I was three sheets to the wind when she walked in.
It was a combination of things that afforded me the opportunity to actually get drunk. One was that my room was right upstairs, though that had never encouraged me before tonight. Two was that I didn’t have to practice tomorrow, because I couldn’t practice, because I couldn’t play at all. And three was because I’d been riled up since my altercation with Kyle in the locker room earlier that afternoon.
Because of the infuriating, off limits, fucking irresistible girl who just waltzed into our party.
I pretended I was fully engaged in the game of beer pong I was playing with Leo, Clay, and Zeke — Leo as my partner, and Clay drinking for two since Zeke was sober by choice. My body was angled toward the table, shoulders square as I took my shot with the ping-pong ball, missed the cup, and then took a small sip from the one in my hand like I was unbothered.
But out of my periphery, I watched Julep’s every move.
I watched her thread an arm through the girl’s she was with, whom I recognized as her roommate only from the small glances I’d caught of her across the street. Roommate seemed annoyed to be here, a bored expression on her face as she almost angrily chewed gum and let Julep guide her through the thickening crowd.
Julep, on the other hand, looked… different.
She was almost smiling as they weaved in and out of pods of students, and her eyes caught on the different areas they passed — a flip cup game in the dining room, body shots in the kitchen, dancing in the middle of the living room where we’d shoved the couches out of the way. I didn’t miss how she swallowed thickly at the sight of a couple kids lining up something to snort — not football players, because their asses would be off the team in a flash. She brushed past them, though, she and her roommate making their way to the keg.
“Defense, man!” Leo barked at me, smacking my bicep as the ball Zeke threw fell into one of our cups. Apparently, it had been spinning around the lip for a while and I’d missed my chance to finger it out.
I shrugged, then took a long drink to pay for the mistake.
I wondered why she was here, sneaking glances at her as she filled a cup for her and her roommate before they began making the rounds again. Judging by the look in her eyes, she was a little buzzed, too.
I didn’t know why that put me on edge.
Maybe it was because, added to how she looked, I knew I wasn’t the only one watching her.
Julep Lee had knocked me on my ass the first time I saw her, and she had been wearing pretty modest athleisure. But tonight, she wore impossibly tight, black leather pants that hugged her hips and ass and every lean line of her legs all the way down to the small heels on her feet. I’d never been so fucking turned on by a sliver of ankle before, but the skin that peeked out between the pump and the hem of her pants drew my eye, holding me there and making me wonder what that delicate ankle bone would feel like wrapped in my hand as I guided it up to my shoulder and laid her back on my bed.
She wore a dark green crop top, too — one that looked almost vintage with the sheer, olive lace covering the dark fabric beneath it. The heels she wore were unique and far from what I’d ever have pictured her wearing.
Then again, I hadn’t seen her wearing anything outside of the athletic wear she wore at the stadium and the tiny shorts and bra she wore when poling.
Everything about her was different, even her hair that was usually straight or pulled into a ponytail was curled, flowing down her back and over her shoulders and just begging to be wrapped up in my fist.
“Bro.”
I turned back to Leo, who blinked at me.
“What?”
“They just double bounced us and fucking won, that’s what.”
I looked at the evidence on the table, two little white pong balls in our last two cups.
“Damn,” I said, running a hand back through my hair. “Well, good game, guys. I’m going to go re-up.” I lifted my cup in the air toward Zeke and Clay, who watched me just as suspiciously as Leo did.
But when I turned for the keg just as Julep and her roommate headed the same way, Leo clapped a hand on my shoulder, halting me.
“Ah, now I know why you were distracted.”
I feigned indifference. “Just tired.”
“Tired my ass. Come on, Cap — I need a refill, too.”
He grinned devilishly as he took the lead, and I turned over my shoulder at Clay and Zeke who were just smiling and shaking their heads at me like I was a lost cause.
Leo and I were almost to the kitchen when Giana and Riley tugged Julep and her roommate to the side, wrapping them both in hugs before launching into chatter. I drained the last of the liquid in my cup as we approached them.
“I’m so happy you came!” Giana said, squeezing Julep’s elbow. “And you, too…” She waited, arching a brow at Julep’s roommate.
“Mary,” the girl said, still wearing that bored expression, though she somehow managed to sound nice despite it. Her eyes were a little glazed, lazy, like she was a touch high.
“Mary,” Giana repeated. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Giana, this is Riley.”
Before I could stop him, Leo squeezed in between Mary and Julep, throwing his arm around each of them. “And I’m Leo. Now that we all know each other, what do you say we take this little ménage…” He counted each one of them on a finger. “Cinq up to my room?”
Giana and Riley just smiled and rolled their eyes because they were used to my best friend’s sense of humor. But Mary shrugged him off, nose wrinkling as if he stank. “I’d rather peel off my own toenails.”
“And I’d rather you take me somewhere private and let me see all those tattoos,” Leo said, ignoring her very obvious dismissal of him as his eyes raked over her exposed skin.
She shook her head at him, disbelief and disgust mixing on her face. “You really are clueless, aren’t you?”
“Desperately. I need someone to teach me everything about the world.” He released where his arm was around Julep and turned his full attention on Mary. “You in the market to be my new mommy?”
Mary scoffed, turned on her heels, and Leo waggled his brows at all of us before chasing after her.
“Poor girl,” Giana remarked, but she smiled anyway.
I took the break in the conversation as an opportunity, along with the marginal space between a couple of my teammates and the backside of Julep. The keg lay just beyond them, and before I could talk myself out of it, I pushed through.
