Page 5 of Playmaker

Cameron

After my fifth shot, I’m beginning to feel good. Really good.

It’s hard to believe I woke up so hungover this morning. I guess it’s true that to cure a hangover, all you need is to drink more, because I feel fucking fantastic.

Mark’s party is vastly different from the one Ethan and I threw last night. Where ours was low-key with fewer than twenty people, the large house Mark lives in is packed. I stopped counting after the last shot, but I didn’t think we even had more than fifty people in this town.

I feel like I’m in a can of sardines with the number of people brushing against my shoulder as they pass. The bass is thumping loudly from a nearby speaker, drowning out the conversations around me, and it’s so damn hot that my leather jacket is sticking to my skin. I would take it off if Ethan and I weren’t seconds away from winning our fourth round of beer pong in a row.

“Oh shit. Here.” Ethan passes me the blunt he’s been harboring. “Sorry. I didn’t even realize I was holding it.”

I shake my head as I take my aim for the center cup. “You know I can’t smoke. Not with football.”

“It’s spring break,” Ethan says. “It’ll be out of your system before then.”

“Not risking it.” I let the ball fly, earning a round of cheers when it makes a wet plop in my target. “My dad went to college with the Arizona coach. Thinks he can get him to come watch one of my games this season.” Although I could have been selected for the NFL after my first year of school, I opted to get my degree first before entering myself for the draft. It’s what my mom would have wanted, but it doesn’t hurt to have NFL teams keeping track of my stats or flying out to my games to watch me play in the meantime.

Ethan blows out a whistle when he takes his turn. “Shit. Really?”

“Yeah, which means staying away from drugs and training as hard as I fucking can. This weekend has been fun, but come tomorrow, it’s grind time. No more bullshit. My dad would murder me if he found out I’d been drinking.”

Ethan fakes a gasp. “A twenty-one-year-old consuming alcohol ? The horror.”

Before I can reply, Sadie saunters up next to me at the table with a red Solo cup clenched in her manicured nails. She flicks her eyes up to mine flirtatiously and says, “I didn’t know you were coming tonight.”

My next ball hits its target again, making Ethan and me the champions of the night. He claps me on the back before I bend down to Sadie’s ear and shout over the music, “I’m surprised you’re even talking to me!”

After all, I left her naked and alone last night, but if there’s anything I’ve learned the past few years, it’s that the better looking a person is, the more they can get away with. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth.

It’s why I’m unsurprised when Sadie drags a hand down my chest and smiles, a set of dimples coming alive on her cheeks. “I guess you’re going to have to beg for my forgiveness then, hm?”

Like I did with Maddie last night?

Maddie is the only girl I’ve chased out of fear that she was mad at me. Hell, she wrote me off six years ago, so I don’t know what made me follow her down that hallway, but I can’t shake the interaction between us no matter how hard I try. Maybe that’s why I agreed to come tonight.

To forget .

And Sadie is offering me the chance to do just that.

“I’m glad you came,” she adds.

My grin kicks up a notch. “How glad?”

Her hand passes over the crotch of my jeans, but my cock doesn’t react at all. Not even a twitch. I’ve never had a problem getting hard for a girl. Normally the slightest brush of someone’s fingers will set it off, which is why I should already be half-hard right now.

What the fuck?

“Meet me in one of the bedrooms upstairs in five and find out,” Sadie says. “Third door on the left.”

I watch her weave through the crowd of people, but even the view of her ass doesn’t get me going. Maybe I need her lips around my cock to start things up, or maybe I need to find someone new. Maybe Sadie isn’t doing it for me.

I scan the swarms of options for anyone who might give me a reaction. There are two girls making out by the kitchen island, but again, nothing. A half-naked girl smoking in the corner, a set of twins grinding in the middle of the living room to a seductive song. Nothing works, and I’m starting to believe something is seriously wrong with me until—

There .

My gaze homes in on a perfectly round ass hugged tightly by a black leather miniskirt hardly covering the girl’s underwear. A blond ponytail hangs down to the middle of her spine, and fantasies of me wrapping that hair around my fist while I—

“I can’t believe she came,” Ethan scoffs, taking another drag of the blunt. “I’ve truly seen everything now.”

“Who?” I ask, unable to drag my eyes away from the girl. Mark seems to have already laid claim on her, whoever she is. He’s laughing at something she says, and although I can’t see her face, her body language seems to indicate she’s enjoying her time with him.

“Maddie,” Ethan says, pointing in the same direction I’m staring.

No .

No way in hell .

There’s no way that’s Maddie, but as soon as I get ready to tell Ethan he’s too stoned, she spins around. Maya joins them a second later, passing a drink to Maddie, and I seriously can’t comprehend what I’m seeing.

The girl who spent all her summer days with me and Ethan growing up looks nothing like the girl in the red bodysuit across the room. I’m used to curly pigtails and missing front teeth. Sure, I’ve seen her over the years mature into the woman she is today, but never like this.

Her curly blond ringlets are straightened to perfection, and her makeup is heavier than normal, with eyeliner and red lipstick, but that bodysuit . It cuts to the middle of her chest, outlining the breasts I’ve tried desperately to ignore for the past six years. I’ve never wanted to pull a piece of fabric apart as badly as I do now. Do the dirty images floating throughout my head make me a worthless sack of shit? Completely, but I can’t stop them.

She isn’t wearing a bra, so I can see her hardened nipples. What I wouldn’t give to shove her right against that wall and release those tits so I can lap over them with my tongue and—

Well, it’s nice to know my cock isn’t broken.

It’s suddenly giving a standing fucking ovation for Maddie Davis.

And now is not the time for this when I’m standing next to her brother.

My knuckles grow white on my cup. “Are you going to stop her from talking to Mark, or . . . ?”

