Page 67 of Hate the Game
I shot her a horrified look. “I am not walking funny!”
“Here. Hold this. I need to see if Jax is in his room. Dad’s looking for him and had to call me since Jax’s phone is off. You know he’s pissed when he calls me.” She raised her fist to knock on Jax’s door but I stopped her with a wince.
“He’s… He’s in my room.” I saw her eyes widen and held up my hands. “They all slept in my room last night because theirs was trashed by the cheerleaders with glitter and thongs.”
She glanced down at my crotch and wagged her brows. “I’m sure you all slept a ton.”
I groaned and shook my head. “Get your mind out of the gutter. Come on. You can see for yourself the blankets on the floor.”
I pushed open my door for her without thinking and we both stepped in to see Jax stretched across my bed in a sexy pose, without a stitch of clothing on. There was nothing left to the imagination. Blaire screamed and stumbled back, dropping everything in her hands to cover her eyes. Jax screamed and snatched my pillow over his dick as he stood up and backed himself into a corner.
“What the fuck, Jax?! Oh, my god! I’ll never recover!”
“Why are you here? You didn’t see anything!” Jax was bright red all over and he shot a look at me. “Why the hell would you bring my sister in here?! We were…and then you kissed my… What about that said that my sister should come over?”
I lost it. The image of Jax posing like some sort of video vixen was going to be forever burned into my brain. I doubled over, holding my stomach as I cackled with tears leaking from my eyes. It got so bad that I did my silent laugh where no sound comes out and I feel like my head will explode. My stomach cramped as I gave up and slumped to the floor.
My laughter triggered Blaire’s and poor Jax was stuck in his corner, naked and embarrassed. Blaire finally got enoughcontrol over herself to tell him why she’d been looking for him. “Dad is looking for you. He’s pissed.”
Jax swore. “Get out. I’m not dressing in front of you.”
“I wish you’d thought about that before I saw your dingdong wiggling all over the place.” She shuddered. “I’ll never be able to hook up with anyone after seeing that.”
***Savannah***
My room felt big and cold without the guys taking up all the space. Jax had tossed my pillow at me on his way out to get changed and go face his dad. Blaire had claimed she needed to go see an eye doctor before hurrying off, taking her muffins and juice with her. I felt sorry for myself for a few minutes after they both left. I didn’t get muffins or orgasms that morning. I allowed myself a few more minutes of pouting before I picked up my room and took yet another shower.
I did my best not to think about my last shower but once I was dressed and had my hair and makeup done with nothing left to distract me, Cole came rushing back to the forefront of my mind. He’d called me his. I knew it was in the heat of the moment but feeling claimed by him made happy goosebumps erupt all over my body. As complicated as I felt some days it seemed like everything came down to feeling abandoned. I wanted to be claimed. I wanted to belong. I wanted to be chosen.
It was why I’d fallen for Charlie even when I knew it was wrong. Was it why I was giving myself to three different men? Was there something wrong with me? Of course, there was.Women didn’t make a habit of screwing three best friends at the same time. Not at the same time, I thought with a blush. I mean, sure Blaire had that one wild night but she wasn’t out searching for those guys, looking to start a relationship. She’d hadfun, not a personality crisis like I was having. Even if I’d fantasized about it, that wasn’t something I wanted. I couldn’t even think it to myself. It was too taboo. How would that even work?
I lost a few minutes to that train of thought and came up for air with burning cheeks and a dull ache between my thighs. Shame settled over me as heavily as ever. I figured I was going to have to put myself in therapy when all was said and done.
When I ran out of novel thoughts to lambaste myself with, I called Blaire to make sure she wasn’t upset with me. She let me know that she’d never be the same after seeing Jax’s junk but she still loved me. She hadn’t meant to rob me of her muffins and juice so we were going to meet up that afternoon, in her room, away from the scene of the crime.
I decided I needed to face my inbox since I had nothing else to do. I’d seen an email come in from Marla that I knew I needed to deal with. Each new correspondence with Marla was getting more and more intense. She wanted Coach Carrington’s blood. I didn’t know how to tell her that the angle of my article had to change.
I tried, though. I typed a response to her latest email, deleted it, retyped it, and then let my head thunk on my desk. Sending an email with my new reality, that the guys were genuinely good guys, would trigger so many other things I wasn’t ready to face. I knew it was the right thing to do, but I was going to be doing the right thing at the cost of my relationships with my brothers and my career. I just wasn’t ready to face it.
When my phone vibrated with a call I practically leapt for it. Anything was better than facing my impending doom. It was avideo call from Jax and when I answered I instantly felt lighter at seeing his genuine smile for me.
“Want to come keep me company in a very pompous office?” He panned the camera around to let me see the room and he was right. It did seem like a pompous office. There was so much wood everywhere and I thought I even saw a big leather club chair. “Coach was furious that I’d dare to miss practice, even though I was supposed to be studying plays today during practice so I wasn’t even needed. Now I’m stuck in here for the rest of practice.”
“Coach? You mean your dad?” I could see the tension on his face that he was doing his best to play off. “Of course, I’ll come, Jax. Should I bring anything? Snacks? A cake with a nail file in it so you can escape?”
“He doesn’t get to be my dad when he acts like such a fucking prick.” He took a deep breath and shook his head. “I don’t need anything else, Sav. Just you.”
My stupid little heart jumped for joy. I shoved that dangerous feeling down and rolled my eyes at him. “Cornball. I know where his office is. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
I put on my red lipstick before heading out. No amount of stomping my feelings down would stop them from sneaking back up. I was giddy with excitement to go to an office and have nothing to do, just to be with Jax. I had to stop myself from breaking into a run. It was painful to detour and pick up lunch for us but I wanted to come bearing gifts.
I was waiting in line when my phone rang. Thinking it was Jax calling to ask where I was I answered without looking at the caller ID. To say I was surprised when it was Marla’s frowning face on my phone would’ve been a pretty giant understatement.
I gasped and immediately stepped out of line. “Marla? Um, hi. Is everything okay?”
“Is everything okay? Is everything okay?!” She looked like she was seconds from climbing through my phone screen to strangle me. “Can you explain to me why I got a call from that assmunch Carrington this morning? He was irate because his star quarterback was missing practice and he seemed pretty fucking sure that he was missing it because of a new distraction in his life.”
A chill washed over me.
