by K. A. Linde
“You don’t need help with them. Not if I know you,” Maya said. “How about a dirty martini with three olives?”
“You know me so well,” Bryna crooned.
“Trihni, my love!” Maya leaned across the bar and kissed Trihn on the cheek. “Gin and tonic, and something girlie for the cheer slut?”
“Perfection,” Trihn said. “Just like you.”
“I love when you talk dirty to me,” Stacia said.
A minute later, all three drinks were placed in front of the girls. Before any of them could retrieve their wallets, a guy motioned for Maya to put it on his tab. Bryna raised an eyebrow as Trihn fawned over his generosity. He was good-looking in an LV State button-up and slacks that he had likely worn to the game. His appearance screamed wealthy alumnus, and even though everything in Bryna told her to back away, she couldn’t help but be interested in older guys. Another unfortunate side effect of the Jude catastrophe.
“Why don’t you ladies come sit with me and my friends?” he asked with an easy smile that said he had done this before.
“Oh! We’d love to,” Trihn said.
Bryna’s eyes traveled down to his left hand buried in his pocket, and she wondered if something was lurking on his ring finger.
“Bri,” Stacia snapped, nudging her.
“Yeah. Sure,” she said.
She met his gaze and saw that look she craved. Desire. He wanted her.
She licked her lips and smiled, slow and sultry. “Sounds fun.”
She followed them across the VIP lounge. His friends had a booth right off of the dance floor, and Stacia immediately starting grinding on Trihn.
“Come on, Bri!” Trihn called over her shoulder.
But Bryna didn’t have any interest in dancing at that moment. She shook her head and held up her martini. Trihn and Stacia were almost finished with their drinks already, working toward that state of oblivion. Bryna liked to get there slower. After that one horrendously embarrassing moment when she had gotten shitfaced on her college visit, she didn’t like to let herself go like that. Being out of control didn’t suit her.
“Hey, I’m Thomas,” the guy said, sidling up next to where Bryna stood by the booth.
“Hey yourself,” she said with a smile.
Yes, up close he was even cuter. Strong jawline and extremely dark eyes. She could see the expensive watch on his wrist, and she took that as a good sign.
“What’s your name?”
This was a step in the right direction. “Brihn-uh,” she said, deliberately drawing her name out. People tended not to pronounce it right.
“That’s different. I like it.”
“Me, too. My friends call me Bri though.”
“Your friends seem to be having a good time. Are you guys students?”
Inquisitive one. She wasn’t used to that. Her European hunks hadn’t asked a lot of questions. And before that…well, Jude hadn’t cared to ask or else they might not have ended up in that situation in the first place. At least she was legal this time.
“Yeah. Students. And you’re an alum?” She plucked the Gamblers logo on his shirt with her fingers and leaned in closer.
His eyes landed on her lips, and then he nodded. “Yes. A proud Gambler.”
“I can see that,” she purred.
God, it was all a game. A very, very familiar game. And she wanted to hate herself for playing along…and even worse, for enjoying it. But she didn’t. She couldn’t hate something that made her heart race. She associated the mystery and danger with an unbeatable adrenaline rush and super hot sex. At the same time, she had an uncontrollable urge to watch with a smile as it all burned down in front of her.
He laughed and then offered her a spot at their table. They eyed her appreciatively and seemed impressed with their friend for not only finding one hot girl but three.
Shots appeared out of nowhere, and then they reappeared regularly. The girls were past tipsy and dancing sloppily with Thomas’s friends. Bryna even relented to dance with them. She was sandwiched between Trihn and Stacia, shaking their asses as if there were no tomorrow.
Thomas grabbed her hand and pulled her away from her friends. Grinding their hips together, he leaned into her. She thought he might kiss her or something, but he never did.
The music changed, and they all crashed back into the booth.
Stacia pulled out her cell phone and groaned. “B, we have to go downstairs. Everyone else is here, and they’re doing some kind of cheer thing.”
