Page 14 of Kings of the Campus

Julian nods in agreement. “Exactly. If she makes it public that we tried to humiliate her, we’ll be looking at more than just bad press. The administration could step in, or worse, alumni could pull funding. We barely survived the last scandal.”

Devin leans forward, eyes narrowed. “So what’s the plan? We can’t just let her keep pushing us around.”

Alec straightens up, his voice firm. “We go after her full tilt. We dig up whatever dirt we can on her, anything that’ll make her back off. If she wants to play dirty, fine. We can play dirty too.”

Matteo looks uneasy, his fingers tapping nervously against the table. “I don’t know, man. This feels like we’re crossing a line.”

I glance at Alec, knowing he’s not backing down. “We’ve already crossed lines, Matteo. The question is whether we let her destroy us or if we take control.”

Julian chimes in, his tone practical. “Tessa could cause serious trouble if she decides to make an episode about what went down at the carnival. If we don’t shut her down soon, she’ll have us by the throat.”

Alec nods, resolute. “Then it’s settled. We find a way to take her down before she takes us down.”

Matteo shakes his head. “I’m not going to do anything to hurt her, but I’m still loyal to the frat first and foremost. If we find something that can get her to back off, let’s do that. Otherwise, we should try not to go too far.”

“Jace and I will try to find what we can,” Alec offers. “We have a responsibility to protect the fraternity though.”

With that, the meeting breaks up and Alec and I head upstairs to his bedroom to do some digging. We start with looking through her records at the school, at anything publicly available.

Coming up short, we switch tactics. Alec uses his admin privileges to look into her academic record but even that turns up nothing.

“This is getting us nowhere!” Alec says, running his hands through his dark hair. “I feel like Tessa can’t be as squeaky clean as she’s pretending to be. Everyone has skeletons in their closet!”

“Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way,” I suggest, leaning back in the computer chair as I let my mind wander. “Her skeletons might not be in the system. It seems like a reporter would be sneaky enough to know how to keep the bad stuff off the record.”

“So what then?” Alec asks, a frown on his face.

“So, we need to get closer to her,” I say, a smile creeping over my face. “One of us gets her to open up and bam, we’ve found out what we can use against her.”

Alec nods. “You should be the one to do it. You’ve got natural charm.”

“I agree,” I say with a playful smirk.

The opportunity to get closer to her comes sooner than expected. The next time I’m at the library, I see Tessa lurking in the stacks, ostensibly keeping an eye on me. I grin to myself before smoothing a hand over my hair and approaching her.

She’s pretending to readLove in the Time of Choleraand I push the book down gently, lowering it so I can see her vivid green eyes as they stare up at me.

“Can I help you?” she asks, tone haughty but I see the hesitation there.

“I was hoping you could help me, actually,” I say, plucking the book from her hand and examining it. “Good book. I love the romance between Florentino and Fermina.”

Tessa stares at me and I take a step forward, enjoying the way she takes a step backward, her back hitting the bookshelf.

“What do you want?”

“I’m sick of all this back and forth between us,” I tell her. “We all are. We got our feelings hurt and we lashed out stupidly. I was thinking maybe we could call for a truce?”

“A truce?” Tessa asks, swallowing as I stare down at her face, her plush lips looking enticing with the red lipstick she’s wearing.

“Yeah. What do you say? Can we be…friends?” I ask.

“Friends?” she repeats, and I can’t help the smile that crosses my features. She might act high and mighty but she’s not immune to my charms. I reach down and brush her cheek with my thumb.

“What do you say?” I ask.

Tessa licks her lips and her reply is swallowed up as I bring my mouth down to hers, kissing her hard. I can’t resist, her siren’s call is too alluring. She’s adorable in a dorky way, but she’s got such tenacity too.

It isn’t long before she’s kissing back and then suddenly the two of us are grinding on each other, bodies writhing together in the stacks. Something about being near her makes me lose all sense and I find myself getting lost in the pleasure she brings.

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