Chapter 30 Ava
Turning the TV off, I watched Twitter as the shit-talking started about who was going to win between the Lions and the Saints next week. I had watched the Saints today and felt guilty for it, but I needed to see if he won.
If he won. Not if they won.
Mia was shopping in Cardinal. We had a party tonight at Jett’s house, and she needed new clothes. She didn’t, but her mom had sent her an allowance, and Mia had already blown through half of it.
I’d been to Cardinal earlier to help with the art class, and although I’d helped, the actual art teacher blew my mind with her skill.
The kids loved it, though. Ranging from ages seven to eleven, they spent three hours on a Saturday morning in the community hall to give their parents time to do what they needed or to have a break from their parents.
I was home with some groceries and had made myself lunch when Mia declared she needed new clothes. There was no way in hell she was getting me away from the game, and she knew it. Having blown me a kiss, she assured me she would eat in Cardinal.
Jett had been precision-perfect today. Seriously, I hadn’t even seen top NFL quarterbacks play like he did today.
The Lions were in for a fight next week.
The hype and speculation were already rampant, and the rest of the league didn’t really exist at this point.
They being archenemies didn’t help either.
The party tonight was at the football team’s house, and as I stared at my small wardrobe, I wondered if I should have gone to the store with Mia and gotten some new clothes as well.
I thought about what Quinn wore and considered my options.
With the best will in the world, I couldn’t hope to achieve the same level as Quinn.
She was model-like and had obviously always been that way.
The ship had sailed for me to suddenly become glamorous overnight.
I pulled out a black dress. Every wardrobe should have an LBD, as my mom called them.
Was tonight the night to wear my little black dress?
It was pretty, as plain black went. A sleeveless fit and flare dress with a square neckline, and the skirt came mid-thigh.
Remembering what happened last time I wore a skirt with Jett around, I blushed.
Chewing my bottom lip, I put the dress back. I was not putting in a special effort for Jett Santo on the off chance he would want to talk to me as much as I wanted him to talk to me.
The dress came back out. I was wearing this dress for me, not him. He did not dictate my wardrobe.
The dress went back. I was wearing jeans, and I was more comfortable in jeans. Dressy shorts? I rifled through my shorts, and then I went to Mia’s closet. She had a nice pair of black dress shorts and they were classy. I could wear dress shorts. They showed more leg, but they were shorts.
I took them back to my room and then spent the next hour trying to find anything to match them.
“Holy gumdrops.” Mia stood in my doorway and looked at the clothes on my bed and on my floor. “I thought I was the one who went shopping,” she teased.
Looking around my room, I groaned. “I have nothing to wear!”
“Are those my shorts?” Mia said as she leaned over my bed and picked up her discarded clothing. “And my top?” She looked at me with an amused glint in her eye. “Ava, are you freaking out over the football player?”
I was so close to denying it, but she was my best friend, and I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. “I’m freaking out over the football player.”
“The Devil or the Lion?” she asked me with a curious look.
“The Devil.” I sighed long and hard. “The Lion doesn’t even know my name. And the Devil . . . well he knows too much.” My face flushed red as I met Mia’s amused look.
Mia snort-laughed, and then grinned at me. “My black shorts will look good with your lovely legs and . . .” She pulled something out of her shopping bag. “I may have bought you this to wear.”
“Mia!” My eyes widened in excitement. “Ooh, it’s so pretty.
” It was, it was a long black top, and across the front was a large heart made up of words with a silver matte splash across it, like paint.
Mia held her finger up and turned the top.
It was backless. The neck was three buttons and then dropped to a wide band at the bottom, but from my shoulders to my ass, my back would be bare.
“Shit,” I whispered. “I can’t . . . can I?”
“Paired with my black dressy shorts, you will be smoking hot.”
“My feet?”
“Not your Chucks.” Mia crossed to my closet and pulled out a pair of ankle boots. “Perfect.”
“No bra?” I worried my lip, but my eyes stayed glued to the top.
“You can pull it off,” Mia told me with confidence. “You like?”
Nodding, I looked at her. “I think so.”
“We’ll style your hair down,” she said as she gave me a reassuring smile. “That way you can hide your back with your hair if you’re nervous. Or your boobs,” she added dryly.
“Mia!”
“What? You think I don’t see them nipples pointing up and saluting him whenever he’s near you?” She grinned as she pulled a slinky dark green playsuit out of the bag. “You like?”
