The Red Zone: An Enemies with Benefits Sports Romance (The League Book 2)
The Red Zone: Chapter 25

“HAS ANYONE SEEN LEA?” I shouted loudly, standing on top of the coffee table with a crisp beer in one hand while Scarlett temporarily cut the music that was blaring through Lea’s surround sound system.

Lea lived a few blocks over from us, in a four-bedroom, forty-five hundred square foot house. Which was currently filled to the brim with jocks, D list celebrities, and the like as we celebrated the Matrix’s landslide win over the Jacksonville Jackrabbits and the upcoming bye week.

“This is her party.” Some knuckle headed looking jock piped in from across the living room. At least the three equally boneheaded looking dudes standing next to him had half a braincell based on the “you’re dumb as fuck” expressions they shot at him.

“Thank you, captain obvious, but that doesn’t answer my question. Has anyone seen her in the last—I don’t know—hour or so?”

The awkward silence and shared glances between friend groups gave me my answer. I took one more look around the room, seeing if anyone would budge. Kind of like how teachers in middle school did when no one volunteered to answer their questions. Their tactic almost always never resulted in a response, but at least it gave the kids who were shy the chance to muster up the courage to raise their hand if they wanted to.

Unfortunately for me, most of these people didn’t have a shy bone in their body, so I just looked like an idiot standing up there giving everyone an aggressive stare down.

“As you were.” I waved my freehand before reaching for some random tall man’s shoulder to steady me as I stepped off the coffee table. Blaring party music began filling the room again, and everyone returned to their mindless chatter like they hadn’t missed a beat.

I walked over to Scarlett who was leaning against one of the walls with a red solo cup in her hand. “I can’t believe no one’s seen her.”

“Maybe she’s handling a work emergency or something?”

Scarlett shrugged, peering around the room until she spotted Abel, who was talking to one of the defensive ends.

“Go.” I winked at her, noticing she was contemplating whether or not she should leave me to hang out with him. “I’ll see you later.”

I rounded the corner to my left, heading for the kitchen, hoping I could replace something—anything—to soak up some of the cheap beer I’d been sipping on for the last hour. I spotted some of the pinwheels that Scar had left on the counter, but before I could make a beeline for them, the doorway was blocked by a six-foot-something shaggy haired dude in an ugly brown graphic tee.

“Hi, Bobby.” I smiled at him, trying to squeeze past him, but he placed his hands on both sides of the doorframe to stop me.

“How’s my girl?”

“I’m not your girl. Now if you’ll excuse me—”

He blocked me in once again, shuffling to the right so I couldn’t get past him. There was a simmering warmth starting to sizzle through my veins, but I tried not to let it show through.

“You could be.” He waggled his eyebrows at me, placing a hand on my waist.

Disgusting.

Sure, Bobby was a decent looking guy—tall, curly blonde hair, knew how to dress himself without his moms help—but that was really all he had going for him.

You know how some people have a good personality and it makes them ten times hotter than they actually are? Well, unfortunately for our boy Bobby, he was the opposite. His creepy lurking and unusual demeanor made him lose hotness points, which was a shame, because he had good potential.

The weirdest part about the guy was that he wasn’t really friends with anyone in our friend group, yet he continued to show up at parties. People tolerated his presence because he wasn’t an outright jackass, but no one was jumping for him to join their conversation either.

“Not interested, thank you,” I said with a chipper smile, patting him on the chest before ducking under his armpit and breezing past him.

“I’ll see you around then?” He called out to me as I walked away from him.

“Not a chance,” I responded under my breath, not sparing a look back at him.

“That guy bothering you?” October came out of nowhere, shooting Bobby a lethal glare as I shoved pinwheels in my mouth back-to-back. Barely taking any time to breathe between bites.

“Not at the moment,” I mumbled with my mouth full.

I gasped as my favorite song boomed over the speakers, singing along to the tune, trying to push past October so I could steal back Scarlett from Abel and dance with her. But he just dragged me back into his arms instead.

