Who Is That?!

Adrian’s POV

I woke up hard, aching, and smiling like an idiot.

The storage room still lived under my skin. Elias Kane’s mouth under mine. The way he punched me, the blood on my lip, the pure shock on his face when his cock jumped in his jeans. Then the heat of him spilling across my tongue. The tight, perfect grip of his body when I finally pushed inside. The broken sounds he made when I hit that spot. The scratches he left down my back.

I had fucked a lot of people. Girls. Guys. Sometimes both in the same night. None of them had ever felt like that.

The aphrodisiac was gone by morning. The memory was not.

I rolled out of bed, showered, and kept replaying every second. The way his dark hair stuck to his forehead. 

The pink of his nipples under my tongue. How he clenched around me when he came, dragging me over the edge with him. I had called him slutty in my head while I was inside him and meant it as a compliment. He had looked wrecked and beautiful and mine for those few minutes.

I wanted it again. Immediately.

By the time I reached campus I was almost bouncing. I scanned every hallway for him. Engineering building, lecture halls, the track. Nothing. During morning practice I caught only a flash of dark hair on the far side of the garage before it vanished. I called his name once near the lockers. He pretended to check his phone and kept walking.

After our shared lecture I waited by the door. He saw me, turned on his heel, and took a completely different exit. I stood there feeling stupid, watching the back of his head disappear.

He was avoiding me.

That afternoon I finally cornered him on the second floor of the library. He sat with his back to the room, laptop open, shoulders tense. I dropped into the chair across from him and rested one hand on the table.

“Kane.”

He looked up. His dark eyes went wide for half a second before the walls slammed down.

“What do you want, Vale?”

“You disappeared on me.” I kept my voice low. “We need to talk about last night.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” He closed the laptop harder than necessary. “It was a mistake. The drugs. The locked door. That’s all.”

“You came twice,” I said. “Once in my mouth. Once while I was inside you. You scratched my back and moaned my name. That didn’t feel like a mistake.”

His face flushed deep red. “Shut up. Someone might hear.”

“I don’t care.” I leaned closer. “It was good. Better than good. I haven’t stopped thinking about it. The way you felt. The sounds you made. How tight you were….”

“Stop.” His voice cracked. “I’m not… I don’t do that. I hate you. I’ve always hated you. Whatever happened last night was the drugs and nothing else. It won’t happen again.”

I studied him. The denial was loud, but his pulse jumped in his throat. His eyes kept dropping to my mouth before he forced them away.

“You’re lying,” I said quietly. “To me and to yourself.”

“Go find one of your usual girls. Or guys. Whoever. Just leave me alone.” He shoved the laptop into his bag and stood. “I mean it, Vale. Stay away from me.”

I let him walk this time. Watching him flee felt worse than losing a race.

That night I tried to drown the thought of him the usual way. A party at a friend’s house. Loud music. 

Free drinks. A dark-haired girl found me on the couch. She was pretty….sharp cheekbones, soft mouth, hair almost the same length as Elias’s. When she sat on my lap I pulled her closer and kissed her.

For a second I could pretend.

I closed my eyes and the mouth under mine became his. The soft sound she made became the broken moan Elias had given me when I first pushed inside. My hands slid under her shirt the way they had under his. Heat flooded me. I was hard again, aching the same way I had been in that storage room.

She whispered something filthy against my lips. I almost answered with his name.

I broke the kiss and set her on her feet.

“Go,” I said. My voice came out rough. “Sorry. Not tonight.”

She looked confused, maybe hurt, but she left. I sat there with my cock straining against my jeans and Elias’s face burned behind my eyelids. I couldn’t fuck her. I didn’t even want to try. Every time I closed my eyes I felt the heat of him, the way he had clenched around me, the look on his face when he came.

I went home alone and jacked off in the shower thinking about dark hair and angry eyes and the exact pitch of his voice when he said my name.

The next day I decided enough was enough. I was going to find him, drag him somewhere private if I had to, and make him admit that the night in the storage room had cracked something open in both of us.

I checked the track first. Empty. The engineering building. Nothing. Cafeteria. No sign of him. Finally I cut across the quad toward the student center, scanning every cluster of people.

There.

Near the low wall by the fountain. Elias stood with his back half-turned, dark hair falling into his eyes the way it always did when he was tired. Someone stood close to him….too close. A brown-haired guy, tall, handsome, easy smile. One of his hands rested lightly on Elias’s waist like it belonged there.

Elias wasn’t pulling away.

Something hot and ugly ripped through my chest. Jealousy, sharp and sudden. My fists clenched at my sides. The golden-boy smile I usually wore felt like glass about to shatter.

I took a step forward, then another, eyes locked on that hand on Elias’s waist.

Who is that?!