Page 20 of Necessary Roughness
“Five minutes?” I said, leaning on humor to defuse the awkward interaction. “That’s barely enough time for foreplay. I’ll pass. I don’t need the notesthatmuch.”
I tried walking around him, but he stepped sideways to block my path.
“Just five minutes,” he reiterated. “I have a proposition for you. And trust me: you’re going to want to hear it.”
8
Logan
“I don’t want to hear it, bro,” I said into my phone. “I’m getting more passes because I’m the one getting open. If you want to pad your stats next Saturday, then you need to do a better job shaking your defenders.”
“You can put in a word with Coach,” the other wide receiver replied. “He listens to you.”
“Maybe. I’ll see you at practice in a few hours.”
I hung up. I was getting sick of being a veteran on this team. Everyone else kept asking me for things. Advice, favors, help. I just wanted to run my routes and catch the football. I didn’t want to be a leader. That shit was for Knox, not me.
I set my phone to Do Not Disturb, then sank back into the couch and turned my attention to the textbook. It was open to the first page of the first chapter. I’d been staring at the words for half an hour withoutreallyabsorbing any of the information.
When I was younger, I liked school. I enjoyed learning about shit. But once I got to college, it became tough to juggle my classworkandmy football responsibilities. As far as I was concerned, studying just got in the way of my athletic ambitions. What was the point of learning about modern communicationtechniques when I was going to be drafted into the NFL next year?
I was sick of books. I was ready to get past this phase of my life and become a real adult who didn’t have to study. Obviously, being an adult came with approximately abillionother responsibilities. But for now, I didn’t care.
Five minutes later, I still hadn’t gotten past the first page.
It wasn’t just boredom that was derailing my focus. I still kept thinking about the other night, and the threesome that fizzled out before it could begin. I never thought I would want to have a Devil’s Threesome—that is, a threesome with two guys and one girl. I wasn’t gay. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but it just wasn’tme. I’d always imagined myself having a threeway with two super-hot chicks, not with another dude in the picture.
But in the moment? I was totally fuckingintoit. Knox and I were going to share a girl. We wereso damn close. It was like catching a game-winning touchdown pass… but then tripping and falling on the one-yard line.
And now I was horny as hell.
I’d jacked off since that night. Several times, actually. I was a twenty-two year old with a twenty-two year old’s sex drive, after all. But I wasn’t satisfied.
I wanted the real thing.
I considered texting my ex. I hadn’t seen Kate since we broke up in April. She’d flipped out because my Biology lab partner was a woman. It didn’t matter that we were randomly assigned together, or that she was engaged, or that the two of us only met once a week in the library to study. Kate totally lost her shit. It was good that we broke up, because I didn’t have any room for that kind of jealous bullshit in my life.
But she was good in bed.Verygood. I wondered how she would react if I texted her and invited her over tonight. Some meaningless sex to blow off steam. I doubted it was worth the drama Kate would bring with her, but I was still tempted.
Yeah. That’s how fucking horny I was.
Love was so goddamn complicated. It always bit me in the ass, one way or another.
The front door opened, and Knox walked into our house. “I thought you had class?” I said.
But he wasn’t alone. A woman followed him inside.
And not just any woman.
It washer.
A world of emotions flooded my system as we locked eyes, and suddenly I was teleported back in time to that night. Sitting on the edge of the bed, watching her make out with Knox before it was my turn. In the blink of an eye, I was bombarded with images of all the filthy things I had wanted to do with her that night.
“Look who I found,” Knox said.
I gave myself a mental shake. “You’re looking a lot healthier than the last time I saw you, Sloane.” I liked the way her name tasted on my tongue.
She reacted with a groan. “This was a mistake. I don’t want to relive that night. Thanks, but I don’t need the class notes.” She turned to leave.
