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“And what do you want in return?”

  “You, in my bed.”

  “We’ll end up fucking.”

  He smirked. Then, he grabbed her face in his hands and started kissing her. That same explosive kiss that he had given her on the sideline. The one that made her knees weak and her mind run away from her.

  She found herself grinding against him, aching to get close, to get off. She couldn’t deny that she wanted an orgasm. She desperately did, but a beeping noise in her brain was telling her to slow down and think. But, with his lips on her and his hands on her and their bodies close together, desire overtook everything, and she ignored rational thought.

  Pace pressed her down into the couch and yanked her shorts out of the way. Then, he dived back in for another kiss. His fingers trailed down her stomach before spreading her open and pressing into her pussy.

  “Fuck,” she cried.

  Then, he swirled his finger around her already aroused clit. She felt a buildup stir within her as he continued to bring her close to the edge. Then, at one more insistent thrust, she came apart. She threw her head back, and her body shuddered. No vibrator could ever give her that; that was for damn sure.

  He kissed her once more on her swollen lips. “My bed.”

  “You said we’d just sleep,” she accused.

  “I lied.”

  “That’s not playing fair.”

  “I want you, Stacia. I don’t have to play fair.”

  She sighed and shook her head. “This was a mistake.”

  “What?” he asked as she stood on shaky legs and grabbed her shorts. “Which part? The orgasm or me?”

  “Yes. I said that I would not fall for this, Pace. Nothing has changed, except for you being sneaky. I’m sorry. I just…I don’t trust you,” she whispered and then disappeared into her room.

  She promptly turned on the shower, so he wouldn’t hear her tears through the door.

  AS MUCH AS STACIA WANTED to figure out what the hell had happened the night before, she was also terrified to acknowledge it. It was better to just admit that she had been weak after studying almost all night, and she had been so exhausted that release had come to her so easily. She couldn’t let it happen again.

  It was relatively easy to let herself drown with all the work she needed to focus on. Plus, Pace really did need to focus on football. With Boomer gone, their first away game was nearly a disaster. They managed to win in overtime, which was a relief for Stacia, who had opted to stay home and watch it on TV. It was the first football game of her college career that she had not been on the sidelines. It was one hundred percent more nerve-racking.

  But Boomer was back for the next three games, and they won them all. Everyone speculated on what rule he had violated, but the few who knew what had happened would never speak about it. Even Pace held his silence. But she didn’t know how long that would last with his temper.

  “Come on,” Bryna pleaded the next week. “You cannot miss two away games in a row, S.”

  “I have to. I have a paper due on Monday. I can’t leave,” Stacia told her. “You go with Trihn and let Maya take my spot. I’ll be fine.”

  “No way. I can’t do that.” She sighed. “How are you doing in your classes anyway?”

  Stacia cringed. “All right. I’ve been in tutoring all semester, so it’s going better. I got a B on my last test.”

  “That’s excellent. I’m really proud of you for going through with this.”

  “Yeah,” Stacia said with a smile. “I like it so far.”

  “And I can’t change your mind?”

  Stacia shook her head. “I’m sorry. You know I want to be there with you. Football is my life.”

  “I know, I know. This just sucks. It’s our last football season here, and you won’t be at all the games.”

  “Um…about that,” Stacia said. “I’m not graduating in the spring.”

  “What? Why not?”

  “I don’t have enough credits for the major, so I’ll be staying an extra year.”

  “That’s ridiculous! They’re making you stay another year? Didn’t you have enough classes to transfer into the major?”

  “No, actually, I didn’t,” Stacia told her. “I was kind of slacking off because I didn’t think that I would be coming back. But, now, I’m here.”

  “Have you talked to your advisor to see if you can fix it?”

  “Bri, no,” Stacia said. “It’s just a fact. I’m not graduating with you and Trihn.”

  Bryna deflated. “That’s seriously depressing.”

