Page 25 of Chase Lovett Wants Me

He tosses his phone onto the bed and lithely jumps on top of me, covering me like a blanket. “Come down with me. I want you to meet my friends.”

“I should finish my chapter so you have something to read later.”

“You don’t want to meet my friends?” He looks hurt by the prospect.

I bite the inside of my cheek. I see him and his friends in the common room and on campus all the time. They’re the cool jocks and I’m the weird fanfic-writing nerd.

“Please? Just come hang out for a bit.” He bats his lashes. “I’ll eat your precious again when we come back up here.”

“Way to sell it.” I run my fingers through his hair, trying to tame the mess I made.

“Is that a yes?”

“Sure. Yeah. I’ll come down with you. I could use a cold caffeinated beverage right about now, anyway.”

“Awesome! I’ll let them know we’ll be down in a few.”

He rolls off the bed and gathers our clothes from the floor, tossing mine at me. It takes me three times as long to get dressed and I stop in the bathroom to fix my hair and brush my teeth. My lips are puffy thanks to the face fuck.

Once we’re both dressed, I follow Chase into the hall. “Gage can come across as cocky at first, but he’s a good guy and Brody is chill.”

“They seem nice.” I keep the part about Brody’s future sister-in-law being my sister’s best friend to myself. Being known as Essie’s sister was something to be left back in high school.

My palms are sweaty by the time we reach the lobby. Chase links our fingers as we enter the hotel restaurant, where groups of students are gathered. Some have laptops, others are playing cards or talking.

“Chase! My man, you finally came out of hiding!” A guy at a table full of huge guys and pretty girls wearing makeup standsup and waves us over. His gaze snags on our clasped hands and his eyebrows rise.

Chase drops my hand and goes in for a fist bump and a back slap. I get curious looks from the guys. A couple of girls who actively ignore me in the dorm hallway or the bathroom whisper to each other. I suddenly feel like I’m under a microscope because there’s too much attention on me. I shouldn’t have let Chase entice me out of the room with promises of more oral-gasms.

He slings his arm over my shoulder. “Cammie, these are my friends, please don’t hold it against me. Guys, this is Cammie, please don’t talk shit about me to her.”

I wave and am subsequently introduced to every person at the table. Of all the people there, only Brody has said hi to me before in passing. But I don’t really give off an approachable vibe, either.

Chase grabs two chairs and crams us between his friend Gage and some girl who looks pretty unhappy to no longer be sitting beside Chase’s buddy. The girls who ignore me in the bathroom are seated across from us. I’ve already forgotten their names thanks to nerves.

“So what floor do you live on?” the girl with long dark hair asks.

“Third.”

The blonde girl tips her head. “Really? How come I’ve never seen you before?”

I shrug. This is literally the worst. I see them almost every day in the hall or the bathroom.

“I’ve never seen you with Chase before. How do you two know each other?” The dark-haired girl props her chin on her fist and smiles, like I’m suddenly the most interesting person in the world. But she gives me a visual sweep that tells me without words that she doesn’t approve of this pairing.

Chase slings an arm over the back of my chair. “We ended up as roommates last night.”

The dark-haired girl’s eyes flare and she exchanges a knowing glance with her friend. “Right, that makes sense now.”

“Was there only one bed?” the blonde girl asks with a smirk.

“And a pullout couch. But I broke that,” Chase says helpfully, oblivious to the way he’s basically setting me up to be his one-night stand.

“Yeah, you did.” His teammate high-fives him.

I feel like the butt of a terrible joke, even as Chase tries to explain how it happened.

“What program are you in?” the blonde girl asks.

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