Players of Marycliff University Box Set, Books 1–3

by Jerica MacMillan

  He tilted his head, reaching for her. “I wouldn’t mind a repeat of what we were just doing.”

  She laughed again, a light chuckle coupled with a small head shake, but she allowed him to pull her closer and wrap his arms around her again. “We shouldn’t.”

  “Why not? I enjoyed it. You seemed to like it too.” He knew they shouldn’t. He’d get in so much trouble at work if anyone found out. But he couldn’t help himself. That feeling of rightness that he’d just found again was too good to let go.

  She stared up at him again, doubt in her eyes that he wanted to soothe away. As he rubbed his hands up and down her back, he reveled in the way she pressed against him and closed her eyes at the feel of it. When she let out another soft moan he couldn’t resist her anymore, and he took her lips in another kiss. A slow, languorous, torturous kiss. After an eternity or a heartbeat he pulled away, looking down into her green eyes, hazed with desire. “Let’s find somewhere warmer.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Hannah looked up into Matt’s face, the face that had haunted her dreams more often than she cared to admit. Up close like this, she could see the changes that had happened since she’d last seen him. He looked more serious now, less carefree than the boy she’d met three summers ago. And he hid his feelings better. He’d been pretty well-practiced at that already when they’d met, which she’d attributed it to growing up in a military family. His dad had been a career Coast Guard man, even though he’d been the harbormaster at the local port by the time she’d met Matt. Still, the man’s insistence on punctuality and schedules screamed military. There was no room for emotions when sailing through a storm, and life was nothing if not a storm, or that’s what she’d heard him tell Matt more than once in the short time they’d known each other.

  Now Matt wanted to take her “somewhere warmer.” She could guess what that meant. His arms around her, the smell of his spicy cologne—different from what she remembered—and the taste of him still on her tongue made her forget what her objections were to spending time with him. She knew she shouldn’t, but for the life of her she couldn’t think why.

  “I need to tell Elena I’m leaving. Let her know I’ll see her at home.”

  His lips curved in a smile. “You still hang out with Elena?”

  “Of course. She’s been my best friend since elementary school.”

  He nodded. “Of course. So whose idea was it to come to Marycliff instead of UW?”

  Shrugging, she looked away. “We decided together. We always said we were going to room together in college. We just switched our plan a little after looking more at Marycliff.” It had been her idea, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. How desperate would that make her look—changing schools after spending a summer with a random guy who didn’t even stay in touch? The fact that she’d decided to apply to Marycliff before he’d ghosted didn’t matter. Neither did the fact that she got a fantastic scholarship, or that the program here was as good if not better than UW, because the classes were smaller and she got more focused attention from her professors. Plus, the internship opportunities couldn’t be beat.

  None of that mattered, though. Any explanation would sound defensive. There was no way of making it look less like the actions of a pathetic, lovesick teenager. And the truth was, she wouldn’t have ever looked at Marycliff if not for Matt.

  A knowing smile pulled at his lips. She narrowed her eyes at him. “What? Marycliff is a good school. And the professor to student ratio is a lot better than at UW.”

  “Mmhmm.” He nodded again. “I know it’s a good school. I graduated from there, after all. You don’t need to justify your decisions to me.”

  Hannah stood up straighter. “You’re right. I don’t.”

  When she started to pull away from him, he tightened his grip on her. “Hey. Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Inside.” She tilted her head toward the door. “It’s freezing out here, and while you’re doing okay at keeping my upper body warm, I’m afraid my toes might get frostbite soon.” She actually hadn’t paid much attention to the temperature, but now that she brought it up, her bare legs were freezing and her shoes did nothing to protect her feet from the cold.

  With a sigh, he dropped his arms from around her. “Right. Of course.” But instead of just letting her walk beside him like she expected, he laced his fingers through hers and tugged her toward the door. “I believe you mentioned needing to let Elena know that you’re leaving. So let’s do that. I need to let my roommates know too so they can take a cab. Then we can warm you up.”

