Chapter 18 Iwoke to a heavy arm thrown across my stomach and a delicious warmth at my back. A long groan and a stretch brushed my toes over a hairy leg. Last night's activities burst across my mind, and I lurched into a sitting position with a gasp, dragging the covers up to my chin as I took in the sight of all three men in bed with me. My cheeks burned when I realized what I'd done and that I had no possible escape route without waking at least one of my professors. I clasped the covers tighter. I was so screwed. Sunlight peeked through the blinds covering the window to my right. Another gasp left me breathless. "Shit." I looked to my left, then my right. "I have to go." Stephen raised his head, then let it flop back onto the pillow. "It's barely six." "You don't understand." I shook my head while nudging him with my foot. Roberto and Matthew were behind me, their bulk prohibiting me from leaving the bed in that direction. "I never went home last night." "That's a problem?" Confusion wrinkled Stephen's brow. Combining that look with his rumpled hair made me wish I could languish in bed for a few more hours. No way. I nudged him again, then resorted to scrambling over his legs when he continued to lay there. "Sorority rules." I grunted when he palmed my hip as I crawled over him. "Part of our pledge is to pick our career passions over men." "And that means you're not allowed to sleep anywhere other than the sorority house?" Matthew raised his head. "Sounds more like a cult than a sisterhood." I snorted in response. He wasn't saying anything I hadn't already thought myself. "Yeah, well. It's not like I'm feeling too bad about breaking the rules. All it's done is made every girl in the house hornier than they'd be if we were allowed to have sex more often." "Pretty sure you can't regulate someone's sex life." Roberto rolled onto his elbow and watched me rush around as I gathered my clothes. I held the bundle of fabric to my chest and took in the scene. When would I get to see all of them like this again? No better time to ask than now. "When can I come back?" "Tonight?" Stephen flopped onto his back, a light smile playing around his lips. "Whenever you want." I nodded, my dry throat refusing to let me speak, and darted into the bathroom. Half an hour later, fully dressed and as presentable as possible, I kissed them all goodbye and headed to the sorority house. I needed a story in case anyone caught me coming in. Eyeing my bag in the back seat of my car, I solidified my alibi and rehearsed it the entire drive. No one stopped me when I walked through the front door. If anyone had noticed my absence, they didn't notice my return either. Leighona and a few others stood around the kitchen counter eating bagels and laughing over a story Jessica told in her high-pitched voice. My relief carried me up the stairs and into my room. I showered and changed in record time, then barged back down the steps and out the door just in time to make it across campus for my early morning math class with Stephen. Sunshine lanced through the tree branches at the quad, and the sight of Delilah sitting on one of the picnic tables slowed my frantic run to a jog and then a walk. She slid off the table, frowning and looking me over. "What happened to you last night? Did you even come home?" A choice stretched in front of me. Tell her the truth or lie through my teeth and hope she wouldn't see through me. It wasn't really a question of what I had to do. I'd promised Stephen and the others that I'd keep our secret ... even from my best friend. I swallowed hard. "Of course I did. It was super late." I patted my bookbag. "I fell asleep in the library. I was trying to study for our test." She nodded, but her lips pursed in a disapproving frown. "We'd better get to class." I fell in step with her, grateful for her trusting nature and my ability to tell a fairly convincing lie. Students clustered around us, the whole group barging through the double doors and into Professor Harding's class. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning when I spotted him standing in front of the board. His hair had been tamed, the silver strands slicked down at the sides. He wore his usual attire, but it was the way he turned when I entered the class, almost like he felt my presence, that caused my heart to leap into overdrive. I sank into the nearest seat on the front row and concentrated on setting up my laptop and notebook. My skin did that tingling thing again, my scalp prickling with awareness. The weight of Delilah's stare brought my head around, but Stephen started class before she had a chance to ask more questions. "All right. Settle down and let's get started." Stephen uncapped a marker and wrote an equation on the board. "Who finished their homework last night and can tell me the answer to this problem?" A couple hands shot into the air. I kept mine in my lap. It took all my effort to keep my composure when his gaze slid over me. The brief flash of attention warmed my cheeks. I really had to figure out how to keep that from happening. Delilah tapped her fingers on the keyboard. Her knee bumped mine when I didn't look over. "Harmony." "What?" I asked without moving my head as I wrote the equation in my notebook. Stephen walked the class through the steps for solving it, and for the first time, they made sense