Chapter 29 Nathan
NATHAN
It’s the first Saturday back after break, which means half of Colton U has ended up in someone’s off-campus house.
I don’t even know whose place this is—one of the seniors, probably—but Austin’s planted himself right in the middle of the living room, with a bottle of tequila in his hand.
I tip my head back on the couch beside Logan, my head brushing against his arm, which is draped along the backrest. His knee keeps brushing mine every few seconds. I’d like to think it’s accidental, but knowing him, it’s absolutely not.
“Alright,” Austin says, grinning like he’s been waiting all night for this. “Truth or drink. The rules are simple. If you lie, you drink; if you dodge, you drink; and if you cry, I film it.”
Ryan groans from the couch beside Isabella. “Why do all your games end with someone vomiting in the sink?”
“Tradition,” Austin says proudly, pouring a shot and sliding it toward Miles. “Rookie’s turn. Don’t be lame.”
The kid practically lights up. “Okay, okay…” His eyes dart around the circle before landing squarely on Logan. “Logan.”
Logan tips his chin. “Shoot.”
“You ever hook up with someone on the team?”
The words hang in the air for a second, and the room bursts into laughter, the guys wheezing like it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever heard.
But my heart stops.
I freeze, my cup halfway to my mouth. My pulse is slamming so hard in my ears I can barely hear the noise around me.
He can’t say yes.
He won’t.
Logan leans back, his grin not even flickering, like he’s completely unbothered instead of spiraling like I am. He twirls his cup lazily between his fingers. “Define hook up,” he says with a smirk.
Austin points his cup at him. “Answer it or drink, rookie.”
Logan rolls his eyes at the nickname and then lifts the cup, brings it to his lips, and takes a sip.
Miles chuckles, shaking his head. “That’s a yes. Who the hell was it?”
Logan just shrugs. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
Austin moves on to Ryan, asking him something I don’t catch because I’m still watching Logan.
He’s laughing along with the others like nothing happened, and I have to force myself to breathe. To act normal. To not show how close that was.
Then he shifts, just slightly, his knee brushing mine again.
I glance up, and he’s already looking at me, his lips twitching.
My eyes drift behind him when a girl drops down on the couch beside him. “Hey,” she says and Logan looks away from me and at her. “You’re on the team, right? Number ten?”
Logan looks up, arching a brow at her. “Depends. Am I in trouble?”
She laughs, tucking her hair behind her ear. “That was my lame excuse for saying hi.”
He tilts his head. “Hi.”
She says something about the last game and he laughs, that low, easy sound that always gets him what he wants. His hand goes through his hair, and she leans in closer, laughing too.
My stomach knots.
Because apparently he’s forgotten that I’m sitting right fucking here.
It’s not like we’re dating or anything. I’m just the guy he climbs into bed with at night. The guy whose dick was in his mouth, oh I don’t know—this morning.
But sure. Flirt away, Casanova.
She laughs again, touching his arm, and smiles back.
My hands tighten into fists and I want to fling his drink across the room.
Or her.
Or both.
Still, I’m suddenly reminded—painfully—that Logan’s into girls.
Guys too. Do I have to fight every fucking person in the world for his attention?
The thought makes my throat tight because I’ve never looked at a girl like that.
Never looked at anyone the way I look at him.
I’ve never had to force myself to look away from someone like I did him.
Never needed someone so badly it feels like I can’t breathe without them.
My fingers tighten around my cup, and I stare straight ahead, trying to remind myself that this is what I signed up for. I told him I didn’t want anyone knowing about us, so I have to live with the consequences.
She tilts her head and leans in to say something else. Her lips are close to his ear, and my blood pressure launches itself into low orbit.
Nope. Nope, fuck this.
I’m already on my feet before I know what I’m doing.
“Hey,” I say, stepping in just as she’s about to say something else. “You met Miles yet?”
She blinks, caught off guard. “Who?”
“Miles,” I say, nodding toward the rookie currently chugging beer out of his cup. “Freshman forward. Guy’s got a great slapshot. Heard he’s gonna be the new captain when we graduate.”
