The Player and the Bet: An Enemies-to-Lovers College Sports Romance

by Liv Reid

  This whole thing is so new to me. I’ve never felt like this about anyone before, and I can’t believe I’m feeling this way about her. I’ve always been a use-her-and-lose-her kind of guy, but with Sadie, I’m the fuck-her-and-hold-her-all-night kind. This is insane.

  I look down at the top of her head and see her pretty, dyed hair and dark roots. Her scent surrounds me and shoots straight to my dick. Just thinking about last night is already getting me hard again. I’m actually kind of impressed with myself that I’m already ready for another round. I’ve never had a problem with stamina, but damn if this girl isn’t going to wear me out.

  She’s still asleep, and I can hear her soft breath and see the gentle rise and fall of her breasts. The sight makes me feel strangely protective—and a surge of guilt rushes through me. Until very recently, I was trying to ruin her life. I was trying to get her kicked out of school, and I’m the reason she’s on academic suspension right now. I was even trying to fuck her just to win some stupid bet with my friends. I’m an asshole, and she deserves way better than me.

  I always kind of knew I was an asshole, but I just didn’t care. I’ve always wanted to do exactly what I want to do, and for most of my life that’s exactly what I’ve done. I’ve always had enough money and power that no one ever tells me “no”. And I never thought I was doing anything wrong, because I figured everybody would do the same thing if they could. I got lucky in life and anyone who didn’t like it was just jealous.

  The whole world, and everyone in it, is out for themselves. That’s just how it is. There’s nothing wrong with being selfish because you’re only here for a short time, so better make it the best damn time you can. All you have left at the end of the day is yourself, so you’re the only one you have to answer to. That’s how I’ve always lived my life.

  But as I stare down at the sleeping girl in my arms, I’m not so sure anymore.

  I need to take a walk and clear my head. This is all too much at one time. I think I’ll go get her coffee—she probably needs it after last night. Her legs won’t be working for a while, I think with a smirk.

  I slip out of her arms, careful not to disturb her. A part of me doesn’t want to get up and wants to stay with her in this bed forever, but I need to get out and clear my head. My mind feels like it’s been put through a cheese grater. It feels like it’s running at eight hundred miles per hour and also crawling at a snail’s pace at the same time. Besides, I have a sudden strong urge to do something nice for her, and I know she’s a coffee addict like me.

  I quickly get dressed and slip out of the room. There are a couple of people sprawled out on the couches in the living room, leftovers from the party last night who came back here to keep drinking and then crashed. That’s pretty typical in this house. Thursday to Sunday morning, there’s always someone sleeping off their bad decisions and hangovers on those couches.

  I head over to the front door but before I make it outside I hear, “Heard you called off my girls.”

  Isabel.

  I turn around to face her. She’s walking out of the kitchen towards me.

  “You should have done that yourself,” I say in annoyance.

  She shrugs. “I just don’t want you to get in trouble with the Org.”

  My eyes narrow.

  “How do you know about that?”

  She shrugs again.

  “I know everything,” she says casually.

  “Did Camden tell you?”

  “He tells me everything.”

  I’m pissed off for a second, but then I guess I don’t really care if Isabel knows. Cam and her are so close I always knew he told her everything, and she’s never proven herself untrustworthy before. She’s always calm, pleasant, never says more than she means to—a little aloof. She keeps her cards close to her chest, and she’s definitely not a blabbermouth.

  “Just thinking of you, Mace. You need to be careful,” she says, suddenly serious.

  “I’ll be fine,” I say gruffly. “Don’t worry about it.”

  But she’s not wrong, and I know it. I get a prickle of fear on the back of my neck. I don’t know what I’m going to do. But seeing as I’ve already put off thinking about it for a couple of weeks, what’s a few more days?

  I try to push it to the back of my mind as I head out the front door towards the coffee shop down the street.

  36

  Sadie

  I open my eyes, but I don’t know where I am. I squint up at the plaster ceiling high above me. This isn’t my dorm room. I sit up suddenly and look all around me. I jump and let out a yelp when I see a guy in the room, but in an instant I realize it’s Mace and all the memories of last night rush back to me.

  “Didn’t realize I was so scary in the mornings,” he says sarcastically.

  “Sorry, I just didn’t know where I was for a moment.”

  Looking at him makes me think of everything we did last night. I see his lips that kissed every part of my body. I see his eyes and remember how dark they got when he was on the edge of coming. I see his body fully clothed and remember how good it looked completely naked.

  Heat rises to my face, and I put my hand up to my burning cheek.

  I see his hands and remember how strong they felt when they grabbed my hips, or wound through my hair, or curved inside of me, or—held coffee.

  “Is that for me?” I ask.

  He looks down at the two coffees in his hands like he forgot they were there. He seemed to have been lost in reverie too for a moment.

  “Hm? Oh yeah. This one is yours. I don’t know how you take it so here.”

  He comes over to the bed and hands me the cup. Our fingers brush for just the briefest moment and sparks shoot up my arm from where we touch.

  “Thanks,” I say and quickly withdraw my hand.

  He reaches into his pocket and then throws single-serving containers of cream, milk and sugar onto the bed.

