Page 102 of The Jack*ss in Class

“Please say ordering in and a whole box of condoms to practice that putting it on with your mouth trick.” Sounded like the perfect night to me.

“Good try.” She smirked at me. “I want regular food. Burgers, or tacos. Let’s see if these Californians can complete with our Mountain Mex.”

“How about taco flavored condoms?”

We, in fact, got tacos that night instead of flavored condoms. Sadly, but also not, because it turned out Abuela had lived in LA as a young mother and knew exactly where to send us for really fucking good Mexican food. We ate a metric fuckton of every flavor taco we could atthree different hole-in-the-wall places and one food truck.

“You two crazy kids want to go out on the town with me?” Gryff asked, then downed the remainder of his four hundredth birria taco.

There was something off about him tonight. “You good, bro?”

There was a pause before Gryff answered. “Nothing a night out won’t fix. Just need to find someone to either be a rebound or break my heart again.”

I didn’t need twin telepathy for this one. This wasn’t just shit talking. Something, or someone, had happened, and it had hurt my tough-guy with a mushy-gushy cinnamon roll of a heart brother. I’d kill ‘em.

“You want to talk about it?” I asked carefully.

“Nope.” The forced cheer in his voice was painful to hear. “Just want to shake my groove thang and make bad decisions.”

“Fair enough.” I knew better than to push. But I made a mental note to keep an eye on him tonight. Gryff had always been the more romantic of the two of us, falling faster and harder. Whoever this was had done a number on him.

Gryff nodded and then turned to Tempest. “Isn’t clubbing a thing that young, beautiful, people do in LA? You up for some dancing till dawn, doll?”

“Sure. But maybe not until dawn. My bookish introverted heart really wants to be in bed by nine.”

I liked the idea of in bed by nine, because I had other ideas of what to do that would keep her up all night.

“Come on, let’s go shake that fine ass your mama gaveyou.” He jumped up on the picnic table bench and spun in a circle.

Tempest laughed at Gryff’s taunt. “Fine. But you leave my mother out of this. She would definitely not approve.”

“Good.” I tossed our trash into the bin next to the food truck. “All the more reason to go. I’d like to show off my girlfriend tonight.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Girlfriend?”

“Yeah. My very sexy girlfriend.”

A couple hours later we were showered, changed and in a town car on our way to some exclusive club my older brother’s fiancé got us on the list for. Being the future first-round draft picks and the younger brothers of the Bowl winning Mustangs’ quarterback, not to mention future brothers-in-law with the one and only Kelsey Best opened doors in a celebrity obsessed town like LA.

“Come on in, Kingmans.” The manager greeted us like old friends, though we’d never met. “We’ve got a bottle-service booth ready for you.”

Tempest squeezed my hand as we were led through the crush of beautiful people to a private booth.

“Is this normal?” she whispered.

“For LA? I think so.” I kept her close, enjoying the envious glances she was receiving.

Gryff hit the floor right away and had men and women hitting on him in no time. I led Tempest out to dance and pulled her tight against me. She licked her lips and gave me the cutest little eyebrow waggle. Then proceeded to blow my mind with her dirty dancing skills, her curves moving in ways that made my mouth go dry and my dick eternally hard.

“You’re staring again,” she practically shouted against my ear over the ridiculously loud music.

“Can’t help it.” My hands slid to her hips, drawing her closer, pressing my lips to her ear. “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are? How every guy in this place is wishing they were me right now?”

She laughed, but I could see she didn’t quite believe me. “Other way around.”

“Trust me.” I pressed a kiss to her neck. “I’m the lucky one here.”

As I held her on that crowded dance floor, the bass thumping through us like a second heartbeat, I could see our future spreading out before us, game days and book launches, quiet nights and celebrations like this one. Successes and struggles, navigated together.

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