Ice Steam (Loving All Wrong #3) (26 page)

Jake popped his head up and nodded, jabbing a finger at me. “What she said.”

Unamused, Xavier wrapped his fingers around my arm and pulled me up from Jake’s lap, and before I could protest his lips were on mine, hard and punishing, making it impossible for me to reciprocate. A kiss to make a claim, a point.

Roughly tearing his lips from mine, he pointed a threatening finger at Jake. “Hands
off
my girl, Jake.”

“Ally’s my ally, big guy,” Jake returned. “Can’t make no promises.”

Xavier started to take a step toward Jake, and then abruptly stopped, his face arranging into an even deeper scowl when he caught sight of my attire.

“Damn you, Chino,” he growled, before hauling his jersey off over his head. “Put this on.”

My turn to scowl. “Uh, I don’t think so.”

“Put this on, Chino. Or I’m dragging your ass outta here.”

Folding my arms, I tipped up on my toes and hissed, “
No
. I’m my
own
woman, not some star-struck doormat you can boss around.”

“You’re
my
wom—”

Mark cut him off with, “Just put on the goddamn jersey, Alina. If Xavi’s not on the court, we lose.”

“Thanks a lot, asshole,” muttered Davian. “That’s the reason you sprained your ankle? Because you were trying to be Xavi and not me?”

Tex asked Davian in a cold, bitter tone, “Why does everything always have to be a bloody competition with you?”

“Bloody? Seriously?” Davian scoffed. “Is Saskia around? Where is she? Oh, right, she’s sucking
JK
’s dick now.”

Tex shot to his feet and ran up in Davian’s face, but Leo was quick in getting between them. “Not the time and place, guys. Right now we’re supposed to be a team.”

“Oh, God,” Xena groaned, putting a hand to her forehead. “If they start fighting again my head’s gonna explode. I
cannot
take anymore of this pre-school testosterone shit.”

A lot of steam was blowing, and a lot of chests were puffing. Something had to be in the Gatorade. It would explain why everyone was so hostile today.

“Put. This. On,” Xavier gritted out.

Ignoring him, I sat back down in Jake’s lap out of spite.

The referee blew his whistle, giving them a thirty second warning to be back on the court, but everyone was glaring at someone.

Xavier ground out, “Get up, Alina.”

I pressed further back into Jake, and without a word or a smart-ass jab, Jake wrapped an arm around my middle, keeping me to him, understanding.

Most of the time Jake was a joker, but if a fight were to break out right now, Jake had one hero, and that was Davian. He would be throwing punches for Ice Steam and no one else. And as far as he was concern, I was team Ice Steam, not Ninety Miles.

I knew Xavier was just being a jealous asshole, but I
wouldn’t
allow him to boss me around in front of a stadium full of people. Aggressive possessiveness might be sexy for some women, but for me, it was a no-no.

I didn’t like feeling like I was living in a man’s spotlight, or like I was defined by one.

After being a single mother, I think
not
.

If Davian and I were together and he found me sitting in Jake’s lap, he wouldn’t even bat an eyelash, because he’d know this was just
Jake.
We were all like family.

But then again, Xavier wasn’t aware we had an easy connection. Because I’d lied to him. So…

“Why don’t you just drag me up,
baby
?” I said with a sweet, plastic smile. “Go on, manhandle me in front of everyone. Make the news. It appears you get off on having an audience.”

Xavier’s jaw worked back and forth as his eyes fired a bazillion ice pellets at me. I had never seen him this frosty before, but I could care less at this point.

With a slight shake of his head, he flung the jersey at me then jogged back out onto the court, bare-chested.

My gaze slid to the left and caught Davian’s. He was sporting a chuffed little smirk.

“Ohh-khay,” said Zach, breaking the tense, awkward moment. “Who’s replacing Mark? Tex?”

Leo snorted. “Yeah, that would equate to handing the game over on a silver platter to the rappers. Tex can’t even
catch
a ball. He’s athletically retarded. Dude’s presence on the sideline is just for show, man.”

Still looking pissed-off at the world, Tex flipped Leo off, while glaring past me and Jake to spy on Xena and Danni. What he saw—Danni feeding Xena some of his soda—seemed to piss him off further, as he pushed past everyone, stalked off to the Gatorade table and began flirting with one of the booty-shorts servers.

Jessica got up and walked up to Davian, wrapped her arms around him, sultrily licked some sweat off his neck and whispered, loud enough, “That’s for good luck.” She repeated the sweat-licking gesture on the other side of his neck. “Don’t sprain your ankle.”

Davian peered down his nose at her with obvious adoration, tipped her chin up, and kissed her thoroughly. “Love you.”

To distract myself from feeling, from caring, I bit the insides of my cheeks until I felt blood.

Davian eyed me over Jessica’s head, expression unreadable, before kissing her forehead and jogging back out onto the court with Leo and Zach.

Jake’s mouth was at my ear, whispering, “Does he know you’re not really
his
girl?”

“Which one?” I whispered back.

At this point, I didn’t think I was anyone’s girl. No one’s girl but Jacob’s.

Xena leaned across to me, her elbow digging into my thigh as she gave me puppy-dog eyes. “I apologize for my brother. Only when he drinks is he this aggressive and scary psycho. And I’ve been keeping tabs: he’s one hundred percent sober. So I’m guessing his new addiction is
you
.”

“He might as well choose someone else,” I carelessly told her. “I’m sure there are tons of women out there who’ll find his aggressive craziness oh so hot and sexy.”

