LOGINZuri“We’re on the next flight available to your school,” Jackson said, and I could already hear him moving around in the background, drawers opening, the particular chaos of a man packing badly.“But I thought Mum said you two had meetings all week.”“That’s true.” That was Brandon’s voice now, closer to the phone. “But nothing’s more important than our princess.”“Dad, I’m fine.” I shifted against the pillows, wincing when my ankle protested the movement. “It’s just a minor accident. I’ll be fine.”The door pushed open and Ethan came in balancing a bowl of soup like it might attack him, steam curling off the top. He set it on the nightstand and sat carefully on the edge of the bed, watching me with the phone still pressed to my ear.“Besides,” I said, “the boys are taking care of me.”Ethan reached over and plucked the phone gently from my hand before I could stop him. “Uncle Brandon. Uncle Jack. Zuri’s fine. We’re taking care of her.”I heard my dads’ voices overlap on the other en
ZuriPractice had barely started when the doors banged open and the squad walked in like they owned the ice.Gabriela led, of course, Octavia a step behind her, two other girls trailing in matching jackets. They settled into the bleachers a few rows up from where I sat with my clipboard and water bottles, and I felt the temperature in the room drop the second Gabriela’s eyes found me.“Oh look.” Her voice carried, pitched exactly loud enough. “It’s the fat errand girl.”The girls beside her laughed on cue, that practiced, hollow sound. I kept my eyes on the ice, on Audric running drills, and pretended my ears weren’t burning.“Does she come with the equipment,” Octavia added, “or is she extra?”More laughing. I gripped my water bottle tighter and said nothing, because saying something had never once worked, not once in two years of this.I stood to grab the extra pucks from the bench. Gabriela came down the bleacher steps toward me, heels clicking, phone out.“You know they’re mine, r
ZuriI made it back to my dorm on legs that didn’t feel entirely mine, shut the door, and leaned against it like it was the only thing holding me up.Breathe.It was just a kiss. It meant nothing. He’d said so himself.I pressed the heel of my hand against my eye where it throbbed and told myself that a hundred more times until it almost sounded true. My reflection in the dark window looked like someone else. Someone whose whole life hadn’t just cracked down the middle in one afternoon.I slid down the door until I was sitting on the floor, and that’s when I saw it. An envelope, slipped halfway under the door, my name written across the front in handwriting I didn’t recognize.I opened it.An invitation. Gold lettering, heavy cardstock. Chase Whitfield requests the pleasure of your company — his birthday, two weeks out, some address near the lake I didn’t know.I stared at it for a second, grateful for anything that wasn’t Ethan’s mouth or Audric’s watch or the sound my own laugh had
ChrisHaving a secret crush on Zuri for years is devastating enough. Now I’m standing here like a moron watching her mouth still swollen from my brother’s.“When did you two…?” My voice didn’t sound like mine.“There’s nothing between us.” Ethan cut me off before I even finished the question. “Nothing at all.”“I kissed him because I wanted to,” Zuri said, cutting in before either of us could say anything else. Her chin lifted, daring me to argue. “Why do you look so mad?”Because I’ve wanted to kiss those lips for two years and my brother just did it without even trying.I couldn’t say that. Not to her. Maybe not ever.I knew my brother. I’d watched him charm his way through half the girls on this campus, tell them exactly what they wanted to hear, and forget their names by morning. That was just Ethan. Easy come, easy go, no harm done because nobody expected anything different from him.But Zuri wasn’t supposed to be one of those girls.She was the girl I’d known since we we
ZuriThe pond was still, green, and hidden well enough that you could almost forget the rest of campus existed.The boys found it by accident during their first semester, after wandering down a trail that, according to them, didn’t appear on any campus map. When I got admitted, one of the first places they brought me was here.It was peaceful. Beautiful. Tucked away from the noise and chaos of campus.Out here, it was just us.No girls hovering around them. No one stealing their attention. No interruptions.Out here, I felt like I was their whole world again. The only woman they saw. The only one who mattered.Ever since then, we’d come back every Friday, as if it were a standing appointment none of us ever had to mention.I sat on the flat rock near the bank while the boys talked about their parents anniversary.“Mum already called twice this morning,” Ethan said, pulling his shirt over his head. “She wants to know if we’re bringing anyone.”“Tell her no,” Audric said.“Sh
Zuri‘You’re acting as if you’ve never seen a dick before.’Chris’s words played in my head on a loop.I shook my head, trying to pull myself out of my reverie and focus on the lecture, but it was impossible.Every time I thought I’d finally stopped thinking about him, his voice crept back into my mind.I hated my life right then.Professor Aldain was forty minutes into his lecture and I had written exactly one line of notes.It wasn’t even a good line.My pen was moving but my brain wasn’t in the room. It was back in that locker room, replaying what I walked into, and more specifically that huge cock hanging between his legs, and I needed to stop thinking about it immediately because I was in public.I pressed my thighs together under the desk and stared at the board.The thing is, I had seen Chris without a shirt a hundred times. At the beach, at practice, after games. I knew he was built. I knew all three of them were. You don’t grow up around hockey players and miss tha
RheaI arrived at Thompson Hall at seven forty-five.I was fifteen minutes early, which gave me exactly fifteen minutes to pace the small lecture room and question every desperate decision that had led me here. Room 304 was tucked away on the third floor, far from the main classrooms. I had deliber
RheaI broke the second Elora’s door closed behind me.I just completely fell apart.She caught me before I hit the floor, her arms wrapping tight around me as the sobs tore out of my chest. Raw. Ugly. The kind of crying that physically hurts.“It’s okay,” she murmured, guiding me toward her be
Rhea“And how’s your Italian boo?”“Oh my God, Ri, we are going on our second date tonight.” Elora’s voice rang out through the phone. “Can you believe he had my favorite chocolate delivered to me this morning, customized with my name?”“Aww, that’s so sweet. I’m happy that you found your own pe
RheaI just wanted the three of us, doing whatever we felt like. I wanted to feel normal—or as normal as a girl can feel when she’s in love with two gorgeous, lethal men.“Whatever you need, Angel,” Brandon said, an arrogant smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth as he took my chin gently betwee







