I tilted my head. “That’s an awesome job. I bet it’s fun testing things.”
“It is.”
A pretty waitress came and took drink orders from the others. The guys all slid into easy banter. Kendra and Jodie seemed like they knew each other well, sitting next to each other and having a low conversation of their own. I glanced at Paisley, glad she was there, because I felt a little out of place with this group who were all so familiar with one another.
“Thanks for that greeting,” Cam murmured in my ear.
I turned toward him so nobody else could hear or see what I was saying. “Just making it convincing.”
He barked out a surprised laugh. “Shit.”
I bit my lip on a smile. “Come on. It’s the perfect time to show them they’re winning. Look like you can’t keep your hands off me.”
He grunted. “Don’t have to act like that. It’s true.” Shifting his body so he was turned toward me, he lifted his free arm and twisted a long strand of my hair around his fingers then drew it down with a gentle tug, his wrist brushing over my breast. All the while, he stared into my eyes.
“That’s good,” I breathed, my girl parts squeezing involuntarily, my nipples tightening into hard points.
“What’s up tomorrow?” He leaned in closer. “Want to do something?”
“Sure.” Hopefully his plans involved a bed, because I was ready for a little mattress dancing right now.
“We have a day off. Some of the guys are going to this arcade to play games tomorrow afternoon. We could join them.”
“That sounds fun.” Also sounded like more opportunities to hoodwink his buddies about the bet. I caught the interested glances everyone was giving us. We seemed to be pretty convincing. For a few seconds, I had a weird twist in my gut that felt like guilt. What the hell was that about? We were just having fun, turning their bet back on them. It wasn’t hurting anyone.
I hoped.
Chapter 13
Cam
“Take that!” I pumped a fist in the air at the strike I’d just scored in bowling.
“Calm down, Brick,” Chaser said. “You don’t have to win everything.”
I opened my mouth to say, yes, I do, then closed it and shrugged.
Chaser gave me a suspicious look as he picked up a bowling ball for his turn.
Olivia patted my arm. “You’re way ahead of everyone else.”
I turned and met her eyes. Her beautiful, bright blue eyes. The bowling didn’t really matter. She was here, with my friends and me, we were having fun, and that was the most important thing.
Maybe my attitude would have been different if I’d been losing.
I leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, and she smiled.
“Do any of you ever call each other by your real name?” she asked.
“Hmm.” I tipped my head. “Rarely.”
“At first I didn’t realize who they were talking to when they called you Brick.”
“It’s because of my hard body.”
She snort-laughed. “Right. I don’t know what to call the guys though. Should I use their real names or their nicknames?”
“Hell. I don’t know.” I thought about it. The other wives and girlfriends didn’t tend to use nicknames. “Their real names, I guess.”
She nodded seriously, as if she was worried about doing things right.
“I’m getting drinks,” Jodie announced. “Who wants another?”
We all wanted drinks, so Kendra popped up. “I’ll help you.”
Olivia watched the two women walk away, shoulder to shoulder, chatting up a storm. She nibbled her lip briefly, but when she caught me watching her, she smiled.
We played a couple of games, Olivia, Chaser, Jordyn, and me on one lane, Nicky, Jodie, Kendra, and Hallsy on another. We were almost done bowling when Rosser and his wife, Jenna, arrived, followed closely by Bomber and Rico. We moved to the arcade and milled around playing air hockey and basketball, some of us standing with our beers and watching, hooting at missed shots, talking shit.
“Come on, Brick, let’s play Guerilla Challenge,” Rosser called.
“Nope.”
“Why not?” He frowned.
“I don’t do shooting games.”
Olivia cocked an eyebrow. “Why? Are you opposed to guns?”
“Well, aside from my politics, I never learned how to shoot, so I suck at it and I don’t like losing.”
“Come on,” Rosser said.
I shook my head. “Chaser’ll play against you.”
Olivia nudged me. “It’s just a game.”
“Ha. That’s what they say about hockey.”
She laughed.
Beer in hand, we moved away to talk to Hallsy and Nicky for a while, then Rico and Bomber joined us. It was great having a day off, not talking shop, just chilling and having some fun with the guys. Jenna, Jodie, and Kendra cheered on Jordyn as she played the old-fashioned pinball game, all of them laughing.
“So that vibrator really works,” Bomber said.
“Really? You got one?”
“Yeah.” He nodded seriously. “I had to make sure Marley was, uh, satisfied.”
“Good man.” I slapped a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe I should get one.”
“Uh-huh.” Bomber gave me a look. “Problems in the bedroom with Olivia?”
I laughed, not bothered because I knew there were absolutely no problems in the bedroom with Olivia. Where was she, anyway? I glanced around and spotted her standing over by Rosser and Jenna, but a little apart, looking at her phone. “I’m always up for something that makes it better.”
“Maybe Olivia already has one,” Rico said.
I frowned. “Huh. Maybe.”
“How long has it been?” Bomber asked. “A month?”
