Over the next week we’d left September behind, and the first day of October brought about a subtle change in the atmosphere at Winston. Not so much in temperature; I mean, Texas was Texas, and if we were blessed with even the occasional cold front, we were lucky ducks. Regardless of the weather, though, the early sightings of fall, and pending Halloween, brought out the mischief in people. Girls tried to wear sweaters or long sleeves, simply because it was that time of year to do so. Frat and sorority parties grew in numbers. The Sigma Chis had an on-going rival with the Kappas, and pranks were traded back and forth. Colorful flags of pumpkins and changing leaves hung from the Lambda house. Football games became the thing to do on weekends, and were either preluded, preceded, or both, on game day with public acts of harmless humiliation. Underwear on car bumpers. Bras taped to windows. Someone from the Sigmas dressed as a Reaper and stalked students as they hustled from one class to another. They seemed immature, but all in good fun.

Until I became the butt of one.

Again.

My poor truck.

Noah and Dr. Callandar had left Steven and I in charge so that they could attend a weekend conference in Fort Worth. We’d not only finished setting up a new expo of a simulated and extremely cool Draconid meteor shower in observation room two, with a fall of stardust and mist and extraordinary planetary geekness, but we’d also knocked out a major log entry and experiment for our astronomy lab by breaking down the parts of a spectrometer to show its function and relativity to studying light and the stars.

“You know our project is a beast, right?” Steven said, locking the front entrance to the observatory behind him. “Aced it.”

I laughed. “Yeah, it is, and we did.” Steven always parked around the side of the building, in the opposite lot facing Main Street, so I threw up my hand and waved as he trotted down the steps. “See ya Monday.”

“Yep,” he answered, and I watched the darkness gobble him up. From the shadows, he called out. “Hey, where’s your boyfriend?”

I turned and answered. “Fall baseball game with North Star State. He’s coming over later. We’re scoping Draco from Oliver’s rooftop.” Draco meaning the constellation. It always blew my mind when I encountered someone who’d never been shown a constellation, and Draco was by far my favorite.

“Sweet. Just making sure I didn’t miss any girly break-up clues. See ya!”

I started down the ramp and wound my way to my side of the observatory. I glanced up and sighed. Such a perfect night, totally clear with no glaring moonshine. Stars flooded the heavens, and I thought this might be one of the most perfect constellation nights ever.

The moment my eyes clapped onto my truck, I knew something was wrong. Not situated in the brightest of light, at a quick glance it looked okay. Until you noticed the tires.

Or rather, the lack of them.

It stopped me stone-cold in my tracks. Not a sound did I mutter as I stared, disbelieving. Barely a breath. Certainly no words. At first. Then it sunk in. What had really, truly happened.

I lowered my head, stared at my shadow stretching across the pavement of the observatory’s empty side parking lot. And swore.

“Shit, shit, shit!” I spat. I stood for a moment, hands on my hips, just … gawking. My gaze shot around the parking lot. Who in their right mind would drive up this close to the observatory and remove all the wheels and tires from my truck and stick them in the bed? But they had. All four of them, off. Concrete blocks took their place, and held up the frame.

Shit!

I blew out a long, frustrated, pissed off sigh and stomped across the lot. Of course this would happen on a night Brax wasn’t here to meet me after work. Perfect. I peered through darkness, to where the halo of street lamp ended, and listened. I didn’t hear anything. Nor did I see anything. No camera phones. No giggling. Nothing.

Then, a burst of laughter erupted from the shadows, and it set off, I don’t know, at least a half dozen more fits. Male and female, from what I could tell. A few flashes went off. I turned my back and ignored them. I couldn’t help but wonder who it was. At least gutter f**k had been left out of the equation.

In the distance, music rocked from one of the campus frat houses, and the football game must’ve ended by the sound of a stream of horns blowing and people hollering. I swore again, just as an engine started in the darkness, at the far end of the lot and close to the main road. Away from lights, I couldn’t make out the model. I could tell it was a truck, but that was all. I turned away once more, before someone got an even better view of my face. The last thing I wanted was to become another overnight viral sensation. I just wanted to get finished and get gone.

