Chapter Seventeen

“I can’t fucking believe it.” Amanda’s face twisted with hate and disgust as she looked at me. I’d walked out with Daniel’s arm around me and now I moved closer to his side, with my own arm around his waist. “This is why you guys haven’t contacted me? You know she’s a virgin right? She has no experience at all.”

She’d asked them a question, but she didn’t wait on any of them to answer before she carried on. “This little virgin is so absolutely disgusting; she spent our entire four years on campus not able to attract one single guy.”

“Oh, you mean like the guys you lied to so they wouldn’t go out with me. Like the one you told I had herpes, even though I don’t. Or the one you made sure that he stayed away from me? Those guys you mean?” I sneered at her, my hand firmly in Daniel’s back pocket now. “Because that’s the real problem, Amanda. You. You hate me so much that you made it your mission to destroy me. Well, it didn’t work, dearie.”

I looked at the guys and saw they were all supportive of me. Their eyes, when they were on me were full of admiration, while they were only filled with disgust when they looked at Amanda.

“Come on, fellas, you can’t want a girl like her?” She looked me over, a bit surprised at my outfit, but she put on a sneer anyway. “Even in that dress, she doesn’t measure up to me?”

She walked close to Michael, her lips inches from his jawline as her fingers played on his solar plexus. “Don’t you want a real woman, Michael? One that knows how to get a man off?”

“Oh, you mean like you?” he asked, his lip curled in a grimace. “One that every guy on campus has had a time or two? Why would we want that, when we have her? That was probably the best thing you ever did in your life, being so careless that you lost your phone again.”

“So, it was you that found my phone!” Amanda whirled back to me, her face a mask of rage. “I knew it was, and when I couldn’t get the guys on WhatsApp, I suspected it was you.”

“Why are you here, Amanda?” Adam asked, his face bordering on cruel as he looked at her. “We were never going to give you what you wanted, you know? You showed us what you were, a long time ago, and you let yourself believe you weren’t setting yourself up for a fall. Nicolette did us a favor when she started texting us. She brought us what we really wanted. Someone that wanted only us. Not our money, or our name, or bragging rights, but us. She could go on to fuck the entire US male population, and some of the women if she wanted to, but she will do it because she wants. Not to get some benefit out of it that will help her career or the goals she’s set in her life.”

Amanda’s face twisted in confusion as if she didn’t understand why Adam was talking to her like that. “I don’t understand.”

That was obvious, but she needed it spelled out in terms she would understand. I walked up to her, my lips close to her jaw with my fingers on her shoulder, to mimic how she’d touched Michael, and punctuated each word I said with my grin. “You… got… played. It’s that simple. You fucked me over. I fucked you over. And these guys? They played you. You’re the fool, Amanda. Not me.”

I stepped back before she could slap me and laughed when she almost fell over. She had a neon pink tank dress that highlighted the fake tan she’d applied unevenly. Her blond hair looked as though it had recently had a near-death experience with a bottle of hair dye, and her makeup was melting in the heat. She didn’t look her best.

“I can’t believe that,” she gasped once she’d righted herself on her bright pink stilettoes. “You boys wouldn’t do that to me. All the guys at school want to fuck me, and you guys were hot for it until this bitch came along.”

“This bitch is now our girlfriend, so please don’t say a fucking word about her anymore,” Tristan spit at her, his face filled with anger. “Ever, Amanda, and I’m serious.”

“But I came all this way, I tracked you down through your Instagram accounts. I worked hard for this!”

“No, you worked hard for a game, Amanda,” Michael said quietly as he noticed we’d started to draw a crowd. “You spent four years being fake and being cruel. I saw that blog you bragged about and you know what? It made me sick how childish and petulant you were. That you were so shallow that you had to do something like that says all we know about you. Oh, and all those places where you sent job applications to with us listed as references? Yeah, we sent them that blog of yours. Might be why you haven’t had any callbacks.”

Her jaw dropped and mine did too. They’d really done that. They didn’t even know me then. I squeezed Tristan’s ass through his jeans, and he glanced down at me with a wink. My head was spinning, but I hid that behind a glassy smile. I was their girlfriend now? When did that happen? And they’d destroyed any chances she had of getting a job with her dream employers? Well, technically, she had, but you get my point.

“Now, if you don’t mind, we were about to escort this beautiful creature to lunch. Can you move, please?” Michael nudged Amanda away from him. She’s started to creep up on him as if she planned some sneak assault that might involve her begging. I’d love to see that, but the look of dawning realization in her eyes said she’d had enough. Until Michael spoke.

