I swallow.
My chest rises.
I want to smack that smirk off his face, but I also want to—
What is happening?
“I’m not a jersey chaser. I’m pre-law.”
He sighs, twisting his lips. “Right. What do you want from me?”
“Nothing.” Lie, lie, lie.
He gives me a hard look. “Please. You wanna hook up with an athlete and brag to all your friends, right?”
He’s so off base.
Yet…
My gaze goes to his full lips, taking in the sensual curves, wondering how they would feel pressed against mine. “Do I have a shot?” I don’t know what makes me say it.
He gives me a wolfish, knowing smile. “I would love to fuck you, but we might never see each other again. I don’t make promises.”
I picture us naked in a heated embrace, his powerful body sliding inside me, and my lower body clenches at the thought—even as I cringe. I’m supposed to still be in love with Bennett, and yet here I am, my body pulsating for another guy.
“I don’t need your promises,” I snap. And even though I’m completely out of my depth with this level of hot guy, my hand is confident and gives his hair a tug. “And if we fucked, I wouldn’t want to see you again.”
The air crackles around us, and his chest expands as his eyes lower. Everyone around us disappears, and it’s just us and this…energy. I read his face, taking in the dilated gaze, the way he bites that succulent bottom lip. He doesn’t know what to think of me, but he’s decided it really doesn’t matter.
He wants me.
His head dips to whisper in my ear. “Forget this party. Let’s get out of here.” The scruff of his jawline brushes against the sensitive skin of my neck, and waves of desire curl around me.
He focuses back on my face, waiting for a response, but I can’t think. “Now?” I ask, not so brave anymore.
His hands slide under my coat until they’re on my ass, guiding me closer until the space between us is gone and our bodies are pressed together. “Yeah. It doesn’t have to be complicated. I’ll make it perfect for you.”
I can only imagine what’s perfect in the Hockey Player Hookup Handbook. Three orgasms, like a hat trick? And then there’s him, those moody eyes, that big stick he no doubt has…
Without even being cognizant of my reaction, my hands massage his neck, tangling with the thick hair there. A long exhalation comes from his mouth and my heart pounds as I imagine going somewhere with him. Alone. I picture us without all these people. I know he’s right there with me because the air grows heavier and thicker, like a fog. I gaze up, trying to read more of him, to maybe see who he really is, but he’s a stone wall, a piece of hard granite with hot, smoldering eyes.
Someone in the crowd calls out his name and I flinch.
Clarity settles in slowly as I think over my reasons for being at this party.
I—I can’t do this with him.
“What’s wrong?” he says.
What’s wrong?
Part of me does want to hook up, but the other side is mortified at the idea of random sex. Serious relationships are all I’ve ever had, more specifically just one.
“You’re scared,” he says softly.
“Sex isn’t why I came here tonight…” I stop, not sure how to explain.
His broad shoulders shift, shrugging, and his face gets that shuttered look on it again. “I get it. You don’t want to be the girl.”
My mouth opens. “So it is true? You pick out a girl at parties?”
His eyes rake over me. “Next time, don’t try so hard to get my attention, sweetheart.”
Next time? Don’t try so hard?
My heart sputters like a car running out of gas as mortification flares. I frown. “Don’t call me sweetheart, and for your information, I’m not some girl who’s out to bag the sexy and infuriating Zack Morgan. What I need is way more important than some furtive coupling in a frat house with a testosterone-addled hockey player.”
“Sexy and infuriating? Testosterone-addled?” He bites his lip to keep from laughing. “You really know how to flirt.”
“I didn’t mean to flirt. I just came to ask you to…” I stop, frustrated as I remove my hands from those broad shoulders and rub one over my face. “I never should have come to this party. It was pointless.”
“Why?” His brows knit together as he studies me.
A long silence stretches between us as I flounder around, my gaze bouncing throughout the basement as if the words might magically appear. Why can’t I think of the right verbiage to explain that my original intention was to ask him for help?
I shake my head, emotion clawing at me as everything from the past month comes crashing down at me. Catching Bennett cheating, losing out on the one law school I wanted, and now this…this guy thinking I’m just out to use him.
You were, a voice reminds me.
But not in a sexual way, I insist, yet uneasiness tugs at me.
And for what purpose? I’ll never get into Vandy with this plan.
God, what am I doing?
I sway on my feet.
6
Sugar
“Are you okay?” Zack says, lifting a hand as if to touch my arm but then letting it fall.
My skin feels hot. “I need off this dance floor.” I’ve barely eaten a thing today except junk food and now this loud, gyrating party is about to send me over the edge. Toss in a hockey player with enough virility to get me pregnant just by looking at him, and I’m toast.
“Come with me.”
“Where?” I look up as he takes my hand.
He gives me a concerned glance then leads me off the dance floor and up the stairs of the frat house. “You need air. I know where we can get it.”
And he seems like he does, his fingers laced with mine as he pulls me through a throng of people. Girls glare at me as we pass by, shooting daggers, and several call out his name, but he keeps going. There’s a get out of my way pace to the way he moves, his shoulders edging around people as they step aside to give him a wide berth. We pass the second floor, which is just as crowded, and I get glimpses of rows of doors and assume those are the bedrooms where lots of shenanigans happen. Frat Boy lives here, probably. Julia might be inside one of those rooms too. I feel a pang of envy at the way she’s able to just let go and do what she wants.
We head up the steps to the third floor. As soon as we hit the landing, I hear the welcome sound of muted music. He stalks through a common area with a sectional and a TV. Our hands intertwined, I follow him as he steps out onto a huge screened-in porch along the back of the house. No one is out here, and it’s bliss. Quiet and lit with moonlight, it’s warmed with gas heaters in each corner.
“Better?” he asks softly.
I let out a huge sigh of relief. “It’s paradise. Thank you. I…got too hot down there.”
Indeed.
He shows me to the railing at the edge, and even though it has a screen, the cold air rushes in. I inhale a deep breath, looking out over the lights of campus just a few blocks away. He stands next to me, a few inches to the side, eyes on me and not the view.
A sigh comes from his chest. “Look, I came on too strong down there. I can be a bit abrupt, it’s just I get tired of girls…” His lips twist as his words taper off.