Page 115 of Just Friends
I could already tell that having her panties in my jacket pocket all night was going to drive me wild—it felt like our dirty little secret; no one would know but us. Every time I looked at her, my first thought would be that she wasn’t wearing any panties. Every time I looked down, I’d be reminded that her intimates currently belonged tome.
“There,” she said, the finishing touches completed just as the elevator door opened. “How’s that?”
“It’s perfect,” I said in a low voice. “Thanks, babe. I appreciate that.”
“Glad I can help. Now let’s go!” Piper left the elevator and hurried ahead, heels clicking on the marble floors in the lobby. I watched the cute wiggle in her butt as she walked away—and all I could think was how fuckin’ hot it was that she wasn’t wearing anything beneath that dress.
But now I had a new problem. Or maybe I should say an old problem—the same one I had a couple minutes ago, in fact.
Realizing I wasn’t by her side, she whipped around to see me still standing in the elevator. “Jax? Aren’t you coming?”
“I can’t walk onto the shuttle like this,” I said. “The boys will carve me alive if they see.”
She hurried back to the elevator. “See what?” she asked. I pointed down and she took a quick peek below my waist. Her palm met her forehead when she saw the familiar bulge in my trousers. “Andthat’swhy I told you not to peek,” she said with a laugh that ended in a sigh.
We left the elevator together, with Piper pasted right in front of me. As we walked, I tried not to think about what was up Piper’s skirt—instead, I forced myself to mentally recall every Stanley Cup winner in reverse chronological order, hoping to quickly curb my excitement.
“Are you always this easily excited with girls?” she asked as we walked through the lobby. “Because I can see this being a problem for us.”
“It’s never been a problem for me before, I swear.” I held the doors to the outside open for her. “It must be something about you.”
She walked through the door, beaming. “In that case? I don’t mind it.”
30
Piper
I let out a breath of relief when I saw the shuttle still waiting by the curb, its engine idling and a deep blue light glowing from its undercarriage.
“Oh, good, they’re still here! Let’s hurry!” I grabbed Jax’s hand and we took off.
The doors opened and we bounded up the stairs. Stepping onto that bus felt more like walking into a club VIP room—a palpable excitement lingered in the air as dozens of different conversations happened at once. The well-dressed men and women sipped their drinks, their faces bathed in exotic colors as the moody interior lighting slowly pulsed from one deep color to another.
As soon as they spotted us, the men went up with a roar and the women let out a cheer.
“There they are!”
“Heeey, our newest couple!”
“ATTA BOY, BIG RIG!”
“Congratulations, Piper!”
Everyone gave us high fives and back pats as we made our way, laughing and smiling, down the glowing aisle walkway. The shuttle lurched forward, but the party was only getting started. Jax’s rowdy teammates tugged imaginary horn-chains and yelled, like a blaring semi-truck horn, “BIG RIIIIG!”—the same celebration that the Devils fans were known for doing in the stands whenever Jax laid an opponent out with a bone-crushing hit or scored a goal.
Towards the back of the bus, I ducked into the first empty seat I found, and Jax sat by my side. The girls seated around us swamped me with hugs, welcomes, well-wishes. And Jax’s teammates attacked him with a flurry of friendly shoulder punches, back pats, and playful shoves.
“Proud of you, bud,” Dane, the team captain said, laying little smacks on Jax’s cheek like a mafia boss.
Jax chuckled. “Thanks, D.”
“Heard your live-stream was real cute.” The emphasis Reavo put on the word—cute—made it clear that Jax was in for a night of some good-natured teasing.
“You guys made it in the nick of time!” Emma said to me. “The driver was rearin’ to go, but we told him we couldn’t leave without you.”
“Thanks, you guys! And sorry for making you wait. We were justsoexcited”—I deviously patted Jax’s muscular thigh—“it took us a few minutes to get going.”
“Totally understand that,” Austen said. Suddenly, she pointed at Jax’s chest. “Hey! He remembered his pocket square after all!”
