“Our place.” He quaffed half his pint glass of beer. “You’re all invited, of course.” Tilting his head in my direction, he shot me a half-grin.
“Oh, good. The parties at your house are always epic.” Saylor raised her glass to salute him, and he clinked his to hers with a smile.
“You’ve been?” I asked. Suspicion made the question come out on a croak.
She shrugged. “Once or twice.”
“I might have to pass,” Chess said.
I caught her shooting eye daggers at someone in the booth behind us. Didn’t take a genius to figure out who had her attention after that weird exchange between her and Finn.
Saylor pulled a face. “Don’t be a spoilsport.” With a sly wink for Wyatt, she added, “We owe it to this guy to help him have a fighting chance at getting Piper’s number.”
I rolled my eyes so hard that I had to close them for a second to let them settle back into place. When she snorted a laugh, I stuck my tongue out at her.
Wyatt leaned in to whisper in my ear, “You’re wasting that sticking it out at your friend when you could be sticking it in my mouth.”
“Whatever you said, it must have been dirty. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Piper turn that particular shade of tomato before.” Saylor let out an “Oof!” when my insulated boot connected with her shin beneath the table. “Hey,” she whined as she reached under the table to run her hand over her owie.
Raising a serves-you-right brow in her direction, I hid my response to Wyatt’s wicked suggestion by finishing off my lemon drop right in time for the server to arrive with my second one. A second server followed with another plate of appetizers and our pizza.
I thought once the food arrived, he’d give me some space. Nope. He devoured half the pizza and appetizers one-handed while my friends grilled him on his major, where he was from—two things I could have told them before, had they asked—and how many siblings he had. His answer surprised me when he said he had a younger brother who also played college football and an older brother who wasn’t interested in playing sports at all, but he was a whiz at designing computer games.
“You and your younger brother don’t have a huge rivalry playing the same sport at the collegiate level?” I asked.
“Nah. Though if we ever meet in the playoffs, all bets are off. Ryan’s bigger and plays on the O-line, so if we’re matched up with his school, I’ll trash-talk the shit out of him, you know, since I’m the big brother and I know things.” Tapping the side of his head, he let out a positively evil laugh.
It kind of turned me on.
The guys in the booth behind us rolled out, stopping as a unit beside ours. “You bringing your fan club with you tonight, Bax?” an imposingly big Black guy with sparkling eyes asked.
“What do you, think, Fitz?” Wyatt smirked.
“Fan club, huh?” He couldn’t miss the warning in my tone, but he ignored it.
“The ladies here are quite impressed with my ability to sack quarterbacks, aren’t you?” Wyatt’s eyes took a tour of the three of us. “And as Saylor pointed out earlier”—he nodded in her direction—“parties at our place are epic.”
Saylor batted her lashes at the guy called Fitz, and a gorgeous grin split his face. Truly, his grin could go up on multiple billboards and probably sell everything from candy bars to sports cars.
“Hey, hey, hey. Knock it off, Fitz. This is my fan club.” Wyatt chuckled.
“Bet I can fix that before the night’s over.” Fitz grinned again and winked at Saylor.
I glanced at Chess who was studying the dregs of her beer while Finn gazed at her with something that looked an awful lot like longing.Huh.Apparently, I wasn’t the only one in our little group who was holding out on the others.
At last Wyatt shifted his arm from around me and slid out of the booth. “You riding with me?” he asked, his tone hopeful. Turning to Fitz, he said, “You don’t mind trading places with Piper and riding with her friends, do you?”
“Aw, man. You made that too damn easy.”
“I’m not worried.” Wyatt’s million-dollar smile earned him answering grins from my friends. “These two are on my team.”
Saylor’s cartoonish wink at me held no subtlety whatsoever. Chess was no better, enthusiastically bumping Wyatt’s offered fist.
“Awesome. We’ll meet you at the house.” He stepped aside to let me out while my friends slid out from the other side of the booth.
Before I could hiss at them about their complicity in his public claim on me—something I was not and probably would never be ready for—Chess headed toward the door while Saylor linked arms with Fitz. Finn and the other guys from their booth followed, leaving Wyatt and me behind.
I wanted to be mad about the whole situation. I really did. Except Wyatt’s hand covered the small of my back beneath my jacket as he followed me from the bar, and the contact sent tiny shivers rippling over my skin, pebbling my nipples beneath my sweater and pulsing in my clit. No matter how hard I tried to deny my attraction to this man in front of my friends, I couldn’t lie to myself. Talk about bad decisions. Going to his place, even only for a party, no doubt would rank among some of my doozies. Which didn’t explain my excitement even a little bit.
