Page 10 of The Chemistry of Us

“I have no interest in any place your cock has already been.”

I ignored him and went to grab my shirt from the couch. I let Tru get to me. I needed to let it go the way she let me go. Plus, the girl was practically glued to her computer screen and never partied. The last place she’d want to be was with the entire team, frats, and groupies, even if she was curious.

“Brady.” I snapped my fingers.

He lazily walked over.

“Let’s pre-game. I need to get laid.”

“There he is.” Brady smiled. “Gotta say you had me worried there for a minute.”

Yeah, me too.

“One thing you will never have to worry about is me fucking that pussy upstairs. Even if she were the last woman available, I’d never hook up with her.”

“The very last?” He frowned, like he was confused.

The vile words just kept spewing out of my mouth. “The world could go up in flames, and I still wouldn’t touch her.”

Although the words tasted false, I’d much rather believe in a reality where the world burned, and I allowed her to burn along with it.

Any other thought…

Felt too real.

And for some unknown reason, I couldn’t help the memory of the first time I talked to her play out in my mind as if it were happening…

Right then and there.

CHAPTER 5

VAUGHAN

Then: Three years ago

“Holy shit!”Thomas hollered beside me as I threw the sports car I was driving into reverse out of my driveway.

We’d just flown into the Hamptons that morning, and by we, I meant my parents and me. I fucking hated this pretentious town. It was way worse than any other city my parents owned real estate in, including my hometown in Massachusetts.

My family was top-tier when it came to the elites of the world, and anything I ever wanted, I had at the drop of a dime. Case in point was the brand-new Ferrari sitting in the custom garage, simply waiting for me to test-drive it.

“This baby has some power,” he added, chuckling.

Thomas and I had been friends since we were ten. His family also vacationed there, and we often got into trouble together. How else were we supposed to pass the time in this stuck-up town?

“Did you check out the rack on your new neighbor? Damn, I’d pay good money to see what was beneath that bikini top.”

“Shut the fuck up,” I snapped.

The truth was, I was an asshole, and I owned it, making no excuses for it. There was no reason to deny it. I accepted that title a long time ago. I spoke my mind, and I didn’t sugarcoat shit. Whether it hurt someone’s feelings or not, that was their damn problem, not mine. Life was too damn short to pretend to be something I wasn’t.

My reputation followed me everywhere. I got more pussy thrown at me because of it. See, girls loved the bad boys. The ones they thought they could change, they wanted the challenge, the rule breaker, the game changer. The ones who fairy tales were made of and the happily ever afters when Prince Charming swept you off your feet, and you rode off into the sunset looking deeply into each other’s eyes or some shit like that.

It was bullshit.

Every last bit of it.

I did what every other nineteen-year-old guy would have, given the power I had with my last name. The only difference was that I wasn’t subtle about it at all.

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