Read Wicked Rich, Chapter 1…
99¢ FAN PRICING UNTIL AT MIDNIGHT, AUGUST 18TH CHAPTER ONEDAXTON
I’m back, baby.
I grinned when my plane touched down at the airstrip on the outskirts of Boston. It had been four long years since I’d last been in this neck of the woods, but New England was home. Not a day had gone by during those four years when I hadn’t thought back to this place.
When my assistant, David, and I had taken off from Hawaii, there had been nothing but sunshine, blue skies, bluer ocean, and bright green palms trees swaying in the breeze for as far as the eye could see.
The sky was blue here too, but it was different, crisper.
With the fall semester starting in only a few days, the foliage outside was already changing. Reds, golds, and oranges colored the gnarled old trees surrounding the runway—in sharp contrast to the landscape we’d left behind.
We weren’t even out of the plane yet, but anticipation was already coursing hot and heavy through my veins. It had been building for days now, but it reached a fever pitch as the jet rolled to a stop and the whine of the engines quieted down.
“Welcome back to Massachusetts, Mr. Breyer,” David said stiffly. I swore the guy had a foot-long stick up his ass, but at least he wouldn’t be staying.
My parents had insisted that he make the trip with me and help me get settled before his return to Breyer Manor in Waikiki. I couldn’t fucking wait to shake him loose and start living the college experience I’d been craving since I first found out what college was.
Edgewater University was my birthright. When my parents had brought me home from the hospital after I was born, I’d been dressed in an Edgewater U onesie and wrapped in a blanket bearing its emblem.
All that was left for me to do now was to claim that birthright, and I was so ready to do it. David cleared his throat primly, reminding me that he was still there. Okay, I will be ready to do it once my babysitter leaves.
“I have your class schedule, sir,” David said, straightening his already perfect tie after unsnapping the clasp on his seatbelt. “As you know, Finance is a field that requires utmost dedication in study. Your father expects you to attend all your classes—”
“Sober and on time,” I said. “I know. You’re not the only one who got the speech before we left.”
He patted the side of his graying hair before standing up from his seat, snapping the thin folder he’d been studying for the last hour shut. “That may be so, but your parents have asked me to pass on reminders and that’s what I have to do.”
“Be my guest.” I shot out of my own seat and grabbed my backpack from the unoccupied seat behind me.
In fact, the only seats that had been occupied on the jet for this flight had been David’s and mine. Despite that, he still stowed his briefcase in the proper compartment instead of just dropping it anywhere. Stick. Up. His. Ass.
“Your mother wanted me to remind you that even if you’re staying in the fraternity dorms—”
“It’s called a frat house, and I know,” I said. “Just because I’m staying there doesn’t mean I have to participate in any debauchery.”
He nodded. “She also wanted me to tell you that she’s had a large box of condoms packed in for you, but that you should never be ashamed to purchase more should you need them.”
“Jesus,” I muttered, rubbing the back of my head as I slung my backpack over my shoulder. “Let’s just go.”
My parents meant well. I knew they did, but was every parent genetically wired to embarrass their offspring whenever they achieved a milestone? Thank God my parents weren’t actually here. If they’d been moving me into the Sigma Xi Delta house, I had no doubt that Mom would’ve been handing out condoms like candy and Dad would’ve taken zero point two seconds before he’d have been wooing my brothers with stories of what the frat had been like when he’d been there.
Then again, as a former President of the most prestigious frat on the campus of one of the most prestigious universities in the country, maybe he’d have been entitled to relive his glory days for a few hours. Either way, they weren’t here and this was the start of my glory days.
A black town car was waiting for us when we disembarked the plane, and David kept talking once we were seated inside it. He insisted on giving me all kinds of important information for my studies, but I tuned him out.
I knew all I needed to know about Edgewater U. And what I needed to know was simple. I owned this place—almost literally considering how much money my father had donated to it over the years. The other students there just didn’t know it yet, but they would. They’d be finding out real soon.
As our driver navigated the way to campus from the private airstrip, I dragged in a breath and released it slowly. Settling back against the soft leather, I ignored everything David was saying and popped in my earphones. After sliding my phone out of my pocket, I navigated to the playlist I’d made for the drive, hit play, and relaxed as the sound of guitars screaming and drums crashing filled my ears.
I’d grown up a few hours away from here, but the landscape rolling by was still familiar. As much as I’d loved my time in Hawaii and as grateful as I was to have gotten away from all the shit that had hit my family just before we’d left, it was good to be back.
Edgewater was mostly a university town, and as soon as we drove across its borders, it was like I felt the atmosphere in the air changing. Or maybe it was just the electric excitement and anticipation coursing through me.
The wide, clean streets were lined with white pine trees, maples, and oaks. Most of the buildings that were part of the spread-out campus had been built in the red-brick, Georgian style and there were parks and squares everywhere featuring statues, exhibitions, and stands that’d been set up by students. Since it was move-in week, clubs, faculties, departments, and teams were handing out flyers and trying to recruit fresh blood to their ranks.
