Page 18 of Puck Shots
“Why, who else is making you jump?” he asks, leaning in super close, his warm breath tickling the sensitive skin behind my ear.
“Magnus, the guy talking with Sam and Riley over there,” I say, nodding in their direction.
He cranes his neck to get a better look, before he makes an unimpressed sort of scowl before shrugging and turning back to lean in close to me again. I stand perfectly still and hold my breath, not wanting to inhale his delicious scent for fear that on top of the shiver that his breath on my skin brings, I’ll faint, and then I’ll really have the entire room’s attention. My face grows warm.
“You should dance; it would be good for the guys to see you participating.”
“I can’t dance,” I say, swallowing the lump that’s risen in my throat.
“Everyone can dance. Sure, you won’t be as good as me, but rarely anyone is.”
A laugh escapes my lips, and I turn to face him
“Rarely?” I ask.
“Okay, I lied,” he begins, yelling over the crowd. “No one is better than me.”
“Prove it?”
He passes me an unopened bottle of water, drops his red cup on the shelf behind me and starts stepping backwards, with his arms out in front of him, fingers pointing right at me.
“You asked for this.” He grins, and then he spins, and wriggles his ass my way. My cheeks are on fire, but I can’t look away. Just like every other time he’s in a room, he draws the attentionof everyone inside, and right now, he’s got half the room surrounding him in a circle as he shows off his moves in time with the music. Despite the crowding of people around him, he still manages to lock eyes with me whenever a gap appears, and I’m really fucking pissed I never learned to dance, because with the way he’s looking at me right now, I might have actually taken him up on his offer. Okay, probably not, but he’s still fucking hot.
Every day there is something else happening at the house, and the gopher task I was assigned is throwing me into the path of so many of the brothers and pledges. The tips from Cosmo are helping a lot to steer me through the sometimes chaotic-ness of it all, too, and I have to wonder if he’s like this with everyone. I mean, he probably is. Every guy I talk to in the house loves him.
“Heads up, pledge,” Gareth calls, tossing me something red, but before I can even hope to catch it, Cosmo’s arm stretches out, and he’s got it.
“Thanks, I was thirsty,” Cosmo chuckles. “Toss us a water. Eli doesn’t drink this crap.”
See, it’s things like that. Does he know what every other pledge does and doesn’t drink, too? I think I mentioned once back on day one that I can’t stand the sweetness of those energy drinks, and last night at the Midsummer’s Night Dream party he gave me water, too. I tore off the label, watching him dance and then folded it into the shape of an alpaca before leaving it on the shelf not too far from his discarded beer.
“Thanks,” I call to Gareth after he tosses the bottle, and I’m thankful again that Cosmo catches it and hands it over. I don’t think it would do much for my rep to be hit in the face by a water bottle this early into pledge-a-palooza.
“How’s your week going?”
“Great, actually. I cut through the library like you said yesterday, right on three, and ran into Sam playing chess with his girlfriend, Cherry. She was about to lose, too, but I offeredher a tip and three moves later she had him in check. She was super happy, and funnily enough, so was he. He still managed to beat her, though. I’m going to play Sam tomorrow after morning classes.”
“That’s great. Yeah, he’s been teaching her for like a year. He tries to get us guys to play him, but I don’t think anyone else can actually play.”
“So you don’t?”
He gestures, no. “It looks way too complicated to me.”
“It’s actually pretty easy to get the hang of. I could teach you to beat Sam,” I offer before I even realize what I’m doing. He doesn’t answer right away, and in a way, I’m kind of hoping he says not to worry about it. I pick at the edges of the bottle’s label, easing the nerves in my gut just a little.
“You don’t have to,” I add, trying to give him an easy out. “You know, you’re pretty busy with hockey and classes and stuff.”
His gaze moves briefly to my hands and back, as his lips pick up in a soft smile. “If we had an extra board here, you could teach me in my room. Sam would notice if the house board went missing, and I wouldn’t want him to know, not until I can actually beat him. If I ever get that good. It’s not like you have to clean my bathroom, and as much as I enjoy the pillow mints, I could give them up to learn chess, I guess.”
“I have a board.”
“You do?”
Heat floods my face.
“Yeah, I, umm…brought it from home.”
“Wow, if you have your own board, you’re probably even better than Sam. Oh, it would be so funny if you taught me some foolproof tricks to beat him in a game. We have this week-long board game bonanza mid-year, and he always thrashes everyone in chess.”
