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Chapter Nine

Chessly

" F inn." I panted as he dragged his firm lips up my neck. "There's someone at the door."

"Mmm. The someone already inside this house is the only someone I'm paying attention to right now." He nibbled his way along my jaw then captured my mouth with his masterful one.

How we'd gone from awkward staring to off-the-charts kissing flummoxed me even as I kissed him back with a hunger that would shock me if I stopped to let myself think about it.

Pressing myself into him, I buried my hands in his hair, reveling in the wiry texture of the thick waves and loving the way my curves molded to the hard planes of his chest. He sucked on my tongue, which sent waves of delicious heat through me to pulse in my core. I shifted beneath him in an attempt to close the distance between my hot center and the hardness straining behind the fly of his jeans.

The chimes of the doorbell echoed again through the living room. Whoever was standing on the other side of the door was determined to gain entrance because this time they didn't let up on the ringer for a full thirty seconds. With a groan, Finn dropped his head on the soft side of the armrest. A soft "fuck" puffed from his lips as he labored to draw in breath.

"You can't ignore whoever it is—not with all these lights on." Glancing around at the three or four lamps scattered on side tables, all of them casting light into the room, I blinked. Before the incessant chiming of the doorbell, I hadn't noticed how bright the room was.

"Whoever it is, their timing sucks," he grumbled.

Such a big man sounding so put-out was kinda cute.

"Cute? I am manly, not cute, Miss Clarke," he informed me, his tone miffed.

Oops. Apparently, I said that out loud.

Laughter danced in his eyes.

"You're cute when you're being petulant," I countered with a grin.

The doorbell interrupted yet again, and he slid back and sat up, gently moving my legs to sit up too. His forlorn expression might have cracked me up except certain needy parts of me commiserated with it.

"Giant pain in my ass," he groused as he adjusted the front of his jeans.

It flattered me that he wasn't trying to hide his reaction to what we were doing. When I squirmed back into the corner of the couch where I'd been sitting earlier, the corner of his mouth quirked up. Apparently, he liked my response too.

The person on the other side of the door laid on the chimes once more, and Finn yelled, "Give it a rest, wouldja? I'm coming." Throwing a grin at me over his shoulder, he said, "Not the way I'd like to be though."

At his words, my eyebrows tried to climb up to my hairline. His presumption should have irritated me. After all, we weren't even on a date.

Except the evening had sort of started feeling like a date, what with the hot chocolate and conversation—and his sizzling-hot kisses. My body buzzed with the memory of him against me.

When he opened the door, cold air and the sound of high-pitched feminine voices rushed into the house, freezing my libido in a nanosecond.

"Finn! Hi, Finn! We brought you presents."

"We baked all afternoon to give you treats for finals."

"We brought your favorites."

The voices were familiar—and unwelcome. Whoever these girls were, they knew much more about Finn than I did. The guy didn't have a reputation as a player, but I imagined having the adoration of so many people on campus was quite a temptation. And Finn was a guy, a football player no less. It wouldn't surprise me to discover he collected women like he collected game stats.

"Uh, we didn't ask for anything," I heard him say, confusion in his tone.

The group of girls surrounded him as he took a plastic container of what must be his "favorite" cookies. For a fleeting second, I wondered what kind he liked best, but before I could pursue the thought, a freshman I recognized as living in Hanover caught sight of me.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be in the dorms enforcing quiet hours for finals or something?" she asked.

No wonder the voices sounded familiar. Tory Miller's little band of mean girls had invited themselves over to the football house. I had no business being irritated with them—after all, I'd done the same thing when I showed up unannounced to return Finn's hoodie. But at least I hadn't arrived expecting to stay let alone end up on the couch kindling fires with kisses hot enough to leave scorch marks on my tongue. From the provocative way a couple of these girls were dressed and how they were watching him with calculating eyes, I could tell their plans for Finn's evening included more than sharing cookies.

Deliberately keeping my tone even, I asked, "Hmm, isn't this your first finals week? You should probably be taking advantage of those quiet hours in the dorms."

One of the girls hanging toward the back of the little group of four fidgeted uncomfortably. I recognized her from Jamaica's floor—Penelope, I thought. Clearly, this trip to the football party house wasn't her idea. No doubt she was peer-pressured into coming over by the loud one staring at me from the other side of the couch.

"We studied while the cookies baked," she simpered.

"Of course you did." It was all I could do to hold my gaze steady on hers rather than let loose the epic eye roll her response required.

"It's real nice of you to bring these over, but Chessly has a point—" Finn began but he was interrupted by someone new walking through the front door.

"Hey, Finn. Did you forget our no-party rule for the week before a semifinal game?" Bax asked as he hung up his coat in the closet.

"This isn't a party. I didn't even know these ladies were coming over until they laid on the doorbell."

Finn's tone was defensive, and I almost felt sorry for him, except he'd done nothing about the girl who'd glued herself to his side during this entire exchange. I didn't know if he'd invited the girls over and then forgot when I showed up or if he thought we could all hang out together or what, but their arrival reminded me of the way he chose Tory over me the last time I was here.

The ensuing discussion gained in decibels as the girls insisted they were only offering a much-needed study break. While they pled their case, I fired off a quick text, uncurled myself from the corner of the couch, grabbed our empty mugs, and returned them to the kitchen. After a quick detour to the bathroom down the hall from the living room, I returned to catch the simpering girl giggling and Finn chuckling as she fed him a cookie.

Yep. Time for me to go.

I'd just reached for my jacket after stuffing my feet into my boots when, apparently, he caught on.

"Chess? Hey! You're leaving?"

"This bunch"—I nodded to the girls standing around him in the living room—"reminded me I have a job to do and finals to prepare for." I zipped up my jacket and pulled my gloves from a pocket. "Thanks again for loaning me your hoodie."

