Kicked: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (19 page)

“What are you supposed to be?” I choked out with a smile as she sat down at her desk and started her own makeup. I parked the bourbon next to her and waited while she took another drink.

“The galaxy,” Teagan said, making my heartbeat speed up in fits and bursts. I wanted to kiss the pale curve of her neck, not a spot I usually checked out on girls. “I am the entire galaxy.”

Mason Fenna was a stupid prick, but he had a really nice house on Summit Sky Boulevard with a bunch of other rich people.
Technically,
he lived in the dorms with our defensive tackle, Kirk Godbersen. But since his parents were always gone, and nobody gave a flying shit what any of us did as long as we played our best and attended the games, he mostly just lived here. In a fucking mansion. In a house that was about as nice as my ex-foster mom's.

I wasn't exactly sure about the comparison since she literally made me sleep in the shed on an old cot.

“Oh my God,” Teagan whispered, her breath too close to my ear as she leaned forward and put her hand on the edge of my seat. I felt my body go rock hard, from my calf muscles all the way up to my pecs. They tightened up and they just wouldn't let go. Kai noticed and rolled his eyes, but at least he was smart enough not to fucking say anything. “Somebody actually
lives
here? It looks like a … bed and breakfast or something.”

I turned around to look at her, wishing I'd had the courage to sit next to her in the backseat. I'd offered her the front, but she'd adamantly refused and climbed in back. I'd already screwed up several times tonight, so I forced my aching body into the front and continued drinking bourbon.

“Mason Fenna,” I said, wondering if she knew him, met him at the club or something. Teagan and I were in a weird place, friends for years, intimately acquainted and yet … strangers. Freaking strangers. It suddenly bugged me that I didn't know her favorite color. I probably would've asked if Kai had been anywhere but sitting next to me, absorbing every single syllable that fell out of my mouth. “He pretty much lives here by himself.”

“And hosts the best fucking parties,” Kai said as he pulled around the circular driveway and parked near the front door. We were never getting out of here. Once the other partygoers rolled in, this whole cement circle and the lawns around it would be covered in cars.

I studied Teagan's face, the makeup she'd applied that was still blowing my mind. Her lashes were long and dark and curled against her forehead, her upper lids lined with black and topped with a slash of silvery white. Trailing down both cheeks, like tears made of stars and supernovas, wicked cool bursts of black, purple, blue, pink, silver, and gold twisted and tumbled, framing her purple painted lips. Across that full mouth, she'd carefully crafted silver stars in minute detail. I couldn't stop staring.

A galaxy.

Kai was Thor, I was a rock star, and Teagan … was a galaxy.

I flipped back around and took off my seatbelt. If I kept staring at her like that, I might find myself stuck, unable to look away. I started to panic there for a minute, thinking about how I could lose her at the party, what girls I could introduce her to that would keep her chatting all night. I definitely didn't think about introducing her to any of the guys.

I took another swig of bourbon and then opened the car door, glancing up at Mason's perfect fairytale mansion.
God, I hate this guy.
Mason's dad was a U of O alumni and a QB for the Baltimore Ravens back in the day, and the success of that career showed. The exterior of the house was all columns and spiral towers and shit, and I knew from past experience that this house was almost as cushy as the performance center. There was a Ducks themed game room with a wet bar, pool tables, several flat screens, and a staircase that led down to an in-home theater.

I hated Mason Fenna, sure, but at least I could walk into his fancy house and know that I was a better player than him, that one day, I'd have a career that made his father look like a fourth string newbie. One day,
I'd
have a house like this.

And that's exactly why I need to stay away from Teagan Fletcher.

“What are you waiting for, douche? Admiring the architecture? Let's
go.
” I dropped my gaze and found Teagan waiting for me next to Kai as he smirked and made dirty hand gestures behind her head.
I'm going to fucking kill him.
“Grab your girl's hand and let's go introduce ourselves.”

Kai took off, his stupid foam hammer clutched in his fingers, and sprinted off like a pussy seeking missile. I had no idea why I even liked him, honestly. Maybe it was some natural selection thing that came from living together. Like, enjoy him or murder him in his sleep.

“Just ignore him,” I told Teagan, trying not to notice the way her nipples hardened when I stepped closer, drew my attention back down to the full, ripe roundness of her breasts.
Is she even wearing a bra under that?
I wasn't sure if I wanted that to be a
yes
or a
no.
“He's a complete pig. Most of them are. In fact, I'll point out all my teammates so you know which guys
not
to dance with.”

Teagan smiled at me with her purple-star lips, but it wasn't a full smile.

“Thanks for inviting me,” she said as I held up an arm and she hooked hers through it. We fit nicely together.
Crap.
“If you hadn't, Melia probably would've dragged me to some pot dealer's place to smoke weed and watch black and white horror movies.”

“Doesn't sound so bad,” I said as I led her inside the grand foyer with its shiny marble floors and curling white staircase.

“I guess not,” she said as I tried to remember which way to the bar. Luckily I noticed that Mason had put up signs this time, pieces of printer paper splattered with 'blood'.
This way to a gruesome death,
one of them said. I pulled Teagan in that direction. “But I'd rather be here with you.”

I gritted my teeth at that and resisted the urge to pull my arm away from hers.

Platonic. As. Fuck.

“Hey Mason,” I said as we entered the game room through a set of open barn doors, the fancy kind that are hand carved by artisan fairies or something, not
actual
repurposed barn wood. Of course not.

