“You’re smart enough to know not to drink anything he gives you, right?” Holly said as we watched the boy storming ahead.

“Yeah,” I replied, shaking my head. “How was that for diva?”

“You’re a natural,” she said, nudging me. “Keep up the good work.”

The music came to an abrupt halt, a few heartbeats of silence saturating the room before the first few beats of “Eye of the Tiger” made the room shudder. All hail the victors, because if the song didn’t give them away, the chanting that had started outside and was working its way in had done the job.

“Show time,” Holly said, elbowing me.

“Will you stop throwing elbows?” I hissed over at her. “I’m going to look like a purple Dalmatian by the time you leave tomorrow.”

“Oh, grow a pair,” she muttered, focusing on the front door when it fired open. “Diva,” she added.

“Brat.”

“Ooooh. Burn,” she deadpanned, elbowing at me again.

This time, I dodged her bony little elbow.

The kicker, Kurt or Kirk, was the first through the door, one of the cheerleaders‌—‌no doubt his Spirit Sister‌—‌hanging off his elbow. Right behind the K named kicker, Tony came in, a petite bouncing blonde on his arm.

The players had never arrived in this fashion before; Jude usually just came barreling through the door first, hollering some obscenity, before throwing me over his shoulder and finding a quiet spot we could be alone.

I knew exactly who and what was responsible for the change in entrance. The who being Adriana Vix. And the what being a bitch.

“All right, Lucy, get into position,” Holly said, shuffling me in front of the door. “This chick’s coming out of the gates swinging.”

“No shit,” I said, shaking my head as the parade continued. I wasn’t holding my breath for Jude; I knew she was saving their entrance for the grand finale.

“Here, lean your hip into this,” Holly instructed, shuffling me sideways until I hip-checked an old, water damaged sofa table. Standing in front of me, she positioned my hip where she wanted it, then grabbed my hand. “Hand on hip, feet crossed at the ankles.” She squatted down, adjusting them just so. Popping back up, her gaze met mine with a hardened degree of seriousness. “When he walks in and his eyes fall on you, I want your eyes to emanate innocence. And I want your mouth to open just a bit‌—‌just like it does during orgasm.” Clamping her hands over my shoulders, she leveled me with one more look. “Got it?”

“Sure?” I answered, because there wasn’t any time for clarification. I could see the top of Jude’s shaved head coming up the front stairs. A shiny dark haired head a few bobbing inches below it.

“Put a nail in that bitch’s casket,” Holly said, driving her fist into her hand before disappearing into the crowd.

Even obscured by a mass of bodies, Jude moving into a room made my heart quicken. Even with a male fantasy glued to his arm, he made my legs weaken.

As I’d expected, Adriana was beaming like she was walking across the Miss America stage. I’d be honored to add some tears to her eyes if she didn’t loosen her grip on Jude’s arm. Bouncing into the room like she was the star attraction, she waved at the crowd while the chorus thumped through the room. She was wearing a simple, short, turquoise colored dress that made her skin almost sparkle in its bronziness.

The crowd was chanting, “Ry-Der. Ry-Der. Ry-Der,” and my heart was beating two beats a syllable. He’d changed into a snug fitting white v-neck tee and dark jeans that hung off his hips, finished off with his worn pair of Converse.

Over a year on and off together, and the man could still make my stomach clench just by looking at him.

As Jude and Adriana blazed through the crowd, it began to part, opening up to where I leaned against the ramshackle sofa table, hand on hip, eyes and mouth ready to carry out their orders when he looked my way. Holly couldn’t have placed me in a better location.

Adriana’s eyes landed on me first, and her face screwed into a smirk as her hand curled deeper into Jude’s muscled forearm.

But I didn’t deviate from the plan‌—‌resisting the urge to smirk right back at her‌—‌and my willpower paid out in spades. Jude’s gaze didn’t only shift to me‌—‌it skidded to me. Stopping in his tracks, he held me in his eyes. He never even blinked. “Wow,” he mouthed, running his eyes down my body.

Inhaling through my nose, I pushed past the muscles clenching tighter in my stomach brought on by the way he was staring at me. Opening my eyes wider, I blinked them slowly, infusing as much innocence as I was capable into them. Then, biting my lower lip suggestively, I parted my mouth just how I imagined Holly would have wanted it.

Jude might have just wavered in place. Adriana’s scowl screwed deeper, resembling a rare form of outrage.

I owed Holly big time.

Weaving out of Adriana’s death grip, he cut through the rest of the room towards me. Adriana slammed her hands on her hips, looking one quake away from exploding. It was a beautiful sight.

Even more so was the one grinning at me as he shoved through the rest of the crowd, moving as fast as he could. Stepping in front of me, his eyes were swirling pools of silver.

“Damn, Luce,” he said, sounding out of breath, appraising me with his eyes again. Looking at me with the excitement and anticipation of unwrapping a present.

I didn’t have words for the man standing before me, worshipping me with all he was. Flattening my hands over his chest, I pressed against him. His mouth parted with a surprised inhalation. The heels made it so I didn’t have to press onto my tip-toes when I crushed my mouth into his. My mouth was unyielding against his, smoothing, sucking, and smashing his lips like all we had left in life was this moment.

After his surprise passed, his hands lowered into place over my hips, kneading into them with an urgency that tightened the muscles in my thighs. By this time in our public make-out session, the crowd had starting hooting, and when Jude’s hand rounded around to my backside, digging into the flesh back there, they started hollering.

My breathing was becoming irregular, what amount I was able to manage in this state of tongue tangledness low. Running my hands up his neck to cradle his face, I pulled it back. Looking up into those hungry eyes, feeling the warmth of his breath gusting over my face, I smiled.

“Good game.”

CHAPTER SIX

“You better not be staring at what I think you are, Kurt,” Jude warned, reappearing with a couple of beers in hand and clearing up the K kicker’s name.

“I most certainly am not staring at what you think I was,” Kurt said, tilting his beer our way before fading into the crowd.

“He most certainly was,” Jude said, handing me one of the beers before resting his hand on my side. “Not that I can blame him.”

Clanking my bottle against Jude’s, I took a drink. “But you will beat him if he does it again,” I guessed.

“Hell, yeah I will,” he said, nuzzling my neck before he laid a path of kisses down it. The slippery glass bottle almost fell from my hands. “That goes for you too, Denoza,” Jude said, peering over at one of his teammates while his mouth continued to wet the skin above my collar bone. “And I’ll start by prodding out those wandering eyes.”

“Sorry, Ryder,” Denoza said, smiling sheepishly between the two of us. “What can I say? Your girl is meant to be stared at.”

“That’s right. She is,” Jude said, straightening up and putting himself in front of me. “By me.”

Denoza lifted his hands in surrender. “No harm, no foul, man,” he said before setting his sights on a single girl sprawled out on the stairs and beelining her way.

“Not in my book,” Jude muttered after him, before turning around. “You’re gonna get me killed, Luce,” he said, his face twisting when he took another look at me. “I’m one tough son of a bitch and I can fight off every one of these guys one loser at a time, but I think they could take me if they all came at me at once.”