I inched closer to the window as we drove past it all. The closer we got to the main hub and the administrative buildings, the more people were around. Luckily, I wouldn’t be joining any of those lines.
As a legacy of Sigma Xi Delta, I was being accommodated in the house even though I was a freshman. Between David and my father, they’d also already organized all my registration and enrollment paperwork.
Gotta love the perks.
A wide grin spread on my face when we turned into the street where the frat house was located. I’d been here twice before. Once with my father when I’d been a kid and he’d brought me to campus with him when he’d come for business, and again last year when I’d taken a tour.
Almost every property around here was either a fraternity or a sorority, and the street was a hive of bustling activity. There were guys helping girls in short-shorts and shorter skirts move in, girls leaning against their cars while either catching up with each other or with guys walking past, and a ton of stuff going on on the front lawns. I couldn’t quite make out everything that was happening as we passed, but some people were setting up beach umbrellas on one lawn and others seemed to be getting ready to play bowling on another.
The same sense of anticipation from before came back in a rush of adrenaline. I was a part of all this now, and nothing and no one would stand in the way of me getting the full experience out of the next few years.
“I’ll help you with your luggage when we arrive,” David said when I removed my earphones. “Your room should be ready for you to move in.”
“I’ll be fine,” I snapped. “You don’t have to come in. Just leave it all on the curb and I’ll take care of it.”
He looked like he wanted to argue but obviously thought better of it once we pulled up in front of the house. It was massive for a frat house, with a white facade and ivy snaking up the corners. Unlike the outside of so many of the other houses, the front lawn of Sigma Xi Delta was empty, the imposing front door shut.
For a second, I felt like an imposter. As a legacy, I might not have been guaranteed a spot here, but I’d definitely gotten special consideration. I also knew already that I’d be treated better than any of the other pledges. Hell, they’d even already given me a room in the house. And all because my dad had been here.
It didn’t seem quite fair to me but then again, I’d long since learned that life wasn’t always fair. Lifting my chin, I squared my shoulders and reached for the door handle, barely glancing back at David before I opened it.
“Leave it all on the curb, Dave. Don’t try to follow me inside,” I said, giving him a slight nod. “I’ll see you around.”
Before he could reply or argue that my mother had given him strict instructions to get me settled in my room and possibly even tucked in tight tonight, I got out of the car. The walk up the paved pathway to the front door seemed to take an age and no time at all at the same time, but a second after I knocked, the heavy wooden panel swung open.
I recognized the guy who started sizing me up as soon as he opened the door. Finn Redwood was the current President of Sigma Xi Delta, a dark-haired junior who was as tall as I was at six feet and dressed in a navy blue polo and khakis.
“I know who you are,” he said slowly, almost lazily as he grinned and hooked his thumbs into his pockets. “You’re one of my legacies. Dax Breyer, right? There’s an obnoxious gold plaque outside the gym with your name of it. The Breyer Gymnasium. That is you, yeah?”
“Guilty as charged.” I held out my hand and offered to shake his. “I know who you are too, oh President, my President.”
Finn blinked his piercing green eyes. Then he let out a bark of laughter and slapped his palm into mine. “I think I’m going to like you. Grab your shit and come on in, Breyer. The party’s just getting started.”
He turned after releasing my hand, taking hold of the closest guy and shoving him in my direction. “Andrews, this is Breyer. Help him get his stuff, would you? Drop it all at the stairs. Then I’ll take him around and introduce him to some people. We’ll show him to his room later.”
Andrews was huge, built like a linebacker with the scowl of a pissed-off grandma, but he nodded at Finn and then glanced at me. “Let’s go, Breyer. My beer’s not going to stay cold forever.”
He pushed long blond hair out of his eyes before motioning for me to go ahead. “Show me where this shit of yours is. I’ve got a game to get back to.”
As we walked outside, he held his hand out to the side to shake mine without stopping. “Jackson Andrews.”
“Dax Breyer.” I squeezed his hand before letting go of it to point at the stack of luggage sitting on the curb. David was still there, waiting in the car, but he didn’t get out as we approached.
“Breyer,” Andrews mused before snapping his fingers. “Right. The legacy. Your pops built the gym, right? It’s a fucking nice gym. Tell him thanks.”
He picked up a few of my bags like they didn’t weigh a thing, then grunted as he turned around. “Hurry it up, Breyer. That beer isn’t going to drink itself.”
As soon as we dumped my stuff at the bottom of the stairs like Finn had instructed, the college culture I’d been longing to experience took over. A red solo cup was pressed into my hands, and the guys clapped me on the shoulder and welcomed me as I got introduced to them.
A part of me knew they were being extra friendly because of who my father was, but I’d take any advantage I could get. These were the Ivy Leagues, after all. Getting any advantage around here was better than getting none.