“Wait.” The rookie approaches me, blinking in shock. “Really?”
Fucking hell. “Shh. Just play it cool,” I whisper.
Her lips part and she glances between me and Logan, like she’s trying to figure out if I’m serious.
I don’t wait for her to decide. I just turn to Miles and clap a hand on his shoulder. “Come meet… uh…”
“Samantha,” she offers, eyeing me.
“Right. Samantha.” I flash her a smile. “Miles has been dying to meet you.”
“Hi,” he says, turning to her, voice cracking slightly. “I like your… um. Earrings.”
I stare at the ceiling for a second. Jesus Christ. Kid has no game. But whatever, she’s laughing, he’s blushing, and most importantly, she’s no longer touching Logan’s arm.
When I glance back, Logan’s already watching me, that slow, knowing grin spreading across his face. “You wanna tell me what that was?”
“Helping a teammate,” I say with a shrug.
He arches a brow. “Since when do you play wingman for Miles?”
I shrug again, because I don’t have a real answer. “Since now.”
His smirk widens and I bail before he can say anything else and push through the crowd, like my chest isn’t tight and my head isn’t spinning. Like I didn’t just throw a girl at Miles because I couldn’t handle watching Logan even look at someone that wasn’t me.
I catch sight of Cole and Aurora near the hallway as I cut through the crowd, arguing like usual. Aurora has her arms crossed over her chest and Cole’s jaw clenches like it always does when she pushes his buttons, which is most of the time.
I shake my head. Not my drama. I’m not getting dragged into the middle of another one of their toxic, petty arguments.
I push open the back door and slip outside. The second it shuts behind me, it’s like I can finally breathe. The party noise fades and I rake a hand through my hair, staring up at the dark sky, trying to get a grip.
Why the hell am I even spiraling? I know what this is. I know we’re not dating. I know it’s supposed to be casual and secret and strictly behind closed doors.
So why the hell do I feel like someone jammed a knife into my ribs watching him smile at her like that?
The door creaks open behind me, and I don’t need to look to know it’s him.
“You know,” Logan says, his voice smug, “you didn’t have to pawn her off on the rookie. I had it under control.”
I scoff without turning around. “Yeah. Sure looked like it.”
My skin shivers at the sound of his low laugh, his chest brushing my back a second later. His hands slide to my hips, squeezing slightly. “You were jealous, weren’t you, baby?”
The fucker.
I grit my teeth. “Wasn’t jealous,” I mutter, lying through my teeth.
He hums, not buying it for a second. “Mhm. We both know that’s bullshit, but just so you know, I haven’t looked at anyone else since you attacked me in the kitchen.”
I turn to glare at him. “I did not attack you.”
“Oh, you absolutely did.” His grin spreads like he’s enjoying every second of this. “You tugged me toward you and practically climbed me like a tree. It was hot as hell.” He pauses, watching me. “Pretty sure that kiss ruined everyone else for me.”
I blink, my mouth parting before I even realize I’m about to say something. But whatever words were forming evaporate when he tugs me closer to him.
“So maybe stop worrying, yeah?” he says. “Because you’re all I fucking want.”
And before I can process a single syllable of that, his hands slide up to my jaw and he kisses me.
His mouth hits mine hot and hard, his hands gripping my waist and his body pressing into every inch of mine like he’s staking a claim. I grab his hoodie, dragging him closer, kissing him back because goddamn it. I want him. I’ve always wanted him.
And I was jealous.
I’ve been watching him all night, pretending not to care while wondering if someone else might notice the way his eyes crinkle when he laughs.
Or how he tips his head when he’s about to say something that’ll ruin me.
I can’t stop thinking about how easy he is to be around.
How easy he makes it to forget that we’re not actually a thing.
And I don’t want to share him.
His hands slide under my hoodie, dragging me closer. My fingers are in his hair, tugging hard enough to make him groan.
“You’re so hot when you’re jealous,” he mutters against my mouth.
“Shut up,” I grunt, but I kiss him again anyway. Harder this time.
He grins, pressing his thigh between mine.
