Page 14 of Lust

Brad grabbing my wrist, and that powerful sensation shooting through me.

Brad falling on me in soccer, and me feeling another exciting rush.

Seth’s comment that’s had my brain doing backflips ever since.

This shit isn’t fucking hypnosis. It’s something much darker.

And these guys are coming for me.

Hard.

5

LUKE

Itake asip of my drink as I scan the crowd at Alpha Alpha Mu’s party.

When Alexei first told me about it this afternoon, I struggled. Since I flipped out in the shower yesterday, I haven’t bumped into Brad, Seth, or Cody. Not in the dorms, nor around campus. Not that I’m trying to avoid them, but I wonder if they’re trying to avoid me after the stunts they pulled.

I must’ve mistaken your responses for someone else’s, Prof. Strauss wrote back after I emailed to ask him about my mysterious A+.Can’t really say. Sorry about that.I’m certain Seth, Brad, or Cody did something to him, just like Seth did to me last week on the field.

Since Cody did whatever the hell that was, my internet searches aren’t about the psychology of persuasion or the subconscious anymore, but about—impossible as it seems—magic. Googling that made me feel like I was out of my goddamn mind, but I feel like I have to be open to any possibility. And it’s all such a clusterfuck of mixed messages and varying perspectives that it’s hard to know where to even begin as far as sorting out the bullshit from the truth.

There are spells foreverything, from influencing someone’s thoughts to making someone lust after you. Maybe all three of them have cast spells on me, but whereas Seth’s and Cody’s wore off quickly, Brad’s lingers. It’s been fucking with my head and dick since he seized my wrist.

But they’ve all got me freaked out. If it really is magic, given what I’ve witnessed already, who knows what they’re capable of?

Despite having all this swirling in my brain, I try to enjoy some beer pong with Alexei and my St. Lawrence peers. But even as I chat up new acquaintances, I keep searching around, knowing damn well who I’m looking for.

Brad fucking Henning.

I’m probably an idiot for planning to confront a guy who’s actively using magic against me.

I may not be able to fight off what Brad did to me, but I fought off Cody in the shower, and I could feel he was freaked out over it. So maybe if I let Brad know I’m figuring them out, they’ll know I can google my own defenses against their powers, and they’ll have to move on to a new, unsuspecting victim.

Is that the smartest move? Who knows? There’s no rulebook for when your peers are trying to bully you with fucking magic.

Of course, even as I tell myself I’m here to warn Brad to get off my back, I fear I have some subconscious ulterior motive. That whatever he did to me makes me want to approach him. Just to be close to his body again. To feel the warmth emanating from his flesh. His hot breath against my face. Get a surge of that energy when he touches me.

Fuck, I need to stop thinking about that because it’s making me hard again.

After beer pong, I head out to the back porch and struggle to focus as I chat up a girl who was on my team. Jess is so hot. Dark-brown hair, glasses, gorgeous smile. The sort of girl I’d be interested in if I wasn’t so distracted. But as we’re starting to get to know each other, my gaze shoots over her shoulder, drawn right to Brad, as if my body is now primed to find him.

“Oh, is that for me?” Jess asks, pulling her gaze away from my crotch and moving closer.

I chuckle awkwardly. “Yeah…” I lie because I know who it’s for, and I hate myself for being this hard for that asshole.

I try to be discreet about looking at Brad. Hot as hell in his black biker jacket and jeans, he’s talking with some guys I’ve seen around campus. Not his regular crew. He keeps glancing my way, but I can tell he’s trying not to.

I want him to look at me again, but this desire is definitely whatever spell he has me under.

I’m craving his gaze.

I want him to get his ass over here. I want him to press his body against mine again. Treat me like shit, if that’s what he wants. I don’t care. He could bend me over right now and force himself into me—

Stop it!

“So what did you say your major is?” Jess asks.

---