Page 39 of The Friend Zone

She sighs. “Cole has been avoiding me for a couple of weeks now. And Jagger made it quite clear that he doesn’t want to talk to me. He said that much in his text and when I went to talk to him before the game… he wasn’t alone.”

I hope I won’t regret my honesty. “Do you know that Topher wants you back?”

She rolls her eyes. “He can have me back when hell freezes over,” she snorts. “When I found him in my bed with Bianca, I was looking for him to break up with him. Things hadn’t been right for a while between us, but I had turned a blind eye to the fact that I wasn’t happy. Then I heard about something he did to my sister and how he was blackmailing people to keep me fromfinding out. So even if he had kept it in his pants, I would have ended things with him anyway.”

Bay’s words don’t surprise me. “Topher is back to his old ways then.”

Her eyes narrow. “What do you mean?”

I sigh. “I can’t exactly tell you, it’s one of those idiotic fraternity secrets. I don’t give a shit about it, because I’m not even really a Gamma anymore. But if Topher finds out that you know?—”

Bay isn’t just beautiful. She has a brilliant mind and that’s one of the things that make her so attractive. She immediately catches my drift.

“Are they avoiding me because of Topher? Does he have something on them?”

I nod. “It really isn’t my place to say, but you aren’t far off from the truth.”

Bay takes one step closer, her naked chest touches mine. “I’m not exactly sure this changes the situation, but thank you, Ryker. Now I think we should stop talking about Jagger and Cole and especially about Topher. That’s not why you brought me here, right?”

She’s fucking right.

“No, it’s not.” I touch her lips with mine and it takes seconds for her to open to me and for our kiss to turn into a hot, all consuming blaze.

“Fuck,” I nip at her bottom lip. “You have no idea how much I want you, Cinnamon.”

“I want you too, Ryker.”

Those are the best words I’ve ever heard. All my hesitation melts away and I lift Bay by the backs of her thighs, dragging her body up against mine.

She wraps her legs around my hips and I carry her into my bedroom.

We kiss all the way there, until we land on my king sized bed in a heap.

“Your bed is comfortable,” Bay giggles, peppering kisses along my jaw as I stretch to turn on my bedside lamp.

“Good. Because I hope you’re spending the night. I told you earlier, if we do this, no sneaking out at the crack of dawn.”

Bay’s eyes glitter with a hint of mischief. “Oh, that depends.”

I take the bait. “On what?”

“Does a night at your place include breakfast?” she provokes me.

I’m about to promise her the best scrambled eggs she’s ever tasted, when I remember Coach’s impending punishment. “Fuck. Coach wants us at the arena at six. So I guess I’ll be the one sneaking out at the crack of dawn.”

There’s understanding in her eyes. “Ah, yeah. After that loss, I’m not surprised. Coach Harrison is more a stick than a carrot kind of guy.”

Coach is the last thing I want to talk about right now. In all honesty I’m all talked out. “I just didn’t want you to be surprised if you don’t find me in bed when you wake up tomorrow morning.”

She giggles again, but this time there’s an edge to it. “Thank you. I would have probably wondered if I had done something wrong.”

I give her a soft, lingering kiss, looking into her eyes when I reassure her. “Never.”

The next kiss is deeper, hotter, harder.

Now that we’ve said everything we needed to say to each other, something in me snaps.

“I believe I promised to kiss every inch of your body,” I murmur, gliding open mouthed kisses down the column of her neck.

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