Thomas’s hand landed on Bryna’s, and his lips grazed her ear. “Don’t go. Stay up here with me.”
She smirked at the attention. She craved it like a life force. “I’ll come down later,” she told Stacia.
Stacia gave her a knowing look. “Are you sure? It’ll be fun.”
“S, go!” Bryna nodded her head toward Thomas and raised her eyebrows. Hello, I’m occupied.
“Fine. Trihn, are you staying?”
Trihn wasn’t even paying attention. She was animatedly talking to one of the other guys about who knew what. She was a happy drunk and suddenly found everyone interesting, not that the guy seemed to mind in the slightest.
“Hopeless,” Stacia said with a shake of her head. She kissed Bryna on the cheek and whispered in her ear, “Be careful.”
Bryna laughed off Stacia’s warning, and then she disappeared through the crowd. Stacia was super cautious and paranoid about everyone, except for herself. The girl seriously knew how to let loose, but when other people did, she’d freak out for them.
“So,” Thomas said, “you’re a cheerleader?”
“Don’t I seem the type?”
He let his eyes drag down her body. “Your friend seemed the type. You seem…different. More mature.”
That was a new one. “I like that.”
“I like you,” he said.
“You barely know me,” she corrected him.
And she was sure he wanted to keep it that way. It would be easier to justify the one-night stand if she was only a beautiful face in his mind.
“You’re gorgeous and an LV State cheerleader. What else should I know?”
She let the hit roll off her shoulders. The fact that she had come into LV State with a 4.0 GPA probably didn’t matter to him.
“Nothing,” she said dryly. “That’s all there is to know about me. What about you? What do you do?”
The question popped out of her mouth before she could stop herself. The way he had acted like anything other than her looks didn’t matter made her want to act like nothing other than his money mattered. It reminded her of last year and made her stomach twist. This was the person he had made her. Damn, Jude.
“I’m a biomedical engineer,” he said with pride. “It’s technical and not interesting.” He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her onto his lap. His lips settled into the crook of her neck. His hand crept up to her upper thigh. All the inhibitions he had been holding on to disappeared in the darkened booth with the help of the booze they had been downing all night.
She tilted her head, so he would have better access, and she reveled in the feeling of being wanted. She craved it like a smoker needed nicotine. And she refused to apologize for it.
As his hand snuck further up her dress, she reached down and grabbed it. She wasn’t going to do anything more than this in the crowded bar. She’d go back to his hotel room before that.
“Aw, come on,” he urged.
She crossed her legs and shifted. She wasn’t an open invitation. He would have to work a little harder for this.
His friends were watching them from the other side of the booth. “Your friends clearly like a show,” she said. It came out sounding like an excuse to stop, but she was more curious about their interest.
“Ignore them.” Regardless, he pulled away from her. “They should mind their own business. Let’s get another drink.”
Suspicion crept into her mind. Why would his friends be this interested in a girl he wanted to take back to the hotel?
She stood and reached for his left hand. Her hand brushed across his ring finger and found it empty, but she couldn’t ignore the indentation where a ring used to sit. Her stomach turned, and she tried to rationalize that maybe he was divorced.
He hesitated a second longer than she’d expected, and her insides turned to lead.
He followed her to his feet as he made his decision. “You have a place nearby, or should we go to my hotel?”
She gritted her teeth and then forced a smile, wondering how far he was going to take this. “Probably your place.”
“Yeah, my place,” he repeated.
Bryna giggled and leaned into him. “Something wrong? Don’t you want to take me back to your room and fuck me all night?”
Thomas groaned. “Yes. Yes, I do.” He pressed forward into her and let their lips meet. “Fuck, I want you.”
“Then, let’s go,” she encouraged like the devil on his shoulder.
He grabbed her and crushed his lips down on her again. She could tell he desperately wanted her at this point, and they hadn’t even made it out of the bar. Maybe she should have felt bad, but she didn’t. The guy was bringing this on himself.
