11

Adam

Don't Shame Me In My Own Home

I woke up to a new type of hell at five in the fucking morning.

A scream so loud it split my head in two. It hit like a ton of bricks, and I shot out of bed - on the wrong side. I crashed to the floor, and the ground met my face before I could figure out what the fuck was going on. Fire alarm? Aliens?

"What the fuck?!" I shouted, scrambling up, just to stop dead in my tracks.

Blonde hair in a twisted bun met me. Not on the side of the bed—like usual—but at the door frame, standing with her back facing me. My RA. I breathed out for a second, letting all the anger evaporate in an instant. Piper was in my bedroom.

Aliens could take me.

This is a good morning.

"Hey, ice princess." I grinned. For a moment, I had to think back on the events the night before. "Wait, did we…?"

She shifted on her other leg, still refusing to look at me. "Absolutely not ."

"Yeah, I figured." I stretched my arms behind my back. "If we had, you wouldn't be walking straight."

Piper had nothing to say to that, and it was unfortunate she was turned around. I was sure she had a bright blush on her cheeks and probably furious eyes. My favorite Piper combination.

Beyond that, I would've known if we had sex. Last night wasn't the easiest sleep in the world. Thanks to everything Piper said at the behavioral meeting, I'd tossed and turned for a while. She called me a jerk in front of everybody. I'd certainly been called worse, but from her…it made me feel…bad?

A new sensation.

If I had my face buried between her legs last night, I would've definitely slept better.

With a shrug, I walked to the doorframe. "Excuse me. You're in my way."

Piper took a quick step over, but her jaw fell open. "Adam—you're naked —"

"Yeah. And?" I glanced back to see Piper's stricken face, the blush, damn delicious, and her eyes, trained to the ceiling. "Don't shame me in my own home, Piper. That's pretty rude. Aren't you supposed to be a good girl?"

She sucked in a breath. "You know what's rude, Adam—"

"I wouldn't know. I'm a perfect gentleman." Scanning the counters, I held up a bag of bagels. "You want one?"

"Go put on clothes ."

"You want to tell me what you're doing here first?"

She sighed, squeezing her hands into fists at both sides. So damn cute. "Football practice is in an hour, and if you're not there, Coach Lawson is going to kick you off the team."

"This is a wake-up call?"

"This is a— you need to get up —call."

I leaned back against the counter and studied her. She wasn't enthusiastic about this. That was pretty obvious, but she did it anyway. She didn't want me kicked off the team. It would've been so easy for her to tell me to fuck off too. "That's…really nice."

"What?" She glanced at me and her eyes shot back up to the ceiling. "Would you put on some pants?! "

On my way to the bedroom, I caught sight of the clock. "Piper, it's five in the morning ."

"I know."

"You made me think I was half an hour late."

"I wouldn't let you be half an hour late—we have a coffee date."

"Huh?" I leaned back to catch sight of her in the doorway and it took her a moment for the words to sink in.

"Not like that ." While I pulled clothes on and slipped my wallet into my back pocket, Piper explained. "Ryan and Kassie caught up with me in the lobby and they want to see us at Gianna's before practice. And…they were super nice and I—I don't want to miss it."

Adorable, sweet Piper had run into the two bozos that'd ruined my chances at the behavioral hearing, the same two bozos that she followed on social media. Piper wasn't talking about missing practice. She was worried about missing coffee.

She doesn't give a shit about my spot on the team.

"Wow, Piper." I chuckled.

Piper slipped out with me and frowned when I simply closed the door. "You don't lock it?"

"I can't. One day, you'll decide to come in and I can't have a lock jeopardizing that."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, nice."

I almost agreed until we stepped into the elevator. Beyond waking up way earlier than I was used to, nothing about the day had changed. Same old, same old. But the three feet between us in the hallway was different than the three feet between us in the elevator.

Out in the hallway, there'd been room and the wide open spaces of a dorm that catered to its athletes. In the elevator, my breathing slowed. I glanced over to see the ice princess but I found her gazing up at me too. She jerked away and began to stare right at the door. I copied her.

My hand twitched at my side, the kind of unnatural convulsion you're never really prepared for and I folded my arms over my chest.

She wasn't looking at me. I wouldn't look at her.

The elevator doors opened and I cleared my throat. "Ladies first."

Piper didn't say anything, just strode right out of the elevator with her head held high, like she always did. I was left trailing behind her, not like a guy who would be heading into the NFL after his college contract was up, but like a puppy.

My right hand twitched again, watching her.

Somehow…I felt like I had all those years ago in the bathroom at the high school party, hyping myself up in the mirror.

But that was a lifetime ago. I knew how badly people could hurt you and how none of that mattered anyway. Piper could go the extra mile all she wanted, but doing that was for people with their heads shoved in the clouds or the gutter, pick your poison.

Gianna's was a short walk away from the athletics loft and I reached over her to grab for the door.

"You don't need to hold it open for me."

I grinned at her sharp remark. "It's a better view this way."

The exasperated look made me snicker, but then her eyes widened. "They're over there."

At a table with six chairs, Ryan, Kassie, King, and June sat around the table with half-empty plates. I bypassed the hostess's podium and Piper hurried behind me.

"Give me some concrete ideas, King," Kassie urged, snapping a piece of bacon in half and tossing the rest into her mouth. "I need something for Ryan's birthday."

King raised an eyebrow.

"Cheap ideas, King," Ryan retorted. "Art girl, you're not doing anything big."

"But it's your birthday ."

I had the best idea. "Get him pregnant. You know it's what he wants. The perfect birthday present."

Joining in meant the same as usual. I announced my presence to the table in the same way I always did, with an off-color joke that made Kassie groan so hard, she held her head in her hands. "Adam. Please. "

June even took a moment away from her phone to laugh. "Get him a smartwatch."

"He'd start using it like a hammer." I chuckled and swiped a piece of toast off of King's plate.

Next to us though, Piper didn't take a seat. She didn't even move. A big blush crossed her cheeks, and she ran a hand up the strap of her bag. The others started looking her way and I could feel the anticipation.

Oh, shit. The stage fright.

I gestured towards her with the toast. "This is Piper Fontaine, everybody."

"Oh, yeah. Piper. I know you." June nodded. "You signed up for the conference."

"Yes, I'm the—I'm Piper, the RA—Adam's RA. For his floor." A deeper flush crept up Piper's neck. "Um…I'm super excited for the trip."

I raised an eyebrow. "June, you're going on the trip too?"

"Oh, yeah." June gave a reluctant sigh. "I'm running it. Piper, are you teaching a class?"

She gave a vigorous nod. "The sex ed class."

"The what?" I grinned.

June pinched the bridge of her nose. "No jokes. Please."

"No, I got this, guys," Kassie assured the table. "Adam, sex is when two people want to reach a new stage in their relationship. When daddy and mommy love each other very much—"

I snorted without any humor, but everybody else at the table burst into laughter. King laughed the hardest, that asshole. I rolled my eyes and pulled out the chair next to me, waiting for Piper to take it.

My RA smiled the kind that made her gray eyes sparkle. It was a damn interesting color too, pretty unusual.

"June, you and King are so cute."

And just like that, everybody fell quiet.