Page 1 of Nothing to Lose

Chapter 1

Eli

“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” A familiar electric-green bag sits on one of the two beds in my new dorm room—the same bag that belongs to my teammate, whom I happened to be stuck with all summer while our parents threw a lavish wedding and moved us all into one big, happy house. At least, that’s the version they’re telling themselves. There’s nothing happy about it. I couldn’t wait to get back to school so I didn’t have to see his smug face every day.

The last two years at Corvus College, we’ve been competing against each other for play time, and now that we’re entering our junior year, we both have our eyes on the captain title once our current captain, Silas, graduates. Go fucking figure.

I stand in the middle of the room like a jackass, staring at the bag, wondering what the fuck I did to have such shitty luck when the atmosphere in the room changes, the lights flickering several times, the air evaporating around me. A chill runs down my spine, and there’s only one person responsible for making me feel that way.

“Oh, hey, little brother. Welcome to our humble abode!” I turn to face the owner of the way-too-cheerful voice coming from the doorway to find Hunter, who, yeah, is technically my stepbrother now. But it’s a technicality that I’m choosing to ignore. Because fuck this guy.

“You really don’t need to call me that, dickhead, we’re adults, it’s not like we grew up together.”

“Yeah, but it’s so much more fun to see your face get red when I do.”

Exhibit A: dickhead.

“Fuck off, Hunter.”

“You first, little bro,” he says with a sly wink.

Hunter slides around my body when I don’t move out of his way, brushing up against me in the process, lifting a box over my head. I roll my eyes, dropping my bags down on the other bed that’s parallel to Hunter’s, still not believing the reality of the situation.

I couldn’t wait to get back to Corvus after being cooped up with him all summer. Hunter’s a huge flirt, and his favorite game seems to be trying to make me squirm, which usually results in pissing me off.

No matter what I did this summer to avoid him, he always showed up, driving me fucking insane. Our parents didn’t help, constantly trying to force bonding time as if we could suddenly create a new family because they decided to start a second life together. Hunter and I are adults, both of us twenty-one; the time for bonding and brotherhood is long gone.

“Which one of us is requesting to move?” I demand.

Hunter whips around to face me, throwing his arms out to the sides. He’s wearing a pair of loose grey joggers that sit low on his hips—not that I’m noticing, not really—and a dark navy blue hoodie that hides the chiseled body underneath. Again, not that I notice, it’s just obvious to anyone who has working eyeballs. Especially the way his Adonis belt protrudes perfectly. I quickly avert my eyes.

“You aren’t serious.”

“Summer was enough togetherness, don’t you think?”

Hunter smirks, raising his eyebrows suggestively at me as he steps forward two paces. His warm cedar scent wraps around me and invades all my senses. I stand my ground, not willing to back down to him. “I don’t think it was enough, actually.” His voice is a husky whisper that sends goosebumps scattering across my skin, the hair on my arms standing tall. This is fucking ridiculous. He’s always trying to get a reaction out of me. Would be cool if my body could stop giving him what he wants. Consider this Exhibit B. He’s definitely a dickhead.

I smack his stomach with the back of my hand, regretting it immediately when I meet the firm, ripped abs there. I saw him in nothing but his swim shorts this summer, so I’m well acquainted with what he’s packing under there. He grunts as I squeeze past him to head toward the door.

“I’ll do it, then. There’s no way I’m spending the entire school year in this room with you. We already share the field and the locker room, and now when we leave for break, we get to go back to my house that you and your mom invaded. Nah, I’m good.” When I look back at Hunter, he’s shifting from foot to foot, running his thick fingers through his tousled, dirty-blond hair.

“Look, I know it wasn’t ideal to have us move in, but your dad makes my mom really happy, and she deserves that after everything she’s been through. So, you can be pissed at me, you can be pissed at the situation, but could you leave our parents out of it? Leave my mom out of it?” For the first time since I’ve known Hunter, he looks human, more vulnerable than the jokester, jock Greek god I’ve been teammates with for the last few years. It’s unnerving and makes me feel like shit.

I give him a curt nod, spinning on my heels to put some needed space between the two of us. Instead of going to the administration office inside Thorne Hall, I go back to my car, picking up another box and reluctantly lugging it across the quad and back into Grimsley Hall. Hunter is unpacking his clothes into the dresser when I step in, setting the box down at the foot of my bed.

His eyebrow rises, and a smirk lifts at the corner of his plush, nude lips. Bastard.

“Thought you were leaving.”

“Yeah, well, I changed my mind.” I shrug like it isn’t a big deal. Corvus College is an invitation-only institution deep in the Massachusetts woods. There’s no way they’d be able to accommodate my request to change rooms now that the school year has already started. Plus, it could always be worse than Hunter Crowe. At least I know what I’m getting when it comes to him. Dickhead and all.

Hunter nods, biting his bottom lip the way he always does when he’s thinking too hard. “Want some help getting your shit?”

I’d be an idiot to deny him with all the goddamn stairs and lack of elevators in this place. “Sure.”

I had a lot of ideas of what this year was going to bring at Corvus College—making sure I’m the top prospect for captain of our rugby team being at the top of that list—but none of them were bunking with my stepbrother. Too bad Corvus has plans of its own.

Chapter 2