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He nodded.
I slid my dessert to the side and edged forward, my pulse thumping in my neck, my body trembling. Our mouths met and my jitters were replaced by a sense of rightness. His kiss was bold and showed no hesitation. He ran his fangs along my lips, pressing them just hard enough so there was a mix of pleasure and pain. It made me feel alive.
I drew back with a gasp, needing air. That had been nothing like kissing Jax or Aaron, but fired just as many sparks through my body.
Sitting back in his chair, his crimson-circled eyes wide, he whispered, “Go Sentinels.”
“Uh?” I’d totally lost my train of thought.
He winked. “Guess we have a game to go to on Friday.”
Cecilia
Thirty minutes pre-game and the Stallions’ stadium was buzzing and crammed to capacity, the crowd’s bustle and chatter filling the fresh evening air.
Almost everyone was sitting, but plenty of people stood and waved placards and banners, chanting and swaying from too many pre-game beers, flailing giant foam hands with index fingers poking skywards, emblazoned with ‘Stallions’ and ‘New Bellevue State.’ Spectators streamed back and forth from the food vendors to the seating sections, jostling and weaving with arms full of hotdogs, nachos and popcorn.
The red and white of the home fans’ clothing filled around two thirds of the stadium. Vesta was dating a Stallions’ player and I gave a wave to where she sat with his friends in the home team student section.
The rest of the crowd, particularly where we sat in the visitors’ section, wore the Sentinels’ colors of black and gold.
Including me. I had on a T-shirt, scarf and cap Xander gave me. He’d turned up to the game with them gift wrapped, saying he’d enjoyed seeing me in black so much the night before, he thought I might like to support Jax wearing the right team colors. I’d changed in the restroom and chuckled at myself in the mirror. I looked like a proper, die-hard fan, and the shirt’s cotton was so soft around my shoulders and chest, the cap’s peaked visor looked pretty cool too. Again, I was getting spoiled. And loving it.
As Jax and his team made their way out onto the field, I stood then whooped and clapped. Xander and Aaron followed suit, on either side of me. Jax scanned the visitor’s section crowd, then waved over to our group. I did my fangirl thing, waving back with both arms.
Osric was in the row behind us, directly behind Aaron. He didn’t stand when the teams made their appearance. Instead, he stayed hunched over, glued to his phone, tapping rapidly, his face frowning and flustered as his neatly styled blonde bangs fluttered in the breeze. I hoped he was okay. It seemed such a pity that everyone else was having a good time, and there was him, a handsome prince, looking two levels shy of miserable.
I stopped my clapping and raised my voice a little, to compensate for the crowd. “Osric?”
It was like the rest of the world had disappeared. He wasn’t hearing a thing. His focus remained on his phone. I decided to leave him be, as it was clearly something important. I hoped he’d be able to put his phone away and enjoy the game at some point.
“Family stuff,” Aaron whispered. “Best to leave him to it.” He gave me a soft peck on the cheek then looked over to where I was resting my hand on Xander’s shoulder and smiled. He seemed quite a lot more comfortable with Xander now. Ever since I’d told him how Xander had treated me on our date, and a bit about Xander’s family history, that Xander said would be okay to share with the guys. As I entwined my fingers with Aaron’s big, strong, teddy bear hand, I leaned into Xander, enjoying the smoothness of his black suede jacket.
Resting there, plucking occasional handfuls of salted popcorn from Aaron’s giant bucket, I noticed an interesting sight, around ten rows down from us in the crowd. There was a group, three guys and a girl, her in the middle and them sitting at either side, and one directly behind. Not unlike my own seating arrangement, except of course Osric was off in his own little world.
And they were very affectionate towards her too. You could see the way they lavished attention, stroked her hair, her arms, with the guy behind giving her a shoulder and neck massage. It looked so nice. I glanced back at Osric. His head was still buried in his phone screen. Not much chance of a massage there.
The girl and her three guys were decked in denim and shiny leather boots, their hair varying shades of orange, strawberry, and apricot blonde. The guys were athletic, about the same as Xander, maybe a little broader at the shoulders, and the girl looked strong too, like an Olympic gymnast. Her sleeveless top showed off biceps and triceps in a definition I could have only dreamed of.
“Tiger shifters,” Xander whispered in my ear. The vibrations of his breath sent tingles across my head and neck. He didn’t have to lower his voice, it wasn’t as if they would have heard. I got the impression he just liked pouring honeyed words into my ears, teasing me. I liked when he did it too. Holding Aaron’s warm, strong hand and leaning into Xander’s cinnamon, leather scent, I felt I could have purred too, despite not having any big cat within me.
“How can you be so sure?” I of course had my own wolf, my own bear, and I’d seen guys on campus who looked like they might have been lion or leopard shifters, but nobody had struck me as tiger. There was often something in the body shape, the hair, their eyes, that gave strong hints about which animal shifters housed within.
He shrugged gently, so as not to disturb my resting head. “You get a vibe.”
“A vibe?”
“A vibe.” Breaking into a cheeky grin, he said, “That, and half the ginger nuts I meet seem to be tigers.”
I suppressed a chuckle. “You arerude.”
Turning, he cupped my cheek in his palm. “And you are to die for. May I steal a quick kiss?”
I glanced at Aaron. Still clasping my hand firmly, he said. “You do what feels right for you.”
I sat up, pushing the visor of my cap skywards, and Aaron released his clasp. I ran both my hands through Xander’s raven locks, admiring the exquisite blend of scarlet and sapphire in his eyes. “Okay, but just a quick one.” I glanced around, still not used to this much affection, especially in public. “To say thank you for my Sentinels gear, and of course for last night.” “But I mean a quick one.” I wagged my finger gently. “Behave.”
“Yes, my orchid.”
