Wild (The Ivy Chronicles #3)(15)

“Really. It was an important game. Congratulations.”

“I know.” And yet he didn’t seem that eager to discuss it.

“Congratulations. You were—” Incredible. Amazing. Self-possessed and confident. “You won the game. Are you . . . sad a little? It was your last game.”

He shook his head once. “There will be other games. In college.”

“I heard you’re going to Kellison. Congratulations.” God. How many times was I going to say that?

A mocking smile played about his lips that made my belly flutter. He probably heard compliments all the time from any one of his countless groupies. I stepped back a pace, bumping into the door of the Jeep, suddenly not wanting to be confused with one of them. I glanced away, worried that he would see something in my face that I didn’t want him to see. The thing that Rachel had seen.

I looked across the parking lot, ready for Pepper and Reece to return. I spotted them. They were almost to the front of the concession line now. A woman stood at the counter, five little kids surrounding her as she placed an order. It was going to be a while yet.

I could go stand with them. Then I wouldn’t be alone here with Logan.

“Didn’t expect to see you here, Georgia. You’ve never been to a game with Reece and Pepper before.”

His voice drew my gaze back to his face. I’d never kissed him before. Never thought about Reece’s little brother in the way I did now.

And that made me feel pathetic. Just like Rachel said. Harris called me boring. Rachel called me pathetic. I was two for two when it came to things I didn’t want to be.

“Yeah. Well, I didn’t have anything going on and Pepper invited me . . .” My voice faded and I felt so lame standing there. Acting like I didn’t want to come. That my being here was just a casual thing. After the other night, my being here felt so very obvious and I wanted to punch myself. Hard.

“Hey, Lo!” Another player walked down the row between cars, his bat bag slung over his shoulder. He came over and clapped Logan on the shoulder. “You headed to the after-party?”

The skinny kid looked like a teenager. An honest-to-God high school kid with angry-looking acne and a bobbing Adam’s apple. And this was one of Logan’s friends? A fellow peer? Mortification ripped through me. In that moment, I never felt the gulf between us so keenly. And I felt stupid . . . foolish standing there pretending I was here for any other reason than that our kiss had consumed my thoughts for days.

Logan nodded. “Yeah. See you there.”

The boy looked at me curiously, the interest keen in his eyes, before he walked away.

“God,” I muttered softly.

Logan must have heard me. His head whipped back around and he stared at me, his eyes alert and sharp like he could read my thoughts.

Thankfully, I spotted Reece and Pepper headed our way. “I gotta go,” I said hurriedly, turning to walk around the Jeep, ready to climb in the backseat, not even caring how obvious I was in trying to put distance between us by unnecessarily circling around the vehicle.

I felt him move behind me before I felt his hands on my arms. “No, you don’t,” he growled. “You don’t get to run away again.”

I squeaked as he hauled me back against his chest. My spine stiffened iron-rod straight against the wall of his broad chest. I felt my eyes go huge in my face. He was touching me. Again. And I was freaking out on the inside. I sucked in a deep breath, determined that my freak-out stayed internal only.

“Let me go. They’re coming.” My heart hammered violently in my chest and I didn’t know if it was because we were about to get busted by my friends or because his body felt so unbelievable against mine. Okay, fine. It was both.

His mouth brushed my ear as he spoke, spiking sensation to every nerve in my body. “Are you embarrassed, Georgia? You don’t want them to see me with you? Don’t want Pepper and Reece to know about us?”

“There is no ‘us.’ ”

“Oh, but there will be. We both know why you came tonight.” His fingers flexed, each digit a burning imprint on my forearms.

“Yeah?” Was that breathy croak my voice? “Why?”

“Because you haven’t been able to forget what it felt like to kiss me, and you want to know if the rest of it will be that good, too.” He bit down on my earlobe and a whimper escaped my lips. “It will be.”

An invisible band squeezed around my chest. I swallowed against my constricting throat. “Arrogant much?”

“It’s okay. I haven’t been able to forget either. I can still remember the way you taste.”

Oh. My. God.

I swallowed a moan and lurched free from him. Swinging around, I faced him and felt my knees go weak at the look in his eyes. Heavy-lidded and deep, his blue eyes looked almost indigo as they stared down at me.

“I know you probably think it’d be some great joke to bang one of your brother’s friends, but I’m not going to be another notch on your bedpost . . . some girl you screw once and forget about the next—”

He moved fast then, closing the space that I had established between us. Oh, yeah. He was a jock with ninja-fast reflexes. I needed to remember that.

I gasped as his hand slid around my neck, fingers burying in the hair at the base of my scalp. He lowered his head, dropping his forehead against mine until our breaths clashed and mingled. His fingers pressed and massaged the back of my head, shooting sensation straight to the core of me. Holy hell. Was that some kind of secret pressure point?