Page 36 of Personal Foul
“Noted.” I shake my head.
“Go fucking easy on him. She does look nice,” Waylon says to Liam, but then the traitor turns and looks at me. “But for real. Don’t ruin this trip. You think you can handle sharing a room with her without fucking it up, and I want to believe you. But I have similar feelings about my time with Mac.”
“Should have just had her stay with Ben and let him bring a jersey chaser.” Liam shakes his head.
“Give him a chance…” Waylon sighs.
Ben’s busy talking to Chelsea, and I wonder if he’s not in over his head with her because she definitely looks at him with those I-want-to-be-your-only-girl eyes. And while Ben may go through less women than I do, and with a lot more endearing qualities than I have, socially speaking, he’s probably the least likely of all of us to date anyone. Despite what he says. I’m fairly certain the guy will die a bachelor before committing, where I actually at least entertain the idea once in a while with a regular hookup.
I glance back over at Wren, and she looks so fucking bright. All smiles as she laughs and talks to her friends, and they fawn over the dress she’s wearing.
“Definitely going to capture a ski instructor’s attention in that.” Mac twirls her around once and she grins.
Ski instructor? Not fucking likely. Not after I get my hands on her again and she remembers what I feel like. Except I need to fucking move slowly with her. Give her a chance to care about something other than the sex. But sometimes, with her, it feels like that’s all I’ve got.
* * *
When dinner winds down,I pull out my phone and send a text message to the hotel’s butler service. I’m going to fucking roll the dice hard on this one, with something that will either soften her icy exterior or have her shoving me firmly back into a fuckboy box. Either way, I think it’s something she’ll enjoy so it’s worth it.
I can feel her eyes on me but when I look up they dodge away, back to her friends, smiling like she’s focused on whatever story Waylon is telling. She’s been doing it all night. Watching me and then trying to pretend like she wasn’t. I look down to see her knee bouncing under the table and my fingers itch to run over it, still her nervous habit and tell her how beautiful she looks. But I don’t want to push too far. Especially not with our friends here.
So I reach down, putting my hand between us where our chairs touch, extending my pinky finger so it brushes over her knee and down over the inside of her leg. I keep my eyes on Waylon the whole time like I’m as fascinated as she is even though I have no idea what he’s talking about now. Her leg stills, her eyes snapping to look at me and then down at my hand. I can see a slight blush rise to her cheeks out of the corner of my eye before she turns her gaze back to Waylon. I glance over at her and there’s the slightest little smile, the small upturn of her mouth that lets me know she doesn’t hate it when I touch her. And fuck was I going to touch her later.
I brush the tips of my fingers over her one quick time, watching to make sure no one at the table notices before I put them back on the table in front of me, taking a sip of my wine and acting like I’m not thinking about how the woman next to me runs my fucking thoughts lately.
“I’ve got dinner,” I announce when Waylon finishes his tale, mostly because I want to cover her dinner, but I know she won’t want me to single her out. It’ll throw up all kinds of flags for our friends, and she’ll hate it and say I treat her like she’s a charity case. If I pay for everyone though, I can take care of her like I want.
“You sure? That was an expensive meal.” Waylon frowns a little at me.
“I’ve got it. No worries.” I shrug it off.
I feel her eyes on me again, and this time when I go to catch them, they don’t jump away.
“Thank you. That’s really sweet of you to do for everyone,” she gives me a small but warm smile. One that lights something inside, one that makes me feel like she means it.
“No problem.” I tear my eyes away from her though because I can feel Liam’s on me, and I don’t want to be caught out on this before we even start.
“We’re going to go up for a night ride on the lift. Any of you want to go?” Ben asks, his arm casually draped around Chelsea’s shoulders.
“There’s supposed to be hot cocoa after,” Chelsea adds.
“Oh that sounds amazing.” Liv gives Liam big doe eyes and that’s all it takes for him to concede and thankfully be distracted from whatever he was piecing together about Wren and me.
The table descends into chatter and soon everyone else is agreeing to go, and I see Wren shift uncomfortably again.
“Do you want to go?” I ask.
“Oh um. No I think it sounds a tad too romantic. But you should go if you want.” She winks at me in an oddly playful way that causes a little twist in my chest.
“Nah. I was gonna go back to the room for the night, but I’d go if you wanted to have company.”
Secretly I’m hoping she says no. I want her to come back to the room with me. I want her alone. But if she says she wants me to I will.
“In case I don’t want to be the 7thwheel you mean? That’s nice of you, but I’m good. I’m serious though, if you want to go and get some hot cocoa don’t worry about me. I can get back fine.”
“I’m good.” So fucking good because she is going to be sleeping in the same bed as me tonight. In the same room. “The hot cocoa sounds good though. Might have to get some of that.”
“Agreed.” She nods.
