Fair Game (The Rules #1) (6 page)

“I
don’t owe you shit,” Jade says, her cheery voice at odds with the scowl on her face. It doesn’t detract from her beauty though.

She’s looking extra gorgeous tonight too. Her hair is down, long past her shoulders and wavy. Her lips are this vibrant pink glossy shade I have the sudden urge to kiss off. And her legs in that skirt…I want them wrapped around me. Naked. Just before I—

“You have a lot of nerve, you know that? Showing up at this party like you own it. I’ve never seen you before in my life and all of a sudden I see you two nights in a row? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were stalking me,” she says, sending me a withering stare.

“I could say the same for you.” I grab hold of her arm and yank her close, trying my best to ignore the electricity that crackles between our bodies but it’s no use. I’m attracted to her. She’s attracted to me.

We need to see where this takes us.

“Like I’d stalk you. I think you’re an asshole, remember?” She jerks her arm from my hold, her foot on the edge of the deck and where the stairs start. One minute she’s standing before me, the next she’s falling…falling…

It goes in slow motion but happens so fast, I leap forward, catching her before she goes crashing onto the stairs. I’m holding her in my arms, leaning against the stair railing and bent over Jade, one hand cupping the back of her head, her hair clinging to my fingers, silky soft and fragrant.

Everything about her is perfect. And soft. She’s staring up at me, a grimace of what looks like pain crossing over her delicate features. “Are you okay?” I ask, hearing the panic in my voice but not really giving a crap. Her near fall just scared the shit out of me.

“I’m fine. It’s just…” Her voice trails off and she winces again. “My ankle. I think I twisted it.”

Without hesitation I scoop her up and carry her into the house, ignoring her protests, ignoring how she beats on my chest with her fist to get my attention. I’m focused on taking care of Jade, nothing else. I feel like an ass, driving her away, making her almost fall.

“Put me down,” she says for about the twentieth time. “Where are you taking me?”

“To one of the back bedrooms so I can look at your ankle.” I angle her to the side and carry her down the narrow hallway, kicking in one of the bedroom doors which is thankfully empty and haul her inside, where I set her carefully onto the bed. “Now let me look at it.” I sit on the edge of the bed, ready to reach out and start probing but she jerks her legs away from me, whimpering when she does so.

“Go away,” she says with a sniffle.

“Stop being such a baby.” I brace my hand on the mattress on the other side of her legs, caging her in. “I’m trying to check out your ankle, not look up your skirt.”

Though now that I mention it…

“Yeah right. God, do you think of nothing else or what?” She rolls her eyes and leans back against the headboard, making herself somewhat comfortable.

Which is good. Real good. I hope this means she’ll let me make sure she’s okay without much protest.

“Think of what?” I ask innocently as I let my hand settle carefully on her foot. She flinches, tries to move away but I circle my fingers gently around her ankle, keeping her in place. “It doesn’t look swollen.”

She leans over the slightest bit, the scent of her perfume washing over me, a heady mix of floral and citrus. “It doesn’t hurt as bad,” she admits.

“Yeah?” I lift my head, my gaze meeting hers. We’re close. Kissing close. Not that I want to kiss her. Not really.

Okay, I’m a liar.

“Yeah,” she whispers, parting her lips, a shaky exhale escaping when I sweep my thumb over the top of her foot.

I drop my gaze, taking in her pale blue painted toenails. “Cute.”

“My toes?” She wiggles them. “The color matches my shirt.”

Ah, the perfect excuse to check out that shirt again. I love how much of her it exposes without being trashy. Her skin is pale but not ghostly and she has a smattering of freckles on her shoulders. Makes me wonder where else she might have freckles. And why I’m suddenly so attracted to freckles.

I drift my hand up, over her calf, stopping at her knee. Her leg is smooth and if we were both drunker, I’d let my hand continue its search, going higher and higher until I ended up under her skirt. Under her panties…

“What are you doing?” she asks, sounding the tiniest bit breathless.

“Making sure you’re not injured,” I answer, proud of how under control I sound. Inside, I’m chaos. My heart is thumping hard against my chest and my breathing’s accelerated. I grip her knee, and realize my hand is fucking shaking.

“I think you’re trying to get your hand up my skirt.” Leave it to Bitch Face to call me out. I can’t help but find her straightforwardness attractive. No girl is ever straightforward with me. They’re always coy. Playing games and flirting and never asking for what they really want. They always defer to me.

After a while, that gets pretty damn boring.

“Maybe I am,” I say, moving my hand to rest on top of her knee.

Her lips curve into the smallest smile and seeing it feels like a victory. As if I’ve just won an extra difficult battle and that tiny curve of her lush lips is my prize. “You’re pretty determined, aren’t you?”

She’s not pushing me away. I need to take this moment. Seize this fucking moment and make it mine. Make
her
mine. At least for tonight. Her scent is making my head spin and just touching her knee has got me sporting wood. “I’m always determined.”

“Determined to piss me off?”

I chuckle and her smile grows. “Am I doing a good job?”

“You’re an expert at making me mad.”

“I think we’re having a moment,” I tell her. “A bonding moment.”

She looks the slightest bit horrified. “No. Way. That is the last thing I want to do.”

I raise my eyebrows, let my hand slide up a bare inch more. Then another. I’m so close to getting under that skirt, it’s not even funny. “You don’t like me very much, do you?”

“You don’t like me either. You call me Bitch Face.”

