius to survive.” He shrugged, not even the least bit sorry.

I got up, partly to find a reference book, partly to calm my raging hormones. There was nothing sexy about a fucking library. Getting all hot and bothered just because he was smiling at me and sitting closely was pathetic.

It was that goddamn backwards cap. And the neck tattoo. Couldn’t blame a girl for going feral for that shit.

I just needed a minute to breathe, to center myself again, so I’d be able to focus. Moving down a shadowy row in the stacks, my eyes were roaming over the spines.

Just as I’d clocked the one I was hunting, with my hand reaching for it, I all of a sudden heard an agitating, grating voice behind me.

“Aw, look who it is.”

Fixing a condescending smile onto my face, I turned. “Aria. I’d say it’s nice to see you, but … well .”

Scrunching my nose, I gave a little shrug. That was one face I surely hadn’t missed, and it irritated me to no end how perfect her hair looked. Add to that the fact that I was sure she was involved in the embezzlement as well, and I was positively boiling with rage.

I was a girl’s girl, but people with a core that rotten shouldn’t have hair this pretty. Based on her character, it should be falling out in clumps.

Ugh .

“Saw you playing footsie over there with that rookie. Adorable ,” she mock-whispered and raised her eyebrows, looking faintly amused.

Cocking my head to the side, I flattened her with an unimpressed stare.

“Didn’t know your taste had … evolved. Is he even legal yet?”

I laughed, flicking my hair over my shoulder. “That’s rich coming from you.”

“Must be nice. Low effort, low standards. All he has to do is drool when you walk past and lift heavy things.”

“You’re right. I should’ve gone for another backstabbing, clout-chasing frat boy,” I said with a cold smile, and my neck began prickling as I sensed a heavy gaze on me. ”But I’m into men now.”

I was certain he had heard the tail end of my sentence. Glancing over my shoulder, I caught sight of him, leaning in the stack entrance, cool as a cucumber.

His expression was unreadable, but his eyes were on fire. Protective. Patient. He was letting me decide. He wasn’t interrupting, just … present .

“You good, Darlin’?”

“Peachy.” I turned back around to address Aria. “Should’ve known you’d crawl out the second I had someone else’s attention on me.”

“ Please . The last guy willing to date you literally had to be coerced into it.”

Bingo . I knew it.

“You always did confuse jealousy with judgment. Must be exhausting.” I said coolly.

“Well, you were always a bitch. So there’s that.” She sneered.

“Careful, sweetheart. That tone’s gonna wrinkle your Botox.” Her hand shot up to her forehead, and I let out another laugh. Of course that would get to her.

“Whatever.” She scoffed. “At least I wasn’t the one who got kicked out.”

“At least I’m not a fucking backstabbing, fraudulent bitch. Goodbye.” I gave her a finger wave, a sugary sweet smile on my face. With a scoff, she turned on her heel and scuttled off.

Rage was boiling inside of me, a deep-seated fury at her audacity to come at me like that.

Who the fuck did she think she was? That girl had fornicated with half the hockey team — good for her, no shame in that — but she felt it necessary to comment on my choice of partner?

She had the gall to question my morality when they were betraying, lying, and scamming on the regular at this point.

She could get all the way fucked.

I clenched my hands into fists, my nails biting into my skin, as I took deep, calming breaths. With swift, decisive movements, I pulled the book I’d come for from the shelf and turned around.

Dom was still standing in the same spot, unmoving, his face blank. For once, his smile was missing, as though he didn’t quite know what to feel. I stopped right next to his towering form.

“Come on, let’s go back.” My fingertips brushed against his forearm, and I set off. After one step, I came to a halt again and said softly, “Thank you.”

Back at the table, I sat down with a heavy sigh and stared out the window with unseeing eyes. Trying to concentrate, I opened the heavy book and flipped through the pages, but no matter how hard I stared at the words, none of them registered in my mind.

I highlighted a couple of things in my notes, but fuck if I knew what I was highlighting in a vivid shade of pink. I was trying to contain the maelstrom of emotions swirling inside me, trying to exert control.

I was good at control.

Control was safe.

Control kept you from getting hurt. But lately, it had been slipping through my fingers. No matter what I did, I couldn’t hang on to it.

My phone buzzed.

I glanced down, ready to ignore it, but the preview stopped me in my tracks. No contact. No name. Again .

Unknown: Smile pretty, sweetheart. You’re being watched.

My spine snapped straight. I tilted the phone slightly away from Dom, hoping he hadn’t seen the flicker across the screen.

“Everything okay?” His voice was low but sharp. Not casual or curious, and with an underlying level of awareness that was slightly off-putting.

I forced air into my lungs, then tried to laugh, but it didn’t quite come out right. “Yeah. Spam text. One of those weird phishing things about my car’s extended warranty or whatever.”

His brow twitched up. I could feel his eyes on me, even though I kept mine locked on the book.

“You don’t have a car,” he said.

“Exactly,” I said too brightly. “Totally fake.”

Dom didn’t push. He didn’t say anything at all — just sat there beside me like a wall of quiet heat. He was patient, but his presence was heavy. It was as if he were waiting for something I wasn’t ready to give.

I didn’t mean to reach for his hand under the table. I just… did.

His fingers curled around mine without hesitation. No words were needed. There was just warmth and connection. Like we were already in sync and didn’t need to speak it aloud.

He kept showing up for me.

And what was worse — he kept on meaning it.