His back flushed against the wall and he pulled me tight against him. I could feel his hardened bulge pressed against my stomach. A wave of heat flooded straight to my center, but I did my best not to think about what I was feeling.

I was here to party with my friends. Not to be seduced by October. That was for later.

“You sound like a horrible town troubadour.” He worked a hand into my hair, pulling my face toward his to sear my lips with a tantalizing kiss.

“How many troubadours do you know exactly?”

“Enough.” He kissed me hard.

“Mmhmm, I’ll take your word for it.”

Our lips found each other again, and he slowly forced my mouth open, gliding our tongues against each other. I wasn’t generally one for public displays of affection, but right now, I couldn’t have cared less.

If people wanted to watch as he skimmed his hands over my body, pulling me close to him with that dominating grip that drove me crazy, so be it. Oh? They want to watch as he explores my mouth with his tongue, instead? Then let them watch.

“Come home with me,” he rasped, both of us panting as he pulled back. He nudged his hips forward, grinding his length against my stomach, and it was almost enough to tempt me. But the night was still young. I had people to dance with, songs to sing, and copious amounts of beer to drink.

“But I was just starting to have fun.” I glanced over at Bobby who was eyeing us like a hawk.

“I don’t like this… you, talking with him.” His jaw clenched. “I don’t like it one fucking bit. The guy’s a creep.”

“Wait… are you jealous?”

October stared at me blankly with a fire ignited behind his eyes and his jaw clenched tightly. He pulled me in closer with the hand he had on the small of my back before sliding it down to grab a healthy handful of my ass.

“Oh, my god. You are jealous.” There was a hint of amusement in my voice that I couldn’t hide no matter how hard I tried.

“Extremely,” he bit out, grabbing my hand, trying to lead me down the long, dark hallway to our right. “Let’s go.”

“I can’t do that. I’m hanging out with Bobby.” My feet stayed planted in place.

“Like fuck you are.”

He was so jealous. And God, it was so fucking hot.

A cheeky smile transformed my face. “You’re hot when you’re jealous.”

“I didn’t like seeing that guy’s hand on you. He was toying around with you like some kind of fuck toy. Not only was it disgusting, but I’m not exactly the biggest fan of other people trying to flirt with you either.”

His claims were bit dramatic considering the guy had his hand on my hip for all of two seconds before I left him in the dust, but I wasn’t in the mood to argue.

“Are you that I’m yours?”

“What if I was?” His gaze was locked on my lips.

“I’d think you were drunk.”

“People have always said that drunk words are sober thoughts.”

“They also say that there’s a thin line between love and hate.” I added. “How true do you think that one is?”

October’s lips turned up into a seductive smile as he poked his tongue into his cheek.

People threw around that saying all the time, and typically, I wasn’t one who based my thought processes off of mainstream sayings, but then again, I guess I never realized how much truth was in that expression until I experienced it first-hand.

What people failed to give direction on, though, was what a person was supposed to do when the lines became so blurred, they couldn’t discern between the two emotions anymore?

Was I in love with October? I didn’t think so. Not yet, at least.

Was I headed in that direction faster than I could comprehend, though? Undeniably.

“You should stop drinking,” he scolded, although I’d lost the drink in my hand somewhere along the way. Maybe back by the pinwheels? Oh, well. It wasn’t like I was going to go back for it.

“I can assure you that I’m perfectly safe and nowhere close to being drunk, but thank you for your concern, though.” I tipped up my chin, giving him a smug smile before turning to walk away. “See you in the morning?” I called over my shoulder, not caring enough to perk up my ears enough to hear whatever nonsense he was mumbling to himself.

We both knew I’d be falling asleep in his bed tonight, but what was the crime in toying with him just a teeny tiny bit? After all these years of provoking him, I couldn’t let him think that he was finally getting the upper hand.