Devious Minds (19 page)

“You drew those?” I didn’t mean it to come out so shocked, but I was. They were striking abstract pieces. I couldn’t help but smile. They were simple yet complicated… kind of my life motto.

“Yes.” He gave me a sidelong glance, reveling in my reaction. “Believe it or not, dumb jocks have interests outside of banging chicks and collecting team stats.” He lay back on his pillow and took my hand in his. Playing with my fingers, he said, “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“I think I’ve got you all figured out, Gray Peters, brooding NFL hopeful.”

“You do, huh?” Turning on his side, Peters ran his hand down my hip. A fresh line of goose bumps followed his path. “And what do
you
love most in this world?”

“Music,” I answered without a second thought. “I love music. I love the way it makes me feel. I love watching people enjoy it with their bodies. Singing to themselves in the car. Its language is universal and bonding and beautiful… ” I stopped when I realized how sappy I sounded.

“Keep going,” he whispered, watching me with those intense honeyed eyes.

“Well, even if it’s a stupid and pointless thing to strive for, that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life. People should always do what makes them happiest. Or at least try to.”

Peters took a long look at his art-covered wall. “I agree.”

“And what do
you
love most in the world, Peters?”

Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes and ran his hand through his tousled hair. “Talking to you,” he said with a cocked grin, and I lightly punched him in the arm. “I need water. How ‘bout you?” Glancing at his desk clock, he let out a long sigh. “Shit, we’ve been up talking all night. I’ve got practice in three hours.”

Here it comes.
I waited for him to kick me out, sure this was his way of escaping without looking like a total jerk.

Instead, Peters twisted his back in one long stretch and turned to face me. “But it’s been worth every second.” Rising from the bed, he threw on a pair of boxers and running shoes. “Don’t move a muscle, gorgeous.” He leaned down, giving me one last kiss. “Because we’re not done with this conversation.

O
kay, it was clear I’d scared Sydney.

It was Wednesday and she still hadn’t texted back.

Maybe I was too eager. Did I move too fast?

I slumped back on my cracked wooden stool in the stadium locker room, a towel wrapped around my waist. Like a lovesick girl, I’d been checking my phone every thirty seconds, expecting a text. Crap, Sydney was all I could think about. Her pouty lips, her curves, her quick wit that skyrocketed my pulse with every quip.

I was such a fool.

“What are you doing?” Chance sank on his stool and pulled a T-shirt over his head. “Still waiting on Porter to return your texts?” He smirked and started to throw on a sweatshirt.

I smacked him in the stomach as it covered his head, and he hunched over on impact.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the row of metal lockers. “Doesn’t matter. She doesn’t want to talk to me.”

“Oh, I think she does.” Chance jerked his head down the wide carpeted locker room hall. The oak double doors were pulled open, and Sydney’s head popped inside. She looked from left to right before spotting me down at the end of the room.

“Get the fuck out!” someone screamed, and then a shoe hit the door. She slammed it closed, and I hopped off the bench, still wrapped in my towel, and ran after her.

She was halfway down the long concrete hall separating the lower levels of the stadium stands when I yelled out for her.

“Sydney?”

Stopping in her tracks, she cautiously turned around. She was wearing a knee-length skirt, her Converse, and a fitted T-shirt. Her long brown hair was pulled up in a messy bun, showing off her lightly faded tattoo, and her messenger bag was slung over her shoulder.

She looked past me toward the open field illuminated by the stadium lights. “I was looking for Jack,” she said quietly, twisting the tip of her toe in a circle. Her timid voice had me spiraling. All I wanted to do was find an empty closet and have my way with her. “I haven’t seen Allison all week, so I thought he might know what was going on.”

The concrete froze my bare toes as I padded toward her. “So you planned on ambushing your brother in the shower with forty other guys?”

Nodding, she fixed her eyes thoughtfully on my chest, drinking me in. “I figured he couldn’t run away from me in there. Plus, I’ve seen it all.”

I could feel her heated stare wash over me, and I hardened under my towel. Pulling it tighter around me, I hoped she didn’t notice. When her lips rose slightly, I knew I’d been caught.

“I thought maybe I could knock, but when no one answered, I just took a quick peek.” Her eyes hit my towel and settled at the loose knot in the fabric with intense interest.

“Did you like what you saw, Porter?” Deciding to mess with her, I suggestively fingered the knot.

Sydney wasn’t the type to blush, but the stroke of my thumb over the cotton fiber turned her normally olive cheeks to crimson. As I took a step forward, she backed up against the wall, her shade deepening with each move.

When I was foot away, I laid my palms on either side of her head, and her eyes roamed up my chest, finally landing on my face.

