Page 41 of Play Maker

“What?” Axel bit out.

“Give your teammate a fucking smoke.”

Axel grumbled something about ‘annoying brats’ but threw the pack at me anyway. I hated smoking but I needed something to do with my hands. Anything that didn’t involve putting them on Axel.

I never imagined that I could want someone I despised so much. It was a new, unfamiliar, completely unsettling feeling, and one I wanted to be rid of.

I pulled a cigarette out of the pack and lit up. We continued down the rest of the stairs until we reached the gravel pathway. The wind whipped around, fat snowflakes falling on our faces. I shivered, taking a drag from the cigarette, the warmth infusing my lungs. More like burning the fuck out of them. I choked on the inhale and Axel started laughing at me.

“Fuck you,” I croaked, coughing.

“Now that you’re done bossing me around, what do you want?”

I scoffed. “Pfft. That wasn’t bossy at all.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Ask anyone I’ve fucked.”

Axel rolled his eyes and groaned, but I didn’t miss the flush that highlighted his sharp cheekbones. Snowflakes kissed his blond eyelashes, the bump on his nose, his pouty lips. Then I remembered that he was about to kiss that girl. Angrily, I admitted to myself that the blush wasn’t about me, but her.

Focus, Jace.

“So, are you going to talk to me like a real teammate or are you going to continue to act like an ass?” I added.

“I don’thaveto do anything,” he bit out.

“So, you still believe Preston?”

Axel paused and took a drag of his cigarette. His expression tightened as he blinked fast. Then his lips pursed together as he let out a long plume of smoke.

“I didn’t say that.”

His whispered admission was so low I nearly missed it.

It wasn’t a win, but I’d take it.

Axel

I was out here freezing my balls off when I should have been unloading them all over…what was her name again? Whately? Winnie? Waverly. Right. Her. Yes. She was into me and that’s what I should have been doing.

Not acting like a fool, again, thanks to Jace.

He was wearing his battered baseball cap, and I wished the brim was facing forward so I wouldn’t be forced to look into his big hazel eyes. It was like looking into the sun. I surveyed the rest of his face and that was even worse. He had long, thick eyelashes, the dark tips white with snow, and freckles that dusted his long nose and ruddy cheeks. Dark stubble surrounded his mouth, teasing the rim of those full lips.

What would that feel like? Kissing a man?

No, not just any man. Jace. His scruff rubbing over my lips, my jaw, lower… Shit. I’d never thought of a man as beautiful before but as I stared at Jace, I realized that’s exactly what he was. He was beautiful and my best friend’s ex.

Oh my God.

The sexual revelation didn’t bother me as much as the guy in question.

Now my balls weren’t freezing at all. Despite the frigid temperature, they—and my dick—were hot as hell inside my jeans. My cock was hard and heavy. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a monster erection. And fuck, since when did aguy, and a mouthy one at that, do it for me? How aboutnever? My poor dick was so confused.

Well, let’s be honest; he wasn’t, but I was.

And what exactly did Jace mean by bossy in bed? Did that mean dirty talk? Was he into the dominant-submissive thing, or…

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