This wasn’t going to be easy. Doable, but not easy to accomplish alone. “It’s not going to fix itself by you just staring and huffing about it, Beaumont,” I muttered to myself out loud. And, my inner self was absolutely right. Luckily, I knew how to fix the problem or I’d have to spend a chunk of money to call someone out to do it for me. Lowering the tailgate, I leapt up, unlocked my Lockbox, and dug out my tools and jack. Placing them on the concrete by the front driver’s side, I pulled one wheel and tire out of the bed, rolled it to the front, and set to work.

By the time I had three of the four wheels back on, the roar of exhaust tore through the air. Cory’s Camaro flew across the parking lot, and hadn’t even stopped before Brax threw open the passenger side door and leapt out. In his cleats he jogged toward me, and beneath the bill of his Silverbacks ball cap, his expression was dark and thunderous. Orange clay stained his right thigh and backside, no doubt where he’d been sliding. Cory killed the engine then unfolded his big self out of the driver’s side and followed Brax over. His uniform looked as dirty as Brax’s.

“You okay?” Brax asked, and his eyes fixed onto mine until I answered.

“I’m fine now,” I said. I wanted to diffuse the anger I saw brewing in Brax’s expression. “Earlier, though, wow.” My lip quirked up and I lowered my voice. “I said dirty words. Out loud, even. Did you guys win?”

Well, that sort of did the trick. The darkness fell, and Brax’s mouth lifted in one corner, and he gathered me in a full body hug. “Did you now?” he said into the crook of my neck. “I’m sorry I missed that. Yeah, we won. Why didn’t you call me? Or Tessa?”

“Because. Tessa went home for the weekend and you were at your game.” I shrugged. “This is a pain, but I can do it myself. How’d you guys know?”

“Are you sure you wanna be an astronomer?” Cory asked. “Because you’ve become a local star.” He shook his cell phone at me. “Viral.”

My head dropped back and stared skyward. “Ugh, great. My brother’s going to see it and rat me out.”

Brax’s face appeared over mine, and he brushed his lips against my mouth. “I like your brothers, then.” He glanced over my head at the truck, then looked at me. “I can’t believe you can fuckin’ change your own tires.”

“Hmm,” I answered. “The skills I possess.” I shook my head. “Mind-blowing.”

He nestled his lips against my throat, and his teeth grazed my skin. I shivered. “What a sick chick I got, huh, Maxwell?”

“So right, Jenks. I’m pretty jealous, actually. You only got brothers, huh, Beaumont?”

I laughed at Cory, who’d slowly taken a shine to me after that first day in the batting cages. He only called me by my last name, which I found hilariously cute. “Sorry, buddy. Just brothers.”

“Mother?”

“Dude,” Brax teased. “Power down.”

Cory just laughed. “Okay, you two weirdly conjoined twins cut the cord and let’s get this hooptie back together.” He looked at Brax. “We’ve got some assholes to find.”

My gaze shifted from one ball player to the other. “What do you mean?”

Brax moved to the bed of the truck, gathered the last wheel and tire in one hand, and leapt down. “You don’t think we’re just gonna let this ride, do you?”

“No chance,” Cory chimed in.

“Seriously, there’s no need to make a big deal about it,” I urged. “It was a fall prank. Nothing more. Girls and guys, a whole group of them. Not just one person. No big deal. You don’t need to go punch someone’s face in because of it.”

Brax’s head appeared around the tailgate, his hair curling up from the back of his cap. “Doesn’t matter. You’ve already been pranked once.”

“Yeah, and it was a royally f**ked up tasteless prank,” Cory said.

“Twice pranked? On my girl?” Brax returned to putting the wheel and tire on the back right side. “Sorry. Hell and f**k no, Sunshine.” The sincere protectiveness made his accent heavier than usual, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like him referring to me as his girl.

I left it at that, mainly because I knew there’d be no changing either of their minds. They were as hard-headed as my brothers. Within minutes, Brax had the tire on and Cory loaded the concrete blocks into the bed of the truck.

“Later,” Cory said, and his Camaro door squeaked as he opened it. “You good, dude?”

“Yeah,” Brax answered, and retrieved his duffle from the backseat. “Be there when I’m there, bro.”