“You’ve seen one and you’ve seen them all, right?” she said in a flat whisper, turning her face against the wall. Probably to cool off those cheeks.

Boldly, I moved her chin to center on my face. “I don’t think that’s true, Sydney,” I teased, pressing my chest against her. The moisture from my shower wet her T-shirt, and she drew in a slow, controlled breath. “You gonna let me take you out to dinner?”

Rubbing my thumb across her jawline, I tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. When she tried to move away, I gently grabbed her by the waist.

A group of guys bailed out of the locker room, glanced our way, and headed down the opposite hall, laughing. I didn’t care. It was just Sydney and me. I had her. Her chest heaved. She was chewing on that lower lip, making it raw.
I had her
.

She lifted her tiny hands to my chest and pulled down across my muscles, feeling every ridge. Her palms felt like licking flames, gliding down my icy skin, and I wanted that touch everywhere. When they hit my towel, she surprised me by rolling over my front.

“Sydn—”

She gently cupped me, and any words I was about to form were a jumbled mess.

I moaned and lowered my head to her shoulder, lightly pecking the inside of her neck. “What are you doing?”

Tucked away in the shadows of the hall, Sydney and I were seconds away from indecent exposure. I felt her pulse quicken and throb as I brushed my lips just below her chin, and I was throbbing right along with her.

“I don’t know what I’m doing, Peters,” she whispered, shifting her hips flat against the wall. When her hands caressed the skin along my waist, I leaned in, kissing her earlobe.

Soon, we were both releasing desperate pants, on the brink of being discovered outside the locker room, but I’d take Sydney wherever I could get her. Even if it were during halftime on the football field, with thousands of fans screaming for me to score. This thought made me laugh, and even though she didn’t know why, she responded with a grin next to my chin.

Chance and Fernando barreled out the door and their mouths dropped open when they saw me intimately pressed against Sydney. She saw them out of the corner of her eye and smiled. I’d expected her to cut and run, but she didn’t give a damn, and it only made me harder.

“Get out of here,” I barked, and they hurried down the hallway, whistling and whooping.

I felt a cool rush of air hit my ass and looked down to find my towel on the floor. Sydney had pulled it off while I was yelling, but instead of covering myself, I stood back and let her look.

“Damn,” she mumbled, skimming a hand over my hip. “Okay, pick me up at my dorm in an hour.”

As she bent to grab the towel from the floor, her face grazed past my groin. The soft stray hairs from her bun swept over my skin, and I rolled my eyes to the ceiling, holding down a groan. “Jesus Christ, Sydney. Don’t you think we’re past dinner at this point?”

She shook her head, brushing wisps of hair against my shaft before she stood up. Then she slung the towel over her shoulder and started a lazy walk down the hallway. “I’m going to milk you for every cent, rich kid,” she yelled as she pushed through the stadium doors.

Still releasing heavy pants, the urgent need for Sydney stewed in my veins. I leaned against the wall where she’d just been standing and pressed myself against the cool cement.

I had to get my shit together before entering the locker room. I’d wanted her for so long, and I was literally inches away. I wasn’t sure how much more of her teasing I could handle.

At the end of the hall, the door swung open, and I spotted Coach’s silhouette. “What the hell are you doing, Peters? It’s gotten so bad you’re messing around with walls? I saw that girl leaving. You better be focused on the game Saturday.”

“Yes, sir,” I yelled, straightening my body. Covering my junk, I ran back into the locker room and welcomed the silence. I was the only one left, so I took another shower and relieved myself, thinking about Sydney’s ass and her plump soft lips. Lips I had to taste tonight, even if that’s all we did. I would get on those lips. They’d haunted me for years, and I’d never found their equal.

W
hat the hell was I thinking?

I wasn’t thinking. My body was reacting.

The second I saw Peters in that towel, I was wet. An agonizing ache built between my legs. For
Gray Peters
. My brain was screaming at me to not trust him, but every nerve tingled when I felt those ridiculous muscles on his chest.

And why shouldn’t I trust him? Really, it was Peters who shouldn’t trust me.

I’d been the one gossiping over the airwaves. Dragging his character through the mud. And based on what? Something I’d heard half awake through a closed dorm door two years ago?

A coward. I was a coward back then. Unable to face the embarrassment. I should have thrown that door open and yelled in his face. At least then I’d know for sure it was him. That’s what today’s Sydney would have done. No, she would have done worse.

As I headed back to my dorm, I received a 9-1-1 text from Jack. He wanted me to meet him at the athletic dorm. Either Jack needed help or he’d found out about Sunday Lane. I always thought Jack was capable of murder. We were related after all, and the Brown-eyed Virgin might push him to his breaking point.

