“Don’t start with me,” I warn Winter, feeling the heat creeping up my neck before it spreads across my cheeks. She’s standing back in the doorway that Hayden just disappeared through with a smirk on her face.
“I thought you went home last night because you were tired?” She raises an eyebrow with a look of amusement passing through her eyes. “How did Hayden King end up here?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I tell her, turning my back to her as I grab the sheet Hayden dropped on the floor before he made his dramatic exit. As if him being in my room wasn’t embarrassing enough, he had to walk out completely naked for Winter to get a show. The sheet is still warm from his body and I position it back on my bed, slipping it under the comforter.
Winter sighs, ignoring me as she walks into my room and sits down on the papasan chair in the corner. “Nope. You aren’t getting out of it that easily. You were able to keep your first encounter with him from me, but I just witnessed this shit with my own eyes.” She crosses her arms over her chest in defiance. “Spill.”
Closing my eyes, I run a frustrated hand down my face as I drop down onto my bed. An exasperated sigh escapes me as I lay my back down on the mattress. “Hayden showed up at the bar last night. You were talking to Travis, so you didn’t notice him. He propositioned me for one last night and I agreed to it.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me then?”
Sitting up, I narrow my eyes at her. “Because I didn’t want you to know. Shit, I don’t want anyone to know about this. You know the reputation he has and I’m not about to have my name dragged through the mud because of him.”
“Why are you so worried about what other people think?” she questions me, the curiosity heavy in her tone. There’s no judgement, so I can’t be mad at her for calling me out. “Usually, you don’t care about what anyone thinks of you, except when it comes to Hayden.”
“Because I don’t want any association with him. He is the exact type of person I have tried so hard to avoid, yet I can’t seem to get away from him. Everywhere I go, everywhere I turn, somehow he’s always there.”
Winter smirks. “And somehow he keeps ending up in your bed, huh?”
Grabbing the closest pillow to me, I chuck it at her from across the room. “It has only happened two times and will never happen again.”
She catches the pillow and instead of throwing it back at me, she drops it onto her lap and stares at me for a moment. “Why? I mean, is he at least good in bed?” She pauses as she laughs. “I mean, I saw what your boy is packing. So please tell me he at least knows how to use it.”
I can’t fight the grin that tugs on the corners of my lips. Warmth spreads across my cheeks and I roll my eyes at her. “He’s such an asshole. See, this is exactly why I can’t stand him. He’s so goddamn full of himself and cocky, like he’s God’s gift to everyone in the universe. Hayden King is untouchable, yet he can touch whoever he wants.”
“Do I detect a little bit of jealously?”
Glaring at her, I purse my lips. “Absolutely not. I couldn’t care less about what Hayden does or who he touches. I was simply just making an observation.”
“Mhm,” Winter mumbles, not fully believing my words. There’s nothing I could possibly be jealous of. At the end of the day, I can’t stand Hayden. Although, I haven’t seen him with any other girls, even though I have seen them attempting to make advances toward him. It’s kind of weird now that I think about it.
“So,” Winter starts, interrupting my thoughts. “I don’t need a play-by-play, but you never answered my question…”
Rolling my eyes, a smirk forms on my face. “Ugh. Yes, he knows how to use it and I think that’s the problem. He knows that he’s good in bed too, which only feeds his ego.”
“You know, I don’t see anything wrong with the whole situation,” Winter shrugs with indifference. “No one said that either of you have to be friends, but clearly, he’s into you. So, why not use that to your advantage? You don’t have to be friends or in a relationship. Just let him relieve some of your stress occasionally.”
“No way,” I argue, shaking my head at her. “The last thing I’m going to be with Hayden King is friends with benefits. We will never be friends.”
Winter clicks her tongue. “Enemies with benefits?”
A sigh escapes me as drop back onto the bed again. I stare up at the ceiling with Winter’s suggestion floating around in my head. “I can’t believe I’m actually considering this.”
“It sounds like the perfect thing, right?”
She isn’t wrong. There’s nothing that is binding Hayden and I together. We don’t have to be friends; no one has to know about it. It would almost be like we’re just helping each other scratch a mutual itch. Although, there is a part of me that thinks I would be better off just writing him off as it is.
I’ve slept with him two times—two times too many. He’s someone I never should have gotten involved with, but I know there’s no chance of ever developing feelings for him. Every girl in Hayden’s life is disposable. He doesn’t take anything seriously, except for himself and hockey. He’s arrogant and cocky and gets on my damn nerves.
But I can’t tell if it’s all just a facade. I have yet to see the real Hayden King. The one that he keeps hidden from the rest of the world.
That’s a place I can’t even let my mind wander to. I don’t need to see or know that side of him because that’s when things begin to get messy. When guards are let down and the ice around our hearts melts, how do we fight the fire that burns between us?
I’m not stupid or that naive. I know there’s a connection between the two of us. There’s something about him that keeps drawing me back in, even if I can’t stand him. I can’t let myself explore that, though. The last time I got involved with someone, I had my heart carelessly thrown back at me after it was torn into a million pieces.
And I refuse to let that happen again.