  The suggestive note to his voice on the last sentence made his meaning unmistakable, and an involuntary shiver passed through her in response. He smiled at her, but didn’t say anything. Stopping inside the door, he pulled her close. “Go find Elena. I’ll wait for you here. Don’t take too long.” He pressed a kiss to her stunned lips, breaking it off before she could gather her wits and kiss him back. As she moved away, she glanced back at him and saw him pull out his phone. That must be how he planned to communicate with his roommates.

  Making a circuit around the edge of the dance floor and past the bar, she searched for Elena. She found her dancing in the midst of a group of guys, including a few of football players Matt had come with. As she got closer, she noticed Evan standing behind Elena, grinding against her. For acting as irritated as he’d been earlier, he sure got over it quickly.

  He raised his head, locked eyes with her, and stopped moving, the expression on his face morphing to irritation. Okaay. Maybe not.

  Elena glanced over her shoulder at him to see why he’d stopped dancing and followed his gaze to see Hannah on the edge of the dance floor. She nudged one or two of the guys out of her way and came over to give Hannah a hug.

  “Hola, chica!” She shouted to make herself heard over the music. “You’ve been resting for a long time. Come dance!” She pulled on Hannah’s hand, trying to lead her over to the guys she’d been dancing with, who were all watching them, some with avid expressions, though Evan looked sullen.

  Resisting Elena’s pull, Hannah shook her head. “I stopped resting a while ago. I bumped into someone.”

  Elena dropped Hannah’s hand and clapped. “Oooh! A guy! Please tell me it was a hot guy and not a professor or some chick from one of your classes.”

  Hannah laughed. “Yes, it was a hot guy. I’m, um, going to hang out with him somewhere quieter.”

  Sidling closer, Elena nudged Hannah with an elbow. “Really? Details. What’s his name, where are you going, what are you going to be doing?”

  “Just talking probably, I’m not sure, and his name is …” Hannah trailed off, not sure how Elena would react if she told her she was leaving with Matt.

  “You don’t remember? Somehow I doubt you’ve done much talking then, and I wouldn’t expect you to do more if you’re leaving with him.” She stood still and studied Hannah’s face. “You have your phone still? Right? So you can call for help if you need to?”

  Hannah rolled her eyes. “I won’t need to call for help. It’s someone I know already. And yes, I still have my phone in the thigh holster thing you bought me for Christmas for when we go clubbing. I’m assuming you’re wearing yours too?”

  Elena laughed again. “Of course! I got a fun moment earlier when someone tried calling me.”

  Hannah laughed with her. “Did you answer?”

  “Hell no! I just enjoyed it while it lasted. I almost gave some guy my number just to have him call me a few more times and finish the job, but decided that might be too forward.” She laughed some more, then grew serious. “Okay, so you know the guy you’re leaving with and feel comfortable with him, so that’s good. Any reason you won’t tell me his name?” She arched one well-manicured brow.

  Hannah sighed. “It’s Matt.”

  It was a good thing Elena wasn’t drinking anything right then, because her reaction would totally have been a spit-take. “Excuse me, what?” Shaking her head, she started muttering to he
rself in Spanish. “Chica, we came here tonight to find you someone else. The point was to get you a guy so you wouldn’t get caught up with him again.”

  Hannah gave a one-shoulder shrug. “I know. But he’s here, and we danced and kissed, and I can’t help it. I want to go with him.”

  Wrapping her arms around Hannah, Elena gave her a hug, holding her close for a moment to speak in her ear. “Okay. I get it. But be careful, okay? I don’t want to have to put you back together like I did last time.”

  Hannah nodded, pulling back. “I know. But it seems different—he seems different. I just—I want to see what happens. It’s just for tonight, just to talk. I’m not going to sleep with him, I promise.”

  Elena flashed her a devilish grin. “I wouldn’t make you promise that, not after what you told me before. If he was that good then, imagine what it would be like now that both of you have more experience under your belts. Literally. Ha!” Elena laughed at her own joke, and Hannah couldn’t suppress the smile that came to her own face at Elena’s unintended pun, even if she didn’t want to pursue that line of conversation.

