Chapter 30 #2
“The opera?”
“Dating a guy who appreciates you,” she said instead and dropped her chin onto her hand. “Or just dating a guy of your choice in general.”
“You can’t tell me that you don’t have your choice of men?” I waved a hand over her. “All of this… going to waste? Don’t lie.”
“I’m not! Guys in my classes are crazy competitive. They don’t like girls who are smarter than them,” she said sadly.
“So, date someone from a different program… You want what the girls have? Date some insanely cocky hockey or football player… they won’t be intimidated by your brains. There’ll be no competition.”
She tapped her lip and considered my words. “You’re not wrong, but I don’t meet those guys. Well, sometimes I meet them, but they don’t notice me.”
“False, more like you don’t notice them noticing you, or they figure they don’t even have a shot. Beauty and brains, you’re intimidating.”
She laughed. “Let’s agree to disagree.”
The bartender made his way to us finally and asked for our order.
“What are you having?” Aisha asked.
I hesitated. What was I having? I hadn’t had a drink in a week. It felt odd. On one hand, I really, really wanted one. On the other, I’d been too distracted by Brody and running every morning, and the play and the new internship to even really miss it.
“Um, I’m not sure,” I said, indecisive.
“She’ll take a ginger beer.” Deep voice. English. Brody.
He was here.
Not just in Hade Harbor, but here, standing right behind me.
Aisha’s eyes were wide, staring over my shoulder.
“Actually, I’ll take a rum and Coke.” I smiled at the bartender.
He went away to make our drinks.
Aisha looked at me and nodded over my shoulder, as if I might not be aware of the solid presence at my back.
I was well aware, just too shy to turn around.
The other night and that sound of him jerking off over the phone replayed in my head.
What sounds had I made? Could he remember them? I flushed.
“You’re not drinking that,” Brody said in that controlling, arrogant tone of his I knew so well.
“Not yet, no. It hasn’t even been made yet, has it?” I said, without giving him my attention. The damn shyness persisted. I had no idea what to do with that feeling.
Brody was quiet, waiting for me to look at him. I took a twisted satisfaction in not turning to do just that.
“Introduce me to your friend,” Brody continued like he wasn’t just waiting for me to spin around.
“Aisha, this is Brody,” I told her and then spied Cal leaning on the bar just behind her. I jerked my chin toward him. “And that’s Cal. They’re the infamous new Hellions, the Sinclair twins.”
“Oh, twins.” Aisha spun around on her stool and gazed up at Cal. “Interesting! Medically speaking.”
Cal seemed like he didn’t know how to respond. I figured he’d just ignore her, like he usually did to everyone who wasn’t his brother. But then he really looked at her, scanned her over. Cal wasn’t always an eye contact person. He didn’t just glance at Aisha briefly either. His dark eyes lingered.
“Thanks, I guess,” he muttered and then turned back to the bar.
Interesting. And Aisha thought she wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous? She’d just made the most mysterious, people-adverse Hellion practically blush.
My drink was placed in front of me, but before I could reach for it, a huge, tattooed hand plucked it off the bar.
I whirled around straightaway. “Give that back!”
Brody calmly sipped my drink, taking his time to savor it, licking a stray drop off his top lip before answering.
“No.” He lifted his long-as-hell arm over his head and put the glass firmly out of my reach.
“Brody,” I warned, stepping on the stool’s footrest so I’d be able to grab the glass easier. “Give it back.”
He smiled down at me. “Hello, heathen. No drinking for you, cheer captain. Remember the rules.”
“You can take your precious rules and shove them up—”
“What the hell are you wearing?” Brody interrupted, his gaze locked on my midsection.
Not wanting to show too much skin in my Rocky Horror outfit, I’d decided to go for a Harley Quinn-inspired theme and had co-opted an old football jersey I had at home for the purpose. It was tied up to be tight, ripped in places, and yet still covered a whole lot more than Aisha’s corset did.
Torn fishnets, black jean shorts, and my usual boots made up the rest of my outfit. It was pretty tame compared to the rest of the girls, and yet Brody glared at me like I’d committed a crime. And he didn’t even know that there was a retractable blade in my boot.
“Clothes.”
“These are clothes for the movies? They’re a crime against fashion.”
Aisha giggled.
