Page 5 of Cerberus

Another text came in right after Alexander’s. Alexander George, Donovan Cooper, and Jacob Townsend were our initiating panel, and we answered to them. At least, for now. The initiating class that was turning thirty were the ones to initiate the newcomers. That’s how it worked.

Stone:I’m guessing he’s heard about the wedding.

Because Stone Lexington didn’t give a fuck, he had married Rylee without any of the panel members there, another break from tradition. I had no doubt that he was right about the reason behind the meeting, and while I understood it, the hard part was going to keep Stone from killing August. August wanted Rylee, and everyone knew it.

Especially, Stone.

Hopefully, Stone didn’t kill him, even though August deserved it.

Chapter 4

Sutton~

Tuesdays and Wednesdays were my easy class days, but they were the days when I did everything else in my life. They were my laundry and shopping days. They were the days that I called my grandparents in the evening. They were the days that I cleaned the apartment, though Delta did her fair share of the chores.

I kicked ass during the week, so that my weekends were relaxing as they were meant to be. I had two days free from classes, people, obligations, and everything else, so I liked to spend those two days doing me. I was a big fan of self-care, and I cared a lot about myself.

Our apartment didn’t come with a washer/dryer hookup, but it did come with a laundry room that was housed in the basement of the building. However, there were only five washers and dryers, so that was another reason to do my laundry during the weekday. The place got crowded during the weekends.

So, sitting down in the basement, waiting for my wash to finish, so that I could stick my clothes in the dryer, I was on my tablet, checking my emails, social media feeds, and continuing my addiction to Pinterest. I had Pinterest boards filled with recipes that I was never going to cook, outfits that I was never going to wear, makeup that I could never pull off, and projects that I was never going to complete. I had no idea why this site was my weakness, but it was.

After about another half hour, I tossed my clothes in the dryer, then went back to checking my social media feeds. While I knew quite a bit of people, I only had a few close friends, Delta being probably the closest thing that I could call to a best friend. Therefore, my social media accounts weren’t crazy. I didn’t have a thousand followers or anything insane like that. I only accepted friend requests from people I knew. Plus, I wasn’t very social media active. I didn’t post thing often, but whenever I did, I made sure it was all positive vibes. I didn’t feel the need to share my personal drama and emotions with the world. That just wasn’t my thing, though I didn’t judge other people for what they chose to share.

As I was skimming though one of my feeds, I saw a picture of Delta and her friend, Sharlene, posing in front of Shane’s, iced coffees in both their hands. It was a cute picture, and I loved how happy they both looked.

Ready to keep scrolling, a figure in the background caught my eye, and I couldn’t stop how my stomach dipped a bit at the image.

Ross Carmichael.

I let out a deep breath as I took in the picture. When Delta had snapped the picture, Ross had been heading into Shane’s, him and a couple of other people making up the background in Delta’s selfie.

Ross Carmichael was American royalty. His father was Senator Mitchel Carmichael, and his mother was an heiress, Margaret Carmichael. He had a younger brother named Banks, and if his last name and wealth wasn’t overwhelming enough, the man was sizzling hot.

At six-foot-one, Ross had dark blonde hair, these vibrant blue eyes, a face that looked like Roman perfection, and the body of a god. He worked out regularly, and it showed. Muscular in all the right places, the guy could land a magazine cover if he wanted to.

He was also a beast in bed.

An unfortunate fact that I was very aware of.

Hales University had a pre-school party tradition that I was sure a lot of colleges had. The week before the beginning of classes, there were parties every night of the week. It was so insane that there were often three to six parties going on each night.

Well, it was at one of those parties that I had run into Ross and one thing had led to another. It had started out extremely awkward because he was Ross freakin’ Carmichael, but his interest had been obvious, and my hormones had been happy as hell about it.

While I’d never heard anything bad about him, the guy was still intimidating. Truth be told, Hales had quite a few intimidating people attending classes here. There was a lot of American royalty here, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I was intimidated by most of them. Especially, Kincaid Black. That girl was something else, and it was better to avoid her than get on her bad side. Now, while I didn’t know her personally, you didn’t get the reputation of being brutal if there wasn’t some truth to the smoke and fire.

So, after a night of the best sex that I’d ever had, things had been feeling very fairy tale-ish. Ross hadn’t run out immediately afterwards, nor had he jumped out of my bed at the first sign of daylight. In fact, we had spent two glorious weeks together, getting to know each other inside and outside of the bedroom. It had felt…perfect, really.

Until it hadn’t anymore.

After two weeks of sharing myself with the guy, Ross had ghosted me like an absolute pro. It had been subtle and stealthy enough that it had taken me another couple of weeks to finally realize it. Since then, I haven’t so much as spoken to him, though I’ve seen him around. Granted, he looked preoccupied a lot of the time, but I had more than enough pride to keep me from approaching him and demanding questions. After all, though it had been an amazing two weeks, it still had only been two weeks.

The problem I had now was that Ross Carmichael was going to be a hard act to follow. Everything had felt so blissfully perfect, safe, and exciting, and like a drug, that I had become addicted to him rather quickly. So quickly that I had shared secrets that I had always been afraid to voice before. In two weeks, Ross had fulfilled sexual fantasies that I hadn’t even known I had. Not to mention, the boy was packing some serious heat inside those boxer briefs of his. Eight inches of thick, hard, hot muscle wasn’t easy to come by, and I knew what a rarity it was to find a man who, not only had the equipment, but also knew how to use it.

Have you ever been tied town and forced to take it until you couldn’t anymore?

Well, it was the best fucking thing ever.

Ross had gotten off on making me cry and beg, and I had gotten on of crying and begging.