Touch Me Not(20)

Luther sat glued to the TV playing Call of Duty when Nikoli opened the door. Why Luther loved that game, Nikoli had no idea. He’d played it and won and never had the urge to play again. Currently they were working on a new zombie game, one that would make Resident Evil look like child’s play. They’d employed a graphics team to design the game to look as real as possible. He and Luther were the only ones working on the programming. It was groundbreaking work, and they were keeping it as hush-hush as possible.

“No, no, no, no…dammit!”

Nikoli glanced at the TV to see Luther had been the victim of a sneak attack and was now cussing enough to make even him raise his eyebrows. It wasn’t until Nikoli heard him muttering about a grand that he understood the outburst. Luther must have had money riding on the game. Whomever had taken him out must be very good. Nikoli never bet against Luther in gaming.

“Bad luck there, man.” Nikoli tossed Luther a beer. “You going for a rematch?”

“No,” he snarled. “Little fucker refused. He knows he’ll lose.”

Nikoli laughed and then joined Luther on the couch. He cracked open his beer and took a long draw from the bottle. Ah, he’d needed that.

“So,” Luther drawled. “How did your…date…go?”

“We talked.”

“Talked?” Luther’s eyebrows shot up. “Just…talked?”

“Do people really call me the manwhore of BU?” he asked instead of answering.

Luther laughed. “You hadn’t heard that before?”

Nikoli shook his head. “No, it was a little disconcerting. I am not a whore. I don’t sleep with every single woman I meet. I enjoy sex, and I won’t apologize for that, but I am not near as bad as Lily said.”

“Well, you do have a reputation, Nik, that’s spread like wildfire through the female population. It’s made you into a bit of a celebrity.”

“Don’t sugarcoat it.” Nikoli took another swig of his beer.

“I’m not.” Luther shook his head. “You’re an icon, man. Every woman on campus wants to mark you off her bucket list.”

“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel any better,” Nikoli muttered.

“So what are we gonna do since you struck out with Lily?” Luther asked, his face deceptively blank. “Wanna head over to T’s Pub? I think everyone else is either over at Jillian’s or The White Horse.”

Nikoli’s eyes narrowed. Why was Luther suggesting they stay away from everyone?#p#分页标题#e#

“I mean, it’s obvious you had an epic failure with Lily,” Luther continued. “I’m sure you don’t want to listen to every guy we know go on and on and on about it…”

“Not a problem.” Nikoli stared pointedly at Luther. “If that were to happen with any guy we know, I’d beat him to within an inch of his life.”

The grin slid from Luther’s face, and he beat a hasty retreat to the fridge for more beers. “At least you’re giving up on Lily and…”

“Who said I was giving up on Lily?” Nikoli savored the jaw drop currently on Luther’s face.

“But…but…you came home alone!” Luther stammered, slamming the fridge door.

“Yeah, so?”

Luther snapped his mouth shut and glared. “You can’t do this, man. She’s not a girl you fuck with. She’s too nice. I swear to God, you hurt her, me and you, we’ll have a problem.”

Nikoli’s eyebrows shot up. He’d heard Luther talk about Lily before. She’d helped him out in one of his English classes he’d been failing. Nik had no idea Luther was this protective of her, though.

“Calm the fuck down and stop acting like an outraged woman. You look like your sister when you do that.” Nikoli chuckled when Luther’s glare got hotter. He loved riling him up sometimes. “You got it wrong. Lily and I came to a mutual agreement.”

“What kind of agreement?” Luther asked suspiciously.

“She’s in love with Boy Wonder,” Nik told him, disgusted. “He’s marrying the blonde. I promised to help her win over Boy Wonder if she agreed I could try to seduce her.”

“And she agreed to that stupidity?” Luther barked.

“Not yet,” Nikoli admitted. “I took her home and told her to think about it. If she stands a chance of stealing Boy Wonder, she has to get over her fears, and I can I help her with that. Deep down, she knows she needs help, and she’ll agree.”

“Fears?” Luther asked, curious.

Nik debated with how much he should tell Luther, but Lily would be spending a lot of time here as well as his other apartment. Luther needed to know her boundaries if she was ever going to be comfortable around him.