Page 11 of Puck Shots (Love The Game #6)

Eli

T he house is full, and I mean, seriously full.

I don’t think we could squeeze in another person if we tried.

And that means I’m in the corner trying not to hyperventilate or run screaming from the room.

Thankfully, the music is so loud it’s drowning out the combination of voices, but Chang is close enough that I can hear his very loud singing. Who knew he was a Taylor Swift fan?

“You can’t hide in the corner all night,” Magnus yells into my ear, startling me.

“I can try,” I reply, and he leans against the wall beside me.

“It’s a fun house, hey?”

I nod. Magnus is another pledge, and this is probably the first time he’s even said two words to me, but at least I am pretty sure he isn’t friends with Toby the tool. I caught Cosmo calling him that the other day and now it’s in my head forever.

Riley waves at him from across the room.

“I should go, don’t want the VP to think I’m ignoring him,” Magnus says, and he weaves through the sea of gyrating bodies.

“Are you hiding?” Cosmo asks, making me jump again.

“Is it scare Eli night in the frat house?” I ask as my racing heart starts to settle.

“Why, who else is making you jump?” he asks, leaning in super close, his warm breath tickling the sensitive skin behind my ear.

“Magnus, the guy talking with Sam and Riley over there,” I say, nodding in their direction.

He cranes his neck to get a better look, before he makes an unimpressed sort of scowl before shrugging and turning back to lean in close to me again.

I stand perfectly still and hold my breath, not wanting to inhale his delicious scent for fear that on top of the shiver that his breath on my skin brings, I’ll faint, and then I’ll really have the entire room’s attention. My face grows warm.

“You should dance; it would be good for the guys to see you participating.”

“I can’t dance,” I say, swallowing the lump that’s risen in my throat.

“Everyone can dance. Sure, you won’t be as good as me, but rarely anyone is.”

A laugh escapes my lips, and I turn to face him

“Rarely?” I ask.

“Okay, I lied,” he begins, yelling over the crowd. “No one is better than me.”

“Prove it?”

He passes me an unopened bottle of water, drops his red cup on the shelf behind me and starts stepping backwards, with his arms out in front of him, fingers pointing right at me.

“You asked for this.” He grins, and then he spins, and wriggles his ass my way.

My cheeks are on fire, but I can’t look away.

Just like every other time he’s in a room, he draws the attention of everyone inside, and right now, he’s got half the room surrounding him in a circle as he shows off his moves in time with the music.

Despite the crowding of people around him, he still manages to lock eyes with me whenever a gap appears, and I’m really fucking pissed I never learned to dance, because with the way he’s looking at me right now, I might have actually taken him up on his offer.

Okay, probably not, but he’s still fucking hot.

Every day there is something else happening at the house, and the gopher task I was assigned is throwing me into the path of so many of the brothers and pledges.

The tips from Cosmo are helping a lot to steer me through the sometimes chaotic-ness of it all, too, and I have to wonder if he’s like this with everyone.

I mean, he probably is. Every guy I talk to in the house loves him.

“Heads up, pledge,” Gareth calls, tossing me something red, but before I can even hope to catch it, Cosmo’s arm stretches out, and he’s got it.

“Thanks, I was thirsty,” Cosmo chuckles. “Toss us a water. Eli doesn’t drink this crap.”

See, it’s things like that. Does he know what every other pledge does and doesn’t drink, too?

I think I mentioned once back on day one that I can’t stand the sweetness of those energy drinks, and last night at the Midsummer’s Night Dream party he gave me water, too.

I tore off the label, watching him dance and then folded it into the shape of an alpaca before leaving it on the shelf not too far from his discarded beer.

“Thanks,” I call to Gareth after he tosses the bottle, and I’m thankful again that Cosmo catches it and hands it over. I don’t think it would do much for my rep to be hit in the face by a water bottle this early into pledge-a-palooza.

“How’s your week going?”

“Great, actually. I cut through the library like you said yesterday, right on three, and ran into Sam playing chess with his girlfriend, Cherry. She was about to lose, too, but I offered her a tip and three moves later she had him in check. She was super happy, and funnily enough, so was he. He still managed to beat her, though. I’m going to play Sam tomorrow after morning classes. ”

“That’s great. Yeah, he’s been teaching her for like a year. He tries to get us guys to play him, but I don’t think anyone else can actually play.”

