Page 10 of Beautiful Nightmare
But damn, what are the odds she’d show up here during the three hours I’m on the field? I could have just as easily been in the weight room or already in the locker room. But nope. She’s here in the middle of practice when I need my concentration to be focused on the game, on the play, on every nuance of what I’m doing. I hate the way she’s fucking with my head.
Shoving that thought aside, I blow out a hard breath as we begin again. At the line of scrimmage, I position myself on the outside of the offensive line. As the play begins, I break downfield through an open lane to be ready for Montclair’s pass. Legs pumping hard, I turn, expecting the ball to hit me right in the numbers, but it’s high this time, and I have to make a jump for it. I manage to grab the football, pull it to my chest, and brace for impact with the unforgiving ground.
I land with a resounding thud and skid into the endzone. The cheers off to the side of the field catch my attention as I pick myself up and glance over at the same group of ten girls on their tour. They’ve stopped to watch us practice, and everyone is clapping and cheering our efforts. Everyone but Lux. She’s standing there, stock-still. Motionless. Wild eyes locked on me. From the expression on her face, I’d say she’s freaked out, but also kinda pissed off.Good.Good to know I’m affecting her—that I’m fucking with her head, too.
Her gaze breaks from mine, but her lustful gray eyes don’t leave me. They scan up and down, taking in my uniformed body before returning to my face.
I cock my head to the side and raise my brows. She totally just checked me out. And it hits me in those moments when our eyes connect—I think she’s fighting herself. She doesn’t want to show any interest in me, but I can see the flush rising on her face from here. This might explain why she’s pissed off. I smirk to myself.Fuck yeah.I can totally use this to my advantage.
I incline my head toward the group, then shoot a smoldering stare at Lux before running off to the side of the field where our offensive coordinator and the other wide receivers are waiting for me.
* * *
After practice,I hurry through my shower at record speed, eager to get back to my room so I can catch up on some sleep. Yet another ass-kicking practice is in the books. I’m completely worn out, and lack of sleep is most certainly not helping anything. Besides, I’ve got to get my shit together. Tomorrow is a fun event we call Royal Revelry. I’ll be pissed if I’m not well-rested enough to join in. It’s a whole lot of debauchery disguised as the kickoff to the new academic year. The university provides the food and music, but there’s never a shortage of booze and beer. Where there’s alcohol, there’s also all manner of fuckery happening. I can’t wait.
Back at Duke Hall, I let myself in and climb the stairs as quickly as I can, my bed my only goal. But as I stride toward the end of the hallway where our suite is located, I realize that Maddox and Kellan are talking… to the three girls from across the hall. Apparently, my boys have no shame about chatting them up after breaking into their suite. Not that I do, either.
“I’m Kellan and this is Maddox.” I’m actually surprised Kellan is the one making introductions. He’s usually way quieter and more reserved than that. He doesn’t make friends easily, mostly just hanging with Maddox, me, and whatever piece of art he’s currently working on. We’ve tried to pull him out of his shell, but I can’t blame the guy.
I give myself a shake, focus returning to the girls. Their backs are to me, which is perfect because they definitely haven’t realized I’m slowly making my way toward them. Maddox spots me but says nothing. I can just make out the thin blonde quietly introducing herself as Raven and the other pipes up and tells them her name is Star. I’d already taken note of both names last night—while we were in their suite. Star sets her hand on Lux’s shoulder. “And this is Lux. We just got back from our campus tour.”
I stop behind them, my chest rising and falling fast. I wonder what I can get away with. What will Lux do when she realizes I’m right here?
Star continues without noticing me. “Um, so, we were wondering if you happened to be in our—”
Nope, let’s not go there yet. “Hey.” The girls whirl around at my intrusion, and I run my hand through my still-damp hair, taking in the curiosity on the faces of Lux’s suitemates and the absolute terror on hers. I ignore it. “So, I’m missing out on introductions, huh? I’m Hawk.”