He stepped away from the cookie queen. "You don't have to go right now." The pleading in his tone, coupled with a kind of desperation in his eyes, gave me pause.

Then the girl who'd clearly staked her claim on him slipped her arm through his and pulled him close to her side. "Let her go, big guy. We don't need the fun police here."

"Looks like you had other plans that I interrupted." Fun police, my ass. Headlights flashed through the window by the door, alerting me to my ride's arrival. "Good luck this weekend, Finn." Glancing past his shoulder, I added, "Bax. Hope you guys start the New Year playing in the national championship."

"Chessly."

I thought I heard a hint of begging in Finn's tone, but he'd yet to shrug out of the clingy girl's hold, so I dismissed it.

"Merry Christmas." I leveled a glance at their linked arms. "Looks like you're starting early." On that parting shot, I jerked open the door and stepped out into the freezing December air.

My Uber was idling at the curb, and I all but ran down the sidewalk to it. As I buckled myself in, some masochistic part of me had me gazing back at the house where I saw Finn standing alone in the open front door. It was monumentally unfair for him to be so damn handsome and to kiss like a man possessed. My mouth still tingled from his kisses. But the evidence proved I wasn't the only woman he enjoyed sharing himself with. In fact, the rather indiscriminate way he spread himself among all the girls told me he understood his major quite well. He had biology and chemistry down pat. Unfortunately, over the last... however long I'd been at his house, I'd verified the experiment.

I wanted to lie to myself and say my contribution to his extracurricular bio-chem fun was inadvertent. My sole aim in dropping by was to return his hoodie. But in the deep recesses of my heart, I couldn't avoid the truth: I'd wanted to see him again, spend time with him. Not only was he athletic and gorgeous, but he was also smart, articulate, and funny. A little awkward too, which was what I think I liked best about him. As much as I hated to admit it, that night at the party was some of the most fun I'd had since I started at Mountain State—at least until Tory Miller ruined it.

From the way I'd left things at Finn's house, she still had her golden claws firmly snagged in the football team even when she wasn't around. She'd trained her entourage of wannabes well. Of course, it helped that they'd set their sights on a player who liked their company and obviously didn't have much in the way of good taste. I had nothing against women showing off their assets—fashion was all about that. What I struggled with was women who thought their bodies were all they had to offer, which was a notion they shouted with their clothing choices.

The clingy girl had paired a plunging V-neck crop top with a leather skirt that barely skimmed the bottom of her butt. Her thigh-high pleather boots were probably the only thing keeping her warm. Even I couldn't ignore the nips-up situation her thin knit top had revealed in the cold air when she walked into the house without a jacket.

A second wannabe, who'd set her sights on Bax the second he walked through the door, appeared to have appropriated someone's cheerleader uniform: a short, tight skirt and a sleeveless crop top. In the generous light of the room, I'd noticed the goosebumps covering her bare legs, which explained her fidgeting. Or possibly her nerves were the problem because Bax had appeared less than thrilled with their rendezvous. At least one of the men had good sense. Plus, from the way he acted in Stromboli's the night of the party, Bax had a serious thing for my friend Piper.

Like the snow swirling in the streetlights, my thoughts churned as the Uber driver carefully navigated the slick streets. Dropping my head back against the seat, I stared at the ceiling of the car.

Cripes. I absolutely did not want to be attracted to Finn McCabe. Not one little bit. I'd thought returning his hoodie would help me expunge thoughts of him from my mind. Then he turned on the sweet with the hot chocolate and what I'd believed in the moment to be honesty. So I'd done the monumentally stupid thing and kissed him.

My body had betrayed me as I gave myself over to his touch. I'd never experienced anything before that felt as right as Finn's big body pushing me into the cushions of the couch. The raw voltage that arced through me when he set his lips on mine had left me soaking wet. My face heated as I thought about the shameless way I'd rubbed myself against him.

I was no different from the girls who dropped by to deliver cookies—among other things, apparently. My excuse was his hoodie, and I'd dressed in jeans and a sweater rather than a boobalicious crop top and short skirt. Otherwise, I hadn't behaved a whole lot differently from the troupe of freshman girls who'd descended on his doorstep behind me. Only after the jersey chasers arrived did I discover Finn's true colors. He liked the attention of all the girls, indiscriminately. I'd deluded myself for a minute into believing I was different from girls like Tory and her wannabes. The sigh that escaped me was one of pure self-disgust.

"Hey, I'm not trying to rip you off." The driver glared in the rearview. "The roads are super slick, so I'm being careful."

"That was aimed at me, not you." I apologized. "Take your time."

Finn came off as such a decent guy, if a bit clueless around women, but that was an act. He knew exactly what he was doing to keep women coming around, bringing all manner of treats, from cookies to kisses. All my life I'd prided myself on my self-control and ability to think rationally. One kiss from Finn had tossed all that pride right off the top of world to splat on the sidewalk in front of his house as I'd all but run away from the scene of the crime. Disgust roiled through me at the way I'd behaved.

My plan had been to drop off the hoodie, hop back in the waiting Uber, and return to my neatly ordered world—the one that would now be free of annoying distractions, like a certain sexy lineman. But when he opened the door, one look at his handsome face and those shoulders that filled his T-shirt right up, and I lost all common sense.

Instead of expunging him from my thoughts, I'd made it so much worse because now I knew exactly how his body pressed to mine could light me up. I knew exactly how his kisses could send lust molecules crashing through my blood. I knew exactly how the groaning sounds he made as I ran my fingers through his hair reverberated deep in my core.

I loved science—the experimentation, the principles, the behind-the-scenes information on how the world worked. But tonight I'd learned why the universe withheld certain secrets. Like what kind of chemistry I shared with a certain football player.

I was such an idiot.

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