Hooped #3 (The Hooped Interracial Romance Series, Book #3) Read Online Free Page B

“Hey, you’re Devon’s girlfriend, right? Jenn?” I smiled,
nodding. “Come on in; Devon said you were coming. We’re all in the living
room.” I stepped through the door, taking in a brand-new shock: the frat house
was actually reasonably clean on the inside—a far cry from the state it had
been in when I’d been there for the
party. It occurred to me that I hadn’t paid enough attention when I’d been
there the night before to notice whether it had been clean then.
    The frat brother, who introduced himself to me as
Brian, led me through the front hall to the living room. “Hey, Bri —don’t think you can go scamming on my girl, now,” Devon
said, crossing the room to meet me. I blushed, laughing and rolling my eyes at
him as Devon took my hand in his. He kissed me lightly on the lips, holding my
gaze for a long moment while he smiled.
    “ Dunno man, Brian may not
have the skills on the court, but rumor has it he’s got other skills,” one of
the other brothers commented from the couch. Devon rolled his eyes and led me
deeper into the room, his hand holding mine.
    “This is Jenn, everyone; she’s the one I was a creepy stalker to the other day.”
Everyone snickered, and I felt my
nervousness starting to dissolve. The rest of the brothers hanging out in the
living room—I counted about a dozen of them, scattered around the couch, on the
floor, in a couple of the chairs—looked up from the video game they were either watching or playing, pausing long enough
to smile and wave and murmur a quick hello.
    “Want anything to drink, Jenn?” One of the guys,
sitting towards the edge of the room, asked. “We’ve got soda , beer, water , whatever you want.”
    “That’s Jason,” Devon told me, leading me towards one
of the uninhabited chairs in the room. “Do you want anything?”
    “ Water would be
nice,” I said, almost asking instead of saying it plainly. Jason stood up and
went into the kitchen, bringing back not only a bottle of water for me, but a bunch of other drinks that the other
brothers called for.
    “Don’t be nervous,” Devon murmured in my ear, sitting
on the arm of the chair next to me. After the flutter of attention, everyone
began to relax—even me—and I asked questions about the game they were playing;
it was a first-person shooter game, but one I’d never heard of before. I sipped
my water and watched as the different brothers in the frat took turns going up
against each other.
    What shocked me the most about the situation was how
respectful everyone was; I had expected a bunch of guys talking about girls in
the crassest terms, comparing their scores—but whether Devon had talked to them
about being on their best behavior, or they were just acting polite because I
was there, the guys talked about their classes, about the upcoming games—NBA
and NHL games, mostly—and the party they would be hosting in coming weeks,
without making a single rude remark about girls. Nobody was getting drunk,
everyone looked as though they had showered in the last 24 hours, and although
they cussed each other out as they played, I got the vibe that they were mostly
normal guys.
    I managed to keep myself involved in the conversation,
talking a little bit to everyone around me, and enjoying Devon’s comforting
presence next to me in the chair as the
evening went on; but in the back of my mind I was still thinking about Kelly. I
hated the fact that even when I wasn’t hanging out with her, even when I was
with a completely different group of people, I couldn’t manage to put my roommate
and best friend out of my mind—nor her betrayal.
    Time slipped away from me completely; as it got dark
outside, a few of the brothers in the frat went into the kitchen and came out
with pizza and other snacks, and I dug in with everyone else. “Good job picking
a girl who won’t turn her nose up at such fine cuisine,” one of the brothers
commented to Devon.
    “Yeah, Sam’s last girlfriend was always