I frowned. “What?”
“Dating Olivia.”
“Oh. Uh…no. Like, three weeks.”
Bomber rubbed his chin and smirked. “You are not gonna make it.”
I wanted to smirk right back at him. Little did he know this was a done deal, thanks to Olivia. I shrugged. “Who knows?”
“We’ve seen how you look at her. You’re in deep already, man. Two months? Phhht.”
I decided to protest a little more, so I scoffed. “Horseshit. I mean, I like her. We’re having fun. I told you, I don’t do love. Not gonna happen.”
“Sure, man. Whatever.”
I rolled my eyes anyway. “Come on. I want to kick your ass at foosball.”
After a while, we all moved into the restaurant/bar area and ordered a bunch of food. Olivia sat next to me and, feeling pleasantly mellow and relaxed, I bumped her shoulder with mine. “Having fun?”
“Oh. Sure.”
I gave her a quick look, because her words didn’t sound sincere. The smile she flashed me was tight. What was wrong?
Jesus. What if someone had said something about me asking Nicky’s girlfriend Jodie out last year? And how I’d been pissed off at Nicky for kind of stealing her away. Okay, he really hadn’t, because she’d never have gone out with me, and in the end, it wasn’t that big a deal because I liked Jodie, but we never even went out once, so it wasn’t like my heart was broken or anything; I’d been more annoyed because Jodie had turned me down—that never happened. But maybe Olivia would take it wrong if someone told her about that.
“Uh, did someone say something to you?” I asked, knowing that sounded incredibly stupid.
A crease formed between her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“Are you okay?”
“Sure!” Her smile stretched wider, but it was still phony.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing!”
She didn’t like my friends. That was it. She was looking at her phone, not even trying to get to know them.
“Remember when Hallsy fought with Blade?” Nicky said. Everyone roared.
“Oh my God, that was hilarious!” Jenna slapped the table. “I thought Army and Duper were going to have a heart attack.”
Olivia smiled uncertainly while everyone else guffawed.
I remembered that day, the year Hallsy had come back to play after taking time off following his wife’s death. He’d been seeing Kendra and was all worked up about them breaking up when Brad, inside the basset hound costume that was the Aces’ mascot, had patted Kendra’s ass, and Hallsy’d gone all jealous on the mascot’s ass, taking him to the ground in a tackle. Could have been a PR nightmare.
Now it was hilarious.
“They reacted quick,” Bomber said. “Made the best of it. You were an idiot, man.” He punched Hallsy’s shoulder.
We shared more memories, pranks we’d pulled on each other; the time Army caught Hallsy doing the walk of shame through the hotel lobby the night after Duper and Lovey’s wedding, after Hallsy had spent the night with Kendra; which led to remembering Lovey’s water breaking at our end of season party last year when she’d gone into labor and how freaked out Duper had been; and more stupid, funny stories.
Olivia smiled at the stories, although she looked at little mystified.
Eventually, people started making noises like things were wrapping up. Jodie and Nicky had to get home to their daughter. We all had a practice in the morning, so it couldn’t be a late night.
“I’m ready to go too,” Olivia said quietly to me as Jodie and Nicky left.
“Oh. Okay, sure.” I turned and spoke louder to the gang. “Okay, we’re outta here too. See you guys tomorrow.”
We said our goodbyes, got our jackets, and headed out. It was dark already, and we walked briskly to the parking garage where we’d left my car, a chilly, damp wind making us shiver. I got us onto Lake Shore and headed north toward Olivia’s place.
“That was fun,” I said. “Nice to have a relaxing day off.”
“Yeah, for sure.”
I glanced sideways at her. She seemed quiet. “Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”
She sighed and turned away to look out the side window at the dark lake. “I’m fine.”
Okay, I grew up around a lot of women. My sisters never hesitated to tell me when I was a stupid jackass and they were pissed at me, but I saw how they acted around boyfriends, and now husbands, and there were times I couldn’t believe how clueless those dudes were because my sisters were telling them things were fine, but things were so not fine. So I knew when a woman said she was fine, that meant she was definitely not.
I mulled it over in my head—whether to have it out here and now while we were in the car driving; or wait until we got to her place. The silence between us stretched out, long and dense.
Something was certainly wrong.
But what, for fuck’s sake? Why couldn’t women just say what was bugging them? Why did I have to guess about this shit?
I got more and more annoyed as I drove.
When I got to Olivia’s condo, I parked on the street instead of just pulling up out front. I slammed the car into park and jumped out, stalking around to open her door for her. She cast me a questioning look as she slid out.
“I’m coming in,” I said through gritted teeth.
She blinked. “Um. Okay.”
We rode the elevator in thick silence, and I caught the glances she kept flicking my way.
Inside her condo, I tossed my keys onto the small table and strode into her living room. I turned to face her. “What the hell is wrong?”
Then I closed my eyes. I knew better than to go on the offense. That was only going to get me another “nothing.”
