Page 71 of Toxic

"Wait."

Soren stood up and walked to the window, frowning as he looked outside. It was hard not to notice his perfect ass in those tight speedos. Not a jockstrap this time, but the next best thing.

"It’s pouring. You’ll be soaked in two seconds."

"I’ll run."

Soren turned around and walked to his closet. I did my best not to stare at his slender figure, thin waist, and round butt. He pulled out a black jacket made of thick fabric.

"Take it. It’ll be a bit tight, obviously, but it’s oversized on me, so it should fit you well enough. You won't catch a cold."

The fuck? I almost gaped. Soren was worried about me? He clearly didn’t want me to get drenched, but why… did he even care?

"You don’t have to do that, Soren. We’re just… fuckbuddies," I muttered, feeling weird.

Soren snorted. "It’s just a jacket, dummy! Not a wedding ring! Take it and go."

Shrugging, I smirked and put the jacket on. I felt strangely giddy inside because it clearly wasn’t just a fuckbuddy thing; itfelt more like a boyfriend thing. But judging by the frown on his face, I figured I shouldn’t press the matter further.

Being in a good mood, I headed toward the door, and as I reached the doorstep, I turned back.

"Thank you, Soren, that was sweet of you," I said quickly before he had the chance to snap at me, then closed the door behind me.

As I walked outside his dorm, I looked up and saw him watching me from the window.

Well, that was—again—almost romantic. That word, yes.

But should I really allow myself to believe it meant something more to him? Was I living in a delulu-land with my stupid infatuation, too blind to see the obvious clues?

Part of me, though, knew. We were like the Titanic, having fun and shooting fireworks before the collision with the iceberg. But I was too scared to stare too closely into the dark waters ahead.

***

Walking into my room wasn't exactly the best experience. Archer was out, probably jogging on the treadmill at the gym because of the heavy rain. But Alvin was there, staring at me like he wanted to murder me on the spot.

I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I should start a conversation, but honestly, no scenario where we talked could end well. Alvin would most likely side with Don, especially since he didn't know the full story of what happened between Soren and Don—and I couldn't tell him what was going on. That wasn’t my secret to share.

Unfortunately, it turned out that Don had already relayed the whole thing to Alvin.

"I got Don to spill why you went off the rails yesterday, ‘cause I couldn’t make sense of your crazy outburst," Alvin stated.

So, Don broke his promise to Soren too. If I remembered correctly, keeping it quiet was the reason Soren didn’t go to the police. But I didn’t say a word. I just headed straight for the shower and shut the door behind me.

However, if I thought Alvin would drop it, I was dead wrong. As soon as I finished my shower and stepped out, he was still sitting there, staring daggers at me.

"Skye. Try looking at it from Don’s perspective, not just Soren’s."

My blood pressure spiked immediately. "Can you just stop talking? I’m not authorized to discuss this shit with anyone."

"I don’t give a damn. The guy paid him big bucks for three months and got nothing but scraps. Oh, what a privilege, what a great honor, to sit at Soren’s cafeteria table and have a smoke with him between classes. Are you surprised Don snapped? When you walk into a room densely filled with heat pheromones, it’s hard to keep it together."

"Oh yeah, sooo hard, so that makes it totally okay to rape someone who says ‘no’, right?!" I hissed, my face twisting into a bitter, sarcastic grin. "Because this idiot went into a rut, there was just no stopping him? His brain shut off? Stop bullshitting, Alvin!"

"Have you ever been in a rut? Do you know what it feels like? You think you’ll die if you don’t put it there—"

"Yes, Alvin, as a matter of fact, I’ve been in a rut, with all my boyfriends except the first one from high school. And I never forced any of them. What Don did was rape, plain and simple.Don’t even try to justify it. Don should be in jail for that. It’s got a name: ‘heat rape’."

"Soren orgasmed, it wasn’t brutal, Skye!"

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