Page 24 of Trick Play
Piper’s keeping her attention on her plate, scraping up the last bits of sauce and rice with the edge of her fork. Studiously avoiding my gaze from the looks of things.
I put my hands in my lap and lean forward, ducking a little to try to catch her eye. “Where should we go next?”
She spares a glance for me, but won’t hold my gaze. “Oh, hmm.” She wrinkles her brows and shakes her head. “You know, I really have to get some homework done. You should probably just take me home.”
Narrowing my eyes, I consider protesting, but I don’t. Not yet, at least. While she may have a lot of homework—she mentioned that she’s taking way more hours than a reasonable person should—that response sounds far too stilted. She’s definitely avoiding me now.
Maybe everything’s not going my way as much as I thought a few minutes ago. I guess it’s my own fault for cornering her into a date with a bet. But maybe I could use that to my advantage? No way am I ready to throw in the towel that easily.
Sitting back in my chair, I shake my head. “Nah. I don’t buy it.”
Her eyes snap to mine. Success.
“You don’t buy it,” she repeats.
I shake my head again and reach for my water glass, turning it around. “Nope. I don’t.”
“Did you miss the part where I said I’m taking twenty-one hours this semester? Or did you forget when I told you that I had a test, a paper, or a project due every other day for the rest of the semester?”
Raising my glass to my mouth, I study her cool composure. “No,” I say after I set my glass down again. “I didn’t miss or forget either of those things. But I think you made a point of telling me about both of them so you’d have an excuse to duck out of our date early. I agreed not to keep you out all night, and I won’t. But it’s”—I check the time on my phone—“barely after seven. It hardly counts as late. And you agreed to dinner and another mutually agreed upon activity. So where should we go next?” I know where I want to go next—my bedroom—but she’s not going to go for that right now.
Her eyes have narrowed to slits. Then she lets out a huge sigh and sits back in her chair, abandoning the pretense of scraping all the remaining bits of food off her plate to avoid my eyes and returning my gaze with a defiant glare of her own. “Fine.” She holds up a finger. “One activity.”
I let my eyes drift down to her cleavage and the hint of her waist visible over the table then back to her eyes and give her my most charming smile. “Then we better make the most of it.”
I don’t push my luck until we’re back in my car, though, the heat blasting to take the edge off the chill in the air. Pulling out my phone, I pull up the app for the local movie theater. “So what’s it gonna be? You wanna go see a movie? We could go get drinks somewhere? Or …” I glance at her, wondering if she’ll fill in any options while imagining the fun we could get up to in the back of a darkened theater. Or in the bathroom at a bar. I figure if I get a good orgasm out of her, she’ll be willing to go back to my place for more. My fingers and tongue can be very persuasive.
She grins and shakes her head. “I just turned twenty last month, so getting a drink is out.”
I feign shock. “You don’t have a fake ID? And I thought your brother liked you.”
Laughing, she shakes her head. Normally I don’t really care that much about making a girl laugh—or maybe it’s that I don’t usually have to try very hard—but every time I get her to laugh, it feels like a reward. A hit of dopamine that makes me want to keep going, keep searching for the next way to get that reward again. “My brother likes me fine,” she says. “But I’ve learned my lesson. I know better than to tempt fate.”
“Oh?” I lean toward the center console, wanting to be closer to her, to invite intimacy and the sharing of secrets. “It sounds like there’s a story there.”
Her smile fades. “There is. But not one I’m sharing tonight.”
Part of me wants to probe, see if I can get at whatever darkness lurks behind the smile she hitches back up her face. But what am I going to do? Solve her problems?
I’m not the guy people go to for solutions. Never have been. Especially not women. Unless the problem is a lack of orgasms. Or that they haven’t slept with every football player on the team. Those are problems I’m well-known for helping solve.
This, though? Whatever makes Piper not want to tempt fate? I’m no good for those kinds of problems. Hell, fate’s already smacked me down a time or two as well, and I haven’t managed to recover yet. Though if I play my cards right tonight, I’ll be on my way to fixing that.
“Well, I know one place where you can get a drink anyway.”
She raises her eyebrows. “Oh yeah? And where’s that?” Her tone betrays amused skepticism, like she can see right where this is going. And smart girl that she is, I’m sure she can.
I grin widely. “My place, of course. It’s comfy. Quiet. And fully stocked.”
Her eyes flicker over my face, lingering on my mouth before dropping to take in the rest of me. She lets out a breath, but shakes her head. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
Leaning in again, I lower my voice. “What can I do to convince you that it is?”
She giggles, then reaches over and pats my arm. “Nothing,” she whispers.
Trying to ignore the disappointment at her words and the way my body reacts to just that brief touch, I readjust in my seat again. “Well, I guess that leaves a movie.” I wiggle my phone at her. “Lady’s choice.”
She accepts the phone, her lips pressed together as she looks at the screen. “Everything’s already started, and the next showing isn’t until late.”
