Page 33 of Go Deep (A Bad Boy Sports Romance)
“Look, Shawn, I don’t know what you want me to say,” I started, trying to talk my way out of the conversation and not admit to him what was just about to go down before he called.
“Christ. Just put her on.”
“I, uh, let’s talk later, Shawn. You’re all upset and shit.”
I heard a key in the door just in, and Miranda bounced in with her fading pink hair.
“Oh, hey, Slade,” she said. “Have y’all been working on your project?” Her eyes moved from one to the other.
“You’re pathetic,” Shawn spat in my ear.
“Christ.”
“Just get the damn gift for Mom,” he said before hanging up.
Cassidy looked at me as I put the phone in my pocket. I shrugged, like I didn’t know what had happened.
“Listen, I’m glad you’re both here,” Miranda said, unaware of what she’d just walked in on. She plopped down on her bed, then looked at Cassidy and me with suspicion in her eyes. After a beat, she continued. “There’s a floor party down on the third floor next week. I thought it would be cool if Slade came along. You know, since you’ve been hanging out and you guys seem to be friendly…or fucking…or whatever.”
She was either drunk or high on something. I couldn’t tell which.
“I don’t know,” Cassidy hesitated.
“It won’t be like a date. I’m not trying to say you guys are turning into a couple. I just think it would be cool to give the girls on the floor a little something to dream about at night.”
She was definitely high…and drunk.
“It’s not a good idea,” Cassidy insisted. “Slade’s got a lot going on, and I don’t want to give people the wrong impression. We’re not together. You know that, right?” She looked at me, her eyes pleading for backup on this.
Miranda looked back and forth between us. “But you could bring him like a friend. Like, people go to parties with their friends, not always as a couple. What’s the deal? I just figured since he’s been around more, maybe he’d enjoy getting to hang out with all of us.”
“Not gonna happen, Miranda. Just no. He’s busy and I don’t have time to party.” Cassidy turned to me. “I’m sorry, but you understand, right?”
I cocked my head to the side. “I think I do, but I wish I didn’t. Whatever.” I got to my feet and made my way to the door. “I’ll get the write-up started. See you in class. Later, dolls.”
“Mmmm, later.”
I couldn’t believe Cassidy didn’t want to be seen with me. I was the Slaughter, for fuck’s sake. Every girl on campus would have killed or dumped significant others to have me as their date. Even Miranda seemed to want me there more than Cassidy did. Maybe this was just about sex for Cassidy now. Fuck, had the Ice Princess flipped the script on me? Shit, maybe I hadn’t given her enough credit. Maybe I’d been reading her wrong. She got a piece of the Slade, and she wanted more, but she wasn’t ready to let the world know it yet.
Well, I didn’t care what they knew. I wasn’t about to play her like that in front of her friends. Or in front of mine for that matter. We had a history, and although it wasn’t a romantic one, it was beginning to complicate things. Maybe it was time to call off the bet and forget about her.
Then, there was my brother. What the hell was Shawn’s problem? I knew they were friends, and at one point I’d suspected they weretogether, but that was years ago. He’d dated girls in high school and now at Harvard, so when did this possessiveness just creep up all of a sudden? I wondered how much his meddling ass knew. Cassidy would never tell him that we’d slept together, yet he seemed to know a lot about what was going on between us.
I sat in the car in front of Cassidy’s dorm, clearing my head so I could get my ass home in one piece. I wondered if she was spilling the Cajun beans on what Miranda had almost gotten a front row seat to. If Shawn hadn’t phoned, Miranda would have walked in on us. The most frustrating thing was having to drive home with that image of her perfect skin and pink nipples without getting to taste them.
I also had to try and get a handle on how she was acting. When it was just the two of us, she treated me like she wanted more, and as soon as anyone else was around, things went back to normal. In this case, normal meant that there was no sex, there was no friendship and she didn’t want anything to do with me. What the hell was her deal?
I pulled up to my place and parked in the back with everyone else. It was late, and I was tired, and I didn’t get laid.
Well, fuck me.
I stripped down to my shorts and crashed out for the night.
