Finn wasn’t paying attention, instead continuing to stare at the booth where the women Tory had accosted sat. I was having some of my own trouble focusing on our friend’s sage advice, knowing Piper sat only a few feet from me. My leg bounced as I slugged back the rest of my mug of beer.
“The fuck is wrong with you, Bax?” Johnson asked as he leaned back to cast a glance under the table. “You got a vibrator down your pants?” A huge smile lit his features as he laughed at his own joke.
“Ha, ha. You’re hilarious, Tarvarius.” My tone was as dry as dust.
“What are you nervous about, Bax?” Finn asked with a sly grin. “Afraid your unicorn won’t talk to you when you walk up to her booth?”
“His unicorn?” Fitz and Johnson echoed in stereo.
“Yeah, the gorgeous purple-haired girl he dedicated that pick-six to in the Bulldogs game. The girl who started the slow clap when Tory tried to start a catfight.”
“You’re dating someone, Bax?” Johnson’s incredulity pissed me off, and I left his offered fist bump hanging, which only made him laugh harder.
“Nah. They’re just hooking up. Right, Bax?” Finn answered for me, as if he knew jack shit about anything.
“Move, wouldja?” I said to Johnson. “I gotta hit the head.”
Reluctantly, my teammate let me out of the booth. Hard as it was, I didn’t glance at the place where Piper was sitting with her friend. Instead, I walked straight to the back of the bar where the restrooms were and gave myself a minute to collect my thoughts—and to shut down my libido. I splashed cold water on my face and willed my dick to jack down. Fuck. It was as if my body had clued in to Piper’s proximity and was demanding to spend close, personal, skin-to-skin time with her.
As if that had a snowball’s chance in hell of happening with both of us hanging out with our friends. If only the stubborn woman would give me her number. Rather than randomly running into her in bars, I’d take it slow, start with planned hookups, gain her trust, and talk her into a date. Instead, here I stood, staring at my reflection in a bar bathroom mirror until I could be sure I wouldn’t give myself away when I returned to the booth with the boys.
When I stepped out the door, Piper was standing in the darkened hallway across from the men’s room with her arms crossed over her luscious rack. “Please tell me you weren’t in there jacking off.”
Chapter Twelve
Piper
WhenTory Miller’santics made Wyatt pop up from the booth to watch, my stomach did a little somersault. My core couldn’t seem to pick up the message that we both were out with friends and nothing was going to happen. After we locked eyes during that scene, though, I struggled to keep my concentration on what my friends were saying.
“Are you sure you made the right call, Chess?” Saylor asked. “I mean, I know you settled with the university and Tory’s family, but that threat sounded serious.”
Chess waved a hand. “I’m not worried.” She sipped her beer. “First of all, I didn’t mention names to the bouncer. I only told him I was an RA and knew some of the girls at that table were freshmen, so I’m covered there. Second of all, theywereunderage, which puts the bouncer and the bartenders at risk of fines for letting them in. I doubt any of them would rat me out since I saved their bacon if someone had come in and checked.”
Her eyes took on a wicked sparkle. “I did rather love the way she turned all red when the bouncer stepped between her and our table. And that slow clap, Piper.” Grinning, she glanced around at the people in the nearby tables. “The way the rest of the bar joined in tells me Tory Miller isn’t very popular in here. Probably everyone in this place is glad she’s gone.”
“Except maybe for that table of football players. After all, those girls were cozied right up to their booth,” Saylor reminded her.
Chess scrunched up her nose in disgust.
Though I tried to rein it in, no doubt my expression mirrored my friend’s. The thought of Wyatt having any interest whatsoever in those freshmen—or worse, in Tory Miller—curdled the drink of yummy lemon drop martini I’d sipped as Chessly made her case. When I saw him leave their booth and head to the restroom, I excused myself from my friends and headed back there too. Not wanting to miss him, I waited in the hallway like a stalker for half a century until he finally emerged from the bathroom, my comment popping out without my permission.
He snorted a laugh. “Talking myself down from that particular temptation after I saw you.”
My brow shot up. “That so?”
“Your sass is one of your best features—did you know that?” His hand landed on the wall beside my head, his body heat warming my front where only a breath separated us. “Any special reason you’ve been waiting for me?”
More than anything, I wanted to drag his sexy ass out the back door of the pizzeria to spend some quality time in the back seat of his truck. But I’d driven my friends to the bar, and by now, I imagined they were already planning to send a scout to figure out where I’d disappeared to for so long.
Swallowing down my lust, I said, “I wanted to wish you good luck for the game Saturday.”
The corner of his mouth twitched up. “That all?”
“Yes.”
Leaning in close, his warm breath tickled my ear as he whispered, “Liar.” The featherlight touch of his fingertip as he slipped my hair behind my ear sent shivers through me. “You came looking for this.”
His tongue traced the shell of my ear, and I couldn’t suppress the moan that slipped from my lips. Wicked laughter rumbled through his chest as he tugged my earlobe with his teeth and nibbled a path down the side of my neck. My nipples hardened to painful peaks that I worried my double layers of T-shirt and sweater couldn’t hide. Without permission, my hands gathered the fabric of his shirt at his waist and twisted, dragging his lower half up close and personal against mine.
