Page 18 of Ice Cold, Red Hot
It was safer.
That night, Nat and I were hanging out in the lounge in our building. She’d talked me into a game of pool, even though I had loads of work to do.
We were halfway into it when a bunch of guys strolledin, dropping onto couches around the room and switching on the TV to watch a football game.
“Fantastic,” I whispered, every cell on my body raging into full alert when Shepherd followed them in. I could feel his eyes on me, but when I turned to look at him, his gaze slid away. I turned back to Nat, who wiggled her eyebrows dramatically at me. “Cut it out,” I hissed at her.
“We play winners,” Griff declared, dropping a stack of quarters at the end of the table.
Nat crossed her arms and looked him up and down. “Who’s we?”
“Me and Shepherd,” Griff said, mimicking her posture.
If Nat hadn’t been totally absorbed in her soccer player, I would have put money on something happening with her and Griff. The guy was clearly into her, and the way she reacted made me think there was something there for her too.
“We’re just messing around,” she said. “But I’ll play. Only if that’s okay with CeeCee.” She looked over at me, and I realized she was giving me an out if I didn’t want to play with Shepherd, who was ignoring the whole exchange.
“It’s fine,” I said. “But then I have work to do.”
“Cool. You rack,” she told Griff, collecting the balls even though our game wasn’t finished.
“Ren, grab a stick,” Griff called to Shepherd.
Shepherd looked between Griff and me, and then rose slowly and ambled over to pull down a pool cue. He didn’t look at me again, and didn’t utter a word.
The silent treatment went on for the first half of the game, which Nat and I were actually winning. It was starting to make me feel unhinged—Shepherd’s constantpush and pull. Even when he was ignoring me, I could feel the fire of his focused attention on me. I was about to shoot when my phone rang in my pocket.
Ethan.
I glanced at Shepherd, who was pretending not to watch me, and something inside me snapped. He wanted to play games? Fine.
“Hey Ethan,” I said, hitting speaker and dropping the phone to the bank of the table as I lined up my shot, aiming my butt at Shepherd behind me as I bent over the table.
“Hey Celeste. Just wanted to see if you’d like to get some dinner this week?”
I took my shot, sinking the five in the corner and grinning up at Nat and Griff. “That sounds great,” I said, aiming my voice at the phone.
I moved around the side of the table so Shepherd was in my line of sight, and watched him stiffen as I accepted the date. I picked out my next shot. This one would have me leaning over in his direction. If he decided to look, he’d have a pretty clear view down my tank top. “What time?” I asked Ethan.
“Pick you up at seven?”
Shepherd’s face darkened. I took my shot, sinking another ball. “That’s perfect. See you then.”
I had only the eight ball left to sink, and the shot was a no-brainer. I took it, feeling an immense surge of satisfaction when it sank and Griff booed loudly. Shepherd dropped his cue against the table, gave me one long look, and then turned and left the room without uttering a word.
“Shit,” Nat breathed, chuckling.
Satisfaction filled me, though I knew that probablymade me a bad person. Still, I couldn’t help relishing Shepherd’s reaction to Ethan’s call. I’d relish it a hell of a lot more if he’d just man up and talk to me, but if he wanted to play games? Well, I knew a few.
“Hustlers,” Griff said, laughing as he grabbed Shepherd’s stick and put it and his back into the rack.
Nat and I high-fived as the guys around the room laughed, and then I headed out to study, making sure to give Shepherd enough time to disappear first. The last thing I needed was to run into him in the hallway.
CHAPTER 10
SHEPHERD
There was one benefit to the confusion and sheer rage I felt whenever I thought about Celeste dating limpdick PhD Ethan: my game was intense.