Cory flashed me a grin as he slammed the door and stuck his head out the window. “See ya, geek girl.”

I returned it. “Not if I see you first.” He sped off, his tail lights fading into the night.

Brax pulled me against him, buried his chin into the hollow of my neck, his lips settling on the sensitive skin there. “You gonna let me shower at your place before you show me this Draco thing or what?”

The sensations he stirred within me as his warm breath brushed over my throat made my knees quiver a little. Along with the thought of Brax in my shower. My eyes drifted shut. “You’re not going to go kick some butts first?” My voice cracked, and I slipped my arms around his waist.

Brax’s deep chuckle shook me back to consciousness. “And miss the sky dragon and making out with my girl?” He nuzzled me once more. “That would be a hell and no.” He tugged me toward the truck, and my stomach flipped in anticipation of the night ahead. I was filled with amazement that Brax had been able to bring me to this place; a place where my high school trauma no longer stabbed me, or self-doubt lingered. It had blessedly vanished. And my heart had opened up wide enough to trust him with the secret I’d been holding onto. Right now, he believed me to still be a virgin. Tonight, I’d tell him the whole truth. He’d been honest with me. Now, it was my turn. It’d be his last chance to bail, and that thought alone made me so very nervous. But I had to do it. It was time.

His lips brushed the soft shell of my ear. “Let’s go, Sunshine,” he whispered.

And I melted inside.

My nerves, though, continued to twist in turmoil as we climbed the stairs to my dorm room. Brax took the key from my fingers, unlocked the door. Inside, the walls seemed to close in on me, his presence large, looming, yet, strange as it sounded, suffocating. In a good way. In an … appealing way. The moment he stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower, I raced around my room, toeing my All Stars into the corner, kicking out of my work pants and pulling my Mulligan Telescope tee shirt off. I stood facing my small fold out closet, pondering my choice. My fingers brushed a favorite pair of soft faded low riders and a burgundy thin strapped cotton cami, and I hurriedly slipped both on. On my bed I waited while he showered, no less than thirty feet away, and yet some of my trepidation eased as he began a not-too-shabby Slim Shady rap. The louder he got, the harder my mouth tugged. Finally, the water stopped, I pulled on my boots and re-braided my untamable hair.

Brax emerged from my bathroom, hair wet and curling and messy, shirtless and barefooted with only a pair of well-worn jeans slung low over his hips. And all those cut in stone muscles, tattoos and Latin scriptures stretched taut …

My breath left me, and it actually hurt to pull it back in. My dorm room filled itself to the gills with Brax Jenkins and all his raw male hunger; so thick I could feel it pulsing off the walls as much as the steam wafting from the bathroom. He swaggered over to where I sat and plopped down beside me, and my body sank into his weight. As he pulled on clean socks and boots from his duffle, his head turned sideways, watching me with eyes so profound I began to fidget. Brax’s muscles flowed like liquid metal beneath his skin with each movement, and I noticed the thick roping veins that snaked from his hands, up his forearms, his biceps. On his face, throat, and back lay the scars; the evidence of the beatings he‘d endured, and the Celtic cross between his shoulder blades that represented his salvation. It fascinated me. Brax fascinated me.

He rose, and pulled me with him. “You want me to grab the scope?”

“Not this time,” I said. As he pulled his long arms into a white buttoned-down shirt, I reached for the big folded quilt and two pillows off my bed. Just as he finished the last two buttons, I piled the pillows into his outstretched arms. I carried the quilt, and grabbed the wrench and flashlight I kept on my bedside table. “This is all we’ll need.”

A slow, sly smile stretched across his face. “Is that so?”

I gave him a nervous fake scowl, and held the door open. “Yes, that’s so. Now come on before it gets too late, wise guy.” I led him out into the hall and locked my door behind us.

“Wise guy. I like that.” Brax’s raspy chuckle reverberated off the walls of the stairwell as we climbed to the rooftop. When I pushed open the door to the roof, turned the flashlight on, held it with my teeth and jammed the wrench in the crack at the bottom, he laughed again. “Who are you? Mission Impossible? I guess this is something you do all the time?”