“Hey!You made it.”As he filled our cups like a bartending pro, Dally said, “You gotta admit, Saylor, when it comes to parties, no one can throw down like the football team.”
I gave him half a grin as I took the cup he handed me.
“I even heard once that you think our parties are more fun than the ones your frat bros throw,” he added with a smirk.
Answering with a shrug, I said, “You guys draw a fun crowd.Whose collective ass is the football team kicking in flip-cup tonight?”I nodded in the direction of where that pitcher of beer had disappeared into the dining room.
“The women’s track team won regionals, so we’re taking them on.Apparently, we won the first round, since Draper came out for the pitcher refill.”Dally crossed his massive arms over the barrel of his chest and projected his best Buddha imitation.“Which is to be expected.No skinny distance runner is going to be able to throw down with a football player.”
A loud cheer from the direction of the dining room interrupted his commentary.
“I bet those girls were going easy on your boys, testing them out in round one to see what they needed to do to drink them under the table,” I challenged, waggling my brows as I sipped some beer and ran my tongue over the foam on my lip.
Cash tightened his grip on my hand, and I wondered why our hands were still clasped together.Then he said, “Looks like we need to check out the tournament, cheer on our boys.”
Once again he tugged me along with him as we made our way into the dining room—a room that, as far as I’d ever been able to tell, was only used for playing drinking games.From the looks of things, my prediction was spot-on.The girls’ track team was cleaning house on the football team.Apparently, they were competing in flights, and flight two for the girls was a ringer.
A collective groan went up from the football players as they lost the round.En masse, they gathered in front of an antique sideboard where someone had lined up a row of shot glasses.The last girl standing in the flip-cup round grabbed a bottle of tequila off the top shelf of the sideboard and ran it down the line, filling each shot glass to the brim with fiery agave nectar.The guys shouted, “Go!’Cats!Go!”and downed their shots as the next flights of players lined up on either side of the table.
Cash leaned down to whisper in my ear.“Care to make a wager on this round?”
“Poker is not the same as sports betting,” I said with a sniff.
“Ah, so you’re afraid you’ll lose the bet.”
I caught the tiny upturn at the corner of his mouth while he watched the two teams line up their cups.
“Out of curiosity, what’s the bet?”
He shot me a sexy side-eye and downed another drink of beer.“If the boys win, you go home with me tonight.”
My heart skittered at that, especially when he accompanied his words with a skim of his thumb over my wrist where our hands were still entwined.
“When the girls win?”The saccharine sweetness of my tone should have made his teeth hurt, but I had to do something to draw his attention away from the spike in my pulse.
“If the girls win, I’ll borrow the DJ’s mic to sing whatever song you choose.”
“Even ‘Barbie Girl’?”
“At the top of my voice,” he assured me with a grin.
While I pondered the repercussions of losing a fifty-fifty bet, the teams finished setting up their cups.
“What’s it going to be, Saylor?Taking a chance or chickening out?”Cash taunted.
“I can’t wait to hear you sing every single word in that song—with actions,” I said.
Probably one of my worst weaknesses was my inability to resist a challenge, especially since it usually led me into some crazy situation like the one I’d just committed to.After we shook on the bet, Cash casually slid his arm around me, pulling me tight against his side and leaving me with no choice but to slide my arm around his waist.He couldn’t have staked his claim on me more loudly if he’d taken out a neon billboard in the middle of campus.
His actions should have ticked me off, but instead, to my shock, I let myself relax enough to cuddle closer to him.Outwardly, he gave no sign he noticed, but when I sneaked a peek at his handsome chiseled features, I caught the barest crinkle at the corner of his eye.
One of the myriad reasons I had no interest in committing to a relationship with someone—aside from my desperate desire to follow my own dreams uninhibited—was I had yet to meet a man who set my world on fire in the bedroom.While I liked men and had experienced decent, satisfying sex, I’d never been with anyone who made me crave more than a one-night stand.
That’s not to say I hadn’t dated guys and given them a chance over time, because I had.The Lambda Sig I met freshman year had lasted a couple of months, and Jesse who played club lacrosse had been fun for a while over the summer after freshman year.The near miss sophomore year of dating Phil from the film cohort two years ahead of me had taught me not to date someone in my field.And Jeremiah Fitzgerald, who’d played nose tackle for the ’Cats, had rocked my world intellectually and flirtatiously, but we’d had zero chemistry.
Yet something in my lizard brain alerted me to the fact that Cash Donovan would be nothing like anyone else I’d been with.Part of me wanted to find out what would happen between us, with the way his kisses left me breathless.The first ones had lingered in my mind for months after that interlude in the hallway of the SCR house.Ghostly tingles from the recent kisses from our date on Thursday night still zinged my lips whenever I let myself think about them, which I’d been desperately trying not to do.
Now here I was, entangled in an internal tug-of-war over a silly bet.On the one hand, I wanted to go home with him, see if he could deliver on the promise of his kisses.On the other hand, I was kind of terrified of what would happen if he did deliver on the promise of those kisses.
