“You guys can come over tonight if you want. We can have a study date.”
“I don’t study with girls.” I stared at the redhead. “I fuck.”
“We try to be accommodating.” She grinned at me eagerly and then looked at her friend. I could so fuck both of them. I knew it as surely as I knew that I could get the blonde to go into the men’s room and suck me off at that very moment.
“Brandon and I have laundry to do tonight.” I yawned and sat back. I could see the surprised look on his face as I blew the girls off.
“Maybe we can help.”
“Maybe not.” My voice was sharp with irritation. “I’m not interested.” I spelled it out to them clearly. Blondie’s face fell and the redhead had an evil glint in her eyes as they realized they’d been dismissed, but I didn’t care. “So, Brandon, wanna catch a movie later? I’ll pay.” I heard the girls’ sharp inhalations as they walked away and I grinned.
“You just told them you were going to do laundry tonight.” Brandon shook his head. “And then you slipped up and asked me to a movie. They most probably think you’re a jerk now.”
“That wasn’t a slip-up.” I gave him my ‘who do you think you’re with’ glance. “That was my don’t-swim-in-the-ocean-if-you-don’t-like-sharks lesson to them.”
“You didn’t have to be mean.”
“I wasn’t being mean. I was being real. They’re sluts.”
“Greyson!” Brandon hurriedly looked around the room to see if anyone was listening.
“Come on now. We could have had a foursome tonight and they don’t even really know us.”
“I’d rather a threesome and you stay in your room.” Brandon grinned and I laughed.
“You know it’s true.”
“Well, they were a bit obvious.”
“I don’t want those types of girls at the club. Women should know their place.”
“What do you mean?”
“All women do is bring men down. Men lose their shit over women. And for what? For some pussy? Gimme a break.”
“You’ve heard of the power of the pussy, bro.”
“Only because we give it to them. Everyone knows men run the world. But that’s strong men only—weak men crumble.” My mind fell to my brother. “Women try to make you love them and then they leave with either your money or your heart.”
“Not all women.”
“What women do you know who give a shit about you?”
“I dunno.” Brandon shrugged, and I slammed my hands on the table.
“Exactly. There’s no point trying to lie to ourselves or even go down that road. We can get what we want from women who know the deal.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, as long as we keep our hearts out of our pants, we’re cool.”
“So we’re going to have girls at the club then?” Brandon said after a few minutes. “What will the girls be doing?”
“Whatever we want them to do.” I raised an eyebrow. “There will be no request too big or small.”
“So it’ll be like a private, no-questions-asked strip club?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Strip clubs are sleazy.”
“Sex club?” Brandon’s eyes widened.
“There will be sex. And plenty of it. But no. It’s not just about being a sex club either. It’s not anything we have to define. It’s what we want it to be. It’s just the private club. No one will really know what goes on there. That will be part of the allure.”
“So we’re just going to call it the private club?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “And only you and I will know what’s going on.”
“You’re fucked up, you know that, Greyson?” Brandon shook his head at me and grabbed his books as the professor came into the room.
“Every single day of my life,” I whispered as I pulled out my pen.
I saw the blond girl walk back into the room with a tissue in her hands. She was rubbing the corners of her eyes, and I could see she’d been crying. She avoided eye contact with me, and I stared at the front of the room, trying to ignore the guilt in my heart. I’m preparing her for the real wolves out there, I told myself. Better to learn the harsh realities about men now.
The professor started talking, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying above the throbbing in my ears. As averse as I was to love, I still didn’t want to hurt anyone. That wasn’t my goal.
I stared down at my desk and thought back to my life before my mom had died. I thought back to the joy and the laughter and I missed it. But then I remembered the man my father had become since her death and I knew that I couldn’t break my vow to myself. I was never going to allow a woman to break me down like my father had been broken.