  “Didn’t know if you were an oat, soy, almond, coconut or regular milk kind of girl, but these were the only takeaway kind they had.” He quickly adds, “But I can go back if you want something else. It’s no problem—”

  “This is great,” I cut in. “Thanks.”

  I smile at him to show how much I appreciate the coffee. He smiles back, but this is kind of awkward. We just had mind-blowing sex for pretty much the entire night, and now we are acting like two people on a blind first date.

  I busy myself with putting one container of cream and one packet of sugar into my coffee. I find it’s better when I don’t have to look at his gorgeous face or the way his clothes stretch across his broad chest. That way, my mind doesn’t wander to naughty thoughts.

  “What are you doing tonight?” Mace asks awkwardly.

  “Um…” I have to think about it for a moment. “Oh! I have a roommates’ dinner. We do them every once in a while. Just Luna, Jess and I—and Marty, who’s our unofficial fourth roommate.”

  “I’ll come,” he says excitedly.

  “No, no, it’s okay.”

  “I’ll bring dessert.”

  I’m not sure what’s happening between the two of us, but what I do know is I am not ready to have Mace Law around my friends. Last night, at the pep rally, we were all together, but that was a party, that’s different. In our home, with just the five of us, that’s too intimate. He’s the kind of guy we’ve made fun of since we got to Winterford. Having him over for dinner is just too much right now.

  But in typical Mace fashion, he won’t take “no” for an answer, and I eventually have to relent and say yes. He seems happy, but I don’t know if this is a good thing. This whole situation is just so crazy. I feel like we are moving at a million miles per hour when neither of us really understands what’s going on. But I already said yes, so there’s no going back.

  I gather my clothes, make an excuse, and try to get out of his room as quickly as I can. I’m still tired—because I didn’t get much sleep last night—and sore. I want to have a shower and a nap and just ge
t some distance from him so I can gather my thoughts. I can’t think straight when he’s in the room because he makes my brain feel foggy.

  He offers to walk me back home, but I insist it’s not necessary. When I finally make it out of his house, I feel like I can breathe again. I take a deep breath and feel the fog slowly clear from inside my head. I start walking down the quiet street. It’s so peaceful at this time of the late morning.

  I’m apprehensive about this whole thing with Mace. I don’t know where we stand or what any of it means. I know I still can’t stand him a lot of the time, but I also know last night was the best sex of my life. I’ve never felt so connected to someone before.

  I thought it would take weeks for my body to recuperate, but already I can feel myself warming up as I think about him. Even though I’m so sore my core aches with every step, wetness starts to pool between my thighs as my mind replays the incredible night we had. I know I won’t be able to stop thinking about it for weeks.

  I finally make it home and sneak into my room. I’m too tired to talk to anyone right now and just need to be alone. I collapse onto my bed like I just ran a marathon and pass out.

  37

  Sadie

  I take a sip of wine as I pick up the breadcrumbs and bring them over to Jess. I put them down, then go back and get the eggs out of the fridge. I place the eggs down in front of her, then go back to get something else.

  “You know, this would be a lot more efficient if you brought more than one thing at a time,” she says sarcastically.

  I hold up my wineglass with a smile as an explanation for why I can’t carry more. She rolls her eyes jokingly and then takes a sip out of her own glass. I place the onions down in front of her, then go back for something else.

  Whenever we cook, I’m always on helper duty because Jess and Marty are amazing chefs, while Luna and I burn cereal. Tonight, we’re making spaghetti and meatballs from scratch. I’m helping Jess make the meatballs while Luna and Marty are in the other room rolling and cutting spaghetti on the dining room table.

  I can hear Marty arguing good-naturedly that Luna isn’t cutting straight, and her protesting that she is. This all makes me smile. I love nights like these. Classes and a better future are great and all, but this is the best part of college by far, just hanging out with my friends at home. We’re all really busy so we don’t do these nights as often as I would like, but it’s such a treat when we do.

  Marty decided on the menu and because we are making Italian—more like “American with a hint of Italian”—he decided we should have red wine with it. He’s a bit older than the rest of us and luckily already twenty-one, so he’s able to buy us booze whenever we need it.

  We continue prepping until suddenly there’s a knock on the door. We all look up in surprise.

  “Who’s that?” Jess asks.

  Then it hits me like a freight train. I forgot to tell my friends Mace is coming. I wipe my hands off on a towel and then rush over to answer the door.

  “MaceiscomingfordinnersorryIforgottotellyouguys,” I blurt out.

  Before they can say anything, I yank open the door.

  Mace is standing there, taking up the entire doorway. He looks hot as hell. He’s dressed in casual—but clearly very expensive—clothes, and his dark hair is shining in the hall lights. His square jaw is clean shaven.

  “Hey.” He greets me with a small smile. His deep voice makes my insides turn to jelly.

  “Hey,” I say back.

  He holds out a light pink bakery box to me.

  “Oh, thanks.” I take it and feel its heavy weight in my hands.

  “Said I’d bring dessert, didn’t I?” he asks, then holds up a bottle of red wine. “And I brought wine, just in case.”

