Page 17 of The Shake Off

“Oh, okay. That’s good. Good.” His head bobbed with his words. It was odd; someone who was usually so brimming with over-confidence he could share it around the entire team and still have enough to spare, was now looking nothing short of nervous. But then he grinned, so maybe he wasn’t that nervous. “What’re you doing after this? I’ll give you a ride home; your place is close to mine.”

“Oh. Um… I can’t,” I started, thumbing in the direction we’d come from. “Sorry, I have plans with the girls.”

Ace blinked at me, like he didn’t quite understand what was happening. He eased his hand around to the back of his neck and tugged, trying to ease whatever tension had settled. It didn’t ease any tension in my own neck however, and I had a feeling this conversation was going to go exactly down the route I didn’t want to go.

Running away would have been an option if I’d been wearing the right footwear.

Ace turned his head to the collective group of our friends, all of whom were staring at us. Lowe and Beulah were still wearing confused expressions, while the boys all looked vaguely amused, none more so than Tanner Simpson.

“Okay, look, I’ll be straight with you,” Ace began. “I told the guys you left me in the apartment, and they’ve all been joking it’s because I didn’t show you a good time… and I guess it went to my head. But you said you had a good time, so that’s that.”

“Yes, Ace. We had fun.”

“Right, but you had a good time. You,” he pointed to me, just in case I didn’t know who he was talking about. His brows shot up urging me to grasp what he was talking about; except I wasn’t quite sure. In the end, he lowered his voice to really make sure I understood, almost at a whisper. “I made you come. You came.”

Maybe I could take my shoes off and make a sprint for the bathroom.

“Payton?” Ace snapped, pulling me away from the escape plan I was hatching. “Answer me.”

Judging from the look on his face, it probably wasn’t the time to tell him he hadn’taskedme a question. “Huh? What did you say?”

“Did you come?” he hissed.

I chewed on my cheek, then stopped. This was stupid, Ace was a big boy, he could take the truth.

“Actually, no.”

“What?” His eyes bulged. Maybe hecouldn’ttake it. “You did.”

My brows dropped. “No, I didn’t.”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me nearer the stadium wall, out of the way of passers-by who were starting to gawp. More importantly, it was further away from our friends who were gawping the most.

“You faked it?”

“I faked nothing,” I scoffed.

“You were moaning!” he shot back.

“That doesn’t mean I orgasmed!”

His face froze like he’d just woken from a coma to the news he’d missed the last five years of his life. Or like he was now questioning every sexual encounter he’d ever had, though we’d be here all night if that were the case, and I didn’t have that kind of time.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“You seemed too focused on yourself, and then you fell asleep.”

His mouth opened and closed, reminding me of the goldfish I had as a kid – the one my parents gave me before they told me they were getting a divorce. It used to swim round and round the bowl with its mouth wide open, until one day, I came home to find it floating on top of the water.

Fucking goldfish.

“So that’s why you snuck out. I knew you were lying.”

“Okay, enough.” My arms crossed over my chest. Ace Watson was beginning to seriously annoy me, even more so when his eyes tracked the movement my tits made. “I didn’t lie. I left for work, but I’m not going to apologize if your ego wants to take it as rejection. I tried to wake you up, but you may as well have been dead for all the good it did.”

It was true, I’d tried.

He’d slept through my shower, the hairdryer, the grinding of the coffee, and several prods to his arm before I gave up and left. If I’d been strong enough to drag him out of bed, I would have.

---