  Stacia chewed on her lip and then pushed forward with something that she had been thinking about since being admitted. “You didn’t…talk to the journalism program about me to help me get in, did you?”

  “Did I do what?” Bryna asked. “You think I had something to do with you getting in?”

  “It’s crazy, I know,” Stacia said straightaway. “I just feel…a bit out of place. And Whitney said that everyone got into the major in the spring and that the wait list was long. I just…wanted to make sure. You didn’t…right?”

  “No!” Bryna cried. “I was in Europe!”

  “That’s not outside of your bounds.”

  Bryna grabbed Stacia’s shoulders and stared her down. “You did this all on your own, S. This is on you. You worked for it. Just own it.”

  Stacia nodded. “Okay. I’m sorry I accused you. It’s just…something you would do.”

  Bryna laughed. “Well, it is. But I didn’t this time! I have full faith in you.”

  “That makes one of us.”

  With everyone gone at the game for the weekend, Stacia invited Simon and Whitney over to study at her place. She was determined to play matchmaker with them even if both seemed oblivious to how any of this worked. And, by the end of the weekend, she was even more frustrated that she hadn’t had any success. How hard could it be to get two sort-of-awkward journalism nerds together?

  “Well, I, um…actually have a violin lesson in thirty minutes, so I should get going,” Whitney said on Sunday afternoon.

  “You’re leaving?” Stacia asked, wide-eyed. She looked between Simon and Whitney, like, Come on, work with me!

  “Yeah. Every Sunday. Sorry.”

  “Do you want to come back over afterward?” Stacia prompted. “Simon, you’d like Whitney to come back, right?”

  “Honestly, I feel like we’re about set here,” Simon said without looking up. He took off his geeky, yet hot black-rimmed glasses and then smiled at Stacia. “I’ll just give your paper one more read-through. Whitney’s is already great.”

  Whitney beamed. “Thanks, Simon.”

  “All right,” Stacia said, feeling like throwing her hands up. “I guess I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”

  “Thanks,” she said with a shy smile. “Bye, Simon.”

  “See ya.”

  Stacia dropped her head onto the table when Whitney left. “I’m starving,” she muttered. “I’m going to order a pizza. Want anything?”

  “No mushrooms. Otherwise, I’m good.”

  “Cool. I’m no olives.”

  “I love olives.”

  Stacia crinkled her nose. “This partnership is never going to work.”

  His eyes widened, and then he smiled and started laughing, as if just realizing that she was joking. “You’re funny, Stacia.”

  Stacia arched an eyebrow and strode away. She could be mildly sarcastic. She didn’t think that warranted full-bodied humor.

  She ordered pizza from her phone, and to her relief, it showed up thirty minutes later. She scooped out slices onto plates and passed one to Simon. Digging another water bottle out of the fridge, she leaned back against the breakfast bar in the kitchen and dug into her pizza.

  “This was just what I needed,” she said.

  “Brain food.”

  She laughed. “Something like that. You know—” She cut off midsentence when the doorknob turned, and then the door opened.

  Fuck.

  Her ey
es darted to the clock.

  No, no, no.

  This was too early. Pace shouldn’t be back already. She had planned it out so that everyone would be gone, and she would be perfectly cloistered in her room before he returned.

  But there Pace was, his giant frame taking up the entire doorway.

  His eyes found her across the room, and then they moved to Simon sitting at the table, casually eating pizza with her.

  “What’s this?” Pace asked, slamming the door shut behind him.

  “Pace, this is…Simon,” Stacia said. She gestured to Simon, who surreptitiously glanced between them.

  “You’re Pace Larson,” Simon blurted out.

  “Yes, I am.”

  “You’re the quarterback, right?”

  Pace arched an eyebrow. “Yes.”

  Stacia tried to interject, “He’s my—”

  “Boyfriend,” Simon finished for her. “You were the one he was with on TV.”

  “Uh, no,” Stacia said at the same time Pace said, “Yes.”

