Page 77 of Deviant Reign (Knight's Ridge Empire 6)

Unable to keep my eyes from the pitch any longer, I scan the bodies running around on it, picking out the copper and black coloured kits our players are in until I find the one I’m looking for.

I still the second I find him, my eyes running down the length of his body. His hair is soaked through with sweat, his shirt clinging to his muscular torso, and he has mud smeared pretty much everywhere.

He looks the complete opposite of the put-together prince I’m used to, and fuck if this side of him doesn’t make something flutter with excitement inside me.

A fantasy of him taking me exactly like that in the locker rooms hits me out of nowhere, the intensity of the lust that floods my system enough to make my head spin.

The image of him pushing me up against the tiles, his filthy hands running all over me and dirtying me up right along with him plays out in my mind as vividly as if I were watching it on a plasma fucking screen.

“Emmie,” a voice snaps, dragging me from my wicked thoughts.

Blinking to clear the image, I look up to find Xander watching me with a smirk.

“I don’t want to know where your mind just went, do I?”

Shaking my head, mostly to clear the lingering images but also to answer his question, I take the hand he holds out for me and let him pull me into my seat.

“You’ve got it bad, Shorty.”

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” I hiss, my eyes tracking Theo across the pitch.

The minutes drag on as the adrenaline from the journey and seeing him for the first time begins to fade and the cold Xander warned me about, starts to creep in.

A shiver rips through me at the same time Theo turns on one of the All Hallows players. I’ve paid them—or the rest of our team, to be fair—zero attention since I arrived, and it’s not until Theo squares up to this guy that recognition hits me.

“Holy shit,” I breathe, making Xander look up from his phone—clearly not a football fan either.

“What?”

“That guy. The one Theo is about to floor. That’s Ben, he was the guy Theo thought spiked me at a party.”

“Oh shit.”

“Yeah, shit. But it wasn’t him. It was his jealous bitch of a cousin. Ben was nothing but nice that night.”

Theo grasps Ben’s shirt and holds his eyes in warning. Even from this distance, I can feel the tension, the hate between them.

I stand without realising I do it as I silently beg Theo not to do something he’s going to regret.

Another shiver rushes through me and my teeth chatter.

“Told you it was fucking cold, Shorty,” Xander mutters, innocently wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me into his body—but he does it at exactly the wrong moment because no sooner does he lift his arm than Theo’s eyes collide with mine.

For a heartbeat, all I see is relief and happiness that he’s found me, and it makes my heart sing that he really does want me here. But then I’m pulled closer into Xander’s side and both those expressions make way for unfiltered hate.

He shoves Ben away from him, turning his whole focus on me.

I try pushing from Xander, but the irritating fuck is having none of it and holds me tighter.

Dropping his lips to my ear, he mutters. “We’re not doing anything wrong, Shorty. If he wants to be a fuckwit, then that’s on him.”

“B-but—”

“But nothing. He needs to deal with his own shit. Meanwhile, you’re fucking freezing your tits off. And I’m pretty sure he’d prefer them to stay on your body.”

Without realising it, a smile creeps onto my lips and I teasingly slap him in the stomach.

I don’t realise just how massive a mistake that is until I look back at Theo’s murderous eyes.