Page 28 of Cocky Player

Who was this man who would risk his career for someone like me when he could most likely have any woman in his bed, with much less effort than it took to get me there?

And why was he the one taking it slow?He could have finished this nights ago, the first time we were together.He could have walked away as soon as he discovered who I was, as soon as there was a risk involved.

I hadn’t expected dinner.Drinks.Him asking me about my family.

Or me craving to know so much about him in between bites of shrimp curry on a bed of noodles.

I sipped my wine and took another bite.Sitting so close to him scrambled all my thoughts, and I knew he caught how I’d tripped over why I’d been in boarding schools.He was right…the way I was treated was vastly different from the rest of my family.

He caught my hesitancy, the way I tried to change the subject, but now that the door ofgetting to know youwas opened, I was leaping through it.So much for keeping the personal and my heart out of this.

I liked him.I wanted to know everything I could.Google was a poor substitute for the real thing.

“What about your family?They must have been really proud when you were recruited by Clemson.”

“My grandfather was thrilled.”Connor took a drink of his own wine and chewed another bite slowly.He went back to his meal like he was done with me asking about him.

There were several things wrong with his statement.The least of which being his abruptness.The lack of information on his part when he’d just tried to pry into my life, pushing when I hesitated.

“That’s all you’re going to say?”I twirled noodles around my fork and tried to appear nonchalant but inside, uncertainty swirled slowly but was growing.

“What else do you want to know?”

I speared him with a glare and brought the noodles to my mouth.“Are you always so obtuse and stubborn?”

He had to know I wanted more after what I shared with him.

Leaning back in his chair, he crossed his arms over his chest.One brow arched into a sharp point in the middle.Challenging me?Angry?I couldn’t name what I saw on him but even as it increased my nerves, something else warmer…more beautiful…pulsed somewhere so much better.

“You can’t expect me to answer all your questions and shut down when I return them.”

“I can’t?”

“Do you know how conversation works?”

“Maybe I wanted to know more about you, your past.That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re entitled to mine.”

A sledgehammer couldn’t have fallen more harshly against the table as his words did to me.Somehow, a switch was flipped.Here I was, thinking he was beginning to like me as much as I was falling for him.

How embarrassingly wrong I’d been again.

Perhaps that was my naivety.Just because he gave me orgasms didn’t mean he wanted more from me.I knew that logically.Putting it in place emotionally was proving to be much more difficult.

“You’re right,” I said.I could play this his way, at least until I got what I wanted.If that’s how he wanted it, his brutal responses and challenging, angry looks were enough to put me in my place.This, tonight, didn’t have to be any different than the night I went to the bar.

So I had a crush on the first boy who got me off.Welcome to high school, Brenna.

I settled the rearranged pieces of how everything had changed so quickly, why he’d suddenly closed off, and ate my noodles.I lost my taste for them and the rest of the food he’d bought.So silly.But he’d done it for a purpose.To impress me?

It didn’t matter now.He had no problems showing what he wanted from me and who I was to him.And I learned long ago that when someone showed you who they were, it was best to believe them.

I had two choices left…continue on with what I wanted from him, or leave and go finish my search somewhere else, with someone safer.Kinder.Gentler.

Screw it.

Something was happening between us.Sure, I was naïve to relationships and men, but I desperately wanted Connor to be the guy who gave me what I desired.I wanted to push him like he pushed me.

My stomach full, my food and nerves settling in it like boulders stacked on a shore, I shoved my plate away and refilled my wineglass.

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