Page 101 of Necessary Roughness
“My smell does?” I asked.
“All of it. All of it makes my life feel in balance.” He kissed the top of my head. “Yes. If you’ll have me, I want to be part of this friends-with-benefits situation.”
I popped up to my knees, grabbed his face with both hands, and kissed him. “That’s what I was waiting for you to say!”
There was a soft knock on the door. “Are you two done? Can we go to the party now?” Logan asked.
“Come on,” I said, pulling Roman out of bed. It was like trying to move a pickup truck. “Tonight, we’re celebrating.”
I wouldn’t have been so enthusiastic about going out if I had known everything was about to come crashing down.
44
Roman
I dated a girl last fall for about a month. We had a spark at first, as strong as the electrical current through a bolt of lightning. But the thing about lightning bolts was that they were gone in a blink, and so was this girl.
Aside from her, I hadn’t been in any serious relationships since my freshman year. I never truly connected with the women who typically threw themselves at football players, and I was too focused on football and my studies to ever proactively pursue anyone. I pretended that I liked it that way. I told myself I would have plenty of time for romance when I graduated. By then I would know my future, if I was good enough to get drafted into the NFL or if I would need to figure out a backup plan.
All of that made logical sense.
But matters of the heart were rarely logical, and so were my new, complex feelings for Sloane. I’d resisted my attraction to her for so long that it was ingrained in me like muscle memory.
Not anymore.
Sloane was like a wave on the ocean, building unseen strength. Cresting before the break. And just like an ocean wave, there was no point in fighting it.
Now that I had relented, now that I had given in to the wonderful attraction that pinged between us whenever we locked eyes, I felt a strange sense of sturdiness. Like I had been flimsy before, and now was solid.
That feeling was what made me so deadly in the football game today.
That’s why my confidence was back. That’s why my swagger had returned.
Sloane.
As we walked the four blocks to the party, I had the overpowering urge to reach out and hold her hand. She was right there, walking alongside next to me. It would have felt nice.
But I held back because I had never seen Logan or Knox show that level of public affection. I was new to their insane agreement, and as a newcomer I didn’t want to overstep my bounds.
That didn’t stop my hand from itching, though.
When we walked into the house party, we were welcomed like heroes coming back from war. Men high-fived us and chanted our names. Women batted their eyelashes at us, and played with their hair. Knox and Logan were the flashy players on the team who usually received this kind of attention, but linebackers like me rarely received such treatment. It was nice.
Not as nice as the way Sloane was grinning up at me.
“What?” I asked.
“You’re enjoying this,” she teased.
“I played well today,” I said calmly. “It’s nice to get recognition. Just for one night. Tomorrow, we look ahead to next week’s game.”
“The last game of the season,” Sloane said.
Logan shook his head. “Last game of theregularseason. Then we play in the conference championship.”
“It’ll probably be against OCSU,” Knox mused, referring to Orange Coast State University.
“They’ve won the conference three years in a row, right?” Sloane asked.