“I can’t get through to her, Syd.”

I sat on Jack’s bed. The setup was eerily close to Peters’s room freshman year. Same bulky twin mattress. Same octagonal seventies-era window. Same beefcake athletes parading the halls, wearing next to nothing (didn’t mind that so much).

“She’s not talking to me anymore, but she sends me notes. You know, stuffs them under my door.” Jack stopped pacing and pointed at the gap between the door and the floor. “I was sitting on the bed earlier this week when a pink envelope arrived. When I jerked the door open, I saw a tall blonde wearing all black booking down the hallway. She dove into the snack machines alcove, and when I ran out there, she’d opened the window and climbed down the fire escape like a cat burglar.”

I lay back on Jack’s bed, stared up at the ceiling, and laughed. The idea of a swift-footed, black-clad Allison was blowing my mind.

“It’s not funny, Syd.”

“How do you know it was Allison? It sounds like someone on the Romanian gymnastics team.”

“The letter said,
I’m sorry, Jack. Miss your sweet face. Love, Your Ranch dressing-addicted Norwegian Princess
. And there was a chocolate kiss inside.”

Those fools, but they were fools in love. Speaking of “extreme like,” which was the stage I was at with Peters, I whipped out my phone and sent him a text to meet me at Jack’s.

What? A girl’s gotta eat, right?

“Syd, she said Katharine’s putting her through hell. She hasn’t said anything to you?”

I shook my head. “She hasn’t stayed at the dorm all week. I just assumed you two were cooped up, procreating.”

“Ewww, Syd. We haven’t done that yet. I want it to be special.” A dreamy grin crossed his face and his cheeks reddened. “I was going to take her to the zoo on our next football bye weekend. She really loves sherbet, so I was going to take her to Ben and Jerry’s. Todd from our team has one of those vans you can sleep in, you know, with the black bubble window. It was going to be romantic.”

“It sounds like you’re trying to abduct a child, Jack. Jesus, the zoo, ice cream, a creepy van.”

He was quiet for a second. “Yeah, when you put it that way… Maybe I’ll think of something else.”

A forceful knock came from the door, and Jack sprang up to open it. Peters stepped in wearing a pair of black lounge pants and a fitted white shirt. Naturally, I closed my legs as he entered, because this was confusing. Peters had gone from the most vile person I’d ever met to a man who reduced me to a quivering pool with one lift of an eyebrow.

Jesus
.

Completely disregarding Jack, he focused on me lying across the bed. Eventually, his eyes scanned the dorm room, taking in the familiar setup that led us to one another in the first place.

“Peters?” Jack backed away, shocked by his arrival. When Peters ignored him and stared down at me, Jack grew suspicious. “Syd? What’s going on?”

“Out, Porter,” Peters barked, jerking his head toward the open door.

Both Jack and I stood and started for the door, but he held out a hand to stop me. “Just
Jack
Porter.”

The look on his face was a tossup between lust and anger. I didn’t know which one I preferred. Maybe my locker room visit was too much for him.

I dug into my bag and handed Jack some money. “Jack, would you mind getting me a drink from the machines?”

Jack grabbed the money and stood there like the wind had just been knocked out of him.

“Go,” Peters said, pointing a finger at the door.

Shooting me a quick glance, Jack sighed but ran down the hall as ordered.

Peters slammed the door shut and began pacing the room. From time to time, he’d mumble something and look over at me, then continue to pace, involved in some kind of internal argument.

“What’s up, Peters? You’re starting to freak me out.”

“I’m freaking you out?” He stopped in front of me with a glare on his face.

Ding, ding, ding,
it was anger.

“My life was just fine, Sydney. It was all going according to plan. College… NFL… everything was perfect,” he scolded. “I thought I had everything I wanted. Everything.”

“What’s that have to do with m—”

“Quiet,” he snapped. “That wasn’t a question.” Grabbing my hips, he drew me close. “Fuck. What I’m trying to say is I can’t do this anymore. My body’s on fire every day just knowing you’re somewhere on campus. Please tell me you’re not messing with me.” He slid his hand down to my ass, giving it a light squeeze. “Because I need to feel something
real
… with you.”

Pushing him away, I moved to the opposite corner of the room. “This isn’t going to happen.”

Peters turned in a dramatic circle and slammed a fist on Jack’s desk. It was actually comical, and I worked hard to suppress my laugh but wasn’t successful. Hearing me snicker, Peters turned with a hurt expression on his face.

“I meant not in Jack’s room,” I added.