to me. I shot a look at Delilah when she bumped my knee again. She raised her eyebrows and cocked her head toward Stephen. Her cursor flashed on her computer screen. She'd typed What is going on with you? in bold letters. I raised my shoulder in a casual shrug. "I can't fail, Delilah. I need to focus." Her entire face tightened at the reprimand, but she stopped watching me. My relief was short lived when Stephen moved on to a new equation that twisted my brain into knots. No matter how long I looked at it, nothing made sense. All my confidence fled when he began the process all over again. The steps I'd thought I memorized failed me at every turn. He paced in front of the board, tapping the marker against his palm. I prayed he wouldn't look at me even as I craved the attention, even if it was nothing more than a blink. As though he heard my thoughts, his gaze drifted over to me. The phantom touch rocked me all the way to my core, and my insides melted into a gooey puddle. An hour later, Stephen dismissed us with a wave of the marker. Delilah stuck to my side all the way down the noisy hallway and back out into the sunshine. A teasing smile lit her eyes. "Sooooo. How's tutoring?" Damn me if my whole face didn't warm. I swept my hair away from my face and shrugged. The move felt tight and cautious, but I managed to force out a laugh. "Awful. I don't know if I'll ever understand what Professor Harding is talking about." Delilah rolled her eyes. "Bet it's hard to concentrate with just the two of you in a room together. Do you study here or what?" She jerked her thumb toward the building behind us. Red brick glittered in the sunlight, and I thanked the sun for giving my face an excuse to turn red. "We've been meeting in his classroom." "Lucky you." Delilah said it with enough sarcasm to show her jealousy. Her crush on Stephen hadn't abated. I doubted it ever would, which made my situation even more perilous. "Maybe I should ask if he'll tutor me too." She tossed her head and flounced forward a step, causing her short skirt to fly up, revealing her panties. I bit back my caustic comment and managed another shrug. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind." If Delilah heard the jealousy I tried so hard to hide, she ignored it. Jealousy was against the rules. Jealousy meant I'd caught feelings. Stephen vehemently argued against that. He wanted nothing to do with emotions. And yet ... the way he'd looked at me in class almost made me think he didn't mean it. Impossible. It was my imagination running wild. He couldn't care less about my emotional needs or attachments. The only thing he cared about was having sex with me without getting caught. I had to keep that in mind. If it came down to me or them, they'd all choose to protect themselves. "This is a safe place." Stephen had told me that last night. Their home was safe. Nowhere else. If I didn't pay better attention, I'd give our secret away without saying a word. "Hey, are you okay?" Delilah touched my arm. I almost yelped at the sudden contact. I'd gotten so lost in thought that I nearly forgot she walked beside me. "Not really." It was too easy to let the panic in. "What am I going to do if I can't pass my classes?" Delilah scoured my face with a studious look before she sighed and took my hand. "You're going to pass." The weight of her reassurance helped, and I forgave her for being jealous of my tutoring with Stephen. I raised my head and stared across the quad at the building where my class with Roberto was held. A fortifying breath steadied the frantic fluttering in my chest. "I have to get to class. See you later?" She laughed. "You better. We have a sorority meeting tonight." I groaned dramatically. "Not another one." "Yep." She joined me with a tinkling laugh. "And I'm in charge of food this time. I'll make sure to order something good." "Thank you." I hugged her tight, any hints of jealousy evaporating at her promise. I'd convinced her everything was fine, but it wasn't enough if I couldn't figure out how to control myself around my professors. "You're welcome. I know how much you hate Thai. I tried to talk them into ordering something else last time. Sometimes I think they do shit on purpose just to keep hazing us." She patted my back. "Better get to class." Leaning away, she winked. "A whole day with the Dream Team. I don't know how you handle it." Laughing at whatever she saw in my face, she bounced away, waving over her shoulder. One day into our secret and I'd almost given it away with nothing more than my facial expressions. I had to do better if I didn't want us to get caught. I tightened my grip on my bag and marched toward Roberto's class, determined to keep my emotions in check and off my face. The length of the quad separated me from his class, and I used every single step to try and build up my control. If I could stop remembering every touch, every look and sound from last night, I might be able to pull it off. But nothing helped. Every time I thought I had it under control, I'd remember the feel of them inside me. They'd filled me completely, and I still wondered what it would be like to have more. A single mother returns to the city she left seven years ago after breaking up with her ex to seek treatment for her son’s leukemia. Upon learning of her return, the ex immediately searches for the lo...