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“Keep girls’ names out of your mouth next time.”
“What the hell, man?”
Blood dripped down his face. He was yanked up by a couple of his teammates, but he growled, lunging for me. “I’m going to fuck you up!” He was too fast for them, and I was held back and immobile. I couldn’t lift my arms to defend myself.
He got a hit in.
“Stop!” Labrowski was there, wading in. He grabbed Ruiz’s arm, shoving him against the wall again. “That was a cheap shot, Ruiz!”
“He start–”
I strained to get free, wanting to go back at him, but goddamn. Who was holding me back?
Darren, Atwater, and Barclay. All three. Wade stood behind, pulling his weight too. Four guys. Ruiz had two.
“Hey!” Labrowski turned to me. “Stop it.”
Ruiz snarled, “I’m going to mess up that pretty face of yours–”
I twisted, and this time half my body got free, but Labrowski cut me off, stepping into me.
Ruiz’s gaze cut to the side. “The shit I’m going to do to your girl now. You think I was motivated before? Try me now. She’s going to be panting for me.”
“Like fuck you are.” Mara took two steps. “Let him go.”
As they did, she grabbed his shoulders, and rammed her knee up into him.
He doubled over.
She glared down at him. “I heard everything you said, and I also recorded it. Make a move against Cruz and I will unleash that shit onto the web. The NFL hates scandals. It’d be unfortunate if that was released during recruitment.”
His face paled. “You wouldn’t.”
“Try me. You think you’re the first guy to be a pain in my ass?”
Two guys scooped Ruiz up and took him somewhere. My guys stepped away, letting me go.
Mara held my gaze.
I took a step closer to her. “You heard what he said?”
She was looking me over, lingering on my face where his punch had landed. “I was coming out of the bathroom when I heard your voices.” Her fingers grazed my cheek. “You should get some ice on that.”
“You want to get out of here?”
Her eyes darkened and her hand moved to my mouth. “No.”
I moved in again, touching the back of her waist, pulling her against me. “Why not?”
Her eyes closed. “You know why. I can’t do that right now.”
Right.
She didn’t want to hide.
In sex.
With me.
Well, this was still a confusing place to be in.
“Let’s do something else.”
Her eyes opened. I saw the need in her eyes, swimming there on the surface. “Like what?”
“A movie?”
She grinned, her hand dropping back to her side. “You really do need ice. He got you once, but it was a solid hit.”
“Let’s go somewhere,” I said it again, my hand falling to graze against hers.
Her body shook a little. “I can’t. No matter where we go, you know what will end up happening. I–I just can’t right now.”
Her pinkie turned, and I hooked it with mine.
I said, “We can talk on the phone, how about?”
“Yeah. We can do that.” Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“I’ll call you tonight.”
My pinkie tightened around hers.
“Okay.”
Our conversation was done. We had a plan.
Neither of us moved away.
34
MARA
Tasmin showed up that night.
She hadn’t called. Texted. She showed up, and as soon as I let her in, “Why wasn’t I invited?”
I frowned. “Here?”
She dropped her bag on the couch, and waved her phone in the air. “This is what that’s for. To call me. To invite me. You’re going to a bar? You call a friend.”
Oh.
“Today wasn’t about you.”
“Friends, Mara. Friends. Do I need to spell it out to you? You’re going somewhere for a social activity, you call your other friends and let them know. Wanna know where I was? Taking care of Race because he’s sick. Guess where I would’ve loved to have gone?”
“To the bar?”
Her hands went wide and moved in an arch. “Yes! You’re getting it now.”
I shut the door. “You want me to invite you the next time I go to the bar without your boyfriend?”
“No, but let me know. I’m fun. I’m game for anything. Literally. Or, well maybe not literally anything, but for a lot. And if you’d known Race was sick, then I could’ve told you how he’s been a baby all day long.” She went to my kitchen, and opened the fridge. “He swears it’s food poisoning, but between you and me and everyone else, he’s hungover. He and his roommate went out with some guys from one of his classes.”
“Good to know.” I watched as she helped herself to my juice, then my rum, and held it up to me.
She asked, “You want a drink?”
I had to smile, a little. “I’m good.”
“Good.” She brought it over and plopped down on the couch. “Okay. I heard Cruz beat the shit out of Kyle Ruiz, and it was over you. Tell me the truth and I’ll tell you the rumors going around. Some of them are a doozy, but that’s why you have me now. I’ll weed out the truly insane ones, like the fact that you and Ruiz have a secret child that your mother kidnapped, and Cruz thinks it’s his.”
