Slammed #4 (The Slammed Romance Series - Book #4) by Claire Adams Page A

just a couple of days after we’d had sex for the first
time in years. I thought of him telling me it was just sex.
    But he’d acted differently since, hadn’t he? He’d
asked me out on a proper date, he’d declared he was hung up on me in front of
everyone. I’d been humiliated by the way he acted, but he was just showing off,
just trying to get my attention. If he was really serious about having a relationship
with me I could forgive him for what he’d done. But if he was dancing and
flirting with other girls while keeping me on the line as a steady lay—if all I
was to him was a reliable piece of ass—then I couldn’t stand that.
    “Is that what you think is happening?” Jess asked
me.
    I shrugged, throwing my arms out wildly. “I have no
fucking clue!” I ran my hands through my hair, trying to decide what I thought.
“I just…he’s right there, some slut grabbing on him, and they probably slept
together, and I don’t know whether it was from months ago or last year or last
week!”
    “Last week, if it was then, you were freezing him
out.”
    “What if it was the night of the party? What if he
was grinding on that girl and hooked up with her and then got rid of her before
I got there to talk to him.”
    “Busy guy, then,” Jess said, smiling faintly.
    “This isn’t funny, Jess!” Jess’ smile fell and she
nodded. “On top of all that he might be getting suspended from the football
team, and I don’t know how to feel about that…” I threw myself down on the
couch. “What do I do, Jess? This is just…I can’t even handle everything going
on in my brain right now.”
    “First, take a chill pill. If Zack gets suspended
from the team then I sure as hell hope they have a backup plan because I can’t
think of any way they’ll manage in the championship without him.” Jess paused a
moment to think before continuing. “As for the rest of it, I mean, are you
really not okay with him drinking and partying? You’re worried about the kind
of girl that he wants you to be—but are you okay with the kind of guy he is?”
    “I don’t know,” I admitted. “If he’s the kind of
guy—still—who would let girls get all up on him and rub up against him even if
he’s with someone…with me…then no. But I don’t know.”
    “You need to figure out what kind of guy he is, and
you need to figure out if you’re okay with the kind of guy he is. I mean it. I
can see you’re serious about him, but if he isn’t serious about you, you’re
never going to be okay with that.” I nodded. “So figure it out, Evie , and do what makes sense from there.” Jess stood up,
stretching. “Try and get some breakfast in your system before class.”
    I went into my room, still shaking with anger and
upset. I should change out of my pajamas and get to the dining hall, get ready
for the rest of my day. I should just put the picture I had seen and the
article I had read completely out of my mind until I could talk to Zack about
it. But my heart was pounding in my chest and I couldn’t take my mind off of
the picture. I couldn’t stop thinking about the lurid details that the article
had featured, the highlights of the frat’s history. “In 2004, the fraternity was the subject of a long investigation by the
administration when an early-admission student, aged 15, told her parents that
she had had sex with one of the members of the frat…In 2010, the frat was once
more temporarily suspended pending the verdict in allegations of underage
drinking and public lewdness, with several students alleging that public sex
occurred during at least one party…” Zack hadn’t been a member of the frat
for the worst of the infractions, but the frat’s reputation lent itself well to
encouraging someone like Zack to do whatever he wanted.
    I pulled at my hair, groaning as I buried my face
against my mattress. The thought of seeing Zack with another girl—both the way
I had in real life, just a few short days after we had