Her Spite: A Reverse Harem Bully Romance (The Forgotten Elites Book 2) by Eden Beck (best adventure books to read .TXT) 📗

here, on campus, but it certainly isn’t the image I want to carry with me to the gala. And I mean, having one of the review board member’s own sons on my arm can’t hurt.

Unlike Chase’s attempts to get me to let Warren out of volunteer duties, I don’t have to resort to literally throwing myself at Sterling before he finally caves.

“Okay,” he says just two days later as he walks up to where I’m standing in line for a coffee between classes. “I’ll take you to the gala.”

“You will?” I ask with an excitement that I’m trying—and epically failing—not to show.

“Yeah,” he nods, “but I get that second date tonight. Take it or leave it.”

I laugh and pay for my coffee with money from what’s become Bridget’s weekly allowance for me before walking out with him.

“I’ll take it,” I say. “You must be pretty eager for that second date, huh?”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I just want to make sure that I don’t end up losing out on this deal.” He shakes his head. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to go to that gala with my father there. This better be one hell of a second date.”

Chapter Ten

After classes, I go back to my dorm room to change and am surprised to find Bridget there. She barely spends any time in the room other than to sleep these days.

I tell her a casual hello and then start rooting through the clothes she gave me to find an outfit to wear on my date with Sterling.

Even if he’d probably prefer I wore my uniform.

“Big date tonight?” she sneers from her side of the room where it looks like she’s just sitting on her bed and pouting.

There’s no way that Sterling would have told her that we are going out together again, so her comment must just be coincidentally accurate.

“Not that big,” I say without actually answering her question. “How about you, what are your plans for tonight?”

“Not that it’s any of your business,” she says with snark. “But I think I’m going to hang out with the guys in a little while. My brother put together a study session for the four of us, and before you ask—no, you are not invited to join.”

I let her have that one.

Her study group is going to dwindle from four to three pretty quickly, considering that Sterling is going out with me instead of hanging with the rest of them tonight.

I imagine that seeing Sterling is probably the only reason that she’s even going to the study group. I have a hard time believing that there’s going to be any actual studying getting done. Those four are mostly into partying and trying to find ways not to work.

I should be looking forward to being able to torture Bridget tomorrow with the details of how Sterling ditched a chance to hang out with her so that he could go on another date with me … but instead, all I’m thinking about is Sterling.

Fuck me.

But it’s too late to back out. I’ll let myself enjoy this, just a little bit.

A real date.

My first date.

Not that I’d tell Sterling—let alone Bridget of all people—in a million years.

Sterling is already waiting for me on the first floor of the dorms, and much to my chagrin, he looks amazingly hot. I mean, he was already good-looking, but tonight as he stands there in his distressed black jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt that hugs all the definition of his ab muscles—he looks positively swoon-worthy.

I have a hard time hiding my reaction and Sterling catches my lingering eyes as I look over his body from head to toe. He chuckles and a sexy grin forms at the corners of his mouth.

“Ready?” he asks as he holds out a hand for me to take.

“Yeah, where are we going?”

“Someplace special,” he says. “Trust me, you’ll like it.”

I take his hand and let him lead me out of the dorm, just in time to see Bridget coming down the stairs and catching a glimpse of us as we leave. She’s going to be raving mad tomorrow.

At least I don’t have to break the news to her in private. She’s a little less likely to actually murder me this way.

We’re about halfway across the campus when Sterling pulls me around a corner and toward one of the other dorm buildings. I hesitate only for a second before following him inside.

“Is this where your dorm is?”

Sterling nods with a smile.

“Wait, so I got all dressed up for our date, and all we’re doing is going to hang out in your dorm room?”

He laughs as we get onto the elevator. When we get to the top floor, we step out and it looks like we are inside of a fancy hotel penthouse. I do a double-take as I look around.

“This is your dorm room?” I ask in a stupor.

The elevator has opened up right into a giant apartment-sized room that is furnished like an upscale department store.

“Yep,” he says, “and you should feel lucky because you’re the only other person besides Chase and Warren who’s ever seen it.”

“Really? You haven’t even brought Bridget up here before?”

“Why would I have brought Bridget up here?” he asks.

Their relationship is so confusing to me.

“I don’t know, I thought you guys were dating or starting to date, or something at one point,” I answer.

Sterling just shakes his head and walks toward his full-sized kitchen to crack open a bottle of wine. I always thought he was a little older than me … at least by a bit, but still probably not twenty-one. I guess when you’re rich you can get whatever you want, whether it’s legal or not. I walk further into the apartment and kick off my shoes while he pours us both a glass of wine.

It’s never occurred to me that Sterling’s family might be wealthier than Warren and Bridget’s, but now I find myself wondering. If Bridget’s family could afford this, she’d for sure have insisted