Her sweet pink lips roll in and then she swipes her tongue over the bottom one to wet it.
“Jude Dixon, you show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”
She says it quietly, like a promise and a small snarl of possessive need escapes me as I pull her even closer. This right here is the one. She sees me. Past the jokes, past the crazy, Savy sees me. I move in slow, soft, so as not to scare her, and swipe my lips gently across hers. This is not something to fuck up and rush. This girl needs to be caressed, nurtured. I need to let my baby doll bloom in her own way, her own time, and then when she’s ready, I’ll show her the animal inside me and I’ll bet my NFL draft signing bonus she’ll let me meet hers.
When I pull back, I can see in her eyes that she’s here, with me, so I gently turn her and guide her back to where the others are standing.
“Come sit at our table, doll. We’ll eat bland chicken, listen to boring rah-rah speeches and see if we can guess how many of the big boosters’ wives have had plastic surgery. When that gets boring we can take a shot for every one of those plastic cougars who slip Tate their room key.”
Savy shoots me a sharp look and I nod. “Yup, I’ll get a few too. For some reason, they think they’re entitled to fuck the players because hubby writes a check. Like somehow, we owe them for it.”
Her checks turn my favorite color of pink as she asks nervously, “Did…did you ever…”
I stop us a few feet from the others and run the back of my tatted fingers down her cheek over that pink. “Nothing, nothing matters BBD, angel.”
She tilts her head to the side in confusion. “BBD?”
I lean in and kiss those soft lips again gently. “Yeah, BBD, before baby doll. All that matters now is you.”
ASHER
“Jesus, is that Savy?” Beck asks with a little bit of awe in his tone.
I scan around us trying to spot her, sliding over the curvy bombshell in the blue dress crossing the dance floor and then do a double take on her with my mouth dropping open. No…fucking…way. That can’t be the bookworm. Look at all that rippling dark hair. Screw the hair, look at that fucking ass. There’s no way that’s her. How could she have hidden all of…that…away under her old lady style?
“Who the fuck is that guy touching her?” Tate grumbles next to me as she leans in and places a kiss on the guy’s cheek.
I don’t care who the guy is, I want to know who the fuck she is. I feel like I’ve been punk’d. The little mouse is not who she portrayed herself to be and it’s seriously pissing me off for some reason. I glance over at Jude and he looks like he’s starstruck. Like Savy’s gone nova and he’s blinded by her brilliance. I roll my eyes but like a magnet, they go right back to her as she crosses the floor toward us. The closer she gets, the more my gut tightens. There’s something, something about the way her hips sway, the way she moves in that dress and heels that’s gnawing in the back of my head. Something…I can’t quite place.
She comes to a stop in front of us, looks us over with a flat expression, and says, “Well, I’m here. Now what?”
Tate says something to her that I can’t hear and then leads her out on the dance floor but within minutes, she’s pulling away from him with an angry expression and heading for the door. My fingers clench, annoyed that she’s leaving already when I’ve barely had a chance to see this version of her or even offer the lame apology I know she deserves.
Jude heads her off and then she’s in his arms and I want to punch something, someone. Fuck, why do I even care? She’s not my girl. My girl comes wrapped in bars no matter what Jude said the other day. His lips meet hers and I’m turning away so I don’t have to watch it.
“Look at that! I bet she’s fucking them all. Slut!”
The vicious tone and words catch my attention for their harshness and how misplaced they seem in a room full of elegance and I spot an icy-cold blond in a red dress on the arm of Hunter Miller. I’m not surprised to see him here. His family is old money and are big donors to the school.
“I don’t know why they would fuck that. She’s got zero bedroom game. She laid under me like a dead fish. I thought fucking a virgin would be more exciting but it’s probably more to do with her being such a loser that made it so bad.”
There’s the someone who I can punch. This slimy fucker…
“That’s ironic coming from the guy she lowered her standards for,” Beck says, moving to block my view and getting up in Hunter’s face. “What was it she said? Oh yeah, I remember - she just wanted to get it over with so she picked you out of the crowd and you gave her a four-minute intro in…un-ecstasy. Probably not something you want to be bragging about, Miller.”
Hunter goes red-faced and spits out, “What are you even doing here, Hart? Last I checked you’re not on the team anymore. You’re nothing but a washed-up, meathead jock going, oh, that’s right…nowhere. You should try and stay in your lane.”
Tate pushes me to the side and drags Beck back just as he cocks his arm to take a swing at the guy with a murmured, “Not the place, man. Back off.”
A group of players and their dates have crowded close like a pack of hyenas ready to descend on the scraps if a fight breaks out and one of the girls titters a high-pitched laugh that makes me want to use a power drill in my ear to get the sound out of it. God, I hate these fucking people.
“Are you all really fucking her? She’s a desperate little nobody. I mean, have you seen how she dresses?”
I want to step in and shut this bitch down as fury coils in my stomach but Tate beats me to it.
“What does that make you, Paisley? Pretty sure you sucked all our cocks last year. If memory serves, you took on half the defensive line at that frat party during spring break, didn’t you? Wasn’t there a video going around? I mean, it was hard to tell if it was you or not with so much jizz covering your face so I might be wrong.”
The girl goes pale and backs further into the forming crowd to get out of his line of fire. It’s the first glimpse I’ve had this year of the savage bastard Tate can be and I don’t not like it right now. I’m not one to slut shame but if you’re going to dish it, you better be prepared to take it in return.
