Page 37 of Want Me
“Seems kinda risky, though, doesn’t it?”
“With great risk comes great reward,” he teased. “Isn’t that the saying?”
“So I’m something like a blue-ribbon prize, then, right? The jock who switches teams. Or plays both fields?” I meant it as a joke, but Eric’s expression became guarded.
“Maybe you’re still a risk.”
“Then maybe you should keep your eye on the prize.”
“Maybe.” He balled up his sandwich wrapper and tossed it on the tray along with mine as I stood and picked it up.
Outside, I stuffed my hands in my hoodie as we trudged toward home.
“You going home for Thanksgiving, I guess?”
“Yep.” I peered at him sidelong for the question. “You?”
“Not sure. Depends on where my mom will be. She doesn’t know yet.”
“You could come home with me if you don’t have anywhere else to go. It’s only an hour away.” I said it off the cuff, but damn how the idea bloomed inside me: having days and days of just Eric outside of our crowded house, outside of the frat and homework. I bit the inside of my cheek, nearly drawing blood, because…what the fuck was I thinking? This was dangerously close to a…I mean, hadn’t I just put the total kibosh on going home with Ashley months before? And now I was seriously inviting Eric home with me?
Eric turned his head to look me over. “Thanks, but I’m good. Also, if you’re gonna give an invitation, it’s usually better received if you’re not glaring when you give it. Pro tip for the future.” He laughed, seeming unperturbed.
Was I glaring? Yeah, the tightness of my forehead said I was. “I wasn’t meaning to. Just thinking is all.”
“Overanalyzing. Don’t, though. Even if it’s sexy as hell watching how it makes the muscles on your jaw flutter.”
He widened his eyes and waggled his brows at me suggestively.
I trailed up our front steps after him and sent a kick into his ass as he flung the front door open. He tripped over the stoop and shot a look back at me. When I gave him an innocent grin, he bared his teeth.
Jesse lifted his hand in a lazy wave from the couch as we entered. Mark rose slowly from the lounger nearby, fixing us both with a glower that had my smile sliding from my face like sludge down a window. I’d never seen him so angry. My skin prickled, some kind of prescient sensation making my stomach drop.
“You missed chapter,” he said. “Again.”
“Got caught up at the gym.” I tried to keep it light, but Mark wasn’t having it.
“We need to talk.”
“All right, so talk.” I dropped my bag by the couch and folded my arms over my chest, instantly defensive.
Eric shot a quick look at me as Mark shook his head. “Not here.” He thumbed over his shoulder toward the kitchen.
Jesse glanced up from his controller in surprise, looking between the three of us curiously, but kept quiet. I shrugged one shoulder at him as if to say,who knows?
“You too,” Mark said to Eric.
Oh fuck. Ohhhh fuck. I felt the color draining from my face, my limbs growing heavy as Mark led the way through the kitchen and out the back door, me trailing behind Eric, who twisted a hawk-eyed look over his shoulder at me before catching the door in his hand and holding it open for me.
Outside, Eric folded his arms over his chest, staring down Mark, who waited for the door to close before turning to me and speaking. “What you missed in chapter was that the director of Merriweather Gardens called this morning, mad as hell about two guys sneaking behind the ropes into their fucking offices. What the fuck, dude? They got both of you on camera, and they want money for the cleanup and damage to the office.”
I tried to speak and couldn’t. My heart had left my chest and was now trying to beat its way out of my throat. I was certain Mark would see it throbbing there. I sucked in a breath and tried again. Fuck, I was in no way ready for this, but what the hell else was I going to do? I’d been a willing participant. “It’s load of bullshit, the damage part. We were…we were—there are cameras in the offices?”
Mark glared at me. “They saw you on the hallway cams, but it was obviously you two. He shared the screencaps with us.”
Eric cut a swift look aside to me before taking over. “We were just doing some blow, for fuck’s sake. And you can leave Nate out of it because it was my idea anyway. They want some money, what the fuck ever. I’ll pay it.”
“‘Just doing some blow’ in the executive’s office? Jesus Christ, couldn’t you have just gone to the fucking bathroom and snorted lines in a stall like every-fucking-one else? Is this what the hell has been wrong with you lately, dude?” Mark narrowed his eyes at me. “Please don’t be another Cam Jeffers, man—I don’t want to see you kicked out or in rehab.”