Touch Me Not (Manwhore Series #1)

Chapter Eighteen

The next two weeks flew by for Lily. Her classes this year were harder, and she found herself struggling to find time for much of anything outside of studying. When she wasn't in class or tutoring, she was with Nikoli. Which still felt a little odd, only because she liked spending time with him. The manwhore was interesting, funny, and she found herself becoming as comfortable with him as she was with Adam and Mike. Nikoli said she would, and she was getting there. He never pushed her too far, gave her breathing room when she panicked, and they talked shop for hours. Cars were her thing, and he was the first guy who got how much she adored them. Nikoli was as big a car junkie as she was.

Not that she'd ever admit anything to Nikoli. Give him an inch and he'd take a hundred miles. No need to inflate his already oversized ego. He wasn't nearly as bad as she'd pegged him for, though. He had a very sweet and caring side he didn't show to everyone else. Said it was bad for his reputation. Lily was constantly reevaluating her opinion of him. It irked her too. She preferred him as the slutty manwhore who only cared about himself. Nikoli wasn't as selfish as she'd thought. He was almost a great guy when he wasn't around other people. Almost. His ego kept getting in the way.

She was just glad she had some time to hang out with her friends. Mike had asked her to come help him and Adam with a bit of a situation online. They were all huge gamers, Fortnite being a specialty of theirs. It seemed that a team of guys had been destroying Mike and Adam when they played online. Lily was a better shot than either of them, and Mike had begged her to come play today so they could get some payback. Luther was there too. He'd been a victim of the bullies as well. Seriously, a group of eleven guys teaming up against one or two people was not at all fair.

The guys had moved the coffee table out of the way and set up shop in the main room. She and Mike had sat in front of the couch, on a blanket she'd brought, while Luther sat on Lily's left. Adam sat in the chair that flanked the couch next to Mike. Lily was still barely talking to him, but Adam had learned if he kept his mouth shut, she wouldn't leave. He'd kept trying to explain himself, and Lily didn't want to hear it even though she was finally thinking of forgiving him. He'd hurt her a lot, and he knew it. She needed time, and he'd finally realized that. The episode at Nikoli's apartment had shown him that more than anything.

They'd spent the first hour running around like lunatics so she could get a feel for how the other team played. They went out and just killed. Sheer brute force in numbers. Lily smiled as she watched from her hidey hole. The first one was coming into her line of fire. She let him pass, though. She wanted to see how many traveled in the smaller packs. Three more brought up his flank. She'd been tracking their movements for the last twenty minutes. She was in her favorite spot, completely hidden. Before they even realized what hit them, she'd have half of them taken out.

Nikoli grabbed a beer out of the fridge and went looking for everyone. Luther had texted him earlier to say he was at Boy Wonder's frat house with Lily. They were doing some kind of online game. He'd known she was a gamer, but from what Luther said, she was really good. He should know by now not to be shocked by anything when it came to Lily Bells. She constantly surprised him. It was refreshing, and it scared the hell out of him. She mattered to him without even trying. He couldn't let this go on for much longer or he was going to be in a situation that would cause them both a lot of pain. The thought of losing her, though, it made his stomach hurt. What the hell was he going to do?

He couldn't stop the smile from flashing across his face when he spotted her sitting on the floor, eyes on the screen, barking orders at Mike and Luther. She was so focused on the game, she wasn't paying attention to anything else, and it gave him a minute to watch her. He found he loved watching her. Her face was one of the most expressive he'd ever seen. She never hid anything. It wasn't who she was. What you saw with Lily was what you got. She didn't pretend, and she didn't play games with people. Again, something Nikoli wasn't used to, and he found it fascinating.