For a second time today, my gaze locks on Lux and holds. I watch every single move she makes. Every tremor that rolls unbidden through her body. Every panicked breath she takes as she reacts tome.
“Um.” She fidgets, and I can tell she’s chewing on the inside of her cheek. Her face flushes. “Excuse me,” she mumbles as she turns to their door, whips it open, and disappears from view. A second later, the very definitive sound of her door shutting meets our ears.
I raise my brows. “I guess she’s not very sociable, huh?”
Raven and Star exchange looks before the blonde shrugs. “We don’t know her very well yet. Doyouknow her?”
What to say, what to say…?I give an uninterested shrug. “You might say that. Gotta go, ladies.”Do I know her?Yeah. I know her better than she’s aware. It all goes back to what I’d typed into that email for her last night. I blame her. Foreverything.
SEVEN
LUX
It’s after ten, and it’s probably not the most brilliant plan I’ve had, but I’m all wound up after the encounter with Hawk earlier. I step into my flip-flops, grab my lanyard, and yank my door open, then lock it behind me.
Raven and Star sit on the couch, quietly talking. It’s almost as if Star and I have done a role reversal. Or a personality swap. Whatever. They both sit up straight as I hurry toward the suite door without saying anything.
Raven’s lilting voice from behind me makes me pause and turn to face them. “Lux? Are you okay? Please tell us what’s going on. You’ve been in there for hours. You didn’t even come out for food.”
I blow out a hard breath, studying both of them. They appear really, truly worried. Yep. Day two of living away from home.This is going great.Biting my lip, I focus on Raven. “Remember when I told you yesterday that guys aren’t worth it?” I gesture with my hand in the direction of the suite across the hall. “Hawk is the one who made me believe that. I thought he wasdead.”I punctuate that last word with a flash of my eyes, despite the confusion it brings me to say it out loud, when he’s so clearlynotdead.
While their mouths hang open in shock at the gravity of what I’ve just said, I leave, striding quickly from the suite, then take off at the fastest jog my flip-flops will allow. I don’t stop until I’m out of the dorm and have walked the entire distance from Duke Hall all the way past the last house on Greek Row. It’s dark, the lights from the nearby buildings not throwing off much light at all. I look back in the direction of my dorm, about a half mile away. There are loads of trees obscuring my view of the building, and Royal Bridge is midway between me and Duke Hall. It’s strung with lights. It’s pretty. Festive, even. I stare off into the distance, denying myself the spiral that my mind is screaming to go down.
I sink onto the cool grass of the riverbank, drawing my legs to my chest, and wrap my arms around them. I rest my chin on my knees. Hawk has a lot of damn nerve. A burst of laughter erupts from my throat, startling me. Yeah, he has a lot of damn nerve beingalive.Acting like he never hurt me. Like the two of us standing there in the hallway not more than two feet apart had been no big deal. Like it wasn’t the most mind-bending thing I’ve ever dealt with in my entire life. It’d made my heart squeeze and clench until I couldn’t handle it and had to remove myself from the situation.
And now? Hours later, I’m still drowning in memories. When I met him, Hawk had been a senior—a popular one. Okay, probablythe mostpopular one. He was an all-star player for the Blackheart Academy football team. I’d put him up on a pedestal. And damn, he’d been so beautiful to me with his perfectly styled light-brown hair and dreamy hazel eyes… but it had been his gorgeous smile that had really done me in. He had a way of looking at me that made me melt, and as a girl of fifteen, I’d been powerless against his charms.
I should have known it would never last. We were scheduled for the same study hall. I was definitely in over my head when it came to how to act around the super-attractive boy who was assigned to share a table with me. I was clueless. Naive. Especially when his side-long glances turned into full-on flirt fests.
I’m still not sure what I’d done to catch his eye. I remember mulling it over with Evie. We hadn’t been able to make heads or tails of Hawk’s interest in me. And at first, I hadn’t known how to respond to his advances, but he kept at me, wearing me down until I finally agreed to go to prom with him.