“Come on,” she urged.
“Wait,” he said.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He met her baby-blues. “Nothing’s wrong.”
Bryna withdrew. This game was over. Thomas bored her.
“It couldn’t be that you’re married?”
His eyes widened. “What?”
“And your friends are looking at us, wondering why you’re a cheating scumbag making out with this whore?”
“What are you talking about?” he stammered.
“Please. An indentation on your ring finger, overly curious friends, and you being fidgety when I told you to fuck me. I should have guessed.” She pushed him away.
“Wait!” he cried before she could turn and leave.
She curiously eyed him. Did I misjudge him?
“I’ve never done anything like this before.”
She rolled her eyes. Nope. “Clearly.”
Thomas was such an amateur. She couldn’t believe how much it irritated her. He hadn’t even made it interesting. If she was going to do this again, he’d need to be better than this, make it worth her while to try to wreck another marriage.
“Stay with me tonight,” Thomas said softly, lacking all the confidence he’d had when he bought their drinks and flirted with her much of the night.
Ugh! Such a waste.
Bryna grabbed a half-empty cocktail off the table and threw it in his face. “You’re disgusting. Go home to your Stepford wife.”
She walked over to where Trihn was sitting with her mouth wide open. “Let’s go.”
Trihn immediately jumped up and followed her out of VIP. “What the hell just happened?”
Bryna sighed. “Jude happened.”
“OKAY. THAT’S A WRAP, GIRLS. If you have any questions once you leave, send me a text message. See you tomorrow,” the cheer coach said.
Bryna breathed a sigh of relief. Finally. After three hours of grueling rehearsal, they were leaving the practice facility to go home. She’d had class all morning and cheer all night. Her body ached from stunting, and she couldn’t wait to shower, but at least they were ready for their first away game at the University of Oregon on Saturday.
Stacia swept her bangs out of her eyes and nudged Bryna. “Ready?”
Bryna nodded. She grabbed her cheer bag and followed Stacia out of the locker room. “That was one hell of a practice.”
“You looked great. I’d die for your bow and arrow.”
“Ugh! No more cheer talk. I can’t think about it anymore before the game. I’m going to need some serious retail therapy.”
“You need retail therapy for everything,” Stacia said.
“Truth.”
“I just need that.” Stacia nodded her head toward the practice field.
The football team was filing out of the gate, still dressed in pads, about to hit the showers.
“Which one?” Bryna asked.
“All of them,” Stacia sighed.
“Sounds like a porn. Cheerleader gangbanged by the football team.”
Stacia tilted her head as if contemplating it. “Doesn’t sound that bad.”
“I hear they pay good money,” Bryna joked. She couldn’t help but egg Stacia on.
Bryna wouldn’t put it past Stacia to join in on something like that. She wasn’t selective. A small part of her understood where Eric had been coming from in regard to cheerleaders. Stacia was the definition of that girl. Bryna just took offense to him calling her that kind of girl.
“I wouldn’t need the money. I’d be in it for the sex,” Stacia said with a wink.
“Slut.”
“Bitch.”
Bryna raised an eyebrow and smirked at her friend. This was why she and Stacia got along. There were forty other girls on the squad, but most of them drove Bryna nuts or made her want to stab her eye out with a fork. Plus, she and Stacia were the only freshman flyers, and that pissed off enough people, so they had to stick together.
“Look! Blaine!” Stacia said.
Bryna narrowed her eyes and searched for the quarterback. “Where?”
“Right there,” she said, gesturing toward the back of the line.
Stacia must seriously have a radar for the guy because Bryna could hardly tell the players apart in their uniforms. Blaine was exceedingly tall, which helped, but so was most of the team.
“Let’s go say hi.” Stacia dragged Bryna across the pavilion.
“What? They just finished practice,” Bryna said.
She shook off Stacia’s vise grip. The girl was nutso for Blaine.