  “Haha. Yeah. Anyway, he’s waiting so I’m going to go.”

  Elena waved, already moving back to the guys who’d been taking turns calling out to her and trying to lure her back to the dance floor. “Okay. Be careful!”

  With Elena’s warning ringing in her ears, Hannah turned and made her way back to the door.

  * * *

  Matt had been scanning the crowd for what felt like forever, waiting for Hannah. After texting Chris that he was taking off, he’d held his phone in his hand for a moment waiting for acknowledgment. In response he got one word: Douche. With a shake of his head, he’d pocketed the phone again, bouncing on his toes, full of nervous energy.

  She was taking longer than he’d expected. Did she have trouble finding Elena? Maybe. Or maybe Elena was talking her out of going with him. Given how he’d ended things between them before, Hannah’s comments about not wanting to make the same mistake again, and how protective he remembered Elena being, he could see her trying to convince Hannah that he was bad news and best avoided. He smirked at the memory of Elena cornering him one night shortly after he and Hannah had started seeing each other. She’d interrogated him and told him in no uncertain terms that she’d cut his balls off and stuff them down his throat if he so much as thought about hurting her friend.

  The smile fell away as time continued to stretch out while he waited. Would Elena try to make good on that threat all this time later? Had he hurt Hannah? She obviously didn’t hate him or she wouldn’t have let him touch her, much less kiss him back like that. So maybe she’d just considered it a fun summer romance and let it go. Although, she’d seemed confused and hurt in her last email after he’d stopped responding. He hoped she didn’t hold it against him, because as of right now he wanted to pick up where they left off, and that meant he wanted her in his bed. Right now.

  This wait was pure torture.

  Finally he saw her pushing past the last few people separating them. He stopped bouncing, his lips spreading in a wide smile as she approached. “Hi.”

  “Hi.” Her smile matched his.

  “I was starting to wonder if you were going to come back.”

  He could see her chuckle, though it was soft enough that he couldn’t hear it over the noise of the club. “I’m here. Sorry I took so long. It took a while to find Elena, and then I had to explain.” She gestured at him, as though that said it all. Hmm. What did she think she had to explain to Elena?

  Instead of asking for details, he reached for her hand, leading her out the door. He wrapped his arm around her once they got back into the cold.

  She looked up at him gratefully. “We took a cab. Door to door service makes it easier to go without a coat.”

  “It’s not quite door to door, but my roommate’s car is just a block over and around the corner.”

  Hannah’s brows came together. “Your roommate’s car?”

  “Yeah.” He shrugged. “I drive a truck, but the three of us came together, so we took Chris’s car. I lost rock, paper, scissors and got stuck driving, though.”

  Hannah’s steps slowed, forcing Matt to slow alongside her. She turned to face him. “We’re abandoning your roommates when you were supposed to drive them?”

  “Don’t worry about it.” He brushed a strand of hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear, unable to keep his hands to himself. “They were kind of expecting me to ditch them anyway. They’ll be fine calling a cab or catching a ride with someone else. They won’t be ready to leave for a while yet.” At least he hoped not. It wasn’t even ten o’clock. Unless they got really horny or something, they should stay and party for a while. Chris had become more tame since he and Megan got together and he started training for combines, but tomorrow was a light day, and from what he’d seen, Chris wasn’t drinking enough to get hungover. But Megan loved dancing, and according to Chris, things were even hotter in the sack when he took her dancing. Judging by the sounds that came from their room all the damn time, Chris wasn’t lying.

  Hannah still looked conflicted, so he kissed her. He wanted to do more than kiss her. He wanted to strip her and ravage her, claim her again, erase the feeling of anyone else on her skin.

  A growl came out of him at the thought of anyone else touching her. It was stupid and hypocritical, he knew, because he’d been the furthest thing from a monk you could get without tipping over into manwhore territory. He didn’t have the same reputation that Chris and Lance used to have. He’d actually date girls, have relationships, even if he did let the jersey chasers take the edge off when he was between girlfriends.

