Page 25 of In the Net (Sin Bin Stories #5)

SEBASTIAN

T he next evening, Jamie, Carter, and I walk to Chiyoda Ramen for dinner. It’s busier than usual, and among the crowd we find Maddie, Scarlett, and Jasmine at a booth.

We stroll over to say hi. We’re friendly with them since Maddie is the sister of our former captain Lane, and dating our former defenseman, Rhys. Scarlett is dating Lane, and Jasmine is Maddie’s best friend.

There’s just one person missing from this foursome of girls who are now roommates.

“You three decided you needed a night out without Harper?” I quip. “Trust me, I can sympathize. Smart move on your part.”

Scarlett rolls her eyes at me. As Harper’s best friend as of last year, she’s well acquainted with our mutual dislike.

Just because I’ve kissed her twice and asked to be her wedding date, doesn’t mean we don’t still dislike each other.

“She’s on a date,” Maddie says.

I bristle, feeling my eyebrows tug together.

“With who?” I don’t know why the words come out so growly and sharp.

“Some guy from the football team,” Jasmine says.

My molars press together. “What guy?”

The football team is full of assholes trying to extend their high school jock fantasies into adulthood. The team isn’t even good.

Some of them are worse than others, especially?—

“Cody Perkins,” Scarlett answers.

My blood turns cold, spine going stiff as a steel rod. “You’re kidding.”

Scarlett quirks an eyebrow. “Uh, no. Why? What’s wrong with him?”

That guy’s the skeeviest dude in all of Brumehill College. He treats women like nothing but notches on his bedpost and then brags about it openly. I’ve heard he’s even pressured girls to send him nudes and then showed them off to his teammates and buddies like trophies.

I have no idea how he keeps getting dates, and I really have no idea why Harper of all people would go anywhere near him. I can only guess that the news athletes hear through the grapevine doesn’t always filter to the general student population.

I pull out my phone. I’m glad that Harper and I exchanged numbers back in Paris when she was sick.

Tell me I have bad information and you’re not actually on a date with Cody Perkins.

Harper (ugh)

For once, you don’t have bad information. I am on a date with Cody, and it’s none of your business. Goodnight.

My nostrils flare.

Leave. That guy’s a piece of crap.

Harper (ugh)

Takes one to know one.

Seriously. He’s got a bad reputation. You don’t want to be around him.

Harper (ugh)

Couldn’t be any worse than yours. I can take care of myself. I’m putting my phone away now.

My jaw clenches with frustration. Talking sense to this girl is hard enough in person. I don’t have a chance of doing it through text messages.

“You guys get your dinner,” I say to Carter and Jamie, “I have something to do.”

I was able to get Scarlett to tell me where Harper and Cody went tonight. When I step into Starlite, the hippest club in Cedar Shade, my eyes scan the large area recently repurposed from an old, unused warehouse, looking for Harper.

I push through the crowded dance floor, craning my neck and searching. I find her sitting at the bar, turned sideways on her seat toward an empty stool next to her. There’s a half-empty drink in front of it. I can only assume it belongs to Cody.

My eyes glide over her. She’s wearing a red dress that matches the bright shade on her lips. Her legs are crossed in a way that has the hem of her dress hitched all the way up to the round curve of her hip. My groin swells.

I imagine Cody Perkins filling that seat across from her, with her angled toward him, his eyes getting a full view of all that exposed skin Harper’s showing thanks to that sinful little dress. Rage beats in my chest.

I stride toward the bar, utterly inconsiderate in the way I’m shouldering through the crowd.

“Good, you’re alone,” I say when I arrive next to her, my voice tense. “That makes this easier.”

Surprise splashes on her face. “What are you doing here?”

“Taking you home.”

Her brows pull down defensively. “Excuse me?”

“You are not dating Cody Perkins.”

She balks. “You have some nerve, you know that?”

“Yep, I sure do. Doesn’t change the fact that you’re not going to date Cody Perkins.”

She crosses her arms defiantly. “What if we’re already a couple? What if we already had such good chemistry on this date that we’ve made it official, huh?”

Her voice is pure tease. She’s acting like such a brat right now that I just want to bend her over my knee and …

I clamp down on that thought real fast.

“We got a problem here?” Yep, that’s Cody’s voice right next to me, trying and failing to sound intimidating.

I turn to him, taking his measure. He’s not a small guy. He plays Safety on the football team. His job is to tackle people. But I bet I could body check him flat on his ass any day of the week.

“No problem at all,” I say, my gaze locked tight with his own. “Just taking Harper home.”

Cody squares his shoulders. “Oh, are you?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“No, he’s not,” Harper objects.

“Harper’s too smart for you anyway, Perkins. We both know your ego couldn’t handle it.”

I actually have to clench my chest to suppress a laugh when a glimmer of recognition flashes in his eyes. I have no doubt it’s something he’s already noticed during this date. To a guy like Cody, a smart woman is emasculating.

