Page 11 of Ruthless Savage

I hear someone at my door, entering the code, and I know it’s Karen, my best friend. She’s the only one who has it besides Devlin.

She walks in, huffing as she drags her feet toward the love seat and lies on it. I swear she spends more time in my room than her own.

My father arranged for me to get the whole room to myself, and for Devlin to be allowed anywhere on school grounds. Probably donated a crap-ton of money to the university for that.

“I’m shot.” She yawns. “Wanna grab some lunch?”

“Not really hungry.” I twist my lips, and that has her sitting up, brushing her long, sunny blonde hair off her face.

Her dark eyes squeeze as she gives me a once-over. “What’s wrong? Is that hot guard giving you hell again?”

“Don’t call him hot.” I swear I get jealous every time she ogles him like she’s imagining him doing things to her he should be doing to me.

“Well, he is.” She wags her brows. “That damn simmering gaze and that long hair.” She blows an exaggerated breath. “How the hell haven’t you jumped his bones already?”

My eyes roll. “You can’t jump the bones of a man who doesn’t want you.”

She waves off my remark. “You just haven’t tried hard enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, remember how he tossed you over his shoulder earlier this month when you went out with Kayla to that lounge?”

“Yeah…” I shrug. “And nothing happened afterward. He brought me back to the dorm and left.”

Kayla is my other friend. She’s close with Elsie Marino, the wife of Michael Marino, the head of the Messina family. They’re one of the Italian crime families of New York, I’m told.

Iseult told me that when Kayla, Elsie, and their other friend, Jade, were nineteen, they were trafficked by one of the five families. An evil syndicate that no longer exists. A group of brothers who hated them, the Cavaleris, killed them all off.

After Kayla was rescued, nine years after she was taken, she wanted to go to college. Something she never got to do. So Michael arranged for her to attend the same school I’m attending now.

Karen giggles. “The fact that he threw you over his shoulder because you were dancing with another man obviously means he was really jealous. So you step up your game. Go out more. Dress in skimpier outfits. Make him crazy. Until he blows.” Her lips thin into a calculating grin. “You have to challenge him. See how much he can take. It’s the only way he’ll fuck that virginity out of you.”

I grumble and throw the extra pillow over my face.

“I knew I shouldn’t have told you,” I mumble.

“It’s not a big deal.” She scoffs. “I mean, I don’t know that many eighteen-year-old virgins… Actually, I don’t know any.” Her laughter echoes. “But that’s okay. You want him to be your first. I bet he’d fuck you so hard the bed would break.”

“Jesus!” I toss the pillow away. “Can you not?”

“Aww, are you blushing?”

She loves to tease me about my lack of experience. I know it is all in good fun. I do wish I was more like her, though. She has boys lining up to date her, and she knows all the tricks to make them want her. I know nothing. I once read a magazine article talking about what a man wants in the bedroom, and there’s no way I could do any of that. I’ve never even seen a live penis before.

My face heats up just thinking about Devlin naked or getting naked in front of him, touching him everywhere. Oh geez, I can’t even think about that stuff without my body tightening. He’d get so turned off by my lack of experience that he’d never want to touch me again.

“We’re going to a party tonight,” Karen announces, jumping to her feet, her face beaming with excitement. “The boys of Psi Zeta are throwing a huge bash at their house, and you will not say no.”

Devlin at a frat should be interesting…

I bite onto my lower lip. Maybe I can get him jealous enough to try something.

“I’ll do your makeup and you can borrow one of my dresses.” Karen grins.

“What’s wrong with how I do my makeup?”

“Nothing! You’re gorgeous. But I’m gonna make you all sultry and sexy. He won’t be able to resist you.”

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