“So you don’t?”

He gestures, no. “It looks way too complicated to me.”

“It’s actually pretty easy to get the hang of.

I could teach you to beat Sam,” I offer before I even realize what I’m doing.

He doesn’t answer right away, and in a way, I’m kind of hoping he says not to worry about it.

I pick at the edges of the bottle’s label, easing the nerves in my gut just a little.

“You don’t have to,” I add, trying to give him an easy out. “You know, you’re pretty busy with hockey and classes and stuff.”

His gaze moves briefly to my hands and back, as his lips pick up in a soft smile.

“If we had an extra board here, you could teach me in my room. Sam would notice if the house board went missing, and I wouldn’t want him to know, not until I can actually beat him.

If I ever get that good. It’s not like you have to clean my bathroom, and as much as I enjoy the pillow mints, I could give them up to learn chess, I guess. ”

“I have a board.”

“You do?”

Heat floods my face.

“Yeah, I, umm…brought it from home.”

“Wow, if you have your own board, you’re probably even better than Sam. Oh, it would be so funny if you taught me some foolproof tricks to beat him in a game. We have this week-long board game bonanza mid-year, and he always thrashes everyone in chess.”

“There’s not really any foolproof tricks, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll give him a run for his money.”

“That would be awesome. He’d probably be thrown off his game just by seeing me know what I was doing.

Pledges don’t compete, because they are the ones running everything, like being the bank in Monopoly and that.

You’ll see. It’s still fun. I did it last year.

It can get pretty full on. If you haven’t noticed, most of the guys in here can get pretty competitive. ”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” I chuckle, and he smiles that wide smile that sends a flurry through my stomach.

“Okay, so tomorrow, my room, you bring the board.”

“Sounds good to me. Oh, when I play Sam, should I be playing to win or going easy on him for brownie points?”

“You’re asking a jock if you should play to win?

Always.” He laughs and I slip the fully peeled label into my pocket, and turn my attention back to lining up the last of the chairs in the great room.

Five rows of nine, all set perfectly centered on the mantle where the Pres’s lacrosse stick lives when he’s not playing or training, only it looks a little different.

I walk through a couple of rows and have to laugh when I see the tiny fake plastic butterflies scattered in the net.

“Was this you?” I ask, looking over at Cosmo who’s still lingering in the room talking with Gareth. He weaves through the chairs to join me.

“I have no idea what you’re… ohh, aren’t they pretty. Looks like Leo finally caught something with this thing.”

I shake my head.

“You know I can’t leave them there now that I’ve seen them,” I say, and he scoffs.

“Sure, you can. Besides, think of how funny it will be when he picks it up during his speech tonight and those things fall out.”

Tonight, we’ve got our first round of trivia where they’ll randomly quiz the pledges on house history, rules, and the brothers. The rules and history I’m good with, but I’ve only been able to get to know a handful of the brothers so far.

“What’s wrong? I mean, if you’re that worried about them, we can take them out,” Cosmo says, reaching for the net.

“No, it’s not that. I was just thinking about tonight and the questions about the brothers.”

“You’ve been getting to know a few of them, though, right?”

“Yeah, but probably not as much as the other guys. I don’t suppose there is, like, a book of facts on them I could study up on?”

“Not a book, no. But I could go over a few fun facts on each of them if you want.”

“Thanks, but you’ve probably got better things to do with your time.”

He shrugs. “Not really. We had morning training, and my classes are done for the day, so I’m all yours.”

I feel my cheeks start to burn, and I guzzle down the water in hopes it will quench more than my thirst.

“Umm, sure then, okay,” I say. “That would be great. Do you want to do it here or…”

He shakes his head. “Let’s head to my room. Yo, Gareth, you done with this one? My bathroom needs cleaning.”

“We’re done,” Gareth replies, and I follow Cosmo up the stairs to the attic, where he shares a room with Luka, his best friend.

I managed to figure that out from just observing them on the first day.

They’re always together, well, almost always.

They’ll rush to sit beside each other at dinner, are always finding each other in the house at events, and take almost all the same classes, not to mention they’re both on the hockey team, too.

I’d kill to have someone I could connect with like that.

We get to his room, and he goes straight for a small bookcase on Luka’s side.

“He won’t mind if we borrow this,” he says, pulling out a photo where it sat on the bottom shelf.