“Sorry,” I muttered. I yanked off my jacket and tossed it onto a chair, then marched up to her and took her hands in mine. She gazed at me wide-eyed. “I feel like you’re unhappy or angry about something.”
She heaved a huge sigh. “Okay, I’m annoyed.”
“About what?”
“You were ignoring me.”
I blinked at her. “No, I wasn’t.”
She laughed. “Yes, you were.” She pulled her hands away from mine and waved one as she walked over to her kitchen. “It doesn’t matter, except I thought it was a good time to put on the act and make them think you’re ‘falling in love.’ ” She held up her fingers in air quotes and then opened her fridge door. “But you were busy talking to your friends.” She pulled out a bottle of water and held it up to me. I shook my head.
She cracked the bottle open. “So yeah, I wasn’t having the best time. I tried to talk to the other women, but they’re all good friends, and they kept talking about people and things I don’t know anything about. All of you did that.”
My jaw slackened, remembering her off by herself looking at her phone. I’d wondered what was more important on her phone, but she’d probably been trying to look busy. And I’d left her to fend for herself while I played arcade games and bullshitted with my friends.
She lifted the bottle to her lips and drank, not looking at me.
“Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. It doesn’t really matter.” She shrugged.
“It does matter if you felt left out.”
“Nah. Remember? We have an expiration date.”
Fuck. “But still…it was supposed to be fun. For both of us. I never…” I stop, searching for words. “I’ve never had a…a girlfriend that I’ve brought to things like that.”
I did a lot of one-nighters, sometimes a few dates. There’d been times I’d needed a date for a gala fundraiser, but usually that was only a one-time thing also.
“I’m not your girlfriend.”
My insides twisted. “Whatever. We were there together. I’m not used to having someone else there. I should have been more considerate of you. I didn’t even think.”
She shrugged again. “Like I said, don’t worry about it.”
“I was afraid someone said something to you that hurt you or pissed you off.”
“No, no. They were all nice. They just didn’t have much to say to me.”
“Shit. I should have looked after you better. And not just because of the goddamn bet.” I strode closer, wrapped my arms around her, and pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m sorry. I’m an idiot.”
“Don’t apologize! I don’t need looking after. I’m a big girl. I can go to parties and make small talk with people. I’ve done it all my life. You all are obviously really close. And I know I’m not going to be around long anyway.”
Jesus. She kept reminding me of that, and it was starting to piss me off. I slid a hand up into her hair and cupped the back of her head. “Look, never mind the bet. We went out together with my friends, and I should have made sure you were having fun. I know we’re a close group, and I never thought about how it feels to be someone coming into that. And I guess the others didn’t really think about that either.”
Had it been hard for Jodie, after she and Nicky had started dating? Probably not, because Jodie and Kendra were best friends and business partners; Jodie already had an in. Kendra was Lovey Dupuis’s cousin, and Lovey was Duncan’s sister, so they all knew one another. Maybe it had been easier for Jordyn because everyone was starstruck over her. A lot of the other wives and girlfriends had been around for years. Lovey was the unofficial leader of that group, taking it on herself to organize WAG events and get-togethers, making sure they sat together at games and supported one another when the team was on the road; but she was at home with a baby, as were some of the other wives. I hadn’t realized how important that role was.
“I’m sorry,” I said again. “I’ve never been in th
is situation before.” I hated it that Olivia had been bummed this afternoon, while I’d been having so much fun. I drew back to look into her eyes. “Let me make it up to you.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“No, not in the bedroom.”
She laughed.
“Okay, if you insist. But I’ll also make it up to you by bringing you to another get-together with my friends and doing better. They’re good people. You’ll have fun.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Come on. It’ll be another chance to convince the guys that they’re winning the bet.”
“Oh well, then, yeah, we should do it.” She spoke lightly, her lips curved into a smile.
Two months. This was going to last two months.
I shoved that thought away as I led her into her bedroom.
* * *
—
“Come sit on my face.”
Olivia made a shocked sound. “You’re such a perv.”
“You love it.”
She tossed her long hair back and swung one long leg over me to straddle me. Her smile was sexy as fuck as she moved closer on her knees. “I do.”
I set my hands on her legs and pulled that sweet pussy to my mouth. She covered my hands with hers, and I slid my tongue over her smooth flesh, breathing in her scent.
“Ohhh God.” Her body trembled. She lifted a little, and her hips rocked as I licked her.
“That’s it, baby. Ride my face.”
She was slick and sweet. She caressed my forearms and hands, making little moany noises, then ran her hands up her sides and cupped her tits.
“Yeah,” I said hoarsely. “Do that. Touch those sweet tits.”
She pinched her nipples and tugged them, and I worked my tongue again over her clit. My dick and balls were on fire.
She reached for the headboard, and I replaced her hands on her tits with mine, squeezing the plump curves, capturing those erotically hard nipples between my fingers to tweak them. She gasped and moaned louder, still moving on my face.
“That’s so good,” she whispered. “Oh God…”
Game On Page 13