What the fuck? Bryna had no interest in any of the football players. College guys, she was discovering, weren’t much better than high school guys. She didn’t mind flirting and fucking with the best of them but not right now when she needed a shower.
“Who cares?” Stacia said. She jogged forward and fell into step next to Blaine.
Bryna quickly caught up to her. Her eyes landed on the person walking next to Blaine, and she nearly groaned aloud. Eric. She hadn’t seen him since their encounter at Posse. They uneasily eyed each other, but she made sure that she wasn’t the first person to look away.
“Hey, Blaine! Good practice?” Stacia asked, her voice chipper.
Blaine smiled in an unabashed way that won over crowds. “Yeah. Great practice. We’re ready to stomp some Ducks this weekend!”
“I know you’ll be great,” she crooned.
Bryna tried not to roll her eyes. Jesus. Was this how Stacia got what she wanted—by batting her eyelashes and purring to get attention?
Eric snorted next to Blaine, and Bryna saw that his expression mirrored her own. When they both noticed, they glared at each other and then turned away.
What an ass! She could be disdainful of her friend slutting it up, but he couldn’t.
“Thanks, Stacy,” Blaine said with that same smile. “We have to get to the showers. See you around.”
“Bye!” Stacia cried as he left her in the dust.
Once they were a safe distance away from the practice fields, Stacia let out a heavenly sigh. “He wants me. I know it.”
Bryna’s eyes bugged out. “He didn’t even call you by your real name.”
Stacia shrugged. “I mean, technically, it was my real name, but I had my parents legally change it in high school.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“Anyway,” Stacia said dramatically, “I think I’m going to make a move at the away game this weekend.”
“Good idea,” Bryna said.
There was no convincing her otherwise. She had her eyes set on the quarterback, and she wouldn’t be discouraged just because Bryna knew Blaine wasn’t interested in her. Not only was he not interested, but she knew he was also hooki
ng up with some girl on the basketball dance team. Either way, he was going to the NFL next year and leaving both girls behind.
“You know, I saw that thing between you and Eric,” Stacia said once they reached the parking lot.
“What thing?”
“The eye thing.” Stacia wiggled her eyebrows up and down.
“There was no eye thing.” The only thing that had passed between her and Eric was disgust that they’d shared an even remotely similar thought.
“Okay. Whatever you want to think.”
Bryna rolled her eyes. One day, she was going to lay it on them that Eric was gay, and they were going to be so stunned that they wouldn’t know what to do.
“Seriously, there was something,” Stacia crooned. “I’m not sure I believe that he turned you down. It was a front, right?”
“Wrong,” she said, exasperated. Why do I have to keep defending myself? “Maybe we were both amazed at how much you want to suck Blaine’s dick.”
“Why would anyone be amazed at that?” she deadpanned.
Bryna laughed. “You’re such a slut.”
“I only hope that I’ll be as good at it as you are.” She innocently fluttered her eyelashes.
“Doesn’t everyone?”
“Pretty much. Speaking of,” Stacia cried, “what exactly happened last weekend? I want the goods. Trihn said you threw your drink on that guy you were with.”
Bryna shrugged, unperturbed. “He had it coming.”
And it was true. He hadn’t even had the decency to be honest. Not that Jude had ever been honest. But the whole concept just irritated her. She knew she should just brush it off and roll with the punches, but after the way Jude had played her, she was a changed woman. And not necessarily for the better.
“Hey, B.” Stacia snapped her fingers in Bryna’s face. “Hot guy? Cocktail in the face? What the fuck?”
“He didn’t know how to play the game, so I gave him a lesson.” She winked.
Stacia giggled. She retrieved her car keys from her bag and clicked the unlock button. Her giant SUV beeped across the parking lot, and she leaned on the hood of Bryna’s Aston Martin while they talked. “That doesn’t sound like my idea of a lesson.”
“That’s because you would have banged him.”
Stacia tapped her lips. “True.”