The contact sends electricity up my arm.
I smooth out the red paper with shaking hands and start to read.
Mmm, so yeah, I know you dream about me, Bower. During the day and especially at night. I bet you’d wet your pants if I just bit my lip and looked at you.
Maybe you’d like to smell me just once? Let’s make a deal—even though I don’t play for your team lol. IFYWIM.
If you win in two weeks, I’ll kneel in front of you and suck your cock for a loooong time while looking into your eyes.
Oh, wait, it won’t take loooong. ‘Cause you’ll cum as soon as I take you in my mouth.
So yeah, it’s me.
Val
The paper slips from my fingers.
“I didn’t—” My voice is barely a whisper. “I didn’t write this. I didn’t send this.”
“No?” Devlin’s voice is deadly quiet. “Then explain the phrase ‘play for your team.’ We both know you used that exact expression in our one and only full conversation.”
My stomach drops. He’s right.
I had said that—a stupid joke shortly after Sasha introduced us. Something about not playing for his team, but being more than happy to cheer from the sidelines. I’d just been trying to be friendly, trying to make conversation with my brother’s intimidating teammate and his best fucking friend.
“Someone else must have—I didn’t write this. I wouldn’t—”
“Maybe the rest of the team will believe you. But not me, sweetie.” The words are venomous.
Horror floods through me. “The whole team saw this?”
“Cupid announced the sender’s name when she brought it.” His smile is cruel. “Everyone realized it was a joke. An amusing joke, really—you decided to show everyone how gay I am. And how you’re not.”
“But Cupid has no right to reveal the sender’s name!” I protest, then hear how ridiculous that sounds.
The look in Devlin’s eyes tells me I’ve just confirmed his suspicions.
He leans in, his nose almost touching mine. We’re breathing the same air. I can smell rain and sweat.
“Did you really think that would humiliate me so much that I wouldn’t come back for revenge?”
“I didn’t think—I didn’t do it—”
But I’m stammering, and god, he’s so close.
My body is reacting in ways I absolutely cannot control right now, heat pooling low in my stomach, my pulse racing.
The door behind me creaks loudly as I press back against it, trying to create distance that doesn’t exist.
“I never thought you were gay,” I whisper. “That’s true?”
Devlin goes very still.
Then he nods—a strange movement, his nose dragging against mine—and my breath catches.
Oh fuck.
“If I had known you were gay,” I whisper frantically, “I definitely wouldn’t have written that. Especially considering that I—”
