Then his eyes find me, and his smile widens. “There she is,” he slurs a little, “the only person I wanted to find tonight.”
He walks toward me with his arms stretched out wide, and I barely have time to brace before he’s wrapping one of them around my shoulders, pulling me into his side “You came!”
“I…” My voice gets swallowed by the music. “Yeah, I?—”
I try not to stiffen. But I’m not used to being touched like this. Especially not guys like Austin. Not in front of this many people.
“We were supposed to study,” I say, tilting my face up toward him, trying to keep my voice level.
His eyes widen slightly, then squint as he tilts his head down at me. “Shit. Were we?”
I give him a flat look. “Austin.”
“Maisie,” he says, mimicking my tone and giving me a dopey grin. “You’re so pretty when you’re mad.”
My stomach flips, and I hate that it does. He’s leaning on me more than standing next to me, and I should tell him to get off, but for some reason, I don’t. His arm is still heavy around me, but oddly comforting.
“I’m sorry,” he says, the words slightly slurred. “I completely spaced.” He grins, his dimples deep, and his eyes crinkled. “But you’re here now! Wanna dance?”
I blink up at him, caught off guard. “What?”
“I said”—he does a weird half-sway to the music— “dance with me.”
I take a step back, folding my arms across my chest as my nose scrunches. “I’m not dancing.”
“Oh, come on. Just one song. You owe me.”
“I owe you anatomy flashcards and a serious talk about scheduling.”
He laughs, causing a few people to glance over. His teammates are scattered across the room, all of them with drinks in hand. I catch Ryan elbow Nathan and nod in our direction. Nathan follows his gaze, and he shakes his head when he sees me.
“Sorry about this,” Nathan says, weaving through the crowd until he’s in front of us. “I told him he was forgetting something.”
Austin waves him off. “I remembered. She’s here.” He turns back to me, beaming. “See? Maisie’s here.”
Nathan gives me a helpless smile. “Coach is out of town, so there’s no practice tomorrow. So obviously,” he gestures around us, “this turned into a thing.” He lowers his voice slightly. “He’s been drinking since six.”
Of course he has.
I sigh and ease out from under his arm. “Come on. Let’s get you to bed before you do something stupid.”
He frowns. “But I was having fun.”
I arch a brow. “You can have fun horizontally.”
His eyebrows shoot up. “Maisie. You can’t just say stuff like that to me.”
Heat crawls up my neck. “I meant sleeping. Alone. In your bed.”
There’s a burst of snickering from somewhere behind us. Of course his teammates heard that.
Austin grins. “Fine,” he says with an exaggerated sigh. “Only because you’re hot when you’re bossy.”
Before I can say anything else, his hand slides around my waist, his fingers curling into the curve of my hip like it’s second nature. He falls into step behind me, his warm breath grazing the back of my neck.
My heart kicks against my ribs as we head toward the stairs.
“Mmm. You smell good,” he murmurs, voice low and a little too close to my ear.