His shoulders dropped and he smiled. It was my favorite smile. “Then let’s get the fuck out of here, Sydney. You’re driving me crazy.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door.

“Wait.” I held my hand up to his chest. “Jack’s upset.”

Peters let out an annoyed growl and slammed down on Jack’s bed. When he looked up with his solemn amber eyes, I understood what he needed. Hell, I wanted it too. I couldn’t believe I’d gone from despising him to envisioning our bodies entwined together in the throes of passion.

“I know, Gray.”

His expression turned from pained to surprise when I said his first name.

“I know we need to… ummm… release our building tension.” God,
tension
. I made it sound like we should hit the gym, not the sheets.
Smooth, Sydney
. “But I have to talk to Jack first.”

He lay back on Jack’s bed and wiped his palms down his face, trying to cool down his hormones. I made the mistake of lying next to him.

And like magic, we were freshman again.

He’d give me that charming smile and pour me a whiskey. He’d hold me tight in his arms. He’d slide his tongue over my body like no boy ever had to this day.

I wanted nothing more than to relive that night but this time make it perfect. Two years apart from Gray, harboring immense hatred, left me bitter and angry. But right now, my bitterness melted just seeing him smile, and my anger disappeared reading the honesty in his warm eyes.

“I like it when you call me Gray,” he said quietly, pulling his eyes over my face. “Sydney, I jus—”

“Can I come in?” Jack yelled through the door, and I bolted straight up with a look of guilt.

“Come in, Jack!”

He entered holding a Sprite and scanned the scene for evidence of a struggle. “What were you two doing in here?”

“We just got done having sex,” I teased, standing up and fake-straightening my bra. “You might want to clean the sheets.”

Jack’s mouth fell open as Gray sat up and laughed. “We didn’t, Jack. We wer—”

“We were discussing Allison,” I cut in, and Gray furrowed his brows.

I was glad Jack was distracted, because instead of an interrogation, he straddled his desk chair and handed me the drink. “Okay, well, the only thing I know is Katharine DeSonna hates your living guts.”

He waited for the shock to register on my face. Nope.

“So you’re saying I’m doing something right?”

Gray scooted across Jack’s bed and leaned his back against the wall. Jack watched with wide eyes as Gray opened his legs, tugged the back of my T-shirt until I fell between them, and pulled me back to rest against his warm chest.
Bold move, Peters.

“First of all, what the hell is going on with you two?” Jack stood and kicked the chair across the room in theatrical fashion. “Peters, why are you touching Sydney? Syd, why are you letting Peters touch you? I thought you hated each other.”

Gray laughed. “Relax, Jack. We’re just hanging out.”

Jack was fuming. “Syd?”

I rested my head under Gray’s chin. “Come on, Jack… Tell me about Katharine before I leave, and mind your own business.” I couldn’t blame him. I’d be confused too.

“You
are
my business, Syd.” Jack ran his hands through his hair. “Christ. What’s going to happen when you guys get into a fight? Am I going to get my ass kicked for every little thing Syd does?”

“Just keep your big sister happy and we have nothing to worry about,” Gray teased, and Jack let out a dramatic sigh. “Now tell us what big, bad Katharine did to your girl.”

Resigned to the current situation, Jack settled back into his complaints. “Well, at first, the girls weren’t allowed to talk about you or think about you.”

“
Think
about me?”

He nodded. “Yes, and if they say your name, Katharine washes their mouth out with soap. It’s happened to Allison twice.”

“What kind of soap?” Gray deadpanned.

Jack looked to me for help.

“That’s an important detail,” I added, and Gray lightly pinched my side. “I mean, come on. Is it organic? Is it that blue kitchen shit? Give me the deets.”

“Oatmeal,” Jack replied. The agony in his voice nearly had me busting my gut. “And she gets those chunks in her mouth.”

I felt Gray’s chest rumble toward a laugh, and I drew my elbow into his tummy.

“What else?”

Jack looked at me and glanced up to Gray’s face. I had to respect the fact Jack didn’t want to embarrass Allison in front of a peer. After all, he was the polite Porter.

“Gray, could you wait outside for me?” I said, slowly rising off his chest.

He must have detected the air shift to somber because without another word, he raised his leg over my head and grabbed his bag off the floor. He shot me one last glance before he left the room, and I focused my eyes back on Jack.

“Spill it, Dimebag.”

“Well, it’s not a big deal, but when Allison told me about this, it nearly brought me to tears. You should have heard her voice. It was like her little heart was broken.” Jack cradled his head in his hands and kicked his backpack across the floor. “Katharine’s given Allison a new name. She calls her
Shallow Puddle
.”