  Stacia shot Pace a look. “He’s my roommate.”

  “Your roommate is the starting quarterback?” Simon asked, as if trying to decipher the problem in front of him.

  “Um…yes.”

  Simon blinked at her and then blinked again. He frowned and nodded. “I see.”

  “Yeah, so you should go,” Pace said with a menacing glare. “Seriously, you stand no chance.”

  “Pace!” Stacia snapped.

  “It’s fine. I’m leaving.” Simon stuffed his papers into his bag.

  “Simon, you don’t have to go,” Stacia told him.

  He just handed Stacia her paper. “This looks much better.”

  Then, he left without saying good-bye, more or less fleeing the apartment. As he calmly shut the door behind himself, Stacia was cursing herself for letting this happen.

  As soon as the door clicked, she rounded on Pace. “What the fuck was that?”

  “I’m gone for the weekend, and you bring another guy here?” he demanded, fury in every word.

  “He’s my tutor!” she nearly screamed in his face.

  “I’ve seen that porn,” Pace said dismissively. “I know what happens next.”

  “Ugh! I am not into Simon! I cannot believe you just ran him out of the apartment while we were in the middle of working on my paper. How fucking dare you do that!” she yelled. “You said you were fine with me having people over!”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not fucking fine. And you weren’t fucking fine with Lindsay being here.”

  “That’s not the same, and you know it,” she said. “Simon is my fucking tutor. He is not some skank, ready to hook up in the middle of a party. He is a nice, normal guy.”

  “So, is that the kind of guy you’re after then? A nice, normal guy?” Pace demanded. He walked up to her and crossed his arms.

  “Don’t even start with me. This has nothing to do with Simon and everything to do with your insecurities about me having other friends! About you not being able to control me!” Stacia glared at him. “You can’t do this.”

  “You think it’s about control, Stacia?” Pace rolled his eyes. “Are you blind? Did you see the way he looked at you? The way he stuttered through everything when he realized who I was?”

  “He’s not into me,” Stacia said. At least, she really hoped that was true. “You’re insane. I’m trying to hook him up with Whitney, who was here a half hour before you showed up.”

  Pace moved into her personal space and stared down at her. “What guy wouldn’t be into you? Between you and Whitney, it’s not even a contest. He would jump at the first chance to get with you.”

  Stacia took a step back and evaluated Pace’s growing temper. She shook her head in disbelief. “You’re threatened by my tutor? Really, Pace? That’s ridiculous, coming from you.”

  She tucked her paper under her arm, grabbed her water bottle and the pizza she had been eating, and then turned and walked away from him.

  As soon as the door shut behind her, she heard something crash against one of the walls outside. Stacia winced, knowing she had set off his anger. But he needed to cool down before talking to her again. Because, really…Simon?

  She almost laughed, except that the look on Pace’s face hadn’t been funny. He had actually been upset that she had someone else in the house even though he had claimed that it was okay. But she knew it wasn’t. She had known, which was why she had wanted everyone out before he got back. And he had reacted exactly how she had suspected and worse.

  Stacia dumped her dinner on her desk since she no longer had an appetite and plopped down on her bed. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. She never would have guessed that Pace would get jealous of Simon. If it were another football player or something, she would have understood that. But how could Pace be threatened by Simon? He was so…normal.

  She sighed and tried to digest everything that had just gone on. Hadn’t Pace asked me if that was the kind of guy I was into now? Maybe he wasn’t threatened by other football players. No one else would dare cross him at this point. But someone completely out of her wheelhouse…that frightened him.

  She reached for the paper and decided to give it another read-through since she was having no luck in deciphering her giant football player in the other room. But, the more she read it, the more she knew Simon was right. This paper was a lot better. And she had read it too many times. She didn’t even know where to start to change anything.

  Just as she hopped up and tossed her paper onto her desk, a knock sounded on her door.

  “Stacia?” Pace said through the barrier. “Can I come in?”

