Page 61 of Twisted Play

“Correct.”

“And you’re going to take the bus. By yourself.”

“Like I have since I was a freshman,” I snapped.

“That’s not safe.”

An astonished laugh barked out of me. Did he think I took the bus back and forth every day for my goddamned health?

“Cole!” Tristan called out, and my stomach dropped. Cole hit the stop button on his treadmill, his movements deliberately slow as he turned to face us. His eyes caught on Tristan’s hand on my wrist then lifted to my face, his blue eyes narrowed.

“We’re taking Eva home tonight so she doesn’t have totake the bus,” Tristan said, the words somewhere between request and demand.

I watched Cole’s jaw tick, saw the calculation in his eyes as he lifted the bottom of his shirt so he could wipe his face, revealing mouthwatering abs. He was making me wait for his answer, letting me remember exactly who held the power here.

“Please,” I tried to say, but the word stuck in my throat. Please what? Please don’t make this worse? Please don’t let Tristan see what I’ve become?

“You take the bus home?” Cole asked finally, his voice deceptively mild. When I nodded, something dark flickered in his expression. “Alone?”

Tristan’s grip tightened protectively. Cole’s eyes dropped to where his best friend touched me, and I felt the temperature in the room drop ten degrees.

“Not anymore,” Tristan said firmly, missing the warning signs I’d learned to read in Cole’s posture. “Right?”

Cole’s lips curved into a smile that made my knees weak. “Right. Can’t have our sparrow riding the bus alone.”

The possessive ‘our’ hung in the air between us. I watched Tristan’s face, wondering if he heard it too. But he just smiled, relieved to have Cole’s agreement, while I silently cataloged all the ways this could go horrifically wrong.

“Dr. Parker, do you need anything else from me?” I asked.

Her lips curved up in a rueful smile, no doubt remembering her exhortations not to hook up with the team. “No, Eva. But consider letting them help, given how late it is tonight.”

Oh, we’d gone from “don’t fuck the players” to “let the players take you home?” I’d have laughed if I weren’t sodamn frustrated. Instead of answering, I whirled and stormed out the door, heading to the staff lockers where I stored my bags.

Tristan’s legs ate up the space between us, and he gently caged me against the lockers. I couldn’t help contrasting the care he took with Cole’s brutality.

“Kitten,” he rasped. “Please. Just wait fifteen minutes for us to change, and we’ll take you home. This has nothing to do with whatever’s going on between you and me. We just want to keep you safe.”

“I don’t think there’s any ‘we’ to it.” I knew what Cole thought of me, and safety was the last thing on his mind.

“There absolutely is a we.” Cole leaned against the locker, so close, my arm brushed against his chest when we breathed. “You’re not taking the bus home, and that’s final.”

The audacity of this fucker. I took a breath to let this asshole know exactly what I thought of him, and he placed a finger over my lips like I was a goddamned child. “Sparrow, I believe we had an agreement.”

Tristan’s eyes cut to his friend, but he didn’t say anything. Did Tristan know about the deal? Was he in on it? Playing games with me? My stomach dropped to the floor as doubt filled me.

“Okay,” I whispered, the word falling between them like surrender. “You can take me home this once.”

Tristan’s face lit up with that bright, genuine smile that made my chest ache. “Good girl.”

“Fuck you,” I snapped, more out of habit than heat.

“I wish,” he teased back.

Cole watched us silently, his expression unreadable. But his eyes held a promise that made me shiver.

“Fifteen minutes,” he said finally. “Wait here.”

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