“Whoa, that is short.”
“See? You’re not the only shorts girl tonight.”
I frowned. “But my shorts will actually cover my ass.”
Mia laughed as she headed to her room. “So will mine, prude.”
Looking around the room, I stared at the chaos I had created, and with a heavy sigh, I started to tidy the mess. When I was finished, I looked at the bag pushed to the back of my closet. Shutting the closet door, I decided I would worry about it later.
I showered first and let my hair half dry before I blow-dried it as Mia sang country songs in the shower.
Getting ready was always fun with Mia. I loved watching her style her hair.
She had deft fingers, and I watched as she quickly parted her hair into two French braids.
Her plaits pulled her hair off her face, leaving the perfectly oval face stark and bare, and she opted for only eyeliner and mascara and then a deep pink lipstick.
It was so plain but so in-your-face attention-grabbing.
I knew Alex would die of lust as soon as he saw her tonight.
“My turn?” I asked as I dutifully sat in front of her.
“Your turn. Let’s get some bounce in your hair.”
I watched as she styled my hair, her strokes smooth and confident. Between a curling iron and her fingers, I soon had more bounce in my hair than was natural, but not too overdone.
She applied dark smoky eyeshadow, sweeping the color across my eyelids while she hummed happily.
On the instruction not to move, Mia applied my eyeliner, and then I was instructed to give each eye three coats of mascara.
She cleaned off my cheeks with a tissue and then applied a tinted moisturizer over my cheeks and forehead before I got a sweep of pale bronze on my cheeks.
My lips she left nude, and when she stepped back, I looked good.
I looked better than good.
“Wow.”
“You look hot,” she said proudly. “If number eight doesn’t die on the spot, he isn’t worth your time.
” Holding my top up, she grinned. “And the beauty of this top?” Unbuttoning the three buttons at the neck, she let the top fall away.
“You can step into it.” Handing it to me, she pointed at my room. “Bra off, sexy panties on.”
“Mia,” I protested as my cheeks flamed.
“Lace ones — make him want to tear them off you.”
“Mia! Will you stop?” I laughed as I headed to my room. “I’m dressing for me, no one else.”
“Course you are. Make sure you wear the G-string.”
“I don’t own a . . .” I stared at the lacy, flimsy thing on my bed. Holding it up, I examined it.
“You’re welcome,” she said to me as she stood in the doorway.
“I owe you money,” I said as I glanced at the panties again.
“Presents,” Mia answered. “Mom got a royalty check.”
Mia’s mom was an actress, not a very well-known one or, if we were honest, any good either. But she had a part in a bad TV show when Mia was much younger, and it had a cult following now, so her royalty check was regular.
“You shouldn’t use your money on me.”
“Shush, put them on. Get dressed. I’ll meet you in the kitchen. I’m making mocktails.”
“I love mocktails!” I said as I closed my door so I could get undressed. A few minutes later, staring at myself in the mirror, I turned once more as I looked at my back. There was no denying I was braless.
“Are you going to come out?”
“I have no bra on,” I said instead.
The door swung open, and Mia looked jaw-droppingly stunning. Her deep green playsuit set off her beautiful auburn hair, while her legs were slim and elongated in the nude high heels she wore.
“Whoa, mama.” I whistled. “You look amazing.”
Mia grinned as she looked me over. “Well, baby, you went and grew up on me,” she said playfully as she crossed the room to stand beside me. We stood side by side, and I swallowed as I looked at us both. We looked hot.
“Your boobs look amazing.”
“They’re doing okay,” I agreed. “I shall be standing beside the AC all night so I don’t get boob sweat patches or sweat running down my back!”
“And the moment is officially ruined.” Mia laughed as she nudged me with her shoulder. “I have the drinks ready.”
The beauty of dress shorts? Deep pockets. Slipping my wallet into one and my phone and key in the other, I dropped my nude lip gloss into Mia’s tiny purse.
“Do you think you’ll be home tonight?” I asked her as we tidied up the glass pitcher and the glasses.
“If I’m lucky? No.” Mia winked at me, and I laughed at her openness. “And if you’re lucky, there are condoms in the bathroom cabinet, remember.”
“I think I’ll be okay,” I said as I stared at my boots.
“Looking like you do tonight, you’ll be more than okay.”
