He turned and eyed me, a plate of appetizers in his hand. “Sure.”
“Want to have even more fun?” That was good, right? My flirtation skills were not renowned, but that sounded appropriately cute and coy. In my mind, anyway.
Besides, my mistake with Oleksander had been to be too conversational. I needed to get straight to the point.
JJ looked both amused and curious. His gaze did a slow, lingering perusal of me from head to toe. “How much?” he asked.
“A lot more fun,” I assured him. Which was really an oversell, but I was running out of options.
“No, I mean how much will it cost me?”
For a second I stared blankly at him. Then it occurred to me he thought I was a prostitute. That was amazing. Clearly, the outfit was working. “You think I’m an escort?” I asked, feeling absurdly pleased by that notion.
Take that, Curtis. A pro football player would pay me to have sex with him.
“Aren’t you?” He popped a canape in his mouth.
I shook my head. “I’m Eloise’s cousin.”
He swallowed his food, then spoke. “So? That doesn’t mean you can’t be an escort.”
Nice logic. I appreciated it. “That’s a quality point. But no, I’m a law student and I’m just looking to get railed tonight.” Might as well get straight to the point.
JJ’s eyebrows shot up. He set his plate down on the tray of a passing server. His hands went into the pockets of his pants. He was wearing a very trendy, well-tailored suit, and when he filled the pockets, it pulled the fabric enough that I could see his cock clearly outlined. He was hard.
Or was he? I felt a slight moment of panic. But I forced myself to look up at him and stare him in the eye. “So? What do you think?” His silence was confusing. It seemed like a simple enough yes or no question.
“I don’t want North getting pissed at me. Is he going to have an opinion about this?”
“He’s my cousin’s boyfriend. He doesn’t get an opinion on who I hook up with.” That annoyed me and evaporated my nerves. “I could be charging you and it would still be none of his business. You and I are adults, we can do whatever we want.”
“I one hundred percent agree. Come here. Let’s go in the bathroom.” He took my hand in his and stroked the inside of my palm with his fingers.
Wait. What? Maybe I hadn’t correctly outlined my needs. Five minutes in the bathroom wasn’t going to accomplish my goal of becoming a sexual savant.
Then I realized saying I wanted to get railed might have given the wrong message. Damn it. As a law student, I knew wording meant everything. I was trying to formulate an explanation as he tightened his grip on my hand and pulled me toward the bathroom.
My mouth opened, to say what, I had no idea, when suddenly Train was in front of JJ.
“Where are you two going?” he asked, his voice calm, but laced with a hard edge.
“The bathroom.” JJ glanced back at me. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Sydney.” Eloise had told me I was in over my head with JJ and she was right. He had been willing to have sex with me in a hotel bathroom without even knowing my name. He was a hookup expert. I was a total amateur.
“Sydney needs me to show her something,” JJ said, and despite his grin toward Oleksander, it did not look like he was amused by the interruption. “We won’t be long.”
“No, you’re not.” Oleksander’s voice got even harder. His legs were apart and his suit jacket was off. He had his arms loose at his sides, but his fists kept clenching open and closed. “Back off, Beckett. I’m not messing around.”
What was that all about? I was pondering both that and the fact that I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to call Oleksander, aka Olek, aka Train, when JJ dropped my hand.
JJ’s shoulders squared as he recognized the challenge. “And why is that, motherfucker? I don’t think this is any of your business.”
“Because Sydney asked me first.”
Oh, just great. Oleksander was going to blow it for me. I didn’t even understand why he would care. He’d made it very clear he wasn’t interested, so why was he interfering? Let me handle this on my own, even if I was handling it poorly.
I really didn’t want to go in the bathroom with JJ and spend three minutes getting boned. Nothing about that sounded appealing and I wasn’t even particularly attracted to JJ. But I would tell JJ that myself. I didn’t need an Olek intervention.
JJ glanced back at me. “Is that true? You asked Train to hook up?”
I nodded. “Yes, but he turned me down.”
That made JJ shake his head. “Then you back the fuck off, Train. You lost your chance.”
“I’m not backing off. She’s going home with me.” Oleksander crossed his arms across his massive chest.
Suddenly Oleksander wanted me too? Were two football players actually fighting over who was going to have sex with me? That could not be real. And maybe it was a matter of when one guy wanted the woman, then they all did, but whatever the reason, I had to admit, it was oddly satisfying. I had never been in that position before.
“She’s with me now,” JJ said.
“Do you even know anything about her?” Oleksander asked.
That made me frown. What was that supposed to mean?
I wondered if Eloise had sent Oleksander to stop me. But it seemed more likely that she would have sent Dak.
“Yes, I know her. She’s an escort.” JJ turned back to me and winked. “Five grand, I have her for the whole night.”
He wasn’t serious, but if he was, it would be tempting to take the money, to be honest. I had a lot of student loan debt. But I would feel guilty charging him to experience vanilla sex with me. Though mostly I suspected he was just trying to get a rise out of Oleksander. Male friendship was an intriguing blend of loyalty, posturing, and pranks, from what I could tell.
Plus these were football players. Testosterone overload.
What I didn’t expect, after JJ’s comment about money, was for Oleksander to shove JJ.
I gave a startled, “Whoa!” and jumped between them, nearly wiping out in my absurdly high heels. I wobbled and grabbed on to Oleksander’s arm for stability.
“Sydney, go sit down,” Oleksander said firmly, pointing toward the sofas in the center of the suite. “I’ll deal with you in a minute.”
That made my nipples instantly hard. He sounded so… stern. Bossy. Sexy.
Rude, too, and totally out of line, but the growly factor outbalanced that.
I stood my ground though. I spread my legs and put my hands on my hips. A smart woman would leverage the situation to her advantage, and while I was terrible in bed, I was smart. “Not unless you agree that you will, in fact, take me home and that you will, in fact, teach me everything I need to know about being a sexual savant.”
“A what?” JJ asked. He looked entertained by the whole situation.
Oleksander’s jaw was locked and his nostrils flared a little. But he nodded. “You are not going into the bathroom with JJ, do you understand me? You asked me first.”
I nodded. “Fine.” I turned and gave JJ a little apologetic shrug. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t trying to be a tease. I really thought Oleksander had given me his final answer.”