“Uh-uh,” I protest. “You don’t talk like this over here.”

Ty’s all smiles, raising his hands in surrender. “I can’t risk being cut off, so I’ll be nice.”

“This is gonna be like Ash and Colin 2.0.” Marty groans. “Just hearing about your sex lives all the time.”

“Last I heard, you did more than hear it recently,” Payton adds.

“Whoa. Lance led me into that!”

“Please, that’s the most action you’ve had in a long time.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t, but I just want to be clear, when I’m with a girl, I’m gonna flaunt it around like this as much as the rest of you.”

“In this house, I wouldn’t assume it’s gonna be a girl,” Payton jokes.

“I know, right? Just waiting for my turn to tumble out of the closet. Gonna happen any day now. At this point, the idea of anyone showing me attention is better than nothing.”

Payton scoots away from Marty.

“Shut the hell up!” Marty grabs one of my pillows and swats at our friend.

“Okay, okay, guys,” Ty says. “We should go now. Whether you like it or not, you must let your fate play out—having your asses handed to you by Sigma Alpha, placing us in the lead for the school year.”

“We would have to place third tonight for that to happen,” I remind him.

“I’m counting on you being distracted by me.”

We greet the other TaskFrat Alpha Theta Mus downstairs before heading over to the rec center with Ty. Since it’s too cold to have the challenge outside, I lobbied for us to hold it at Peach State’s basketball court.

Tonight’s challenge, designed by Zeta Tau, is revealed to be a cross between strip poker and basketball, but instead of using balls, we have balloons, which is a challenge to get into the net. Eventually, all my guys are down to the loincloths, except for Payton, who still has on his shirt and athletic shorts, so we’re counting on him as we help get the balloon to our goal, our teammates hollering from the sidelines.

While Ryan’s chasing Payton to the net, Ryan’s cloth slips down, revealing how fortunate we all already know he is, and he keeps going until the cloth slips even farther down,preventing him from moving easily, and the moment gives Payton the advantage, allowing him just enough time to sink the balloon in. The TaskFrat ref blows the whistle, signaling the end of the game and Alpha Theta Mu’s victory. This puts us two points ahead of Sigma Alpha for the year, which will be a great lead to start the spring with.

I crowd around with my guys to celebrate our victory. Ryan swoops in and starts pulling down our loincloths, and Marty and Payton wind up ganging up on him and chasing him into the men’s locker room while the rest of us recover. Then I catch up with Angie some before Ty finally gets away from his crew and comes over.

“Hey there,” she greets Ty. “Making sure I don’t try to seduce your guy?”

Even hearing her call me his guy feels incredible.

“I’ve done a good job marking my territory,” he says, hooking his arm around me and planting a kiss on my cheek. Even though he’s slightly joking, I can’t help feeling there’s still some part of him that feels the need to make it clear I’m his because of the time he believed I hooked up with Angie.

And I kind of love that.

She gets pulled away by one of her friends, and just as I’m about to flaunt my victory, Ty says, “Don’t even—”

“What? Remind you that Alpha Theta Mu kicked your ass?”

He grinds his teeth, which sends a rush of excitement pulsing through me.

“The happier you are, Lance, the gentler I’m gonna fuck you because I know you’ll hate that.”

“You couldn’t even if you tried,” I say.

“Maybe so. We’ll see.”

“Hey, guys,” Dax says, approaching. “I’m supposed to getback to Sigma Alpha to give Frat Cat his medicine before afters, but I’ve been talking to this guy, and he seems kind of curious.”

“No further explanation needed,” Ty says. “We can take care of Frat Cat for you. I wanted to get changed anyway before the party.”