by Toni Aleo
And I’m completely taken with her.
Her drive, her body, her talent, and that smile! She may not be my type, but she is what I want in a girl. I want someone who will challenge me and make me better. She does that with one look. The only problem is I’ll probably never see her again once she leaves this house. I have no clue where she is from, but I’m pretty sure if a girl like that were in Nashville, I’d know about her.
She’d be mine.
I don’t even know why I thought that, though. She doesn’t want anything to do with me. She just wanted to beat me. At first, I thought maybe she wanted to get some, but after that ass-beating, I’m sure she has one thing in mind and that’s winning. It’s very disappointing, but oh well, on with her then. It isn’t like I have time for girls right now anyway.
Climbing up the stairs, a little slower than normal, I am thankful I have a couple more weeks before hockey camp starts. I just took a beating, and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t handle camp right now. Hell, I might sleep the rest of the weekend. Starting now. Passing the kitchen where everyone is laughing and cooking, I ignore the jabs about losing to Baylor and don’t even look to see her smug face. I decide that I’m kinda over everyone right now. I honestly want to sleep and forget her completely. It’s for the best anyway, no matter how much I want to fuck her.
Going down the hall to my room, I shut the door behind me and look out the window that has a gorgeous view of the beach and ocean. Jude was excited when he rented this house. He thought it would be a good escape and he was right. For the last two days, when I’m not actually on the beach, I have the doors open, the crisp ocean air flowing into my room as I lie in bed, reading. I have a paper due on the first day of school for my summer read, The Learning Tree. I’m not one of those people who wait until the last minute to finish an assignment and want to write the paper on the flight home on Monday. Maybe I’ll go ahead and finish the book after my shower. Sounds like a way better plan than going down and dealing with my brothers and fighting my need for her. They’ll probably give me more shit for hiding in my room, so really, it’s a lose-lose situation for me.
Ah, fuck it.
Throwing my shirt off and then my shorts, I push the door open and find that my bathroom is occupied.
Yeah, I admit it. I yell like a girl.
Which in return makes Baylor scream.
“Oh my God! You scared the shit out of me!” she yells from where she stands in front of my sink, holding a rag to her chest as the water runs.
Pointing at myself, I gasp for breath as I say, “Me? You’re in my bathroom! With no damn warning. Lock the damn door!”
“I didn’t think anyone would come in if it was shut!”
“Um, yeah. I shut it before I left.”
“Whatever. You’re insane.”
She glares at me and I glare back, and then for some reason we both start laughing.
“You act like I’m a spider or something,” she says through her airy laugh. “I’m just cleaning my battle wounds.”
Leaning against the door, I shake my head. “I don’t like surprises.”
She smiles as she shuts the water off, throwing her leg up so she can inspect the cuts on her legs. I take in her inner thigh, and man, I itch to reach out and touch her, but that would be bad since she wants nothing to do with me. I may joke and tease that I wanna score against her, but I don’t go into something unless I know I can win.
“I can tell,” she says before looking back at me. I watch as her eyes run down my body, but when her eyes go wide, my brows come together, confused. When I look down, though, I realize why.
I’m buck-ass naked.
“Oh, shit,” I say, covering my junk and backing out the door to grab my shorts as she giggles. My face burns as I pull my shorts up before glancing back at her. She isn’t looking at me, but her cheeks are red too as she cleans her wounds, trying to act like she didn’t just see every inch of me.
“Guess, I need to take back my comment about the size of your dick, huh?” she says, and this time I see her eyes cut back to me, roaming along where my dick is hidden in my shorts.
Hmm. Maybe I’m reading her wrong. Maybe she is interested, she just doesn’t want to be.
I scoff as I lean against the door. “Like what you see, Moore?”
She grins but then cringes as she wipes the rocks out of her cut. “I’m not dead, Sinclair. I like dick.”
“Oh, I thought you may like pussy.”
Cutting me a dirty look, she shakes her head. “No. I don’t.”
I didn’t think so, but to be sure, I needed clarification. “Good to know.”
“And since you’ve done nothing but lick your lips and stare at my inner thigh, I’m guessing you like pussy?”
Observant one, this one is. Nodding my head, I get my fill of her as I say, “Like isn’t a strong enough word.”
“What word would you use then?” she asks low, in a throaty, sexy, naughty way before looking over at me.
Meeting her gaze, I say, matching her tone, “Crave. Need. Desire. Want. Yearn. Love.”
Heat creeps up her neck, and soon my cock is pressing against my shorts. I don’t know what this feeling is, but man, I like it. Sucking in a breath, I watch as she leans forward, grabbing another rag and wetting it.
“Have a way with words, I see,” she says, moving the rag along her face to clean up. “I’m almost done here.”
“Take your time,” I say, watching as she cleans her face and then her neck. “Give me a chance, and I can show you exactly what I can do with my words.”
She looks at me and then shakes her head. “I’m sure that will lead to something we’d both regret.”
“A night with you is not something I’d regret.”
Cutting her eyes back to the mirror, she shakes her head. “I would.”