It was a tight squeeze, and the front of me brushed along the back of her, the distinct scent of raspberries and sage hitting my nostrils as I did. I tilted my head down, lips and nose just inches from the back of her neck.
“Excuse me,” I muttered, though I slowed my pace, savoring the touch as I brought a hand to her hip as I passed.
Julep stiffened, keeping her jaw angled toward the girls.
But her eyes slipped back, over her shoulder, and found me.
My fingers blazed where they touched her skin, every inch of me lighting up as I wedged myself between her and my teammates. It happened in a matter of seconds, but those seconds lingered like years, like decades of a fire burning in my chest. I held my breath, noted that she held hers, too.
And then, just as quickly, I was through, and I released her, not so much as looking back over my shoulder once the contact was broken.
I headed straight for the keg like it hadn’t meant a thing, like I’d barely noticed.
My heart thundered the entire way.
I realized I should have sobered up as the night went on, but I found myself drinking more and more because it felt like the only thing I could do as I watched Julep from across the party.
She fit in seamlessly, letting Giana and Riley tout her through the crowd, introducing her to people. They even conned her and Mary into a game of quarters, which I only half-watched as I gave Blake Russo a pep talk in the kitchen.
“I’m too slow,” he said again, even after my insistence that he was faster than he thought. “I just… I clam up. Even when I know what the move is.”
“So, tell me why,” I said, nudging my fist to his chest. “Why don’t you follow through with your gut instinct?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
His mouth pulled to the side. “I guess… I guess because I’m scared. I’m afraid I’ll pull the trigger too soon and not see something, get intercepted or read the play wrong.”
“And so what if you do?”
He gave me a perplexed look.
“So what if you get picked off? Or sacked? Or if you throw it far past your target? You know what happens then?”
Blake blinked as if to say yeah, you idiot, we lose the game.
I leaned in closer. “That play ends, and the next one starts.” I shook my head. “Every player makes mistakes. Every quarterback overthrows and underthrows and gets taken to the ground more than a few times. We all throw picks. We all fuck up. It’s part of the game. The key is not letting that shit get in your head or stop you from making the play you know needs to be made. Trust your instinct, so that you can untap the potential you have instead of playing it safe in what’s certain. And newsflash — even when you think something is certain, it never is.” I clapped his shoulder. “Trust me, once you let go, once you make a mistake and then realize it’s not the end of the world?” I shrugged. “That’s when the real magic is unlocked.”
Blake nodded, like he was finally understanding. “I think I see what you’re saying.”
“Humor me next game and go with the first thing your gut tells you. I’ll run every lap Coach gives you for any mistakes that happen.”
He snorted. “Now that’s a deal I’ll take.”
I smiled, squeezing his shoulder before I took a drink and subtly turned to see if Julep was still playing quarters.
But she wasn’t.
I scanned the crowd idly, noting that Giana and Riley were with their boyfriends now on the dance floor, and I caught the tail-end of Mary’s blonde hair as she exited out the front door.
Then, I found Julep.
Squeezed between the arm of the couch and a smirking, wasted Kyle Robbins.
It was dark in the corner where they were, the couch shoved back against the wall to make room for the dance floor. Everything in my body reacted to that sight — fist tightening around the cup in my hands to the point of nearly crushing it, heart galloping so loud in my ears I barely heard the music, blood boiling and jaw clenching so hard I had an instant headache.
I didn’t allow myself the time to even formulate a plan before I was pushing through the crowd toward her.
I watched them through the gaps in the people as I shoved my way past, and when Kyle bent toward her, hand finding her thigh as he spoke something along her neck that made her laugh in a way I didn’t know was possible — a way I’d never seen her laugh before — I nearly passed out from red invading my vision.
And I didn’t care that I didn’t have a right to be pissed.
I didn’t care that I shouldn’t have been watching her, that I should have let it go.
I didn’t care that I didn’t know what the hell to say or do.
I just walked right up to them, towering over where they sat, breathing like a fucking dragon.
I startled them both, Kyle stopping mid-laugh and glaring up at me as if to say, I’m busy here, fuck off.
But my eyes were on Julep.
Her smile slowly waned, those dark irises growing even wider as she took me in. She was buzzed, maybe even drunk, which would explain the carefree way she’d just been laughing. But now, those glossy eyes were trained on me, and they slid the full length of my body before slowly crawling back up, a cat-like smirk painting her lips when she found my gaze once more.
“Hello, QB1,” she purred.
That one little greeting set my whole body blazing.
“Hello, Polerina,” I said back, and somehow, the corner of my mouth tilted despite how I was two seconds away from Hulk-smashing my teammate. In fact, I somehow embodied cocky indifference, one hand sliding into the pocket of my athletic shorts while the other held onto my cup.
I thought maybe Julep could sense it, the way her smile crept up even more.
“Having fun?” I asked, as if Kyle wasn’t there at all.
“Yes, we were,” he interrupted, trying to block my view of Julep. “So, if you could just—”
“I’m pretty bored, actually,” Julep cut in, something of a challenge in her eyes. “I thought you said parties at the Pit couldn’t be beat.”
I ignored the drop of Kyle’s jaw at her comment, though my smile was smug when I said, “Maybe you just haven’t had the right company.”
“Or maybe this party blows,” she countered.
“Maybe,” I conceded. I looked out back at the garden, at the folding table that had been abandoned out there with cups littered all over it. No one else was out there, so I looked back at Julep before nodding my head toward the door. “Want a change of scenery?”
She didn’t take her eyes off mine as she peeled Kyle’s hand off her thigh. “Desperately.”
And then she stood and led the way, and I winked at a furious Kyle over my shoulder before following her out.