  “What a coincidence, we are drinking red. Come in,” I say, but before I can move to the side, he steps forward and kisses me hard, right in front of everyone like he doesn’t care who’s watching.

  The kiss is completely unexpected, and I have to grab on to the doorframe to steady myself as he steals my breath away.

  After a few seconds, he lets me go and steps back. I look up at him with my mouth hanging open dumbly. He brushes passed me into the apartment like the kiss was no big deal. His smell makes my mouth water, and my mind immediately transports me back to last night, back to when I was surrounded by his scent as he fucked me into the mattress.

  I need to keep it together tonight. I can’t keep thinking about Mace naked, otherwise I’m going to seem like such an idiot when I’m incapable of forming sentences. I take a deep breath. Tonight is going to be weird.

  I slowly shut the door, then turn around to face everyone. Jess, Luna and Marty are staring at Mace like a tiger just walked into our apartment and they are scared of startling it. Meanwhile, Mace looks right at home. He’s standing in the middle of the room, casually looking around and taking the place in.

  He smiles charmingly at everyone and says, “Nice place you guys have here.”

  The three of them are too shocked to say anything. Luna lets out a few barely audible noises that I don’t think are even words, then closes her mouth again.

  “Thanks!” I say quickly.

  “Smells great,” he says.

  “Thanks!” I say again.

  Marty and Jess are staring at Mace, but Luna looks over at me to gauge my feelings about the situation. They all saw us together at the pep rally, and as we were getting ready to make dinner, I told them about what happened after they left, but I guess hearing about something is way different than having it standing in your living room.

  “I’ll put this in the kitchen,” I say, raising the heavy box in my hands. “Can I—uh… get you a glass of wine?”

  “That would be great,” he says, and I realize he’s using his “party personality”. I saw it at that fundraiser when he turned it “on”. He’s being friendly and charming, capable of dazzling an entire ballroom with just one handsome smile, but it’s not the real him.

  I hope he turns it off soon because this is not the type of guy my friends are going to like. They can smell bullshit a mile away. But why am I suddenly so worried about whether my friends like him? Up until very recently, I didn’t even like him. However, all of a sudden it feels very important that everyone gets along.

  My palms start to sweat, and the bakery box almost slips out of my hands. I hurry into the kitchen and put it on the counter.

  I’m pouring a glass of wine with a shaking hand when Luna comes in.

  “Are you okay?” she whispers.

  “Fine. Totally fine. Why?”

  As I turn to her, I knock the glass slightly and it threatens to tip over. I quickly grab it to steady it.

  “Really?” she asks, unconvinced.

  I sigh.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. This is all just a little weird, you know? It happened so fast and so suddenly that I’m not really used to the idea yet. We’ve detested each other for years, and now Mace is just casually hanging out with my friends in my apartment. It’s weird.”

  I take a big gulp from the glass I’m pouring for Mace, to steady my nerves. I then pour in more wine.

  “I get it. Listen, if you need anything tonight, just let me know. I got your back, girl.”

  “Thanks. You’re the best, Luna.”

  We have a quick hug, then head back out into the living room. I hand Mace the glass of wine. As he takes it from me, our fingers touch, and my skin lights on fire. From the way he’s staring at me, I can tell he feels it too. I look into his dark eyes and know I could get lost in there.

  Marty clears his throat pointedly. Mace and I are just staring at each other like we are the only ones in the room, like no one else exists but the two of us. I’m sure I’m making my friends uncomfortable.

  I quickly look away, flustered.

  “Have a seat,” I tell Mace, and he takes a seat on the couch. “We’re just in the middle of making the food. It shouldn’t be long, only another…”

  I look o
ver at Jess.

  “Half an hour,” she says, her eyes glued to the quarterback sitting on the couch.

  “Half an hour,” I repeat.

  “Great,” Mace says. “Looking forward to it. I’ll just be waiting here.”

  “Can I get you anything else?” I ask awkwardly.

  I feel weird having him just sit on my couch by himself while we cook. We never agreed on a time—I barely agreed to have him come at all—so he’s early, for once in his life.

  “No, I’m great right here. This is perfect.” He gives me a winning smile, and I practically melt into a puddle right there.

  The four of us scamper back to the kitchen. Once inside, my friends all start whispering at once, saying how weird this is and asking if I’m okay.

  “Do you want us to kick him out?” asks Jess.

  “No, no, it’s fine, guys. He’s welcome to stay. I invited him,” I half-lie.

  They give each other wary looks but agree to be civil.

  “Okay, we’ll be nice—not that him or his friends have ever been nice to us,” Jess mumbles.

  “Guys, come on,” Luna says. “It’s for Sadie, not him.”

  They all begrudgingly agree.

  “Okay,” Marty whispers. “But the second he starts being an asshole to you, I’m kicking him out.”

  He walks back out into the dining room to continue cutting pasta. Luna follows after him, and then it’s just Jess and I in the kitchen.

  “You sure you’re okay?” she asks.

  “Yes.”

  Lie.

  We go back to making meatballs, in silence.

  Once dinner is ready, we all gather around the table. The tension in the air is noticeable, and I just hope we don’t get into a food fight or something.