He nodded.
“I should have figured it out when you were standing with football players when my friends and I arrived.”
Becauseof courseCash was a football player.For a while, I forgot.Grr!
I should have seen it coming from a mile away.My friends all had things for football players, and no matter how hard I tried to convince them otherwise, they thought I needed to be dating someone too.Since when was it a problem to be happy with just hooking up?Why couldn’t my friends be happy for me even when my hookups weren’t with football players?What was so freaking special about football players?
As though he’d read my mind, Cash brushed his arm along mine as we crowded toward the front of the spectators ringing the final cornhole game.The tingles radiating through me from that minor contact of our skin set my teeth on edge even as heat flooded my core, and my panties clung to my suddenly wet clit.
No excuse—none—existed for my body’s reaction to this man.Sure, he was handsome.Probably the best-looking guy I’d ever met.Sure, he kissed a girl like she was his whole world; like he couldn’t live without her life-giving air.Sure, flirting with him was fun, as though he anticipated my snark and couldn’t wait to hear it.Didn’t mean I should form an attraction to him.
Then I made the mistake of looking at his hand, which encased the entirety of his Solo cup as he raised his beer to his lips.Phantom heat warmed my skin as memories of his plate-size hands completely enveloping my hips invaded my thoughts.Furiously, I forced the memories to a back corner of my brain.I was not in the market for a repeat performance.
I most definitely was not.
“What?You’re not cheering on the team?”Cash asked, his breath whispering over the shell of my ear.
Shaking my thoughts back into the moment, I nonchalantly straightened my shoulders, ignoring the shiver that ghosted over me with his breath on my skin.“It’s early in the game.I’m saving my voice for when things get serious around point seventeen.”
“As opposed to the semifinals where you shouted encouragement throughout the game.”I couldn’t miss the sarcasm in his sage nod—nor the wicked glee sparkling in his gunmetal-gray eyes.
It was as if he’d been reading my mind and didn’t believe a word of my convictions.
Right then, Bax dropped a perfect bag through the hole, and the entire front yard erupted.While I’d been lost in my errant thoughts, Piper’s not-really-real-but-totally-real boyfriend had nailed all four of his bags, scoring twelve points after his opponent had only managed single landings on the board and no offsetting drops through the hole.
“In case you missed it, the score is now 17-9.Guess it’s time for you to start cheering.”Cash’s eyes glittered down at me.
Deliberately, I focused my attention on the game as I stepped closer to the action.“Let’s go, Dalton!Time to put these boys away,” I cheered.
He had two bags on the board, his strategy obvious even to the drunkest observer.Then the Sigma Nu player bumped one of Dalton’s bags into the hole, which put him over the points value, jeopardizing a win.When Dalton let go of his last bag, he did a silly twisting move with his back while the bag was midair, which seemed to do the trick.The beanbag landed with more velocity than I thought possible, shoving one of his other two bags off the board as it slid to a rest at the top.Its landing spot made it safe from the Sigma Nu forcing it into the hole for six points, thus putting our team over the top.Instead, the guy aimed to knock the bag off the board, but his beanbag slid to a stop a breath from Dalton’s bag, negating only one of our points.Final score: SCR 21-Sigma Nu 9.
A roar went up from the SCRs, who ran en masse to the scorer’s table to hoist up the Panhellenic cup and parade it around the front lawn.Raucous cheers proclaimed the SCRs the best frat on campus.Most of the Sigma Nus headed to the bar with a clear intention of draining the keg, which surprised no one.Their house would want to leave withsomething.
As we watched our team’s antics, the president of Sigma Nu sidled up beside me.“Looks like your good-luck charm abilities extend beyond the poker table, huh, Saylor?”
I shrugged.“I don’t know.My partner and I lost in the round before the quarterfinals.”
“Yeah, but the second you stepped closer to the action, Dalton played like a star.”One of his brows went up in silent question.
Cash inserted himself between Jess, the president of Sigma Nu, and me.“Dalton played the entire game like the badass athlete he is.He literally kicks ass on the football field, and now he’s kicked your ass at cornhole.”Cash raised his glass.“Go ’Cats!”
Jess eyed him with a speculative gleam.“You a new SCR pledge?”
“Nah.I’m Dalton’s new teammate and roommate.”
I choked on my sip of beer at that last little nugget of information.Covering my reaction with a cough, I said, “Went down the wrong way.”
The side-eye Cash slid me told me he knew exactly what had set me off.
Seemingly ignoring the private drama playing out between Cash and me, Jess said to him, “Should have figured.The SCRs tend to be football-heavy.”His grin said his observation wasn’t a put-down.
“You sure you’re okay, Saylor?”Turning to Jess, Cash said, “Excuse us.Saylor could use some water.”
“Good idea to take care of the house’s good-luck charm,” Jess said with a laugh.
Cash slid his arm around my waist and guided me toward the bar.His big hand clamped over my hip as he pulled me in closer to his side.Gah!Why did that move have to turn me on?
“Like the man said, we wouldn’t want anything to happen to the SCRs’ good-luck charm.”His laughter washed over me, and I fought to keep from smacking my hand against my chest as the sound took up residence, warming me from the inside out.