We walked to the house party, Mia’s heels slowing us down. The sun had set, and the night air was slightly cooler. It was a beautiful night for a stroll.
When we arrived, we both got appreciative looks from the guys at the door.
It wasn’t usual for the house parties to have official guys standing guard, but this was the active football team’s house, plus they had won today, and this was a big party.
All the furniture was pushed to one side of the room, leaving a large open space for the festivities.
“You definitely drinking water?” Mia asked me over the music as we headed to the kitchen.
“Absolutely.” I nodded as I looked around, already conscious of my backless top.
“Don’t sweat it,” Mia told me with a firm look. “You look hot.”
We weaved through the crowd, and I spotted Wade and Bea. They waved, and after we both received compliments about our appearances, I felt myself start to relax.
We’d been at the party for over an hour when the cheers and hollering started, and I knew that the football players who mattered had arrived. I saw them greet a few people, and they were running up the stairs. That was odd. I turned to question it, but I was with couples.
Alex had found Mia not long after we arrived, and they were giggling together in a corner.
Wade was currently wrapped around Bea, and Shane had given me a wave from the other side of the room when we came in.
He stood with Sticks and a couple of girls I didn’t know, and I didn’t have to be a genius to know he had ventured elsewhere.
I didn’t have any bad feelings that he seemed to have moved on.
So, it wasn’t really my fault that my eyes turned to see them come down the stairs.
I saw Ash first as he came into the huge space.
He was wearing his jersey and black jeans.
The black uniform top, with only a silver stripe on the arms and the Saints logo on the chest, looked good on him.
Gray was already talking to a girl, I noticed, and as I saw the other players, I felt slight disappointment that Jett wasn’t there.
Until he was. He came down last. My heart plummeted when I saw a brunette waiting at the foot of the stairs, ready to latch onto him, and I saw him laugh at something someone said to him.
His hair was messy, he was wearing a sleeveless Saints practice jersey, and he was also in black jeans.
I noted a few scrapes on the arm that was free of tattoos from the knocks he had taken in practice.
The Saints logo on his jersey made me look quickly to Gray.
I hadn’t noticed it before, but Gray was also in a black uniform top, molded to his body, and I searched the other players.
Only five or six more were wearing their football jerseys.
I turned to get Mia’s attention, but she was now kissing Alex, and I didn’t know how to interrupt her.
“What is it?” Bea asked me curiously.
“It’s Mayhem.”
Wade’s head snapped up from his girlfriend’s neck, and he took in the scene. “Shit, so it is.”
Turning my attention back across the room, I realized Jett had noticed me.
I saw his eyes run down me slowly before they trailed leisurely over my body.
My whole body felt hot, and when he fixed on my chest, I really wished I had a bra on to hide the pebbling of my nipples.
When he finally met my eyes again, there was a hunger in them that I couldn’t look away from.
His grin was wicked when suddenly the lights went out and the music cut off.
“Mayhem!” It was shouted all around us, and I flinched as people either shouted in glee or screamed in fright at the sudden change to the evening.
I’d been to one party before where the Devils caused Mayhem, and I’d learned from that night. They put the lights out, the music stopped, and the trick was not to run. If you ran, you were fair game to be chased.
I waited in the dark, bodies jostled around me, and then I heard it. A sinister whisper all around us. “Run!”
I wanted to screech and bolt, but I stood firm. Nervously, I rubbed my hands over my shorts, and I reached out for Mia, but she was gone.
“Mee?”
She knew better than anyone not to run. She was in heels for fuck’s sake. “Mia?”
I moved to where she had been and stretched my arms out, hoping to find her. Suddenly, I was pulled back into a hard chest.
“You running, Uptight?”
“No.” I shook my head, and I stiffened when cool hands slipped into my top from behind, gliding over my skin to my front and curving upward, brushing under my breasts.
“I think you should run,” Jett whispered in my ear.
“No,” I said as someone else bumped into me, and Jett tightened his hold on me, his fingers grazing over my nipple.
“Yes.” He tightened his hold on me as his fingers played with my breast. “Or the lights are going to come on, and you’ll be bent over with my dick filling you for everyone to see.”
It was wrong that my body clenched at the thought, but his low chuckle in my ear had my heart racing.
A hard slap to my ass caused me to jump, and panic seized my body, causing me to be reckless.
I ran.