Page 1 of The Hardest Fall

Chapter One

Dylan

The first time Zoe Clarke saw me, my hand was wrapped around my dick.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t jerking off. If that had been the case, she might have found it sexy—emphasis on the might since it isn’t a turn-on for every girl, let alone the fact that it would’ve been weird as shit to be caught masturbating in a bathroom at a party.

I wish I could tell you something you’d love to hear, something exciting, like it was love at first sight instead of an unexpected and weird dick sighting at a random college party. Or that it was a romantic setup, like we crashed into each other while running to class on campus, her books flew out of her hands so I dropped to one knee to help her out and when our heads knocked together, we looked into each other’s eyes and the rest was history.

I think you get what I mean, some kind of dreamy movie scene like that, but…fuck no. I know that sounds sweet, and it would melt hearts every time we told people about our meet cute, but, again, that’s a no. On the contrary, like I said in the beginning, the first time my eyes landed on Zoe Clarke and hers landed on my dick, I was in a bathroom, in the middle of taking a piss while chatting with my friend.

“And why did you want to watch me take a piss again?” I asked JP, unsuccessfully trying to understand why I had a spectator.

The corner of his lip tipped up lazily and his gaze dropped low as I unzipped myself. “I see it enough in the locker room, man—haven’t missed it. I was telling you about Isaac, and you’re the one who couldn’t hold it until I finished.” I gave him a side-eyed look as he ignored me and continued. “Man, you should’ve been there. The way Coach laid it on him after you guys left—I’m not sure he’ll come back to practice again. Hell, I’m not sure I wanna go back, and I didn’t do shit.” He paused for a second or two. “You wanna bet a fifty on it? You think he’ll show up?”

I glanced at JP, who was leaning against the wall, eyes closed, face turned toward the ceiling, appearing completely harmless and relaxed. As a rule, JP was never harmless—not on the field, and especially not at a party.

The way Coach had been working us on the field lately, I didn’t think any of the guys wanted to be there, at least not the ones who were sane. But, if you loved the game enough, you handled whatever it threw your way to get where you hoped to get one day. Basically, go big or go home. Always beast mode.

“Not betting. If he wants it enough, he’ll be there.”

Just as the words came out of my mouth, we heard someone open and slam the door. For a brief moment, the blasting music and shouts from the party downstairs drowned everything out. Sure, someone barging in on you wasn’t anything alarming since it would be stupid to expect any kind of privacy at a college party. But when I looked over my shoulder to see who wasn’t patient enough to wait a few minutes, I saw it was a girl hugging the door and did a double take.

“Be cool. Be cool. This is nothing. Easy peasy. I’m never making new friends again. You can do this, just open your eyes and turn around, dammit.”

The brunette still had her back to us, her head resting on the door as she muttered to herself.

Frozen on the spot, JP and I glanced at each other; he shrugged, and I watched his lips stretch into a slow, cocky smile. He looked like he had just been handed a shiny new toy. Giving me a chin lift with his distinct smirk in place, he pushed himself off the wall and headed for the poor girl.

“You can do anything you put your mind to, baby,” he said, managing to spook her thoroughly.

As soon as JP spoke, she stopped muttering, spun around to face us, and proceeded to do a pretty damn good imitation of a deer caught in headlights.

“I…”

“You…” JP countered when nothing else came out of her mouth.

As I was getting ready to tuck myself back into my pants, her eyes jumped between JP and me a few times as if she suddenly found herself on the moon and didn’t know exactly how she’d made it up there. Then her eyes dropped down to my hand—which was still very much around my dick. Her gaze flew right back up to my face then dropped back to my hand again.

I could tell she was fighting off a grin because her lips twitched. “Shit! Oh…that’s a…penis—your penis. Shit.” Her voice was barely audible over the muffled music as she repeated her little staring game a few more times and the color gradually drained from her already pale face.