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How freaking stupid could one person be?

Me. I’m the stupid person.

I feel like an idiot.

And honestly it doesn’t even matter if I misinterpreted what I saw. Maybe he was standing there telling her no—although it certainly didn’t look like it from the way his arm was laced around her waist and the way her lips were on his neck.

That’s my neck to kiss. Not hers. But her lips were there, and I feel like I need to take a shower after watching that.

Owen is right in front of him as they walk out at the same time, and I know I can’t have this fight in front of him.

I need to pull it together. I don’t want to cry over Travis, but I especially don’t want to cry over Travis in front of a gloating Owen.

So, for the sake of keeping up the ruse, I have to act like I forgive Travis.

To be clear, I don’t. I can’t be in a relationship like that—one where other women think they can just walk up to him like he’s their property and take what they want.

Everything is caught on camera these days, and what if someone got a shot of him with that woman? How would that make me look? Is that the type of relationship I want to be in?

No. The answer is a clear, resounding no .

And yet, as his eyes connect with mine and I see the desperation there in his, the same desperation I’m feeling myself right now, I don’t know what to do.

I should stay away…but I’m not sure if I can.

“Get the fuck out of the way,” Travis says, and he shoves Owen a little.

It shouldn’t make my thighs clench together, but it does. There’s just something about a bad boy that does it for me, I guess. And a bad boy defending his woman? Even hotter. And when that woman is me ? Combustion.

“What the fuck, man?” Owen yells at Travis, and I can see the match-up here.

A pro athlete against a computer nerd who is fit enough but hasn’t seen the inside of a gym in years? Owen doesn’t have a chance in hell against Travis.

“We’re fine, Owen,” I say quietly. “Please excuse us.”

“I saw what happened in there,” Owen hisses. “I know you two aren’t really together.”

“You want me to fuck her right here on the sidewalk to prove it to you, asshole?” Travis demands, and he’s snarling a little and this isn’t going to be good.

I grab Travis’s hand and pull him back inside. I’m not sure why that’s my default—maybe to get him back with his friends, to surround him with people who can help calm him down.

But as it turns out, they are not the ones with the ability to calm him. He takes the lead and drags me through the bar, through the kitchen—where we’re not supposed to be, I’m assuming—and through a break room before leading me out to the back alley.

“Who was that woman?” I demand once we’re outside and alone.

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” I shout. “She seemed to know you pretty well!”

“Yeah, she did. I fucked her at Coax before I met you, okay? I was wasted as fuck and I don’t remember her name. All I know is she wanted to see me again and I told her no because I don’t do that with women. It’s one and done. Or it was , until you came along.”

“That’s disgusting, Travis,” I hiss. “And you just let her get all over you! You weren’t even trying to get her to back away!”

“That is not true,” he growls. “All I was trying to do was get away from her while I was telling her I’m in a relationship with someone and I’m not willing to fuck it up.”

“Didn’t look like it when her lips were on your neck,” I point out. “Were you telling her about me then, too? Do I even mean anything to you?”

“Are you fucking kidding me right now? You mean everything to me, Hartley!” He’s yelling at me, and I’m yelling at him, and as his words settle into my brain, suddenly the passion turns from anger into something else entirely. “Do you need me to prove it to you?”

“Oh, you’re just going to prove it to me like I’m one of your sex club girls?” I spit.

“No,” he says quietly. He shakes his head as he stares off into the distance for a beat, and then his eyes move back to mine. He takes a step toward me, and then another and another, and then suddenly he has me pinned to the brick wall. “I’m going to prove it to you like you’re the woman I’m falling in love with.”

I start to repeat the word. “L—”

He swallows the word with his kiss as his mouth slams down to mine. He shoves his hand under the sundress I wore tonight and thrusts a finger right into me, and I moan into his mouth. Upon finding me wet and ready for him, he hisses then moves his hand away. He pulls his cock out then shoves my panties to the side and thrusts up into me. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his waist, and he fucks me right there in the alley behind the Gridiron.

God, I hate him.

But I also think I just might love him.

He shoves into me, and my back is up against the bricks. It’s painful as it scratches against the fabric of my dress, but the pleasure he’s giving me is so overwhelming that I hardly notice it.

I hold on around his shoulders and simply enjoy the ride as he hammers into me, and the exhibitionism of it all, the fear of getting caught…it’s hot. Too hot. I start to feel my body bending under his, and then my body bursts into an intense, mind-numbing orgasm.

He starts to come along with me, both of us quietly grunting and moaning through the pleasure, and when it’s all over, I hang onto him for a few quiet beats. He kisses me softly, tenderly, as if he didn’t just ravish me in an alley, and when I eventually open my eyes as he pulls out, I swear I spot the shadow of someone who might’ve been watching us.

Maybe it was Owen.

Maybe I sort of hope it was Owen. Maybe it’ll shut him up.

It could’ve been nothing, too. A bird, or a tree branch, or something my mind’s eye made up in the heat of the moment.

He sets me down and tucks his dick back into his jeans as I smooth out the front of my dress, and I can’t seem to help one final shot.

“How many women have you taken back here and shut up with your cock?”

He looks a little angry at my accusation. “One.”

My brows shoot up in surprise.

“It wasn’t just the heat of the moment, Hartley. I’m falling in love with you, and it’s terrifying and beautiful and fucking insane all at the same time.”

I lean toward him and press a soft kiss to his lips, and when I pull back, I whisper against his mouth. “I’m falling in love with you, too.”

I’m just terrified of what’s going to happen when I fall and can’t get back up.