But if that ego is the reason he’d never be able to deal with a girl as smart as Harper, it’s also the reason he can’t back down.

“If she’s so smart, clearly she’s capable of speaking for herself.”

“Right,” Harper chimes in.

Cody crosses his arms and wears a cheeky, proud grin.

Fuck. It’s a sharper comeback than I’d expect from Cody, and right now my brain is too deep in caveman mode to come up with a good retort.

It’s not like words work on a guy like Cody. He only respects action. And it’s not like I’ve ever been able to win an argument with Harper, even when I’m right.

So, I don’t even try.

Instead, I dip down, scoop Harper off her seat, lift her up, and sling her over my shoulder.

“Sebastian!” she cries. “What the hell are you doing!”

“I told you,” I grouse.

With Harper’s fists feebly pounding against my back, I point a sharp glare at Cody, daring him to do anything about it.

A mixture of bemusement and defeat rests on his face. “If you want her that bad, Lawrence, she’s yours.”

He’s got the wrong idea, but a guy like him isn’t worth correcting.

“Put me down!” Harper demands.

“I will. Outside.”

I wrap my forearm firmly around her smooth, warm legs. With my other hand, I hold the hem of her dress in place, because it’s too damn short and I don’t want all the eyes directed at us getting a view of something they don’t deserve to see.

This is the second time I’ve carried Harper.

Just like last time, the sensation of hoisting her weight hits my brain like a drug, flooding me with endorphins.

It’s a good thing I’m still in too bad a mood to appreciate it.

If I were to dwell on why I enjoy it so much, it might raise unpleasant questions.

“Damn it, Sebastian!” Harper yells, still flailing. “You can’t just carry me away like a sack of potatoes!”

“Reality seems to disagree.”

People make way for us as I march her to the door. The swell of her breast brushes against my back, and a rush of blood goes to my cock.

“I hope you realize I’m kicking you square between the legs when you put me down,” Harper grits out.

For some reason, that doesn’t stop my dick from thickening in my pants.

Once we’re outside and a block away from Starlite, I set her back on her feet. Her jaw is set hard, the glare pointed at me sharp enough to cut through a car’s door.

“After you’ve embarrassed me in front of half the school at the busiest bar in town on a Friday night, mind telling me what was so bad about Cody anyway?”

I have no problem sharing everything I’ve heard through the grapevine about him, because fuck that guy.

It all came from reliable sources, and there was way too much smoke not to be fire, even if what he’s done hasn’t risen to the point of earning him any much-deserved disciplinary action from the school.

The hard look on Harper’s face softens a bit. “Well, if that’s all true …” She stops herself short of thanking me. “I don’t know why you couldn’t have just told me instead of hauling me over your shoulder like a caveman.”

I fold my arms across my chest. “I tried. The problem is, talking sense to you is a futile endeavor.”

“The problem is ,” she replies pointedly, “sense so rarely comes out of your mouth, I’m hardly inclined to trust your judgment.”

This girl is infuriating. If she got suckered into a date with Cody, who knows who she’ll go out with next. All in the service of showing up with a wedding date for one day, months from now.

It’s dumb for her to go through all this when I’ve already proposed the perfect solution.

“Just let me be your fake boyfriend already.”

She huffs. “Not this again.”

“It literally solves every one of your problems. You get a date for the wedding. It’s someone who will make your mean girl cousins jealous and impress the rest of your family enough for them to realize you have no problem finding a guy.

All that, and without you having to put yourself through all these dates you don’t even want to go on. ”

Plus, if I do this, I’ll feel less indebted to her. Pretending to be her boyfriend is nothing compared to the favor she did in pushing me to see Bryce, but at least it’s something. I’ll feel better if I can repay at least a fraction of what she did for me.

“I don’t know …”

There it is. A crack in her defenses.

“It makes all the sense in the world. You don’t have to string a whole relationship along for months when you only want it for one wedding date. We know enough about each other that it won’t be hard to fool your family into thinking we’ve been spending time together.”

Her mouth twists. “Yeah, but what we know about each other, we don’t like.”

Ouch. It’s only the truth, but why did those words feel like a punch to the gut?

“Maybe so. But we can fake it.”

She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth thoughtfully. That soft, wet lip. I felt it sliding across my own, but I haven’t felt my teeth scraping against it. Haven’t felt my tongue pushing past it to seek more of her taste …

“This is crazy. Stupid, even.”

I give her a wry wiggle of my brows. “It’s one of my ideas, after all.”

That actually earns me a reluctant smile. “Fine.”

I don’t know why my lips are tugging up so high and wide. “Next order of business. Pet names.”

Her expression drops, eyes becoming weary. “This is going to be a long month and a half.”

“Let’s meet tomorrow to discuss the details?”

Her chest expands on a deep breath before she lets it out in a heavy sigh. “Fine.” She looks at me, rolling her eyes preemptively like she can read my mind. “Please don’t say it …”

“It’s a date.”