Page 93 of Out of Bounds

Marked Goods

The bracelets? Rejected. The dress? Rejected. But Istillneeded something for the alumni night and Zariah was my saving grace. She shoved her key in the lock to our dorm and slammed it with her shoulder. The door crashed open.

"Oh—shit!" She grabbed at the handle. "I forgot Ryan fixed that."

I pulled open the door, inspecting the wall. "No damage done."

"Too bad for Ryan." Zariah burst into laughter and the two of us headed to our shared bedroom. "I’ve got twenty minutes, let’s make the most of it."

"The twenty minutes is damn appreciated." I shrugged off my backpack and tossed it on my bed, laying down on my comforter.While Zariah rummaged through her closet, I took out my sketchbook and flipped through the pages.

A study of Ryan’s eyebrows.

A study of Ryan’s arms, when he flexed them for me atGianna’sto draw.

A page where I drew Adam and King in the style of Beavis and Butthead.

And…a study of shirtless Ryan at the gym.

"What do you need for an alumni night?" Zariah asked.

"Huh?" I hid my sketchbook a little better and flipped through the pages, looking for a blank one. "Uh…something real nice,"

"Kass…?"

"Yeah?"

"What isthis?" Zariah abandoned her closet for the moment and zipped over to me, hovering close enough to catch a glimpse at my sketchbook.

I almost hid it, but what was the point? She’d already seen. The page was full of the dark honey eyes, narrowed in concentration, and a drawing of Ryan at the bottom, his jaw set. It was Ryan, Ryan, Ryan.

"Exactly what I thought…" Zariah teased.

No point in denying it.

"I want to fuck Ryan," I admitted.

She gaped at me. "Uh…okay. Wow. I was going to draw that out."

With a sigh, I leaned back on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. I could hear the front door open again, no doubt one of our other roommates or one of their boyfriends that slept on the couch.

"I want to suck thesoulout of his dick," I continued, tossing my sketchbook away. "I want to sit on his face but I don’t knowhowto do it."

"Do you need me to draw you a diagram?"

"No. I mean, I’ve never been in this position before! I’ve never wanted to sleep with someone but I can’t!" I groaned. "I don’t know!"

The door pushed open. "That’s not going to happen, Kassie."

Loitering outside our bedroom door was none other than Elijah Contractor, Zariah’s twin brother. Stocky as hell, with the same dense curls his sister had, Elijah could have been easily pinpointed as an athlete.

The bruises on the left side of his face and the scrapes on his arm? Hockey player for sure.

"Elijah," Zariah snapped. "It’s girl talk."

"I need a first aid kit." He showed off his arm and the injuries he probably deserved. "If my coach sees I got into another fight, he’s going to freak out. But they don’t call me Ruthless for nothing."

I raised an eyebrow but Zariah answered my question before I could ask it. "It’s his hockey nickname."

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