  He broke off the kiss and tugged Hannah along. They moved as fast as her shoes would let her, trying to get out of the cold as quickly as possible. At the car, he pushed her against the passenger door, kissing her again. She pressed her breasts into his chest, her arms sliding around his neck, her fingers tangling in his hair, holding him to her as much as he pushed against her. He kissed and sucked and nipped a path down her neck to her collarbone, raising his head so he could look down at her cleavage, his palms stroking her over the fabric of her dress.

  Her shiver brought him back to himself and the realization that they were severely underdressed to be outside on a January night. As though he needed the reminder, the wind picked up, slicing into them, heavy with the smell of coming rain, and goosebumps broke out all over their bare skin.

  He smiled down at her, and her pink lips, now swollen from his kiss, turned up at the corners. Reaching for the handle, he moved her out of the way and opened the door for her. He couldn’t resist bending down and kissing her once more after she got into the car.

  She kissed him back for far too short of a time before pushing him away with a laugh. “Get in the car. I’m freezing.”

  He laughed too and closed her door, hurrying to the driver’s side because she was right, he was freezing his balls off, and he’d like to keep those in working order. Cranking the heater as soon as he turned on the car set off a new round of shivers in Hannah, who sat huddled in the passenger seat in her curve-hugging dress with her arms pulled in tight to her torso, shoulders raised, and her hands clasped in front of her mouth.

  He grabbed the sweatshirt he’d brought along from the back seat, dragging it forward and piling it in Hannah’s lap. “Here. This’ll help you get warm sooner.”

  She picked it up, looking doubtful for half a second before pulling it over her head. The look of bliss on her face once she was enveloped in the soft fabric of his red MU Football sweatshirt sent blood straight to his cock, and he shifted in his seat, trying to make more room for the hard-on trying to bust out of his jeans. He couldn’t wait until he was the cause of that expression instead of his stupid sweatshirt.

  “Better?”

  She turned her face to him. “Hmm? Oh, yeah. Much better. Thanks.”

  He wove his way through downtown traffic, moving slowly past the popu
lar clubs and concert venues where people spilled out into the streets, some not bothering to look before wandering in front of oncoming traffic. Once they’d passed through the worst of it and were on the way to his house, he glanced over at Hannah. She sat rubbing her hands up and down her arms, a thoughtful look on her face. He wanted to reach over, touch her, distract her from those serious thoughts running behind her eyes. He wanted her attention back on him so he could keep her from second-guessing the wisdom of her decision. This wasn’t a time for thinking. It was a time for feeling, for riding the wave until it crested and broke, then see where they ended up.

  Instead he asked, “Everything alright?”

  “Yeah, fine.” She said it absently, almost automatically, not taking her eyes off the dark road illuminated by the car’s headlights.

  “Hannah?”

  “Hmm?” She turned to face him. The hazy look on her face cleared and a furrow appeared between her brows, a frown pulling at her sweet lips. She glanced around at the houses and trees as they passed. “Where are we going?”

  He glanced at her, his hands flexing around the steering wheel, suddenly nervous, afraid that she’d ask him to take her home. “My house?” He hadn’t meant it to sound like a question, but that’s how it came out. “Is that okay?”

  When he looked over at her again, the furrow had deepened, and she was examining him. “I’m not going to have sex with you.”

  He chuckled, glad she didn’t automatically object to going home with him. “Okay, babe. That’s fine.” That was mostly a lie. He really wanted to have sex with her, see if that was as good as he remembered. But he wouldn’t push it. He’d be patient with her, just like before, wait for her to be ready, until they were both ready to combust from the sparks they ignited together.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Hannah sat in the car watching Matt, fingers itching to trace the curves and swirls of the tribal tattoo peeking out from under his shirt sleeve. She forced herself to look away, turning her attention to warming her frozen skin now that the heater had finally kicked in. Slipping her feet out of her shoes, she held her toes right up under the vent so they could thaw out.