If I expected an apology from Luke, I don’t get one.
“Bex is my twin sister,” he bites out. “She’s a part of me. I watched her last night, and I don’t think she’d like living in the Zeta house. Besides, that would have been another temporary situation where she would have had to lie low. Like this, we’re above board.”
I cross my arms over my chest, mildly annoyed with the situation. “Are you sure? What if the Dean changes his mind?”
Luke’s confidence doesn’t falter. “We have Coach’s word. You know he’s solid. Good or bad, he always keeps his promises.”
He’s right about that.
“What are you going to say to Connor and Keene? We had a vote, and you just ignored their wishes.”
There’s a tick in Luke’s jaw. “Connor said he was just worried about getting expelled if anyone found out, and that’s no longer a risk. Let me deal with Keene.”
“Good luck with that.” I snort. “He was clear about his feelings. And if you ask me, Keene is almost as scary as Coach.”
Luke has either the biggest pair of balls in this entire campus, or a death wish. “Don’t worry about Keene.”
He keeps his gaze on me, as if he was waiting for me to say something.
Having Bex in the house is exciting and troubling at the same time.
“This whole fake relationship thing you agreed to on my behalf,” I start. “Is that going to become a problem between the two of us, Luke?”
His eyes bore into me. “What do you mean? Why should that be a problem?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because Bex is your sister and I’m not sure you’ve thought this through before making a deal with the Dean and Coach. We’ll have to sell being together. Actually, it’s more than that. We’ll have to sell being madly in love with each other for our teammates and the entire school to take notice of it.”
He doesn’t get it. “So?” he shrugs.
“To be able to convince everyone, we might have to get close.”
My words don’t seem to be driving the point home.
“I still don’t see why you’re so worried about that ruining our friendship, Hart.”
I speak my mind. “Because it’s me we’re talking about. I sleep around. I’m the farthest thing from boyfriend material you’ve ever seen. Any of our teammates would buy their sisters a chastity belt if they knew they were going out with me.”
There’s a beat of silence before Luke shocks me for the second time today.
“Why? You haven’t been doing anything wrong. Like you said earlier, you’re upfront with your dates. All you promise them is a good time, and from what I’ve heard, you deliver that in spades. Do the same with Bex. Show her some fun if that’s what she wants. Fuck knows she needs it. And I’d rather have her spend time in your bed than with Kurt Priestly.”
That name makes my blood boil. Kurt Priestly is one of the players I hate the most. He’s a real asshole in the worst sense. He plays dirty, provoking his opponents with endless shit talk, but it doesn’t end there. He has no qualms about hitting someone hard enough to injure them, and he’s a cheap shot. He always hits you from behind and when the referees aren’t looking.
“Priestly? That’s the guy she left at the altar? The guy who hit her?”
“Yup.” Luke scowls. “It was some kind of fucked up arranged marriage. Priestly is our dad’s top client.”
That could be a problem. “So you think she should go from an arranged engagement to a fake relationship?” I gawk.
He explains. “This is different. You aren’t going to ask her to do anything she doesn’t want and you’ll keep her safe, like you’ve already proven. You’re not a monster like her ex. When we play Bridgeport next, he had better watch out or I’m gonna fucking kill him.”
I’ve never seen Luke so furious.
“Fuck. He must have done quite a number on her.”
Luke’s jaw ticks. “What do you mean?”
I tell him about the terrified, haunted look in Bex’s eyes. And the way she recoiled from my touch after Connor and I took care of those assholes who tried to grope her outside Joe’s bar the night she got here.
