Who was I kidding? Knowing she was in the stands watching the game meant I had to steal glances at her every time I came off the field. Catching her watching me gave me the idea Thursday night in the back seat of my truck had been as much fun for her as it was for me. Good thing the defense lined up with our backs to the student section so I didn’t lose focus when I was in the game.
During the Bulldogs’ second series, Finn forced a fumble, and I covered it up. When I reached the sideline, I handed the ball to Danny.
“There’s your takeaway. Go do something with it.”
He laughed and handed the ball to the ref on his way back out onto the field. Unfortunately for Danny, though, Coach was in a running rather than a throwing mood. Three downs into the series, Patterson handed the ball off to Johnson, who followed his lead blocker—O’Reilly, as usual—right into the end zone. In short order, we were up ten zip. When my eyes strayed to the student section again, I smiled at the way Piper and her friends were high-fiving each other and the fans around them.
Then it was time for the defense to hit the field again. This time, the Bulldogs managed a first down, but only one, as we forced a three and out after they made that first ten yards. Their starter at running back was out with an injury, and their backup was playing hurt, so we’d prepared for lots of throws. If their coaches didn’t figure out some other strategy, that one first down would be the only one they had. Every one of us was on our game, blanketing their receivers, disrupting their tight end’s routes, and paying attention to their tailback trying to sneak into the secondary. In fact, if they tried that play again, I already knew I was going to jump his route and take that pass right into the end zone.
We started the second quarter up 13-0 after our kicker launched a forty-five-yard bomb through the uprights as the whistle blew the first quarter over. When we switched ends of the field, lining up on the twenty-five, I was within a hundred feet of Piper up in the stands. More than anything I wanted to impress her, and damned if their quarterback didn’t give me the chance. Finn shed a blocker and bore down on the QB who threw a wild ball rather than be sacked in the end zone for a safety. I tracked that wobbly duck of a pass right into my hands and ran over two guys on my way to pay dirt.
The crowd went bananas as my teammates mobbed me. Channeling Callahan’s coolness, I pointed the nose of the ball directly at Piper and mouthed, “For you.” Before I flipped the ball to a ref and ran off the field, I saw her gorgeous violet eyes widen while each of her friends grabbed her arms and tugged her back and forth between them. It took zero imagination to hear their squeals of delight at my public show.
Too bad Finn clocked the lady who had all my attention.
As he wrapped me in a headlock on our way off the field, he said, “Jesus, Bax. Way to hold out on us.”
I jerked away from his hold and jogged over to the sideline where Coach Ainsworth fist-bumped me and smacked my ass as I walked over to the bench. “That’s the way we do it, son! Nice work!”
“Thanks, Coach.”
“Nice work on the hottie too,” Finn said, laughing as he joined me at the water station. “Seriously. Was that purple-haired babe in the Yeti coat your hookup the other night? Dude!” He put up his fist for a bump, and I left him hanging.
“Focus on the game, Finnegan. I’m up four takeaways on you for the season. That’s what you should be worrying about.” I slugged back a cup of water and joined our teammates on the sideline to congratulate the kicking team on another successful PAT.
With most of the second quarter to go, we were up 20-0, thanks especially to the defense. I was definitely feeling cocky. But after Finn spotted Piper in the stands, for some reason, I didn’t want to draw more attention to my interest in her.
Talking about her with the guys seemed like some sort of betrayal. Yeah, I knew her body intimately, but for fuck’s sake, I didn’t even have her phone number. That was the way she wanted it, and I had to respect that. Maybe dedicating a pick-six to her would grab enough of her attention that she’d give me another chance to change her mind.
Or maybe I embarrassed her with her friends and blew all my chances.
I couldn’t stop myself from seeking her out in the stands, but to my bone-deep disappointment, she and her friends were gone.
Chapter Four
Piper
Before I’d evenstepped out of my apartment, I knew attending the game was a risk. Between my hair and my favorite fake-fur coat, I’d stand out in the student section of a stadium of twenty thousand screaming Wildcats fans. Half of me wanted Wyatt to see me watching him play. The other half wondered what the hell I thought I was doing.
It had only been a day since I’d experienced the most incredible sex of my life—twice—with the sexiest guy I’d ever met. Though I’d told myself at least a hundred times it was only a hookup, nothing serious, nothing repeatable, my body kept reminding me how much it had loved what we did in the back seat of his truck on Thursday night.
Then I’d flash to the way he’d rescued me from Charlie’s relentless nonsense, and the way he’d made me laugh, and the way he didn’t expect or demand anything of me. With more than one look, more than one brush of his jeans-clad thigh against the bare skin of mine, more than one angle that gave the illusion of caging me in while giving me a clear escape, Wyatt had been a complete gentleman. And a complete turn-on. That was the only explanation I had for the way I’d maneuvered him into a hookup.
That and it had been two months since The Fuckery. It had been even longer since I’d had an orgasm from a person and not from my battery-operated boyfriend.
Throughout the first quarter of the game and into the second, whenever he came back to the bench, I caught his eyes on me. Well, “caught” implied an accidental encounter, but the truth was I couldn’t stop staring at him. Without his helmet and pads, he was a big man. With them, he stood out even in a crowd of other giants. So it wasn’t hard to track him, which meant I was aware of the exact moment he scanned the student section and found me in the top row. After that, he stopped scanning the crowd and focused his eyes on me whenever he glanced away from the action on the field.
It was a heady experience knowing I had the attention of one of the best players for the Wildcats. Yet I’d been serious about wanting to limit our conversation to one. After the way I’d been burned in The Fuckery, I wasn’t in a hurry to become involved with anyone, no matter how thoroughly he rocked my world in the back seat of his truck. I blamed the reason I couldn’t stop staring at him on the fact that he was the first guy I’d been with since that awful day. It made sense that the first guy would make an impression for a minute. But surely that impression would fade sooner rather than later.
A tiny voice in the back of my head whispered,Liar.I ignored it. But after Wyatt dedicated his crazy-good pick-six to me, I needed an escape. The way Chessly and Saylor had reacted, one would have thought he’d won the college national championship with that play. Their antics drew attention I didn’t want or need.
“How ’bout we beat the crowd and hit the tailgates early?” I said when they finally stopped alternately hugging me and pulling me back and forth like the rope in a game of tug-of-war.
Chessly slid a sly glance toward the Wildcats’ sideline and back to me. “Feeling overheated from the hot look a certain player gave you at the end of the last play?”
“The team’s up by three scores. We’re not going to be the only ones headed outside early,” I countered.
“I’m game—provided you give us the deets on you and a certain football player,” Saylor said as she linked her arm through mine.