“Hey bro!” Mason said, shaking a silver mixer and pouring something for the three girls sitting at the bar in front of him. They were all on the Ducks cheerleading squad. I thought I might've slept with one—or all of them. Suddenly, my forehead was covered in sweat, beads of moisture dripping down my spine, across my belly. I didn't want Teagan to meet them, talk to them. I didn't want any drama to hit her while she was here.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” I asked as I stepped up and pointed out Mason's shirtless chest. “Did you steal my fucking outfit?”

He laughed, that raucously annoying laugh of his, like a donkey taking a shit. But his teeth were white and shiny, and his smile was magnanimous, and the girls at the bar all gave him coquettish appraisals.

“I'm Magic Mike,” he said stupidly, making me think he'd never actually seen the movie, probably just pulled pictures off of Google. He had a tie around his neck and low slung black pants. That was pretty much it. Not that I'd seen the movie either, but whatever.
I have a whole galaxy on my arm …
which of course Mason noticed immediately. “Oh, and who is your friend?”

“This is Teagan Fletcher,” I said as she smiled and held out a hand to shake with Mason. Seeing their fingers slide together made me feel sick. “We're old friends.”

“We grew up together,” she explained as Mason gave her slim fitting white dress a very appreciative once-over.

“Lucky you,” Mason said to me, his dark eyes sparkling like oil as he went back to making drinks. “Well, Teagan Fletcher, make yourself comfortable, okay? We're gonna have a dope ass time tonight.” I glanced over at Teagan, tried to see if her eyes searched Mason's half-naked body the same way they'd done mine. I clenched my fists at my sides in victory when she immediately looked away from him and studied the room, from the green transom window above the doorway that said
Webfoots
to the framed Ducks jerseys on the wall. She seemed more enamored with the vaulted ceilings than she did with Mason.

“So, Tyce, how come you haven't been at any of the good parties this month?” one of the girls said, flicking one of her long, blonde braids over her shoulder. She was dressed as a 'sexy Dorothy' from
The Wizard of Oz.
Looking at her now, I was pretty sure she was the one I'd hooked up with. I tried not to look at Teagan. “Got yourself a girlfriend or something?”

“Not really,” I said, still not looking at Teagan, putting my fingertips in my front pockets and wishing more people would show up so it could be more than just the six of us up here. Kai was nowhere in sight. I figured he was probably at the pool, scoping any early birds in their bikinis.

“Then we should dance tonight.” Dorothy looked at Teagan and smiled. It wasn't a mean smile, but there was definitely a challenge in it. “If your card isn't already full that is.”

I looked over and saw Teagan's face shut down, go blank and empty for a full minute before she made herself smile, lifting her hand up to cheek the elaborate twist she'd made of her red hair. After she'd put it in a fancy bun, she'd splattered paint across her forehead and over her hair to match her dress. I wanted to touch it so bad my fingertips ached like they'd been burned.

“Sure thing,” I said, but I was already getting ready to change the subject. “Where are all the Halloween decorations? I saw maybe one skull sitting in the entryway?”

“Who cares about decorations when we've got pool and booze and weed?” Mason asked, giving Teagan a goofy good ol' boy half-smile that made me want to choke him.
Second string motherfucker,
I thought as I looked him over and tried to accept the fact that he'd probably be the Ducks star player next year. At least I'd be making big bucks in some other town, far, far away.

Far away from Teagan Fletcher.

It was fucking awesome that we'd decided not to let this thing between us go any further. In the end, it would only hurt her. I told myself I was protesting just enough.
The football player doth protest too much, methinks.
Fucking English lit. Fucking
Hamlet.

“Should I get some music started?” I asked as I tried to remember where the panel was for the surround sound. Mason shrugged, pouring another drink and passing it over to Teagan with a sultry smile. When she reached out to take it from his hand, he leaned in and whispered something in her ear.

I felt the hair on the back of my neck go up.

Fuck.

“Stereo's over there,” Mason said, standing up and lifting his chin in the direction of the green wall behind me. “Just slide back the door and plug in a playlist.”

“Got it,” I snapped, moving away and wishing Teagan would follow after me. She didn't. In fact, she scooted onto a stool and started up a conversation with a 'sexy zombie' in a midriff top and blood splattered heels. I watched her for a long time, so long that Mason ended up glancing up and catching me.

The smirk that curved his lips made me uneasy.

This friendship thing was going to be a hell of a lot harder than I thought.

Booze flowed like water, turning the placid lake in the game room into raging rapids. People screamed and jumped, threw their bodies into some serious bumping and grinding, and passed joints and beers around like candy.

Most of the team was there, dressed as Batman, as some dude from
Game of Thrones,
like Ryan Reynolds in
Deadpool.
They melted into the sea of sexy everything—sexy maids, sexy cats, sexy superheroes, sexy pirates—and highlighted the few interesting and original concepts in the room.

Teagan was one of them.

Her figure was cut, curvy but firm with muscles, toned yet still soft. It was so obvious in that outfit of hers that she was every man's dream, a collage of color and lace that made my head hurt when I looked at her for too long. And the way she danced … all of that practiced perfectionism she'd been playing at slipped away and went out the door. I saw the girl who painted anarchy symbols on stop signs and stole spray paint from the Stop 'n' Rob shop on the corner. Teagan moved like there was no tomorrow, like I hadn't walked away and fucked her over, like I hadn't stolen her virginity like a thief in the night.