“Don’t let someone else hear you say that,” he mutters, pulling his helmet off and ruffling his hair into the messy style it usually sits in.
“Cirillo can kiss my arse,” I announce happily, bouncing on the balls of my feet as the adrenaline from the ride continues to flood my veins.
“I bet he’d fucking love to, Shorty.”
I flip him off over my shoulder and head toward the stadium, which is fucking insane for a school building. If I thought Knight’s Ridge was over the top, then clearly I’ve seen nothing, because All Hallows is beyond ridiculous.
I feel like I’m about to walk into the Etihad for a premier league game—if I were at all into football of course—not a school football match.
“This wasn’t quite what I was expecting.”
“Oh, so you didn’t go to a school like this?” I ask, faux shock evident in my tone.
“Nah, I’m more at home in the middle of Lovell, Shorty.”
“You and me both. I’ll take the poverty and depravity any day over this show of privilege and wealth.”
“Let’s go and surround ourselves with the pricks, shall we?” He wraps his arm around my shoulder, and together we walk toward the entrance.
Despite our hair-raising ride here, the game has already started. Actually, it’s coming toward the end. I was insistent that if I was doing this, then I wasn’t spending an entire ninety minutes, or however long it is with half-time, standing, freezing my tits off and watching some—albeit hot—guys run around chasing a ball. Well, that was the story I fed everyone. Mostly, I just didn’t want Theo to read too much into me being here, because I’ve still not convinced myself that I’m even doing the right thing.
We’re directed toward the Knight’s Ridge supporters and we find ourselves seats at the end of a row.
I spot both Stella and Calli right at the front of the crowd and laugh to myself as Stella screams bloody murder, despite openly admitting she knows nothing about soccer—her words, not mine—as the game plays out in front of us.
Unable to keep my eyes from the pitch any longer, I scan the bodies running around on it, picking out the copper and black coloured kits our players are in until I find the one I’m looking for.
I still the second I find him, my eyes running down the length of his body. His hair is soaked through with sweat, his shirt clinging to his muscular torso, and he has mud smeared pretty much everywhere.
He looks the complete opposite of the put-together prince I’m used to, and fuck if this side of him doesn’t make something flutter with excitement inside me.
A fantasy of him taking me exactly like that in the locker rooms hits me out of nowhere, the intensity of the lust that floods my system enough to make my head spin.
The image of him pushing me up against the tiles, his filthy hands running all over me and dirtying me up right along with him plays out in my mind as vividly as if I were watching it on a plasma fucking screen.
“Emmie,” a voice snaps, dragging me from my wicked thoughts.
Blinking to clear the image, I look up to find Xander watching me with a smirk.
“I don’t want to know where your mind just went, do I?”
Shaking my head, mostly to clear the lingering images but also to answer his question, I take the hand he holds out for me and let him pull me into my seat.
“You’ve got it bad, Shorty.”
“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” I hiss, my eyes tracking Theo across the pitch.
The minutes drag on as the adrenaline from the journey and seeing him for the first time begins to fade and the cold Xander warned me about, starts to creep in.
A shiver rips through me at the same time Theo turns on one of the All Hallows players. I’ve paid them—or the rest of our team, to be fair—zero attention since I arrived, and it’s not until Theo squares up to this guy that recognition hits me.
“Holy shit,” I breathe, making Xander look up from his phone—clearly not a football fan either.
“What?”
“That guy. The one Theo is about to floor. That’s Ben, he was the guy Theo thought spiked me at a party.”
“Oh shit.”
“Yeah, shit. But it wasn’t him. It was his jealous bitch of a cousin. Ben was nothing but nice that night.”
Theo grasps Ben’s shirt and holds his eyes in warning. Even from this distance, I can feel the tension, the hate between them.
I stand without realising I do it as I silently beg Theo not to do something he’s going to regret.
Another shiver rushes through me and my teeth chatter.
“Told you it was fucking cold, Shorty,” Xander mutters, innocently wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me into his body—but he does it at exactly the wrong moment because no sooner does he lift his arm than Theo’s eyes collide with mine.
For a heartbeat, all I see is relief and happiness that he’s found me, and it makes my heart sing that he really does want me here. But then I’m pulled closer into Xander’s side and both those expressions make way for unfiltered hate.
He shoves Ben away from him, turning his whole focus on me.
I try pushing from Xander, but the irritating fuck is having none of it and holds me tighter.
Dropping his lips to my ear, he mutters. “We’re not doing anything wrong, Shorty. If he wants to be a fuckwit, then that’s on him.”
“B-but—”
“But nothing. He needs to deal with his own shit. Meanwhile, you’re fucking freezing your tits off. And I’m pretty sure he’d prefer them to stay on your body.”
Without realising it, a smile creeps onto my lips and I teasingly slap him in the stomach.
I don’t realise just how massive a mistake that is until I look back at Theo’s murderous eyes.
He says something, but I’m too lost in my panic that he’s going to come running up the fucking stands and kill Xander with his bare hands.
Thankfully, Seb and Alex notice what’s going on and both walk over, dragging Theo backward and spinning him around to sever our connection.
“Well, I think it’s safe to say he’s noticed you,” Xander quips.
“This was a bad idea.”
He shakes his head, continuing to hold me. While I might want to break free for Theo’s sake, I stay right where I am, because Xander is like a freaking radiator and I need the warmth.
“Try telling me that later when you two are hate fucking so hard you can’t remember your own name.”
“Xan,” I gasp in shock, but all he does is chuckle.
“Oh come off it, Em. The tension between you two is fucking unbearable even for me. There’s no way you’re not getting out of this trip without a handful of screaming orgasms at his hands, and you know it.” He leans in again right as the referee blows the whistle for some reason, and Theo turns back our way. Fucking typical. “It’s why we’re here, Shorty.”
A bolt of fear and desire crackles through me in the split second our eyes connect.
“You brought me here to hook up?” I ask in disbelief, talking to Xander but looking at Theo.
“I sure didn’t come here for the game,” he scoffs. “And who knows, maybe I’ll even find myself a little rich girl to play with tonight.”