“You introduced yourself to me as Bitch Face.”

She tilts her head, all that wavy red hair tumbling over her shoulder. My fingers itch to touch it. “I did, didn’t I?”

“Yeah. I thought it was an unusual name…” I let my voice drift and she smiles once more.

“Says the man with an unusual name.”

“I told you it’s an old family name.”

“As a last name, not as a first.” She makes a little face. “It’s not very sexy.”

“You don’t think?” Interesting.

“I can’t imagine shouting out your name in the throes of passion.” Her cheeks go the faintest pink. That she’s even thinking like this gives me a secret thrill.

Forbidden. Unknown. This is the last girl I should consider getting naked with.

“Throes of passion?” I ask. “Someone’s been reading too many romance novels.”

“You know what I mean.” She waves a hand, dismissing her words.

“I don’t.” I pull the innocent act, which she isn’t falling for but it’s still fun. “What are you talking about exactly?”

“You’re not going to make me explain, are you?”

“I would love for you to explain. Or maybe I should help you.” I crawl my fingers up her thigh, playing with the frayed hem of her denim skirt. “Are you talking about…having sex?”

She nods, her cheeks blazing up. Hmm, she’s extra pretty when she blushes.

“And that moment…when we’re fucking…and you’re so damn close.” I lean in and inhale deep, my eyes almost falling shut as I absorb her scent, her warmth and that flush in her cheeks, the way her breathing quickens. “So fucking close as I push deep inside you. You don’t think it would be sexy to yell out my name just as I make you come?”

“N-no.” She shakes her head, that single word coming out as a squeak.

“Really.” I give in and settle my cheek next to hers, nuzzle her ear with my nose before I whisper, “Because by the time I have you coming, I’m fairly certain you’ll be crying out my name and begging me please.”

“You’re a real arrogant prick, aren’t you?”

I pull back from her the slightest bit, a little shocked. The girl doesn’t mince words. “Merely confident in my abilities.” I cup the back of her head, thread my fingers in the silky soft waves of her hair. I’d love to wrap her hair around my fist and tug her head back right before I kiss her…

“Proud of your man-whore status?”

“I can’t help it if the ladies flock to me.”

She rests her hand on my chest and gives me a gentle shove. “I’m not flocking to you.”

“Even after all that talk about coming and with my hand up your skirt?”

Jade looks down with a sharp gasp, dropping her hand to mine and shoving it out from beneath her skirt. “What are you
doing?
”

“I thought it was obvious.” When she says nothing, only glares at me, I continue. “I was going to kiss you and hopefully get you off with my fingers.”

Her mouth drops open. Instead of looking aroused, she looks…pissed. Vaguely horrified. “You’re disgusting.”

I lean back. Move way, way back though I’m not getting off the bed. Not yet. I still have a chance.

Or then again, maybe I don’t.

I
almost fell for all of that. The charm, the seductive tone of his voice, the way he looked at me, the way he touched me. Somehow, without me being aware of it, he’d skimmed those too sure fingers up my leg and slipped them beneath my skirt. Nuzzled my face with his. Freaking talked about being inside of me and making me come all while I’d be begging and shouting his name.

What a perv. Worse? I like his perverted side.

A lot.

“Shepard Prescott,” I whisper, trying it out. “Shepard. Shep.”

He runs a hand through that sexy mop of hair. It’s in dire need of a trim. Touched with gold as if the sun reached out and shot her rays directly on those rich brown strands. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, Shep.” I smile, feeling like the chick that fakes an orgasm in that one movie from the eighties. Mom loves that movie. I prefer Sleepless in Seattle but whatever. “Touch me there, Shep. Deeper Shep.”

He smiles. “See? Is that so hard?”

“Are you hard?” I clamp my lips shut the moment the words fall out of my mouth. Did I really just say that?

He clears his throat, readjusts the front of his jeans. Oh good lord, I did. And I think he
is.

“You’re the one calling my name,” he points out.

“I was pretending to try it out.” I sit up straighter, jerking my legs away from him. My ankle feels much better thank goodness. “But it’s not working for me. Shep is definitely not sexy.”

“Says the only female on campus who thinks that.”

“Please. You’re so arrogant.” I dart out my foot and nudge it against his thigh, surprised at how rock hard it is. The man is solid muscle, I’ll give him that. I bet he looks damn good with his shirt off. Or even naked.

Yeah. Don’t go there.

“See? You’re trying to touch me.”

“I’m trying to get you to stand up so I can get off this bed.”

“Why didn’t you say so?” He leaps to his feet, agile as a cat. And he’s a sneaky predator too. Scary. “Need help?” he asks, offering his hand toward me.

I ignore his outstretched arm and push off the bed, putting my weight gingerly on my twisted ankle but it’s fine. All better now.

I can make my escape.

“Since I just shut you down maybe you should go try and charm the panties off some other innocent girl,” I say, blinking up at him.

“You still owe me.”

Ugh. He’s not going to let this go. “And by
owing
you, are you implying I’m supposed to have sex with you? Please. I’m not your whore.”

“I never said that,” he says, all calm, smooth and irritating as hell. “But a bet is a bet. A deal is a deal. I won you fair and square.”

“Yeah, because my ex put me up for grabs!” I point out, immediately regretting that I yelled at him. It’s annoying, how serene he is when I’m all flustered.

“You two broke up?” I refuse to hear the hopeful note in his voice.