Page 24 of Hate the Game (Playing Dirty #1)

***Savannah***

It was my turn to have my tongue roll out of my mouth and slap the floor.

Ryder picked me up right at seven and basically pulled my still half asleep body down to his truck.

After not sleeping hardly at all I wasn’t fully aware of my surroundings until he shoved a coffee in my hand.

I might’ve grumbled a thanks, I wasn’t sure, but as I slowly woke up I started noticing things.

Ryder was in a snug black t-shirt and basketball shorts.

I could see his strong calves and apparently I was a leg girl.

Then there were the veins in his arms as he gripped the steering wheel. Holy arm porn.

I was so focused on those arms that I didn’t realize he’d stopped the truck until he reached over and took the empty coffee cup from my clenched hands.

I looked up and saw that he was watching me, his jaw tight as his eyes raked over my bare legs and oversized t-shirt.

I hurriedly looked away and saw that we were parked outside of an animal shelter.

“Is this where we’re going?” I tried to keep the excitement out of my voice but it was hard.

I loved animals. I missed them. I missed my brothers’ dog and I missed the dog my dad’s housekeeper raised for him and I missed the cat I’d spotted walking across campus the week before.

I just loved animals and if Ryder had brought me to an animal shelter I was in serious trouble.

“Yeah.” He looked towards the building. “I come here as often as I can. This is a smaller place with less funding but they take in a lot of dogs other places won’t. I like to help.”

There went my panties. I scrubbed my hands down my face and blew out a deep breath. “Okay. Sure. You work with at-risk dogs. Of course.”

“Was that a question?”

I cut my eyes at him, slightly annoyed that he’d brought me somewhere so amazing and that he just kept getting better. “No.”

“If you want to write about the real team, the real us, this is it. This is what matters to me.” He opened his door and stepped out. “Coming?”

Oh, bless his heart, but I was close. My body didn’t even care that my brain was sending out warning bells over his statement about the real team. Nope. My body was just a heat seeking missile with a big, hot football player as its target. Stupid body.

He met me at the front of his truck and looked down at my outfit. “Cute shirt. One of your exes’?”

I made a face and shook my head. “One of my brothers’.”

His face stayed perfectly blank but he heaved out a deep breath and pushed me back to my side of the truck. I grunted and nearly stumbled but he caught me with one massive hand while yanking open both of his truck doors so it formed a little nook that hid us.

“What are you doing?” I pulled away from him and frowned. “Why don’t you just pick me up and toss me over your shoulder like a sack of potatoes? You know asking hasn’t gone out of style, right?”

He grunted at me and then yanked his shirt over his head.

Once again I was struck stupid by the sight of his bare chest. I snapped my mouth shut so I didn’t drool and I might’ve leaned in a little so I could check out the happy trail situation again.

He cut off my plans when he gripped the bottom of my shirt and snapped it up and over my head.

I squeaked and covered my bra with one arm and smacked him with the other. “What the fuck is-”

He growled at me as he yanked his shirt over my head and covered me again. “There’s not a chance that you won’t get dirty in there and I didn’t figure you’d want to mess up your own clothes.”

My ovaries quaked. My self-control went up in flames. The bubble of space I tried to keep around myself poofed out of existence. I was past trouble. I was so far past trouble that I just let him tug me closer and manipulate my arms into the sleeves. “Oh.”’

He gathered my hair into a knot at the top of my head and I just stood there while he grabbed the hair tie from my wrist and did his best to tie my hair up. It was loose and more than a little floppy but he looked at it with a satisfied nod that made my stomach flip.

“You didn’t have to… Thank you.” I quickly fixed my hair when he turned to find another shirt for himself in the back of his truck. “I… Yeah.”

Ryder’s face twitched like he was trying not to laugh when he turned back around to me. “Nice bra.”

I snapped out of my lust haze and glared up at him. “Shut up. I need to do laundry.”

He locked up his truck and rested his hand at the small of my back as we made our way towards the shelter’s entrance. “I mean, it’s not quite as interesting as the Longhorns panties you had on last night but…”

I gasped. “How did you see those?”

“You bent over. I looked.” He stopped at the front door and took a deep breath. “I’ve never brought anyone here before. Don’t be weird.”

I scoffed. “Excuse me? I’m not weird.”

“Just try not to offend anyone.”

“Listen here, soldier boy, I am not- ” I saw he was fighting a smirk and growled at him. “You’re terrible.”

I thought I was in trouble before we walked inside the shelter but when I watched him smile at the elderly woman behind the counter I nearly had my first spontaneous orgasm.

Stick a fork in me, I was done. Ryder scowling was dangerously handsome.

Ryder smiling was just dangerous. He was beautiful.

Beyond. That smile made my heart race and my pulse throb between my thighs.

“My favorite boy!” The woman had to be in her eighties wearing a velour tracksuit in a neon green color and the shirt under the unzipped top proclaimed that she’d rather be with her dogs. “Come here and give me a hug, young man.”

Ryder wrapped his big arms around her tiny body and picked her up. “Hi, Miss Kay. I’m sorry I didn’t come last weekend. It’s hard to get away now that the season’s started. Miss Kay, this is my friend, Savannah. She’s going to help out today, too.”

Miss Kay turned an ass essing eye my way as she patted Ryder’s chest. “Savannah. What are your intentions with my Ryder?”

I’d watched my brothers look at several of my dates the same way when I was younger.

I smiled and stuck out my hand. “It’s nice to meet you.

I’m working with a program to write an article about USC’s football team, mainly Ryder and his two best friends.

My intention is just to get to know him so I can write a good article. ”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Okay, so I also might want to see him without a shirt on.” I blushed and shrugged, all while refusing to look at Ryder.

Miss Kay pulled me into a hug that was surprisingly hard for such a small woman. “You and most of the straight, red-blooded women in this world who’ve seen him. It’s nice to meet you, too. He’s never brought anyone with him before so you must be special.”