Page 44 of Playing Dirty

“Just go, Madden. You’ve done enough.”

My name falling from his lips sends a little zap of electricity down my spine, and I swallow harshly.

“Theo—”

“Go,”he snaps again, a little more bite to his voice this time.

His fingers quiver against my chest for a second, like he’s fighting the urge to curl his fist in my shirt, before he ultimately pushes me away. I stumble back a step or two, my eyes locked on him until I finally turn andfollow my teammates out of the house.

But I can still feel the phantom heat of his palm long after we return to our own campus.

Thirteen

Theo

I’m still stewing well into Sunday night after the run-in with Madden and his teammates at the Kappa Sig house a couple days ago. At first, I thought I was simply pissed about their audacity for showing up there and starting shit, but the theory was quickly dismissed when I reminded myself that Blackmore students crashing our parties is a relatively normal occurrence. Even their shit talking isn’t out of the norm, though I’ve never seen it rile Wyatt up the way the comment about Lexi did.

But unfortunately, by ruling their presence at the party out as the source of my irritation, all that’s left is Madden; specifically, the infuriatingly confusing way my body is reacting to him.

It was like my body was attuned to his presence, couldfeelhim in the same room as me, and the sensation only grew in intensity whenever we drew nearer to each other. The way it lights on fire every time we’d touch.

I don’t know how to stop it. The more I try to shove away thoughts of him—of that night—they only fixate harder. It’s been like this for weeks now, a constant cycle I can’t break out of, and it’s driving me insane.

I just want to understand why it’s happening, and why it had to happen right when the rest of my life imploded.

And, fuck,why him?

I wish I could throw all the blame at Phoenix and Wyatt for putting the thought in my head to begin with, but I’d just be kidding myself. It’s not like they held a gun to my head and forced me into Madden’s lap in the hot tub—that action was completely of my own volition.

Now, I get to deal with the repercussions.

Releasing a frustrated huff, I continue staring up at my ceiling. It’s all I’ve been doing for the better part of an hour, like the solution would somehow appear in the weird texture beneath the paint, but it’s clearly not working.

All right, new game plan, then.

With a relenting sigh, I swipe my phone open and hit the FaceTime button on Oakley’s contact, hoping some kind of distraction might help. It rings a couple times before my old roommate’s face appears on the screen, a big grin pulling at his lips.

“Hey, man. What’s up?”

I offer him the most believable smile I can, and answer his question with one of my own. “You got a minute to talk?”

“Yeah, you’re all good. I’m just making dinner.” He holds the phone up over the stove, allowing me to see a pot of rice and two salmon fillets searing in a pan—though, from the dark coating over them both, I hope he’s going for blackened. “Or, attempting, I guess. I might just order takeout.”

Glad to see some things never change.

“So, what’s going on? Update me,” he insists. “I feel like we’re livingon an island over here on the East coast.”

“Uh, shit back home sucks. Holden and Phoenix are screwing like rabbits, but at least they’re locked down on their own floor so the rest of us can maintain some semblance of sanity. Camden is…Camden.”

“And my brother?” he asks, arching a brow. “How’s he faring in the house with you Neanderthals?”

Honestly, sometimes I forget Logan moved into Oakley’s room this fall to start his freshman year. I think I can count the number of times I’ve seen him since Thanksgiving on one hand, and each time I run into him in the hall bathroom or kitchen at odd hours, it’s a little bit of a jumpscare.

After the briefest hesitation, I go with, “Uh, he keeps to himself. Stays in his room when he’s not in class, mostly.”

Oakley lets out a long, frustrated sigh and shakes his head. “I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I was hoping he’d try to be a little more social.”

“It’s possible he is and that’s why we haven’t seen him. Plus, you know better than anyone how hectic our schedules can be.”