“They’re clothes for Rocky Horror… kind of. I cheated, honestly, with the top, not that I’d expect you to care about that—”
“Take it off then,” Brody interrupted.
“Wait, what?” I stared at him, surprised.
“Take that goddamn shirt off.”
I blinked at him. “Um, why?”
He was silent, and then his head cocked to the side. “Why do you even have it? Did you ask someone for it, when you have two men at home with hockey jerseys you could have borrowed?”
I glanced at Aisha, who simply raised an eyebrow at the exchange.
I turned back to Brody and put my hand on his shoulder. His energy was decidedly off.
“Are you okay? Did you get a puck to the head on the day you forgot your cage? Or is delusion a symptom of jet lag?”
“Hey! It’s our turn on the table,” Winter called to me from the pool area.
“Okay, I’m coming,” I called back and took a step away from Brody.
He watched me with narrowed eyes that I couldn’t read.
“You can have the drink,” I tossed to him and helped Aisha get down from the wobbly stool in her restrictive clothes.
“Let’s go.”
I’d never been great at pool, but playing with the girls, it didn’t matter.
We joked around, laughed, and not a single one of us took things too seriously.
The air felt electric, and it was because Brody was back.
He was playing Asher, Cal, and Beckett at the table next to us.
I could feel his eyes on me even when I wasn’t looking at them.
Now and again, when I glanced over, Brody was playing like a pro.
When he leaned over the table, his T-shirt rode up his arms, exposing the bulging muscles of his biceps, as well as his taut, veined forearms.
God, what was wrong with me? It had to be hormones.
Once Aisha had cleaned the floor with us (“What? It’s just math!” she’d insisted), we wandered over to watch the guys finish their game.
It was close. Asher and Cal against Beckett and Brody. At this point, it was basically a race to the pocket the eight ball.
Asher missed sinking it by less than an inch. Beckett slapped him on the back.
“Oh, well, good attempt, man. Good game.”
“You haven’t won yet,” Asher protested.
“Brody will sink it, won’t you, mate?” Beckett drawled. “This is something he’s actually good at.”
“That’s what they say about you and wanking, Anderson,” Brody tossed at him as he walked around the table to find the best angle for his shot.
“Wanking is your domain, Sinclair. I’ve no need for any of that,” Beckett said and tugged Eve into his side.
She laughed and hit his chest.
“I’m sure Asher loves to hear that,” Brody chuckled.
Asher glared at Beckett across the table, making everyone laugh.
Brody lined up his shot and bent over the table. His shirt rode up his back, revealing a firm, tattooed strip of skin.
“The thing you have to understand, lads…” Brody muttered, his attention on the ball. He hit it gently, just a tap really, and it went rolling toward the pocket before sinking inside.
He brought his eyes up to mine, and I couldn’t look away.
“…is that I always win.” He smirked with satisfaction as Beckett whooped.
“Yes, nailed it. I’ll forgive how annoying you are, on account of winning that for us,” Beckett announced and then grabbed Eve. “Okay, guys. It’s past my girl’s bedtime, and I need to get us home so I can tuck her in.”
Winter laughed and tossed her long cloud of white-blonde hair behind her shoulder. She put her arm around Asher, who stared at his best friend and sister with narrowed eyes.
“Time for you to go home, too, before you burst a blood vessel… I’d rather burst one in a more fun way,” she said and then sauntered off.
Asher’s eyes followed his girlfriend like they were tied with a string. He quickly grabbed his jacket.
“Later,” he called as he followed her toward the exit.
Beckett and Eve drifted to the bar.
“And then there were four,” Brody announced and looked at me and Aisha. “Ready to go home, heathen?”
“Nope. Me and Aisha are celebrating, and we’re not going home yet, right?” I glanced at her.
She was looking at her phone, frowning.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, just missed a video call from my parents. I know why they’re calling. They have a guy they want to introduce me to.”
“Oh, really? That’s… nice?”
She shook her head. “Not nice. Traditional, yes, but not nice.” She sighed. “Let’s just hope they haven’t decided that he’s the one.”
“They can decide that for you?” I asked, appalled.
She nodded. “They can, and they will, one day,” she muttered. “I should go.”
“Okay, whatever you want.”
She thought for a second and then nodded. She turned to go, just as Eve reappeared.
“Anyone want a ride back to campus?”
“Me, that would be amazing!” Aisha said quickly.
