Page 18 of Hush, Hush

Devon levels his cousin with a glare. “You know that’s not true.”

“I’ll kill him if he touches her. End of story.” He turns his angry eyes to me. “And don’t go thinking that you can use this as an opportunity to give that virgin pussy to someone else. It’smine.” He steps so close his hot breath hits my cheeks. “Do you understand, Delilah?”

“Fuck off,” Devon growls. “This is bigger than that.”

The nerve of this guy. He’s talking to me like I’m the one who started this.Hetold the biggest gossip at school I was still a virgin. Pushing past him, I force my shoulder against his to make him move out of my way. It works, but only for a short time. He runs next to me, and I shoot him a look. “What are you doing?”

“Walking you to class, making sure everyone knows you’re mine.”

“Keegan, you’ve got some nerve.”

“Nerve to what?” He reaches over, placing a strand of hair behind my ear. It’s an affectionate gesture that seems so wrong on him, especially at this moment. “Nerve to treat you like you’re my future wife?”

“You told me just yesterday that you can’t be who I want. Hell, you were just walking some other girl to class.”

“You told me the same.” I peek at him, and his eyes flash in dark shadows. “Dee, I’m not playing around. You’re promised to me. You’vebeenpromised to me. I’m collecting, and there’s no other way about it.” He loops his arm through mine, forcefully, leading me toward the building that houses my first class. Honestly, I’m surprised he even knows where it is. The fact that he’s even paid attention one iota is shocking. He takes me right to the door of my class and leans in toward me. “You might want to think about giving it up sooner rather than later. Everyone will leave you alone if you do.”

I peer up at him through my lashes, wondering if this is all part of his plan. He’d know I’d hate it that guys were propositioning me for sex. “Start putting in the work.”

He snickers. “What work? You already want my cock so far inside you that you can barely stand it. What was that last night? ‘More, Keegan. Yes. More.’” He breathes heavily into my ear, and my cheeks warm. It’s not embarrassment like it should be. It’s excitement. A buildup of lust. He’s turned me on right before I have to go to one of my hardest classes. He brushes his lips over my cheek. “Also, the first Devil’s Night planning committee meeting is tonight. I’ll text you the details.”

When he leaves, it’s almost as if the rational part of my brain gets vacuumed back into my body. I nearly stumble as he makes his way back down the hall and out the front doors. I enter class with a hollow chest and a mind that’s on anything but this boring lecture.

The professor gives us yet another bevy of homework, and I walk from the room with my head down, hoping I’ll go unnoticed. Someone falls in step alongside me though. I peek out of the corner of my eye and blow out a breath when I see who it is. “What do you want, Anne-Marie?”

Her answering laugh is the tinkling kind that sounds suspiciously like annoying bells. “I bet Keegan didn’t foresee this. Half the seniors are taking bets they’ll be the first to defile you.”

My stomach clenches. “Ew.”

“I loathe to agree with you, but I do.”

“You loathe to agree with me, and yet, I wonder how all those people found out that I’m a virgin?”

“You’re not kidding yourself, are you, Delilah? You’re too smart for that. You absolutely have figured out that Keegan invited me to the café because he knew you’d be there. He knew he was going to drop some major truths that I would take and run with. Though, I think the virgin bit was an accident on his part. I’m sure he intended me to start the rumor about you being a lesbian because he thought it would humiliate you and prompt a frantic phone call from your parents.”

“And yet, you let him get away with it,” I accuse.

She gives me a winning smile, the same one I imagine she would give after just forcibly taking over someone else’s business. “You ever realize that what we’re living now is really just a precursor to what’s ahead of us in the real world?” she muses. “Wake up, Delilah. You’re in the pre-game already. People are out to slit each other’s throats. If they can get rid of the competition now, that’s one less they’ll have to manage when we make it to the big time.”

I swallow the lump in my throat. As soon as we step outside, she lowers the sunglasses over her eyes that were perched on her head and then swings her hair over her shoulder. I watch her walk away and know she’s right. We’ve all been jockeying for position since we were kids. It just gets more dangerous every year. Now, we’re not fighting over sand shovels and toys, we’re lobbying with truths and mistakes. What happens in my social stratosphere, stays in my social stratosphere. For good.

I’ll forever be known as the twenty-one-year-old virgin. I’ll be laughed at during dinner parties and soirees. Hell, one day, I’ll be holding my child’s hand and someone will say, ‘Remember when Delilah Forbes was a virgin at CU? Pathetic.’

Secrets are paramount in this social circle, and Keegan betrayed my trust.

If he thinks I’m going to slink underground, he doesn’t know me at all.

I turn my phone on and weed through several different texts from guys who’ve known me my whole life who are now just suddenly interested in me. Briefly, I scan through their messages. Some are hiding their ulterior motives well. Others are blatantly coming out and saying exactly what Cameron Cabot did. They want to take care of myproblem.

The thing is, I’ve never seen my virginity as a problem. It’s a tool.

After getting the details about the committee from Keegan’s text, I start across campus, mind reeling. My virgin status is kept there for a reason. I could easily give in. Hell, I could text one of these guys back right now and have them meet me at my room in ten minutes. I could’ve had sex with Keegan on the yacht and about a dozen other times in my life, but I didn’t. I didn’t because I knew that as soon as I did give it up to Keegan—and let’s get real, it’s always been Keegan—that he would believe he had me by the lady balls. Like his dick is so magical that I would fall in line with everything he wanted. Maybe I’m a little scared of that happening, too, if I’m honest.

For me, my virginity is a weapon to use against him. My last saving grace to get him to show the kind of man that I know he can be. And even if all that fails, it’s something I have that I can be proud that I never gave up just because of our past. Keegan has to earn his spot between my legs, no matter if he does give me mind-blowing orgasms.

I rush behind the building that houses the café, heading for my room so I can prepare for the Knights committee meeting in a couple of hours. I do a double take when I spot Tim leaning against the side of the building next to the air conditioning unit. He wipes his forehead and crosses his arms, but that’s not what’s got my attention. He has a bandage over his forehead.

Changing course, I walk that way. “Tim?”

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