Hot and cold, this chick is. Chuckling, I look down before asking, “How long you been playing?”
Expelling a breath, she answers as she moves the rag along her jaw tenderly. “My dad says I learned to skate before I walked.”
I smile. “So a while, then?”
“I’m almost twenty-one, so, yeah, a while.”
I nod. She’s my age, but she has been playing longer than me. I doubt her dad was joking when he said that; her game speaks for itself.
Looking over at me, she asks, “You?”
“Since I was about five.”
“Cool, you’re good.”
“You are too.”
“I know,” she says, sending me a grin before looking back at the mirror. “You need to work on your wrist shot. You missed a lot because it’s not very accurate. You have size to you though, maybe consider playing defense instead.”
I smile, not the least bit offended. “I do play defense.”
Cutting her eyes to me, she seems surprised. “Two-way player. That’s lethal.”
“I think so,” I say with a nod.
“Why didn’t you go into the draft then?”
I shrug. “Must have been that wrist shot holding me back.”
Meeting my gaze, she nods. “Probably. You really should work on it. You’ll be killer with that and a real asset in the NHL.”
I like that she thinks that, and it makes me want to go outside to practice now, but instead I say, “I’ll be sure to work on that as soon as I get home.”
“Nashville?” she asks. “Who do you play for?”
“The Bellevue Bullies,” I answer, and she nods as she reaches into her pocket, pulling out a tube of lipstick. Leaning toward the mirror, she paints her lips with the killer red lipstick before looking over at me.
“They won the championship last year. Good team.”
“Agreed. Going for it again this year,” I say, crossing my arms. “Where is home for you?”
“Arkansas is where I go to school,” she informs me, and I don’t miss that it isn’t her home.
“Do you play there?”
She nods, leaning her hip to the si
nk. “Yeah.”
“Cool.”
“Yeah,” she agrees, crossing her arms below her breasts, pushing them up some. Running my tongue along my lips, I try to look away but they are so delectable. The perfect size, a good handful. Or mouthful. I want to push her against the sink, touch her mouth with mine and devour her. Show her who’s boss when it comes to the bedroom, but something about her stance is telling me she is completely off-limits.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” I suddenly ask like a dumbass.
Her brows come together as she scoffs. “Why do you ask?”
I shrug. “I want to know.”
“Why?”
She eyes me, that challenging look in her eyes. I don’t know why that look turns me on, but it does. Swallowing, I push off the doorframe and shrug. “Because you give off a very off-limits vibe.”
“I am off-limits.”
“So you do have a boyfriend?”
“Yeah, hockey.”
“That must be boring,” I say with a grin.
“Eh, that’s debatable,” she says, coming off the sink. “Plus, a guy can’t handle me. No one can.”
Grinning, I say, “I don’t know about that. I’m pretty sure I can handle you. The problem would be that you’d be the one unable to handle me.”
She smiles, her lips shiny and taunting before she shrugs. “Too bad we’ll never find out.”
“I don’t know… We could. My bed is right there,” I say, cocking my head toward my bed as I stuff my hands in my pockets, causing my shorts to inch down more. Like I wanted, her eyes cut down but just as quickly go back up to meet my gaze. She then looks past me at my bed before looking back up at me. Her eyes narrow, but I don’t miss the heat in them. She may be telling me no, acting as if it’s the worst idea in the world, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to.
That she doesn’t want me.
Because she does.
I just know it.
“Oh, well, let me quickly take my clothes off, then.”
“Would you like some help?” I ask even though I know she is being sarcastic.
Rolling her eyes, she says, “In your dreams, Sinclair.”
She goes to pass me, but I don’t move, my eyes boring into hers. Heat is rolling off her in waves, burning my skin from the close proximity. I want to touch her, reach out and just feel her skin under my fingertips. Holding her gaze, I decide that I have to. I have to touch her. Cautiously and slowly, my finger runs along her jaw where the puck hit her. She doesn’t flinch or even move; the only reason I know she feels my touch is the sharp intake of breath.
Her lips part as I slowly move my thumb along her jaw. It’s swelling up and she’s gonna have one hell of a shiner. I feel bad. I don’t want her to hurt, but then if I’m honest, I’m really not thinking about her being hurt. More like kissing the living shit out of her.
Almost in a whisper, I say, “You need ice on that.”
She nods. “That’s my next stop.”
“So no proving who can’t handle who in my bed?”
“I don’t need to prove it. We both know I’ll win.”
I scoff. “I think that’s up for discussion.”
Her breathing is coming out faster, her eyes dark as she holds my gaze. “Maybe, but I don’t want to be a part of that discussion.”
“Ever?”
Shaking her head, she says, “Never.”
When she goes to move past me, I allow her. Turning, I watch as she heads for the door, and I don’t miss how she looks back at my bed. When she glances over at me, I smile.
“Don’t say never, Moore.”
She laughs as she opens the door, stepping out of it before looking back at me. “I don’t say anything I don’t mean, Sinclair.”
