As his hand loosened around my arm, falling between us, I knew I could get up and storm away, give him the middle finger as I went, but my legs were stationary as I met his deep blue eyes.
Fuck. Those eyes. Those eyes were something else. A secret superpower. Those eyes could make you forget even the most important things. Eyes like that were beautiful.
“Why should I stay?” I asked, knowing he couldn’t give me a good answer. A guy like this liked to play the board, but you know what? So did I. I played the game just as good as any other dick-wearing fucker. I didn’t need a dick to be a player, and I did not get tied down. Ever. Maybe when I was older I would, but now? Now I was supposed to be having fun, making memories, not regrets.
This guy…I didn’t know whether he’d be a memory or a regret yet. Only time would tell.
“Because I said so,” Levi spoke seriously. Of course the bastard wouldn’t say because he wanted me here, because he wanted to see me, to spend time with me. Crushes were past us. If he was trying to play me, he had another thing coming.
Unlike most girls, I wasn’t just a pawn on the board. I was aware of every single move that was made, and I made my own moves, too. I might not be the queen on the board, but I knew my worth. Levi might’ve been cocky, but so was I.
We were more alike than I realized. A strange thought.
“And I should listen to you why?” I baited him. “You should know that no matter what you say next, it’ll probably just piss me off more.”
Levi’s smirk grew into a tiny smile, and I realized, hating myself all the while, that when he smiled, he had dimples. His brown hair was spiked up, his jawline smooth and flawless. A jawline like that was worthy of a sculpture, a painting.
He leaned closer to me, and I smelled him in spite of myself: musky, manly, sweaty but not disgusting. Whatever nameless smell it was, I liked it. “I like you when you’re pissed off.”
I glared at him, trying to regain myself. His face was inches from mine, his tall frame leaning down to me. He was…an ungodly sort of tempting. The most tempting man I’d ever met. “You’ve never seen me when I’m pissed off, Blue.” Really, he hadn’t. He’d seen me around, in class, but a pissed off Kelsey wasn’t fun.
In fact, she was kind of a bitch.
“I’d like to,” he murmured, reaching for my face, swiping my hair and tucking a piece of it behind my ear. My eyelids fluttered closed, and I shivered at the soft, tender touch. A man like him could be gentle; who knew?
“Why?” I asked once I regained myself, once those warm fingertips no longer touched me.
Levi stared at me for a few moments, the wind blowing between us. It was as if the world around us ceased to exist. I didn’t hear the basketball game happening twenty feet away. I didn’t hear the traffic from the road just beyond the rec. All I heard was his steady breathing, and all I felt was the warmth from his breath.
It took him a while to say, “Because I think we’re the same.”
I met those baby blues, willing myself to have some kind of restraint here. What I wanted to do was throw my arms around his neck and bring my mouth to his, but I couldn’t. If we really were the same, we’d be a disaster together. When you combined fire with fire, you came out with one huge raging inferno.
“I don’t know about that,” I whispered. This conversation seemed far too intimate to have sitting here, on a bench in campus, out in the open. This was…this was the kind of conversation you had behind closed doors, when you could either end the conversation in a swearing match or in some hot hate sex.
“The more you play hard to get, the more you make me want to chase you,” Levi said. “I’ve never wanted to chase anyone before.”
Was that supposed to be some kind of weird compliment? I wasn’t sure. “I’m not playing anything. This isn’t a game.” A lie, because it was. This was a game, and I knew right then and there we were both playing it, whether we were willing or not.
“Everything is a game,” Levi murmured, his lips hardly moving as he spoke. I stared at those lips much longer than I knew I should, yet I could not look away. How would those lips feel against my skin?
What I wanted to do was grab him, pull him in close and smother him with a kiss—because hot damn, this one was driving me crazy—but I stopped myself. Instead I simply reached for him, running a hand down his sweaty, naked torso, touching his pectorals and then, yes, his abdomen. Hard muscles.
Hard muscles that tensed under my touch, and maybe I was wrong, but I could’ve sworn I saw a twerk of a movement in those flimsy shorts he wore.
“Maybe,” I said, letting my hand linger on his body, “but I’m high stakes, and I don’t think you’re ready to play.” Before he could say anything, I stood up, slung my bag around my shoulders, and walked away.
I didn’t look back at him. Why would I? I knew what I’d see.
Levi, watching me walk away. Levi, watching me go with hazy blue eyes, his lips parted just a hair, just enough to show me that my touch had affected him as much as it affected me.