“Oh, we sent it to your father last night, as well. He wasn’t happy with you at all. I’m surprised your credit card still works.” Michael stood over her, his gaze deliberately looking down his nose at her.

“It didn’t, I had to pay for my lunch with cash.” Horror began to swim across her face, and she reached down to dig in her bag. “I have to go.”

She said it absently as she desperately hit the call button on her phone. “Daddy, please pick up.”

I heard the words as she walked away. Now that was revenge. I didn’t feel the relief I thought I’d feel or the sweet burn of victory, I simply felt… justified. Like the world had suddenly tilted back to the way it should be and all was right in the world. It was, in my world at least.

We all walked quietly back to the hotel and had lunch in the restaurant there. It was a modern room, with dark grays and blacks everywhere. We picked a table with a booth seat that would fit all of us, with me in the middle, and picked up the menus. Tristan teased my leg to the right of me, while Michael’s hand went straight between my legs to discover I had left off the brand-new panties they’d bought me. He looked down at me, his eyes narrowed with desire but also with amusement.

All I could do was grin and move his hand away so that I could focus on the menu. There was time for fun and games later. I needed food and this place had a menu that would fill any need.

I glanced at the food choices quickly and chose something that looked like it wouldn’t take an hour to make. I was hungry and didn’t want to wait long, so I flipped through the menu until I found what I wanted. I had the best salad of my life, covered with some kind of ham bits that were actually ham, and a gallon of dressing that was obviously made at the restaurant. Creamy and almost like a Caesar dressing, I couldn’t get enough, but finally had to stop eating.

“You were hungry,” Tristan noted, and I grinned over at him.

“I worked up an appetite over the last two days.”

“Good. Now, I think we should all relax in the pool for a bit, and then, maybe a nap.”

“That’s not sexy at all,” I complained playfully, but he only laughed as he stroked my cheek with his finger.

“I didn’t say it would be a nap alone.”

“Oh, well, in that case, race you to the bed!” I shot out of the booth and raced away from the table.

I saw all the fellas were behind me with grins on their faces as we left the place behind. True to their word, we spent an hour lounging in the pool before I wandered over to the jacuzzi. I turned it on and saw the water was warm already.

I climbed in, totally naked, and sighed with relief as the jets of warm water soothed muscles that still ached. I’d taken some aspirin for the pain earlier, but it hadn’t helped much. This was heavenly, though.

I felt the guys join me in the water and opened my eyes. A smile spread over my face as I looked at them. “Why the serious looks, fellas?”

“Because we should talk, Nicolette,” Michael answered, always the ringleader.

“About?” I waited for him to answer, my breath held. Were they not happy with me?

“About what we’re doing here,” Tristan answered when Michael paused. He was impatient to get on with it, then. “I, we, want this to continue, if you want the same, Nicolette. I know we’re off to Spain soon, and you mentioned that your grandparents wanted you to come to California in August, last night. But once everything is settled, and we’ve decided about the future, well, we want to move to Charlotte and start there.”

“I see.” I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth, excited and pleased with what he’d said, but still afraid I’d fuck it all up somehow. “I would like that.”

“Would you? People will find out about us all, eventually, one way or another. It could be damaging to our careers and other relationships,” Michael said the words with weight behind them as if he wanted to make an impression on me.

“I know that,” I responded. “Like you guys with your decision about your careers, I have to decide if I want to put it all on the line for you.”

I sank back into the water and stared up at the view of the city. Twilight was on the way and the city gleamed in the last of the sunlight. Wouldn’t it be nice to live up here, in this castle in the sky, and look out at the world like this every day? Reality waited for me though and I looked back at each of the men in the tub with me.

“I don’t have nearly as much to lose as you guys do, but I guess you mean things like the respect of my mother and friends, or coworkers that I’ll have in the future. I don’t want to lose those things, but my mother loves me, I think she’d quietly cheer me on. As for friends? Well, there are only two that matter, and I know both would be right behind me, no matter what. I don’t have coworkers yet, so I don’t care about them either.” I gave a nervous laugh that soon firmed up to certainty. “Yeah, I know what it means if anybody finds out about us, but I don’t care. If you all want to carry on, if you want to see where this takes us, then I’d love to be on that journey with you.”

There were relieved sighs all around and then, the air changed. It became electric as four pairs of hungry eyes zeroed in on me. Oh boy. We were going to skip the nap then.