Page 18 of A Lesson in Deceit
I succeeded, though. I’d succeeded a few times. It didn’t happen very much anymore, but I still found myself chuckling as I remembered all the times I had to tell him that I was of legal age, and we triple checked to make sure the girls we were sharing were as well.
I liked to think I’d try anything and everything once and sex in front of other people was something I’d learned I wasn’t opposed to early on. I didn’t bring up that idea to all my partners, but slowly I would learn their interests and figure out what worked for both of us. I was Riley’s first sexual experience, and she was my first virgin, so I treated things delicately. The more time I spent with her, the more times we had sex, she showed me that maybe I didn’t have to besodelicate.
She liked when I was a little rough and when I grabbed her ass in public, telling her simple but effective dirty things in her ear. Her brown skin would get a red hue from her blush that drove me wild. She didn’t mind when I pulled her hair and the nervous, yet excited look she had when she saw my Jacob’s Ladder piercing could have been my undoing. She admitted with the most innocent look in her brown eyes that had just a tiny lining of gold near the center, that she liked to turn around and be on top, so that she could watch the silver balls go inside of her and I’m pretty sure I came the minute the words left her mouth.
And then her dad died, and I pulled back for a few months. I was there for her, but anything physical was all her call. I’d been easing us back into our flirty, sexy routine with the most care I could muster.
I walked over to Grayson’s car that was parked next to Asher’s. “I’ll let Riley get to know her roommate more and then I’ll ask her if she’s okay with me openly fucking her in front of another person because my brother would really appreciate it if I didn’t bring her over anymore, even though he has no reason to dislike her except that he has a stick up his ass.” I heard Grayson unlock the car, throwing the door open. “Better?”
I heard the wordsfucking bratleave my brother’s mind and I wanted to laugh.
I mean he isn’t wrong.I thought, sending what Asher said to Grayson’s mind. He gave me a look to not provoke the beast.
You are the worst kind of brat, Riv.I heard him say in his head.
“I won’t be home anyway, so I actually don’t even care. Just keep her out of my stuff, River!” Asher yelled from inside his car. He zoomed out of our driveway and headed towards the school.
“Ohpare.” Grayson settled into the driver’s seat, looking at me. “I think he likes her.”
“That’s because you thinkeveryoneshould like her.”
“So do you.”
I put my backpack on the car floor in front of me and pressed the button to roll my window down slightly. “He just thinks because she’s human, she’s incredibly fragile, so she needs to find another fragile human to be with. I consider that his version of caring.”
“Or maybe he says that ‘cause he likes her.”
I shoved his shoulder right before he cut on the car. “Shut up.”
He hummed, throwing me a lopsided smile. “He is wrong though. She is stupid powerful; how else would she get you to come at her every beck and call?”
I leaned my head against the headrest, turning to lazily look at him. He raised his hand to stop me before I could even get a word out. “I am well aware that I’m not immune to her sorcery either.”
7
Riley
Iflicked one of my braids out of my face as I stood in front of the massive building that held most of the mental magic faculty, along with my nine in the morning psychology class. Corrin had woken me up an hour before my alarm when I’d heard her makingpspspspsnoises. I looked around the room for a cat but found that she was talking to her phone screen.
She’d flinched when I groaned at the clock on my desk, finished her call quickly, and rambled on about how Jax was her familiar. Witches were allowed to bring their familiars to the university and drop them off at what she’d called a humane zoo for their soul pets. On the way out of the room and down the hall, she’d explained that as much as she missed Jax, if he was here, she would want to just visit him all the time and take him on cat walks.
If she ever really needed him, he would find his way to her no matter what.
The talk of pets made me bring up a picture of Beau and show him to her, which she’d squealed at and demanded I show her more. I demanded she buy me coffee.
I turned my body to see the building where my dad’s office was located. I bit the inside of my cheek, gripping the endsof my checkered flannel with my fingertips. It was breezy this morning, but I knew the sun would be out soon and the breeze would be fully welcomed. I had a gap between this class and my next, which gave me plenty of time to go over the police report I had gotten and printed out yesterday.
Corrin had a class immediately after this, so I could at least be alone.
“Riley, are you coming?” My roommate had her backpack slung over one of her shoulders, waving at me.
I sighed, walking over to her as we followed a bunch of other students inside the building. The classrooms were much bigger than the ones at my community college, especially the general classes that were placed in large auditorium style seating. Corrin pulled me into the third aisle from the front.
I sat down in the swivel chair, watching as students spoke amongst themselves. I overheard one particular conversation that had my ears perking up.
“I hate these stupid changes at the last minute,” one girl said.
“This was supposed to be a relatively easy general course. I have my herbs to worry about. For fucks sake,” another one replied, pure frustration in their voice.