She says my name in a way that’s almost sinful. And again, she may be saying one thing, but that body of hers is screaming something entirely different. She may think no one can handle her, but I can, and I can definitely read her. She wants me. She’s just fighting it, and I want to know why.
Shrugging my shoulders, I say, “We’ll see about that.”
Rolling her eyes, she shuts the door with a little more force than needed, and I can’t help but laugh. As I push my shorts down and go into the bathroom to start my shower, I decide that hiding in my room is the worst idea in the world.
Because the best idea is to go down and prove her wrong.
“You need to have sex with Jayden. Like everywhere.”
Looking around quickly to make sure that no one is in the room, I look at Delanie incredulously. I can’t believe I am still surprised by the fact that she has no damn filter.
“Shh! Oh my God!”
Mandie thinks it’s hilarious because she laughs as she mixes the potato salad and texts Jason. She’s the queen of multitasking because she also says, “She’s right though, Baylor. He wants you.”
“I don’t care what he wants,” I say. And I don’t.
Nor do I care that I want him right on back.
And how could I not? I saw his whole dick. Not even a little bit of it from where his shorts fell some, no, his whole fucking dick. And sweet Lord above, what a sight it was. When I said earlier that he was smaller, I was a liar, a complete and utter liar, but seeing it just made me more of a liar. He’s hung.
Like a fucking horse.
Holy shit.
He also has that V. The one that makes you think nothing but dirty things. Like licking it. I want to lick his V. Over and over again. Heat washes over me as I imagine myself doing just that. It would be so great, but oh so wrong.
Fanning myself, I shake my head, hoping to shake the image away as Mandie says, “You’re dumb if you don’t hit that. He was basically humping you out there.”
“No, he wasn’t. He was trying to beat me!”
“No, that was foreplay,” Delanie says, setting me with a look. “Why are you red? You like him!”
“What the— No way!” I yell back. “I don’t…ugh, Delanie, shut up, I have no time for crushing on some caveman guy.”
“Yeah, she’s digging him. She’s calling him names,” she decides.
“I call everyone names!” I yell, but she shakes her head. “You bitch!”
“No, you call them dicks or assholes, but if you like a guy, you call them the opposite of what they are. Yeah, he’s big, but he is gorgeous and you know it.”
“You’re on crack,” I say, shaking my head and standing up to leave. “Like big white pieces of crack that take you to another world where your insane notions are true.”
She gives me a deadpan look and rolls her eyes. “She’s the one on crack, yeah, Mandie?”
Mandie nods. “For sure. If that hunka-hunka caveman wanted me, I’d give it up.”
“’Cause you are a ho,” I decide and she smiles.
“I am. Come to the dark side, Baylor. It’s fun. We are very relaxed and happy,” she teases and I scoff. “But really, stop lying to us and yourself.”
“I don’t want him,” I say with a shrug. “Really.”
“Hey, stop lying about me.”
I look behind me to find Jayden coming toward us from the hall. He’s wearing that naughty teasing grin, and soon Delanie and Mandie are giggling while I glare. Of course, he is all freshly showered, his hair brushed to the side as his cologne comes off him, intoxicating me. He’s wearing a pair of athletic shorts and a teal Bellevue tee.
Barefoot. He’s fucking barefoot.
Damn it, he’s sexy as shit.
I want to groan in distress, but I hold it together, glaring at him. “I don’t lie.”
“Oh my bad, I could have sworn you were playing that hard-to-get game.”
Holding his gaze, I say, “The only game I play is hockey.”
With his brows touching, he shakes his head. “I highly doubt that, but we’ll go with it.”
Confused, I say, “What does that mean?”
Coming to the counter, he leans against it and I back up a bit. It’s not s
afe being so close to this guy. Setting me with a knowing gaze, I feel like he knows every single thing about me, and I don’t like that.
“It means that you’re full of it.”
Glaring, I say, “You don’t know me.”
“Nope, hoping to change that.”
“Won’t happen.”
“Fine. I’ll do it in a way you’ll respond to.”
“How’s that?”
“Friendly competition,” he says.
“Nothing is friendly when there is a competition involved,” I counter, and he grins.
“True, but we can at least try.”
“Or I can tell you to fuck off,” I suggest, and he grins.
“You won’t. You want to beat me too bad.”
He’s baiting me. Don’t bite, Baylor, don’t do it. “What’s the game?”
Damn it!
Smiling victoriously, he says, “Well, I’m pretty sure I can kick your ass at some beer pong, and when I do, you have to tell me about yourself.”
I scoff. Again, he doesn’t know me, so he wouldn’t know that I’ve been playing beer pong since I was sixteen. I’ve been around dudes my whole life. My dad has coached all over the damn place, and I’ve been everyone’s little sister. I’ve been taught how to play by the best in college.
Jayden is going down.
Again.
“Bring it,” I say with a glare.
“After dinner, we’ll go at it then,” he says and I nod. “What do you want if you win?”
I don’t even think. He is trouble. He is going to mess me up, so I say the only thing that can rectify that. “Oh, well, when I win, you leave me alone.”