  She dropped her chin to her chest for a second before turning around, leaning back against her desk, and saying, “Sure.”

  Pace cracked open the door and ran a hand back through his hair. “Hey.”

  “Hey.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You’re…what?” Stacia straightened and looked at him very closely. Since when did Pace apologize for anything?

  “I said, I’m sorry.”

  “Care to elaborate?”

  He took another step into her room. He hadn’t been in here since the morning after Boomer had hit her. Stacia had had to vacuum and scrub everything to get the cocaine out of the room so that, when Pace had the cleaning crew come in, questions wouldn’t be asked. Now, here he was, entering her space again.

  “I overreacted,” he told her, palms face up.

  “You think?” she said, unable to keep the edge out of her voice.

  He cleared his throat and then clenched and unclenched his fists. “I’m trying here, Pink. Let me finish?”

  “By all means.” She gestured with her hand to let him continue.

  “I overreacted about your tutor guy. All I saw was another man in my condo, where we live together—”

  “As roommates,” she clarified.

  “We still live together.”

  “It’s different.”

  “If you say so,” he said with a not-so-innocent smile. “When I saw him, I went from zero to sixty in two-point-five seconds. I know that I said it was okay for you to have other people here, but I didn’t mean it. I’ve told you from the start that I want to be with you and that I don’t want anyone else with you. So, when I saw you with him, I freaked. The thought of you with someone else drives me crazy. Always has.”

  Stacia swallowed and nodded. “All right. Just don’t do that again.”

  “Look, you told me that you were going to be sleeping with other people. How was I supposed to know it wasn’t that guy?”

  “Even if it were, Pace,” she said with a sigh, “you can’t react like that.”

  He clenched his jaw and then said, “I’ll work on it.”

  Stacia started laughing at him. Once she started, she couldn’t seem to stop. His response was just such…bullshit. There was no way that Pace was going to actually act like an adult about her being with someone else. Especially not after t
hey had fooled around again. She couldn’t even fathom how she had ended up here.

  “What is so funny?” he asked.

  “You.”

  “Oh, that’s real helpful.”

  “Just your whole commanding alpha behavior, followed by an apology. It’s just…hilarious.”

  Pace shrugged. “Not going to argue with you when you’re showing that pretty smile around again. I’ve missed it too much lately.”

  “Oh, yeah?” she asked, catching her breath.

  “Yeah. I’m tired of always arguing with you.”

  “Me, too,” she admitted.

  “I know you have that paper to work on, but do you want to just…go do something?”

  Stacia narrowed her eyes. “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. Get dinner? Soak in the hot tub?” he suggested.

  “That sounds like a date,” she said softly.

  “And what’s wrong with that?”

  Stacia couldn’t even justify that with an answer. Part of her said nothing, and the other part of her kept reminding her of his betrayal. “How about just the hot tub?”

  Pace grinned. “I’ll take what I can get.”

  He strode forward and stopped in front of her. She gazed up into his hopeful face and melted all over.

  He bent down and softly kissed her on the lips. “See you there in five.”

  PACE SHUT THE DOOR BEHIND HIM, and Stacia was left wondering what the hell she was getting herself into. She quickly stripped out of her clothes and snagged a pink string bikini from a drawer. She had been living here for months and hadn’t once taken a dip in the pool. They used to hang out in the hot tub together all the time, back when they had been more normal…if she could ever consider their relationship that.

  At the last minute, she tugged her hair out of its ponytail, applied an extra coat of mascara, and tied a sarong around her hips. She hadn’t been hitting the gym as hard as she had when she was in cheer, but she still thought she looked good.

  With a deep breath, she left her bedroom and tiptoed out the back door. Pace was already in the hot tub, facing the door. And he looked sexy as fuck without his shirt on. His muscles were off the charts from all the football practices and workouts. His arms were on either side of the hot tub, and his biceps were bulging. Her stomach dipped at the sight.