“But I don’t
want
anyone else to be my sister,” she whined. “You’re tough and kickass and I lurrrrve you!”

“Is there booze in your soda, Xena?”

Giggling, she bobbed her head up and down, catching her straw and sucking hard for effect.

I laughed and shook my head at her.

Wait, someone’s hand was in my hair. I looked to the other side of me and saw that Jessica had now claimed the seat beside Jake. Legs demurely crossed, she had her chin in one hand, gazing out at game on the court, but her other hand was absently fiddling with a lock of my hair.

I stared at her, and then at her hand in my hair, before slowly turning back to Xena.

This girl was strange. Really strange.

Half-an-hour later, the rappers were celebrating their victory on the court in an extreme inflammation of shouts and dancing, while hip-hop music blared around the stadium with Dustin Latimore free-styling all around the court. They’d defeated the rockers by six points.

Jake had been booing annoyingly loud in my ears, until he got up, set me down on the chair, and said, “I need to learn the Dougie better,” and ran out onto the court to cheer along with the rappers—the same team he was booing only a second ago.

“Jake should be in the loony bin,” commented Jessica through a giggle, in the same time Davian jogged over to the sidelines wearing a cocky grin, even though he was on the losing team.

For one silly moment, I let myself imagine he was jogging toward
me
, grinning so proudly at
me
. For one silly moment, I imagined him wrapping his arms around
me
, sweeping me up and spinning me around, muttering the words, “Love you” to
me
.

Me
.

The reality? He ran right by me and did all that with his
fiancée,
before
plopping
down with her straddling his lap. “If only you had licked me one more time…”

I tuned them out.

I was pathetic.

I
was the only loser here.

Ignoring the
drip, drip, drip
sound of the blood leaking from a puncture wound in my heart, I shifted, turning my back to them, and sang along to the words of Rihanna’s
Cheers
pouring through the speakers.

Down at the Gatorade table, the rest of the rockers were flirting around the booty-shorts servers. Tex had his arm around the waist of one with black hair, and Xavier was decidedly giving his attention to Blondie this time around.

He was still shirtless, and hadn’t glanced in my direction even once. A bit cold and callous of him, considering it’s been two weeks since we’d last seen each other.

Hell yes, it hurt.

When Blondie scraped her nails down his sweaty arm and he made no attempt to caution her, I stood, slung his jersey around my neck, and told Xena I was heading back to Beach Rock.

See, I excelled at tuning out others, at squelching my pain, at laughing through embarrassment, at feigning nonchalance, but when it came to Xavier, I could do neither.

Inexplicably so.

I couldn’t tune him out, I couldn’t turn my back, I couldn’t close my eyes and pretend not to see.

And I didn’t know why.

Xavier, when he was present, was
present
. He couldn’t be ignored. You felt a compulsion, a draw, a tug, to look at him, speak to him, touch him, climb into him,
be
him.

And since I could do neither right now, it was best I left. Staying would be tantamount to launching myself headfirst into the basketball hoop and, with legs sticking up in the air, yelling, “Hey, somebody, pick me! Choose me! Me! Me! Meeee!”

Pathetic
.

I was almost near the door when Dustin Latimore caught up to me. “’Sup, Alina.”

“Dustin,” I perfunctorily acknowledged.

“So, I been hearin’ rumors that you be Xander’s girl. Those true words?”

With a roll of my eyes, I informed him I was no one’s girl and resumed walking.

He stopped me again. “So, you single?”

“And free.”

“Cool. Cool.” He rubbed his hands together and licked his lips. “Usually, I’m an ass man. But for a white girl, you bangin’. What’d you say we, you know, chill sometimes?”

“I don’t know how to do the Dougie.”

He busted out laughing. “No prob. I’m the man. I could teach you...” He moved in close to add, “…with a lot less clothes on.”

Twice. Twice I’ve turned down this guy. He was shameless.

“Tell you what,” I began, “do it the old-fashion way. Break it to Lion that you want to ‘chill’ with me. And if he approves, it’s a go.”

Tossing his head back, he bellowed out a laugh. “You’re sending me into the Lion’s den?”

Shrugging, I told him, “If you can’t win over the father, you’re not man enough for the daughter.”

This time when I resumed walking, he didn’t stop me.

On the way back to Beach Rock, I tried ringing Saskia. She hasn’t spoken to me since our Whatsapp tiff, but I still sent her email updates every single evening, giving her the full rundown of each day, of my misdemeanors, mistakes and misjudgments.

She never once replied.

JK refused to get involved. He said she was a hormonal mess right now and I should just give her some time to come around.

I was about twenty-feet away from my destination when someone grabbed my wrist and yanked me to the left.

I stumbled, then found myself smacking right into Davian’s side.

“Wha-what are you—”

“Shh,” he shushed, as he continued tugging me down a grassy narrow gap between Beach Rock and an open lot with a bunch of golf carts, four-wheel bikes, scooters, skateboards, and two massive RVs.

The gap belched us out to the beach front, and Davian went right, toward the huge cluster of rocks below Beach Rock.

Ducking under the house’s long-lipped balcony, he pulled me around the back of a giant black rock that had a cavernous gape one could walk right through.

Silly as mice, I let him lure me inside the cave.

Before I could get a word out, Davian had me against the gritty wall inside the rock, and next, his tongue was rubbing against mine.

He kissed me like a man dying of thirst and I was a tall glass of ice-cold water.

Moaning, I traveled my hands up to his neck and kissed him back, not caring that his lips had been on Jessica’s mere minutes ago.