He shrugs. “Why? She’s a grown adult who can make her own decisions. I’m tired of babysitting her. Maddie knows right from wrong. Plus, it could be worse. Mark is a decent guy. If she wants to go for him then so be it.”

“And is the reason you’re telling her not to get lost because of the friend she brought with her?” Maya takes another sip of her drink, and despite how much she tries to hide it, her eyes slide to Ethan. She’s in a pair of high-waisted ripped jean shorts and a white tube top that showcases a glistening belly ring. Ethan’s mouth is practically watering at the sight.

“Partly,” he admits. “Fuck, I need another blunt. I’m going to find Jackson and see if he has one. Be back in a few.”

I don’t notice him leaving. How could I when Mark places a hand on Maddie’s waist and bends down to whisper into her ear? Granted, I don’t really know the guy. He was on the football team with us in high school, but we were never close.

Are his intentions good when it comes to her?

My eyes narrow as he dips his gaze to her breasts when she isn’t looking. Not that I have room to judge when I’ve been doing the same fucking thing since I laid eyes on her. I have no right to be protective. She isn’t mine, nor can she ever be mine. I ruined my chances when I pushed her away; and aside from that, there’s Ethan.

But even with the knowledge of how wrong it is, my legs still carry me across the room.

Maya eyes me skeptically before she shares a look with Maddie that I can’t decipher. “I’m going to get a refill,” she blurts, disappearing.

Maddie takes a slow sip of her drink, eyeing me over the rim. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question.” My eyes flick to Mark, who raises his hand to fist bump me—the same hand he placed on her waist a few seconds ago. I fight the urge to ignore him and instead reciprocate the gesture.

“How’s it going, man?” he asks with a wide grin. “I haven’t seen you in years. Heard you’re doing big things in Pennsylvania. NFL bound, right?”

“Those are the rumors,” I reply, keeping my eyes locked on Maddie. “Can you give us a minute alone, Mark?”

He glances between us, sensing the tension. “Uh, sure . I’ll circle back in a few minutes.”

When it’s finally just the two of us in the corner of the room, I take my time studying her. Her glassy eyes and rosy cheeks tell me she’s had too much to drink. She rarely parties, so one or two drinks is more than enough for her.

Her pulse is thrumming rapidly against her throat, and it makes me wonder if it’s because of me, or Mark.

“If you came over to reprimand me, it isn’t going to work. I can talk to whoever I want.”

“I wasn’t going to reprimand you.”

“Then why did you come over here?” She hiccups, and fuck it’s cuter than it should be. I fight the smile threatening to appear when she wobbles in her heels and takes a step closer to me. She sticks a finger into my chest and says, “You don’t get to do this, Cam.”

Cam .

She hasn’t called me that in years.

A simple nickname puts my heart into overdrive.

“Do what?”

“Start speaking to me again as if we’re suddenly close. I don’t deserve the whiplash you give me. I don’t deserve for you to cut me out of your life and then hop back in years later like nothing happened.”

She’s right, as always, but now isn’t the time to have this conversation. Not when she’s plastered and vulnerable.

“You have nothing to say?” she asks.

“I think we should discuss this when you’re sober.”

She scoffs. “Whatever. Just go enjoy the party elsewhere. In case you hadn’t noticed, I was in the middle of something.”

I cock my head to the side. “In the middle of what exactly?”

“I’m trying to fuck , Cameron, and if you hadn’t interrupted, I would already be upstairs.”

Christ . That word on her tongue . . .

This isn’t Maddie. We haven’t known each other in years, but I know her well enough to call her bluff. She would never fuck someone. Fuck isn’t in her vocabulary. Maddie needs an emotional connection, not a one-night stand.

“And you want to fuck Mark?”

She huffs and crosses her arms over her chest, and dammit, I’m not strong enough to look away. Her tits are on full display, and I take my fill knowing she can tell I’m checking her out. The tiny inhale of breath she gives in response travels straight to my cock.

“Have any other suggestions?” she asks breathlessly.

Fuck me .

I refuse to be the bastard who takes advantage of her when she’s drunk. I’d never stoop that low with a girl, especially not with her. But damn if I don’t drink in the expression she’s giving me and save it to memory. It intoxicates me more than whiskey ever could.

Lust, want, and desire all wrapped into one. Her sky-blue eyes have gone as deep as the ocean, and it takes everything I have to take a step away from her.

I may not want to, but I have to.

This is Maddie Davis . Ethan’s little sister and someone I used to consider one of my best friends. Nothing will ever happen between us. Isn’t that why I pushed her away in the first place? After that night in Myrtle Beach, before my mom’s passing, I had been about to make a move and holy fuck did that scare me.

Even if I had made a move that night, it wouldn’t have gone anywhere. Maddie has always been off limits, and I’ve had to fight this attraction toward her tooth and nail ever since that night on the beach.

I try to tell myself I can fight it for another night, no matter how difficult it might be, but my cock isn’t listening to my brain. It’s painfully hard against my jeans, and the liquor is coursing through me.

When Mark reappears at her side, there’s a devil sitting on my shoulder persuading me to tell him to get lost, and as much as I want to act on those urges, Maddie is right. I did this to myself. Despite how wrong it feels for her to be flirting with someone aside from me, I don’t have the right to stop her. It’s not fair to her when I ruined everything, so I turn on my heel and leave them alone, ignoring the ton of bricks landing on my chest and carrying an overwhelming amount of regret.

I have a beautiful girl waiting for me upstairs, and although Sadie isn’t her , she’s going to have to do. With my use of alcohol and weed limited, I’ll resort to sex like I always do. Even if it’s only an hour, it’ll numb my pain, and right now, I need a hell of a lot of numbness.

I refuse to be stuck in this never-ending torment of wanting someone I can’t have.