Page 40 of Their Favorite Game

One night in particular never left my mind. There was a high school dance Mal wanted to go to. She had talked about it for weeks. It was her first official dance.

She dyed blue strands in her hair to match her dress. Her parents had given her permission to go on the stipulation that Frankie went. As a senior, he had outgrown silly dances, or so he said.

Mal begged Frankie to go. She tried bribing him with money, to do his chores for a month, to wash his car, anything. He would have gone had Matty, Jake, and I not bought him Coldplay tickets.

I was there when she was screaming at Frankie for not going to the dance. She begged him one last time to go. He yelled at her, refusing to go. When she ran out of the house, I chased after her.

"Mal, stop." I ran down the street.

"Please, Rex." She turned and wiped at her tears. "This is embarrassing enough without you."

I wanted to make her pain disappear. We should have never gotten those tickets. In truth, it was my idea. I was jealous and didn't want her to go to the dance. Not when I couldn't be the one to take her. Frankie had already warned us all that his sister was off-limits. So my stupid, jealous plan was to prevent her from dating anyone.

"You have nothing to be embarrassed about when it comes to me." I grabbed her and pulled her into me.

"Really? I'm sobbing over not going to a dance." She wrapped her arms around me.

That was the moment I knew it was only her. She had my heart. I lifted her chin to look into her eyes. I didn't care what her brother said. Mal was mine. I leaned down to reach her lips.

"Fine!" Frankie shouted from behind us.

We both jumped and separated.

"I hate when you cry, Mal." He joined us and glared at me. Probably for hugging his little sister. "The guys can get someone else to go with them to the concert. I'll go with you to homecoming."

We never did go to the concert. We sold our tickets and went as well. Mal seemed to enjoy it even though not a single guy there asked her to dance. Sammy kept her company, though. There were a few times I even got up and walked toward her with the intent to spend time with her, maybe even twirl her around a little. I never did.

Mal nudged me. "Hey, you okay?"

"Huh?" I blinked hard. The memories of her always consume me.

"You zoned out on me." She nudged me with her shoulder again.

"Sorry, just thinking of something." I stood and held my hand out to her. "As much as I would love to stay out on this deck and ravage you, I can't. Too many eyes. So let's go inside. Frankie will apologize and you will forgive him like you always do."

"You sure you can't ravage me?" Mal looked up at me through her eyelashes.

Fuck, I was rock hard.

I scooped her up into my arms and jumped into the water with her in my arms. She screamed, but didn't try to get out of my gasp. I swam under the dock with her to get out of the view of everyone. The sun was already setting, and they couldn't see us from the lake house.

"Maybe I could ravage you a little." I winked.

I bent down and kissed her. Fuck, her lips were so sweet.

Mal wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her body to mine. The kiss became more urgent. I needed more of her.

I gripped her ass and pulled her to me. I could feel her heat through my shorts.

A voice from above yelled, "Rex! Mal! Where are you guys?"

It was Jake. Fuck. Not that he minded me having some of her as well, but there were limits. Anything below the belt, we all had to be there. It was only fair.

Mal went to swim into view when I grabbed her and shook my head. I just wanted a few more minutes alone with her.

"Mal! Rex!" Jake shouted again before walking away.

"Why didn't you tell him we were down here?" Mal whispered. "I mean, he knows about the hookups."

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