Blowing air out of my cheeks, I mentally cross out the two rookies of the group. “Is it Kit?”
“Seriously?” Lila exclaims, offended.
“He’s your type.”
“He’s the most egotistical guy I’ve ever met. And that’s saying a lot considering I slept with the entire Omega Psi Phi house.”
Jeez, I didn’t think I was this bad of a guesser. My eyes coast over Lila as she reaches for her glass of Dr. Pepper. I have no idea how that girl stays so fit with all the sugar she consumes.
It’s not Gage, Foster, or Kit. It can’t be Casen because he’s engaged. So that means…
I spring to my feet from the couch, rustling Lila’s entire body as I squeal. “You like Bristol!”
I’m not sure if Lila chokes from the airplane-like turbulence or his name, but streams of brown liquid shoot out her nose, and she doubles over in a coughing fit.
I point at her, doing a little dance. “That’s a yes! I knew it!”
“You did not know it,” she scoffs, wiping her mouth.
“Oh my God, Li. You two would be so good together. Not to mention you’d make insanely attractive babies.”
“Uh-uh. There will be no baby talk. I don’t even know if he likes me back.”
“He’d be stupid not to,” I tell her.
She purses her sangria-colored lips, switching our reality television program to YouTube. “Thanks, Aer-Bear, but I’d much rather focus on that yummy boyfriend of yours than my sad situationship.”
That’s right. Hayes’ interview is today. I told him I’d watch it live. We’ve already been photographed multiple times together, but this is the first time Hayes is actually speaking about our relationship to the press.
I fall back onto my butt. “Fine, but we’re coming back to this.”
Hayes is sitting in a spacious office across from two interviewers, a microphone propped up in front of him, and a neon sign behind him that blares Knights of the Sound Booth. According to Lila, they’re the biggest podcast on the platform.
“Thank you for joining us today, Hayes,” the interviewer with the square-framed glasses says. His name is Deacon, according to the tag on his shirt.
“Thank you for having me.”
He looks a lot better. It’s been a week. The wound on his lip has scabbed over, and the bruising on his face has yellowed.
“You got into quite the predicament last game. Care to comment?”
“Quentin Cadieux was talking shit, so I put him in his place,” he says calmly, though aggravation shackles his words, and there’s something predatory in his eyes that makes my veins frost over.
“And what did he say to rile up the Reapers’ notorious hothead?” the other interviewer asks, a single eyebrow poised. His name is Oliver.
“Let’s just say that he insulted someone I really care about.”
“Mm-hm. And would this ‘someone’ be your new girlfriend by chance?”
Hayes flashes a high-voltage grin before answering, “Aeris Relera is my better half.”
My better half.
My pulse jump-starts and my stomach lurches with a kaleidoscope of butterflies.
Lila jumps up from the sofa, her ear-piercing squeal jangling my eardrums. Crunch shoots up from her spot on the cat tower and scampers off into my bedroom.
“Oh my God! Aeris, did you hear that? Look how proud he looks!”
Did I hear that correctly?
“And what is it about this girl that’s so special?”
Hayes forks his hand through his hair. “Everything. There aren’t enough words in the world to describe how incredible she is. I’m pretty sure I’ve laughed with her more than I have in years. She has this softness about her that I don’t think many people are capable of, but she’s equally just as strong.”
Yep, I definitely heard that correctly. I feel like I could cry. I might if he keeps talking about me like that. No, Aeris. Pull it together.
Oliver places his crossed arms on the table. “And how did you two meet?”
“We met at a bar. She was drinking by herself one night, and she caught my attention from across the room. I asked if I could join her, and I’m lucky she didn’t throw her drink in my face.”
A flurry of laughter fills the studio.
“Are you saying that a heartthrob like yourself has trouble picking up girls?”
Hayes makes a face, but it’s good-natured. “Oh, definitely. It can be intimidating being the first one to make the move. You never know how a person will react. I never used to get nervous around women before Aeris, but to this day, I still get butterflies when I’m around her.”
The podcast goes on for a bit longer, with Deacon and Oliver asking about everything from his workout routine to his guilty pleasures, but I’m still hung up on every word he said about me.
I need to see Hayes. Now.
29
WHO SAID DREAMS DON’T COME TRUE?
HAYES
The interview went a lot better than expected. I didn’t feel the need to choke anyone out, so that’s always a plus. I was planning on goading the guys into grabbing a drink, but I was surprised to find Aeris waiting in my bedroom instead.
I hang up my jacket on the back of the door. “Hey, what are you doing here?”
Aeris has her hands in her lap. “I saw your interview.”
“You did?”
“I did.”
She walks over to me and lightly touches my arm. Pinpricks line my exposed flesh, calling out for her body to merge with mine—to the point where we can’t decipher where one of us ends and the other begins.
“It was perfect, Hayes,” she says.
I don’t know if she realizes it, but she’s donning some pretty irresistible bedroom eyes right now.
“I mean, I was going for perfect,” I tease, my heart roaring as loud as an exploding landmine.
Without another word, she attacks me with an earth-shattering kiss, raking my bottom lip with her teeth. She sucks the breath out of me, and when I come back up for air, lust fills me like flour in a measuring cup.
I haven’t seen her in a week, but it’s felt like a lifetime. You’d be surprised how much sexual frustration can build up in just seven days.
I waste no time ripping a line clean down the middle of her shirt, with such force that it makes her voluptuous tits jiggle. I want to pull the pigment from her cheeks and paint every curve of her body; I want to make her see every color of euphoria when she orgasms.
My lips are on her neck, then on her collarbone, then I’m taking the top of her breast between my teeth. A dewdrop of purple blossoms against her flesh, and I soothe the bite with a tender lick.
She rubs the front of her body against me, galvanized to create friction. Aeris angles herself to give me the meat of her thigh to grind myself into, and the way she’s rutting her hips over my dick coaxes my balls to tighten.
I undress myself unceremoniously, but I take my time to help her out of her pants. I slide one leg down, then strip off the other. She’s wearing plain, cotton underwear—which are already slick with her arousal—and once I remove them, I’m greeted by the glistening sight of her puffy, pink lips.
My cock strains almost painfully, and as badly as I want to give it a firm rub, I keep my hands on the curve of Aeris’ waist.