Page 56 of Hate the Game (Playing Dirty #1)

***Savannah***

“Wait. Did you just say your dad’s new plaything asked if you were their third? You’re shitting me.” Cole whistled and leaned his head back on the truck. “When I hear shit like that I want to find my dad and thank him for vanishing.”

“Sorry, but I’m still stuck on the fact that someone shit in your closet.” Jax shuddered. “What the hell is wrong with people?”

I stretched my legs out between Ryder’s and sighed. “I don’t know. It was awful, though. Home didn’t feel like home. I flew right back and went to Blaire’s. She’s a great big spoon, you know?”

“You went and cuddled my sister? You could’ve come to us.”

“Do you think that you and Blaire could offer the same thing?” I saw his face pinch and rushed on. “Blaire is comforting. She knew exactly what I needed last night and just did it. She’s a born nurturer.”

He still looked offended. “I’m not comforting?”

I looked at him from under my eyelashes. “It’s different. My body doesn’t exactly go into relaxation mode around y’all.”

Ryder’s hand tightened on my hip. “Interesting.”

I jumped when a woman on screen screamed at the top of her lungs. I hadn’t been paying attention to the movie at all. When we weren’t talking I was internally panicking over how happy I felt in the back of a truck with them.

“You okay?” Cole took my hand and held it between both of his. “You look sad.”

I forced a laugh and rolled my eyes at myself. “Sorry. I’m having a dramatic moment in my head. I’m having fun, though. I promise.”

“What’s the dramatic moment?” Leaning forward, Jax took my other hand. If they thought it was weird that I was in one of their laps and holding hands with the other two, they didn’t mention it.

“I’ve never felt so adrift in Texas before.

I’m scared that it wasn’t all about my brothers’ party or my dad’s bullshit.

I’m scared it’s me, that I’m changing.” I couldn’t look at them as I spoke.

“I’m only here until December. What happens when I go back home and it isn’t home anymore?

What if I don’t like… What if my brothers aren’t the same?

That party was awful. What if they start using drugs? ”

Ryder grunted and held me tighter. It was oddly the perfect thing. Maybe it was all fake but when he held me like that, I felt like I had a place in the world.

“I don’t know your brothers but I’m assuming that they have pretty good heads on their shoulders since they basically raised you and you turned out okay.” Cole grinned and interlaced our fingers. “Better than okay but whatever.”

“And…you could always stay at USC.” Looking at me with an unreadable expression on his face, Jax shrugged like what he was saying wasn’t huge to me. “It’s not Texas but it could be home for a while. As long as you needed it to be.”

I was going to cry. I blinked up at the night sky and fanned my eyes. “Oh, god. I am not crying. I refuse. Keep it together, Savannah. Shit.”

Thankfully another rowdy teenager was being hacked at on the screen so I used the shrieking sound to cover my sniffles. By the time the body was lying in a pool of movie blood I was in control again.

Cole and Jax took my hands in theirs again and they let me sit there and process everything without interjecting with anything more than a comment or two about the killer in the movie.

By the time the ending credits rolled I’d come to the conclusion that I needed to find a way out of the article.

Maybe nothing would happen with them but I couldn’t destroy their reputations.

Not when I’d felt how kind they could be.

Speaking of how kind they could be. “Do you think I could visit Sunny again, Ry?”

He helped me out of the truck bed and I could’ve sworn he sniffed my hair when he put me down. When I looked up, though, he was looking away. “Yeah. Pretty sure he’d like that.”

The ride back to campus was too short and I wasn’t done hanging out with the guys yet.

I was so lost in my feelings that I wasn’t even considering keeping some safe distance between us anymore.

That had to be why I opened my mouth and offered to let them sleep in my room when they saw theirs. That, or else I’d gone insane.

Ryder shuddered when they opened their door and a pair of glitter covered panties fell to the floor at his feet. “Nope. I’m not going in there. Tell them to clean it up. I’m going to tiptoe into my room to grab what I absolutely need and then I’m going to curl up like a stray on your floor, Sav.”

I giggled at the idea of him tiptoeing. “I’m going to get dressed for bed first but I’ll open the door when I’m finished and y’all can come in. Lucky for y’all, I travel heavy with blankets and pillows.”

Of course, by get dressed for bed I meant panic and try on three different pajama options until I settled for one of Weston’s t-shirts and a pair of lacy pajama shorts. I wanted to be cute without looking like I was trying too hard.

As I dragged my extra blankets and pillows out I chastised myself. I’d just invited the three of them to stay in my small room like it was nothing. Each of them had given me an orgasm and they were going to be sleeping in my room at the same time. What the hell was wrong with me?

They were waiting outside when I opened my door and I nearly screamed from surprise and then from sexual frustration. They were all shirtless, in low-slung pajama bottoms or shorts. There was so much muscle on display that I had to lean in the doorway while I caught my breath.

“You good, Sav?” Cole’s smirk said he knew exactly how good I was.

“Um, yep.” I awkwardly held up my face wash and toothbrush. “Just have to run to the bathroom… Um… Y’all can just make yourself comfortable.”

I eased between them, a task made harder by them puffing out their chests like a bunch of peacocks.

Grunting like Ryder, I practically ran to the bathroom.

I wasn’t sure if I was rushing to get back to them or if I was punishing myself for suggesting they sleep in my room, but I washed my face like I hated it.

It was bright red when I dried it off and reached for my toothbrush.

I’d just realized I hadn’t brought toothpaste when Cole came in and wagged it at me.

I took it with shaking hands and put too much on my toothbrush.

Cole said nothing and took it back to use some for himself.

We stood there next to each other, brushing our teeth while watching each other in the mirror.

It felt so…domestic. I knew I was glowing even brighter but there was no helping it, not when he watched me so closely.

Cole bent to spit and rinse his mouth and I quickly did the same. He was smiling at me as I straightened, his deep brown eyes crinkled with mischief. “This is where a lesser gentleman would make a joke about spitting.”