Page 11 of Obsessed with the Player

Then I leaned back, now taking the lime with me, and putting it on the waiting napkin on the bar.

There were several yips and cheers from behind us, from Andy's friends and strangers alike.

Power was an intoxicating drug inside my veins.

I expected Andy to look shocked, maybe even annoyed at my gesture, seeing as I had seen clear as day in his eyes that he hadn't believed for a second I would actually do it. He hadn't believed that I, Dan James, would ever even cross the line to get close enough for a kiss to the biggest player I had ever met, the bane of my existence, the guy whose presence alone managed to shake me to the core like no one had ever before.

But he was none of those things.

His eyes looked sharper than ever, dark, and his expression wasn't exactly devoid of emotion, but it was extremely serious, like a wolf that had seen its prey, and at any wrong movement, it would pounce.

I almost wanted him to. I wanted to see whathewould do.

“Was that all?” I asked him.

‘Ohhs’sounded around us.

Andy’s jaw clenched. “No. We're just getting started.”

4

Dan James

“So, how didyour night out go with the infamous player?” Jonathan, my best friend, asked over our lunch on Sunday, sounding more than a little bit sassy.

Apparently, Travis, Andy's best friend, had found out that I had gone out with him, then told his boyfriend, who was mybrother'sbest friend, who then toldhisboyfriend, who wasmybest friend.

It hadn’t even been eight hours since our outing when I’d found a message in my phone from Jon, acting all hurt and left out because I hadn’t told him about this before the fact, and because he was a bulldozer when he wanted to know something, he had invited me to lunch to conduct his interrogation.

All I needed to do now was figure out how the fuck I was going to explain to him the logic behind Andy’s lessons without breaking a sweat.

“It went fine,” I said, dipping my fries into some mayonnaise. I looked at the lively crowd and pretended to be distracted by the decor of the restaurant. It was a small place close to the apartment,Andy'sapartment, and Jonathan had suggested it so that I would get used to this area.

Which made no sense. I was only going to be here for two months, so what did it matter if I didn’t get out of my—Andy’s—apartment until then?

“Just fine?” he asked, staring holes into my face. His longish brown hair was pushed back, reaching below his ears, which was just when he would have usually cut it, but because my brother apparentlyliked itfor reasons I didn’t want to know about, Jon was letting it be. “You don't want to explain why I had to find out through your brother that you have gone out on a bender with your mortal enemy?”

I rolled my eyes. “He's not my mortal enemy, he's just my nemesis.”

Jonathan gave me a look like those were the same thing when it came to me.

And it sort of was.

But I didn't have any better explanation.

At least, nothing other than the truth, which I should be telling him right about now.

But I didn't want to say it. I didn't want to start the conversation, not just about whyAndy, but about why I felt the need to learn to be single, because I knew that he would see more into it than even Andy already did, and it was bad enough that the latter was asking questions that I didn't want to be asked.

So I just said, “I asked him to show me around the area, and because he wanted to annoy me and scare me probably, he took me out to his usual haunt.”

Jonathan raised his eyebrows. “And?”

“I told you, it was just fine.” I focused on my food. “He took out some shots like he thought I was going to run away at any second. He probably thinks I’m a prude and a virgin.”

Jonathan grinned. “Not sure that's what he thinks, but sure.”

My eyes flashed to him. What the fuck was that supposed to mean?

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