They left together, Beckett in the lead.
I turned to Brody and Cal, only to find that Cal had disappeared somewhere.
“Well,” I said. Why was my heart beating so fast?
“Well,” Brody repeated, walking around the table and grabbing the balls.
“You’re back,” I added.
“I’m back. I told you I would be.”
I nodded, that annoying shyness making me feel unbearably lame. What even was this feeling? My stomach squirmed, and I hated it.
“So, I guess I’ll go home, since Aisha left.”
“Or we could play.” He racked the balls and then rubbed chalk on the end of his cue.
He leaned against the pool table and crossed his arms, only making my heart problem worse.
“What do you say, heathen? Will you play with me?”
I shrugged. “Maybe… I’m pretty tired.”
Brody raised an eyebrow and shrugged. Oh God, was he going to call me out on my pretense that I didn’t want to hang out with him?
“Whatever you want, Selena. Your call.”
I scoffed softly. “Unless it’s wearing an outfit you don’t like, or drinking something against the rules… right?”
Brody sighed and put his pool cue down. Then he rounded on me, backing me against the table and placing a hand on either side of my body, caging me in.
“To clarify, it’s not the outfit I don’t like. It’s another man’s name written across your back that I don’t like. And pool would never be against my rules. It’s good, clean fun, isn’t it?”
He was so close now, I tried not to stare. I focused on his lips instead.
“Do you want to have good, clean fun with me, sweetheart?”
Sweetheart again. My heart couldn’t take it. And was it just my imagination, or was he putting extra emphasis on the word clean?
“Fine. But I’m bad at it, so if you make fun of me, I’ll stab you with a cue.”
“Noted. How about I give you a lesson?” he suggested and straightened up.
I shook my head. “Okay, calm down. I said I wasn’t great at it, not that I need your help.”
Brody nodded and gestured me forward. “Go ahead and break.”
“I think that you should, since you won your last game and all. I like to follow the rules,” I said.
Brody laughed as he bent over the table. “Just not mine, right?”
“Just take the shot,” I muttered and watched him break.
The balls flew in all directions, and somehow, he managed to sink two stripes in that first go.
“How’s that fair?” I muttered.
Brody chuckled and stepped back. “You take your turn.”
“Don’t you get another shot if you sink a ball? I don’t want special treatment.”
“Okay, fair enough. Very sportsmanlike.” He leaned over and took another shot. This one missed. I narrowed my eyes at him. “You better not have missed on purpose.”
“I’d never.” He stepped back to watch me as I took my shot.
I leaned over, trying my best to copy the pose Aisha had adopted earlier when she’d cleared the table.
“You’re going to miss like that,” Brody murmured just before I went for it.
“Am not,” I muttered.
“Care to bet?” he asked.
No. He was probably right, but I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. “Okay, sure. What’s the bet?”
“I bet you’ll lose, and if you do, you never wear that shirt again,” he said.
“And if I do make the shot?”
“Then you win, and you never have to wear that jersey ever again.”
I laughed and shook my head, leaning back over and trying to line up.
Brody hovered over my shoulder.
“Fine, help me if you want,” I told him.
“Thank fuck. It was like watching a little duckling drowning,” he muttered and immediately stepped behind me. He bracketed me with his legs and pressed his hips into mine, bending over me from behind.
“Hey! This looks a little…” I trailed off, a gale of heat blowing through me.
“I don’t give a fuck.” Brody adjusted my hands and moved his head to the side of mine, trying to see along my line of sight.
He demonstrated pulling back the cue and taking a shot. I could barely hear him. All I could think about was his hand on mine, his hard body pressing me into the table. My body was waking up in ways I’d thought were finished for me, and it was distracting as hell.
I took the shot and sunk a ball.
“I did it!” I jumped up as soon as Brody’s weight shifted and turned around. “That’s the first time!”
“Well done,” he said with a smirk. “I guess I’m a good teacher.”
I smacked my hand against his shoulder. “Save the ego trip. Now that you’ve taught me all your secrets, you’re in for a hard win, Sinclair.” I headed around the table and flashed Brody a grin.
“What is it about me that brings out your insanely competitive side, cheer captain?”
“I don’t know, you’re just exceptionally talented at annoying me, I guess.”
Brody laughed. “Likewise, sweetheart. Likewise.”
Sweetheart.