I groan, my hips rocking forward like I don’t even have control over my body anymore. “Fuck,” I whisper. “Logan…”
We’re so tangled up in each other, I forget we’re outside at some random party, probably in view of half the yard. I barely register anything beyond him. His breath. His body. His mouth on mine.
He breaks the kiss, panting slightly, eyes dark and wild. “Come on,” he says, voice rough. “Let’s find somewhere better before I forget where we are and show you how badly I fucking need you.”
My breath stutters. And I know I should say no, or slow down, or at least try to pretend I’ve got some kind of self-control left. But I don’t. Not with him. Especially not when he’s looking at me like that—like I’m the only thing he wants.
We duck back inside the house, weaving through the bodies packed shoulder-to-shoulder in the hallway. Logan’s hand stays looped around mine, and I let him pull me with him. Up the stairs. Past a guy singing into a beer bottle. Over someone passed out on the stairs, trying to find an empty room.
Logan tries the first door, but it’s locked.
Figures.
Logan mutters under his breath and keeps moving, dragging me with him. We turn the corner, find another door and he reaches out and swings it open.
I bump into his back when I realize he hasn’t moved and my brows dip. “What—”
I lift my head and—
“Oh fuck.”
My eyes widen as I take in the sight of Aurora bent over the dresser, with her skirt hiked up over her ass, and Cole standing behind her, thrusting into her from behind, leaving absolutely zero to the imagination.
Her mouth’s open in a moan, one cheek pressed to the dresser, her eyes squeezed shut. Cole’s got one hand gripping her hip, the other in her hair, and they are both clearly lost in it.
Until they hear our voices and turn.
Aurora gasps, horrified and Cole looks over his shoulder and the second he spots us, his expression turns to murder.
Logan lifts one hand in immediate surrender, eyes wide. “Shit. Sorry.”
Aurora scrambles, attempting to hide, her eyes going wide as they land on me. Her gaze flicks down to where Logan’s fingers are laced through mine.
“Not a fucking word,” Cole says with a threatening tone.
Logan nods, his fingers flexing in mine. “Same to you.”
Cole’s jaw tightens and he nods and Logan tugs gently at my hand, backing us out into the hallway.
The door shuts behind us with a soft click.
We stand there for a second, neither of us speaking. Don’t think we have words for what the hell we just witnessed. I just stare at the closed door, my brain still trying to catch up.
But the image is fully seared into my memory. Her face. His hands. Both their bare asses. And the look in their eyes when they realized they weren’t the only ones with secrets.
“Well,” he says eventually, taking a step down the hallway, his voice casual like we didn’t just see our friends mid-fuck. “Can’t say I didn’t see that coming.”
“They saw us,” I say, the words heavier out loud than they felt in my head. “Cole and Aurora. They saw us holding hands.”
Logan doesn’t look surprised, not a hint of panic flashing in his eyes. “Yeah,” he says.
I stop walking, and Logan stops too when he realizes I’m not following him.
“Hey, it’s okay.” He grabs my hand, rubbing his thumb over my knuckles. “Seriously. They’re not gonna say anything.”
I nod, slow. “Yeah. I know.”
“Besides,” he says, leaning in with that glint back in his eyes, “we’ve got dirt on them now.”
I huff out a laugh, the tension in my chest loosening a little. “Right.”
He glances over at me, watching to see how I feel about the fact that someone knows we’re hooking up.
I thought I’d freak out. Thought the second someone knew, I’d spiral. But I’m not. I feel… weirdly okay. Like something in my chest just loosened.
“Wanna find a closet?” he asks, yanking me out of my thoughts with a raised brow and a wicked grin.
I laugh, shaking my head. “You’re relentless.”
“Horny,” he corrects, reaching around to grab a handful of my ass, squeezing. “Very, very horny.”
We cut down the hallway, trying all the doors. Third time’s the charm, apparently.
“Thank fuck,” Logan breathes as the knob turns. He yanks the door open, tugs me inside, and kicks it shut behind us before locking it.
The room is dark, quiet, and slightly musty. Doesn’t matter, though, because I’m with him.
Logan turns to face me, his lips twitching into a smirk. “Now…” he says, tugging at my belt loop. “Where were we?”