49

Ryan

Because Of Me

Every time I had the fucking seconds for a goddamn private conversation with Kassie, someone was jumping in to interrupt, and it was honestly starting to piss me the fuck off.

I'd tell Cleo that we canceled the movie night because Kassie had a bad dinner with the animation guy. Easy answer. But first, I needed to protect Kassie. Leaning down, I grabbed her by the waist and pulled over my shoulder, heading off to the bedroom.

She grabbed on to me but just as quickly, I set her down to the ground. Completely naked. Fuck, it was hard to take my eyes off of her, but it'd be even harder to explain what the hell I'd done to Kassie's neck.

The knock echoed from the door.

"Oh my god. Cleo, " Kassie whispered. "What the hell are we going to do?"

I didn't say anything, I rifled through my dresser. A Romans shirt, a dark blue Marrs hoodie, and I found one of the jackets at the bottom of the drawer with a high-collar. I had no pants for her. Nothing could possibly fit her small frame. Which meant the dress needed to go back on.

"Ryan, what's the plan?" she urged while I strode back to the couch.

"Arms up." I slipped the dress on her and as she watched me, surprised. I'd have to tell her eventually. Tugging the hoodie over her head, I swore under my breath. "Kassie…your neck…"

Her eyebrows shot up. "What about my neck?"

She's going to kill me .

"You're covered in hickeys," I told her.

I wanted to sound like I regretted the hickeys a little but I couldn't do it. My girlfriend was covered in my marks and if I looked to the left, I could clearly see the bite mark. All signs that she belonged to me .

"You're joking." Kassie stared at me, shocked. "Like…two hickeys?"

"Uh. No."

"How many?"

I made a noise at the back of my throat.

"Oh my god." Kassie pinched the bridge of her nose. "Holy shit. Oh my god."

" Ryan! " Cleo's voice echoed from the door.

The hoodie swallowed Kassie but with her hair down, it perfectly hid everything, even the bite mark. Which was a little disappointing but we had team photos in less than twelve hours. It was a necessity before Cleo lost her shit.

I grabbed her again and went back to the front door. All I had to say was that the dinner didn't go well. We canceled the movie night. I'd reschedule for something else.

I pulled open the door. Standing in front of us was Cleo, with her arms folded over her chest, and Miles standing next to her, amused. The moment Cleo saw us, she got into it.

"What happened? " she demanded. "I don't get any updates, both of you went dark on me. Oh my god. Kassie. What happened to you?"

Oh, shit .

Except, she wasn't talking about the hickeys, hidden beneath four layers of clothing. She was talking about the makeup and the heavy blush and Kassie's hair, in a complete, tangled mess. It was hot as hell.

"I got sick," Kassie blurted out.

She swallowed. "I feel awful and…Ryan's been taking care of me."

I raised my eyebrows but Kassie ignored my gaze. I guess she could say I'd been taking care of her. I could still taste her come on my tongue.

"Sick?" Cleo demanded.

"Wait, you're not feeling great?" Miles frowned. "When'd you start feeling sick?"

They were starting to corral Kassie and I stepped between them, keeping that healthy distance. But I wasn't the only one concerned. Doors down the hall opened and some of the athletes on the floor made a show of checking out the scene.

Shit .

"You're sick and you didn't think to tell me?" Cleo asked, shocked. "Kassie."

"It's nothing serious," she assured her.

"If it's something serious, we'll need to quarantine everybody and figure out if Ryan has it, I'm not having the flu ruin our next game." She shook her head. "Grab your stuff, we're going to UrgentCare."

"UrgentCare?" I repeated, dumbfounded.

Kassie grabbed my arm. "UrgentCare?"

"We either quarantine you away from the football team or we get an expert's opinion on it," Cleo informed us.

If we had a real conversation about this, we absolutely didn't need UrgentCare and we absolutely didn't need to quarantine Kassie away from the football team. I wasn't eating her pussy and then going five days without seeing her. Fuck no.

"Alright. Let's go," Kassie nodded and pushed past me.

"We're going?" I stared at all of them. "To the hospital? "

"Yep. Make haste."