Page 93 of The Trouble with Players

“Well, congratulations. You guys deserved to win.”

“Cody really came through,” he said.

“Yeah. I’m so happy for him.”

“Did Sam bring you home?” Crew asked.

“Yeah. Didn’t he make it back to Monty’s?”

He shrugged.

“Oh, you might’ve been too busy with that girl to notice,” I said, trying not to sound jealous even though I selfishly was.

“She was nobody,” he said.

I held up my hands, wishing I wasn’t relieved to hear that. “Not my business.”

“Of course it’s your business.” He pushed off my dresser and walked the few feet to my bed, sitting down beside me. His weight dipped the bed pulling me closer to him, but I stopped myself from leaning into him. “I can’t stand this distance between us.”

I looked down, suddenly scared to be that close to him.

“This week’s been hell,” he began. “All I kept seeing was the look on your face when I told you why I left.”

“I’m fine.”

“Well, I’m far from it.”

My eyes lifted to his. “I think we need to consider what happened between us as a blip in time,” I said. “We had no idea we were…you know…so it didn’t really count.”

“It’s not just that, Peyton,” he said, pain evident in his features. “It’s the fact that I can’t shake you.”

My eyes widened, blindsided by his admission.

“I miss the feel of your skin,” he continued. “The taste of your kiss. Your laugh—”

“Stop,” I whispered.

“I don’t care who you are,” he continued. “I just want to be with you.”

“Stop,” I repeated as my heart began to thrash against the wall of my chest.

“Why?”

I wanted him to want me as much as I wanted him to stay away from me. That’s what made it so difficult. The conflicting feelings were at constant odds with each other. But in the end, we needed to forget everything that happened. “Because we can’t.”

“Says who?”

I swallowed down the lump of emotion in my throat. “Crew.”

“Peyton.”

“Don’t make this any harder than it already is,” I said.

“Harder? You just said you were fine,” he reminded me.

“Well—”

His lips crashed against mine. I pressed my hands to his chest to push him back, but he slipped his arms around me, holding me tightly to him.

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