Hooped #5 (The Hooped Interracial Romance Series #5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

seriously by
the time they started giving up on me. It was mostly because I’d joke and fool
around in class that my teachers just figured they’d give me a passing grade
and have done with it.” I shook my head.
    “Then I’m glad I’ve never been good at sports.” Devon
grinned, giving me a shove.
    “I gotta admit I’m kind of glad too. You’re so smart
at everything—who would I have gotten to tutor me if I didn’t have you, babe?”
    “Someone in one of the other frats,” I countered.
    “Not as hot as you. Wouldn’t be nearly effective
enough.” I decided one night to try and make a game out of our session; for
every question that Devon got right on the English section of the practice test
I quizzed him from, I’d take off one item of clothing. For every answer he got
wrong, I put an item of clothing back on. Of course, Devon insisted that we
should keep going and going until I was almost fully naked, sitting on his bed in nothing more than my bra and panties. And
then, of course, we had to take a break—neither of us could focus on anything
academic until we’d both gotten off.
    It wasn’t all either sex or studying between us;
throughout the week, I found myself spending more and more time just hanging
out with Devon. He told me about his family and his friends from high school; he told me about the guys in the frat,
and I told him about every little detail of my life that could possibly come
up. I cooked dinner for him one night before our study session, picking the
first dish my mother had ever taught me to cook, and Devon insisted to the rest
of the frat that he had the absolute best girlfriend that any guy could have on
campus: I was gorgeous, I was smart, I loved basketball, and I could cook.
Everyone else would just have to die of envy or hope I had relatives.
    I loved the fact that Devon and I could do nothing
more than watch TV together and manage to have a good time; in the back of my
mind, in spite of the fact that I had chosen to trust him instead of Kelly, I
had thought that with a guy like Devon, we couldn’t possibly have much more
than sex and basketball in common. Instead, we were able to talk about anything
and everything, and even though I was getting less sleep than I ever had before
in my life, I woke up happy and content, wrapped in Devon’s arms, ready for
whatever the day might bring.
    “You know,” I said, curled up in his arms one night as
we were both starting to fall asleep, “it’s kind of amazing how fast this
happened.” Devon nodded, his arms tightening around me slightly.
    “I feel like I kept waiting for a reason to take my
life more seriously,” Devon told me sleepily. “Like I knew I should be focused
on getting good grades, doing the right thing… but it was too easy to just win
and get what I wanted.”
    “And now?”
    “Well, I met this awesome girl, and at first—I’ll
admit—I figured I’d just have a good time and then move on with my life. But
babe, as soon as I woke up and you weren’t in bed with me, I knew it had hit me
hard. I wanted to be around you—I wanted to keep you right here with me.”
    “So sneaking out before you woke up was a great choice
then.” Devon chuckled, nuzzling against my neck.
    “I think I would have felt that way even if you’d been
right there, but it definitely made me realize I was going to have to try way
harder with you.” He kissed me on the lips lightly. “When you kept brushing me
off—god, do you know how crazy that made me? I’d never been with anyone like
you before. I’m almost glad everyone told you terrible things about me and made
me work to earn your trust.”
    “You’re secretly a masochist, is what you’re saying.
You wanted me to torture you.” Devon laughed in the darkness.
    “I wanted to be worthy of you. And I still do.”

 
    Chapter
Five
    When Friday night came around, I found myself getting
ready for another Phi Kappa party; only this time instead of having to be
cajoled