AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes,” I said.
At the same time, she muttered, “Sort of.”
“Okay well…I have an appointment.” Cole glanced back and forth between us a few times, then focused on Rory. “You have a way home?” I understood his concern since she was small, and it was late at night. But she wasn’t his responsibility. She was mine.
“I’ll make sure she gets home safely,” I commented swiftly.
Rory smiled at me, and her cheeks turned adorably pink.
Cole nodded and went out the exit, leaving us alone since the hallway had become deserted at some point.
“I should smash your gaming console over your head,” she announced, taking me aback.
“Say what?”
Her face was flushed as she frowned up at me. “You let me go on and on about the amazing Gage Ledger. I must have sounded like a lovesick fool compared to all the sophisticated women who probably throw themselves at you constantly.”
“Hey,” I said softly, taking her hand in mine and tugging her closer until we were nearly toe-to-toe. “It wasn’t like that. First of all, I wasn’t allowed to tell you who I was, and second…”
She raised an eyebrow and plopped her other hand on her hip as she tapped one toe.
I suppressed a smile, not wanting her to think I was laughing at her.
“Second?”
“I admit, I liked hearing you have a crush on me.”
Rory frowned and glanced at the floor, but I took her chin between my thumb and forefinger, raising her face so she had to look at me.
“Because it made me feel better about how much I liked you and…” I trailed off, not sure how far to take it right at that moment.
Then she blinked, and her mouth curved up a little, making me lose my train of thought for a second as I imagined kissing those sweet pink lips.
“And?”
I cleared my throat and met her eyes.Fuck it. “And all the dirty fantasies that your sexy voice conjured up in my mind.”
3
RORY
Icouldn’t believe that I was actually talking to Gage Ledger. And if I wasn’t totally mistaken…he was flirting with me. In real life. Not just through our mics while we playedBeaumont Footballonline.
I wasn’t sure what blew my mind more—that I was having a conversation with the sexy, pro football player who’d snagged my attention before we met or that he was the same man whose personality I’d been drawn to as a gamer. It made sense that Lennox Madison would’ve asked some of his players to beta the game he was launching since they could give a unique perspective. But it just wasn’t a possibility that I’d ever considered.
If I had, I probably would have held back when I talked about Gage…to Gage.
Then again, if I’d known it was him, odds were more than good that I just wouldn’t have said much of anything. I would’ve been too tongue-tied since I rarely talked to hot guys. Just math nerds like me.
My cheeks filled with heat as I gawked up at the man I’d been thinking about all summer—both as the gamer I’d fallen forand the player I couldn’t get out of my head. He was even more attractive than the pictures that had been posted of him online and in the media.
He seemed taller than the six feet his stats put him at, and the two hundred and ten pounds of muscle he carried on his tall frame were very much on display in the clothes he was wearing. His T-shirt was stretched across his broad chest, with the short sleeves straining around his biceps, and his athletic pants were drawn tight against his thick thighs. My fingers itched to comb through his messy dark hair that was still damp from his post-game shower, and his green eyes were so intense as he looked down at me.
“Did…um…it really?” I mentally cringed at how I stumbled over my words. As ridiculously attractive as Gage was, he was still the same guy I had spent hours talking to while we played online together. “Because sexy is probably the last word I’d use to describe my voice.”
“You gotta give yourself more credit, nerd.” His heated gaze sent a shiver of awareness down my spine. “I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since the first time I heard you. Didn’t matter that I had no clue what your real name was, how far away you lived, or what you looked like.”
My body was filled with relief over the fact that I wasn’t the only one feeling the pull between us. But he still hadn’t addressed the other part of what I’d said earlier, and I wasn’t going to give in to my attraction to him without more information. “Even though you have gorgeous women throwing themselves at you on a regular basis?”
