I shook my head. “You’re a little too good at this.”
Clay just smiled, glanced back in the direction of Shawn, and then slipped into a more severe persona. It was the wildest thing, to watch how he schooled his features, looking bored and almost a little pissed off as he lifted the red plastic cup in his hand up to his lips. With a long pull of his beer and his eyes nowhere near looking at me, he said, “Good luck,” and disappeared through the crowd.
I watched him go, watched as he high-fived a few players he walked by before joining Leo Hernandez in the kitchen. It just so happened to be when Leo was lining up shot glasses, and he poured an extra one for Clay once he joined.
Except, they didn’t take the shots out of the glasses.
Instead, Leo cleared the kitchen counter with a sweep of his forearm, littering the sink and floor with plastic cups, discarded lime wedges, and who knew what else. He turned to the girl beside him then — Olivia, I recognized, from the dance floor — and wrapped his hands around her hips before lifting her onto the counter. She laid back, flushed and giggling as he lined her stomach with salt and pooled a healthy amount of tequila in the valley of her abs and belly button.
I watched him do a body shot off her as she squirmed beneath him, and then as soon as she hopped down, another girl crawled up to take her place.
Clay didn’t even hesitate.
Leo poured the body shot in just the same fashion, and Clay bit his bottom lip, eyes hooded where they appreciated the girl’s ample cleavage heave as the cold liquid met her skin. His massive hands came down to frame either side of her, and he placed a lime wedge in her mouth with a wicked grin as she watched wide-eyed.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away as he ran the flat length of his tongue along the salt on her stomach, as his fingertips dug into her skin while he sucked and licked that tequila off her. Then, he was hovering over her face, and he bent slowly and seductively to bite the lime wedge in her mouth.
For only a brief second — then, the lime was gone, and his mouth was on hers.
Pain spiked through my chest like an ice pick, intensified when the girl threaded her manicured nails through his hair. She opened her mouth to let his in, and though the swipe of his tongue against hers was only a split second, it made my neck heat, made my stomach turn, made me…
What, exactly?
I stared and stared at them, trying to dissect what I was feeling, but didn’t solve the puzzle before a husky voice was at my ear.
“She doesn’t hold a candle to you.”
I shivered, the rough lilt of syllables tumbling down the back of my neck and leaving chills in their wake. I angled my head, finding Shawn staring down at me with a playful grin.
I laughed. “Yeah,” I said, but without even trying, without having to fake it… my eyes trailed back to Clay. “Sure.”
I watched as he helped the girl off the counter, his hands staying at her waist once she was safely on the floor. I knew I’d stared for too long because when I glanced back up at Shawn, he was watching me with his brows folded together, with pity and something like longing in his golden eyes before he leaned close to whisper in my ear.
“Want to get some air?”
While the front yard of the Snake Pit was crawling with students, the back yard was a serene garden, a hidden oasis that it seemed no one bothered to investigate because it was far too quiet to be part of the party. Shawn and I walked by a small pod of people passing around a joint before we found a bench along the stone path, a bubbling bird bath and feeder in front of it along with a rose garden that I was fairly certain had to be landscaped by a paid company.
No way was there a college football player with that green of a thumb.
Shawn gestured to the bench for me to sit first, and once I had, he sat right next to me, his thigh brushing the outside of mine. My cheeks heated at the contact, but he seemed unfazed, simply reclining and widening his stance as he threw an arm along the back of the bench.
“Color me impressed,” he mused, eyes trailing over the garden.
I chuckled. “Yeah, not exactly what I expected to find back here. I was assuming it’d be more of a trash-littered patch of dirt.”
“Is it your first time here?”
I tucked my hands under my thighs. “Yes. Although, from the time I’ve spent in the locker room, I’m pretty used to the noise level. And the smell.”
“The locker room?” Shawn frowned.
“I’m the Public Relations Assistant Coordinator for the team,” I clarified.
Shawn sat up a little straighter. “No shit?” He shook his head. “You’re just full of surprises. Forgive me, but… I can’t picture you in that role at all.”