Page 47 of Go Deep (A Bad Boy Sports Romance)
She followed me upstairs and I pointed out the three shared bathrooms on the way to my room. Pushing the door open, I let her go in first and closed the door behind me, relieved that I’d averted a crisis in those last ten minutes. Not a soul had mentioned the bet. Which meant I could find a way to tell her myself, apologize like hell, and hope for the best.
She took a seat in the armchair on one side of my bed. I sat on the bed and she leaned forward, tapped her bottle to mine again and drank from it.
“You know, I’m glad we came up here, Cassidy. I want to talk to you,” I said after taking a big gulp from my bottle.
“I’ve got something to tell you too.”
“Yeah? You go first.”
“I was wrong about you, Slade.”
“What do you mean?”
“I expected you to be the stereotypical jock, you know? A self-centered, superficial, shallow jerk who didn’t care about anything but football and chasing tail.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And you think I’m not?”
That made her giggle. “Stop it. I’m trying to be serious over here.”
“Okay. Go on.”
“I didn’t expect you to be hardworking, sweet, or even funny.”
“Yup…that’s me. Chock full of giggles and surprises.” That was not exactly the best segue to tell her about the bet.
“I was so wrong about you.”
“No, Cassidy, I don’t think you were wrong at all. I’m pretty damned sure you were right.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
I took a deep breath to ready myself for the confession, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I decided to say something else. “I’m all about winning, Cassidy. In sports, in school…with the chicks…and for my career. I only do well at my courses so I can look better to the NFL agents.”
“So what you’re trying to say, where you and I are concerned, is you’re working hard with me because…”
“Exactly…because I’m all about winning.”
“And I was just another tail to chase.”
“Yeah…” She looked at me like she was ready to sign my death warrant. “No, that’s not what I mean. I mean that’s what you were before…” Nope, still not a good time to mention that there bet. “Before I took the time to know you and see you were more than just a piece of ass.”
I sucked at this confession crap. It was time to move on, so I got up, pulled her out of the armchair and into my lap, kissing her hard on the lips. As our faces slowly parted, she rested her head on my shoulder.
“Are you staying on campus for Thanksgiving?”
“Nah. I’ll be home.”
“Me too. What are your plans?”
“To spend as much time with you as possible without pissing anyone off…And byanyone, I mean Shawn, but you know that.”
“Same here,” she said with dread in her voice. “He won’t be happy to see me this year.” This was a sad admission. All throughout their childhood, those two had been joined at the hip. I was the third wheel getting in between them now.
“You and me both.”
“He’s so mad at me it’s been weeks since we spoke or texted. I don’t think it’ll get any better when he sees us.”
“Yep. The kid’s got a mean streak when he’s angry. But don’t worry. I’ll make sure things don’t get ugly. He won’t get to ruin Thanksgiving for everyone just because you and I are fucking amazing together in bed.”
She smiled, then shook her head. “God…this can’t go well.”
This was another first with her. Enjoying a woman’s company without fucking her brains out. I kinda liked it. We stretched out on the bed, staring up at the ceiling while we talked about holiday plans and whatever came up.
