Chapter 13

“Dash also said no to laser tag,” Madison said with her mouth dropped in mock shock.

Well, this wasn’t going to plan at all. Here I was, sitting next to Alex, spitting with anger because of the way Madison was flirting with him, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. I wasn’t sure what had gotten into me, but I’d screwed this up badly.

I was supposed to meet Madison after class to warn her about Henry, but the minute I saw her, with her hair pulled back, looking fresh-faced and just showered after we’d been together the night before, I couldn’t think straight, because all I wanted to do was mess her up all over again.

Suffice it to say, I still hadn’t warned her about that idiot’s presence because I was too busy monitoring her interaction with another teammate. Honestly, Alex hadn’t done anything wrong, but I was so close to giving him a broken nose because she was giving him more attention than me. Madison should be solely focused on me. Preferably without a shirt on so I could tweak her nipples, but I’d take her any way I could.

Sitting in a booth, Madison was on the other side of us, describing the most ridiculous birthday party I’d ever heard of. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Not only was she flirting with the guy next to me, but she’d now essentially forced me to throw a birthday party for Cade. And as we’d already established, I hated parties and people, so my quiet time before joining Atlanta was looking to be completely taken over by this monstrosity of an event.

Madison laughed at something Alex said, and my breath caught.

The girl was driving me insane. I couldn’t have her. I knew that. I’d told myself countless times that we needed to be friends. Hell, I even wrote out an apology on my phone to Cade, but when it came down to actually implementing any of my plans, I seemed to be stalling.

“Crazy, right? How could anyone say no to laser tag?” With her hands out to emphasize her disbelief, she had Alex engrossed in her fake plans. Her foot dug deeper into my thigh. Oh, did I also mention that she’d been playing footsie with me under the table this entire time, and I was supposed to keep a straight face?

Torture. It was absolute torture that Madison was putting me through because not only was her foot caressing my dick, but I wanted more. With every new item added to the birthday list, her foot would go progressively higher, so close to my cock that it was straining just to feel her.

Grumbling into my burrito, I took another bite, hoping that would hide my discontent. Thankfully, I was a grumpy asshole on the best of days, so Alex hadn’t noticed much of a difference.

Sitting next to me, Alex had eaten his entire burrito and was watching Madison intently. So intently that he hadn’t noticed the toes of her shoes were peeking out from under the checkered tablecloth right on my crotch.

I gave her a look of warning, but she didn’t heed it. Instead, she pressed her foot down, caressing my cock more. Should I be surprised? She never did listen. She had to have been some kind of contortionist, because how the hell was she able to sit up even though she was toying with me like that? Seriously, her back was straight as a rod, and she had this unaffected smile on her face. There was no way anyone would believe that she was fondling a dick with her foot right now .

“Laser tag?” Alex glared at me with an upturned lip. “I know you have no idea how to have fun, but laser tag?”

Madison rolled her eyes. “Agreed. Dash is the king of all party poopers.” That was it. I grabbed her foot and pressed my thumb into her ankle as a warning. If she was going to continue to taunt me, then I was going to get my own back. Madison’s eyes widened in surprise, but she quickly masked it with over animated fake shock.

“He even said no to a dinosaur bounce house.”

“Madison,” I growled in warning as I pushed her foot away and dropped it as far from my body as I could. It was the first time I noticed Alex side-eyeing me, and I realized it was probably because I looked like I was jacking myself off under the table.

“I didn’t say no to laser tag. I wasn’t aware that it was an option.” She’d taken this too far and gotten so detailed into this party planning lie that I already knew this was going to happen.

She raised a brow. “But you said no to the bounce house.”

“That’s because it’s a bounce house, and there will be a bunch of hockey-playing men there. It will be ripped to shreds in minutes.”

Madison raised a brow, her lip quirking in amusement. “Men? You really think highly of yourselves, don’t you?”

I’d show her exactly what kind of man I was once we got out of this stupid lunch with my teammate.

“Honestly, you’re missing out. This bounce house is not just any bounce house. It’s awesome.” She turned to Alex, knowing full well she’d get a better reception. “Like I said, it’s the shape of a dinosaur, and you have to enter it via his mouth. Then, you go through an inflatable assault course in his stomach until you reach the tail, where you get pooped out.”

“Sounds perfect for the king of party poopers.” Alex elbowed me on the side, and I grumbled in annoyance. It didn’t matter that this party was fake, I wasn’t going to be attending it. It sounded awful.

“Cade’s turning twenty-one. Not five.”

“Anyone who doesn’t want to relive their youth needs an injection of happiness,” she said, and I stopped myself from smiling because I agreed. I needed her. She was the sunshine to my rain and didn’t even appreciate it .

“Still, I think the whole thing sounds awesome,” Alex said, looking over at Madison with approval. She smiled back, and the only positive thing I could think was that at least Alex was so focused on this imaginary party that he stopped putting the pieces together and working out what was really going on between Madison and me.

“Thank you. You know what? Alex, you’re invited.”

Alex raised his hand for a high-five, and Madison eagerly accepted. “You can be my date,” he said jokingly as they dropped their hands. Madison laughed, subtly glancing over at me and winking.

“Well, that’s great. We’ve got at least three people coming now.” I rolled my eyes, wondering how much a pooping dinosaur bounce house would cost because that would no doubt come out of my signing bonus.

Alex took a sip of his drink but quickly drew it away because he started choking. I patted his back while he brought a fist to his chest, heaving in air. When his breathing finally steadied, he looked over at me with bugged-out eyes and red cheeks. The guy looked like a fish out of water.

“Everything okay?”

His eyes were frozen on me, and he nodded quickly. “I’m, I’m good.” He didn’t sound good, and his eyes kept shifting to the other side of the table like there was a giant spider on the booth that he was too afraid to tell anyone about. Even though his breathing had returned to normal, his cheeks were flaming with heat.

I looked to the side, trying to catch Madison’s eye, but she seemed oblivious to my friend’s sudden change in demeanor. She touched her phone, watching it brighten up, and her shoulders straightened. “Is that the time? Oh, whoops, I’ve got to get to my next class. I enjoyed this. Let’s get together next week and plan this thing.”

“Yup. See you soon,” Alex squeaked out. Was he still choking?

Seemingly oblivious, Madison smiled. “See you guys later.”

She slid out of the booth, and as she left, she brushed her hand across mine. My dick twitched. Damn it. I knew it was a bad decision to have sex with Madison, but I didn’t realize that every time she’d touch me thereafter, I’d instantly get a boner. By the time she’d walked out and I’d stopped discreetly staring at her ass, I turned my attention to Alex, who was still red-faced and flustered .

“Alex, are you having an allergic reaction to the burrito? Your face is still blotchy and red. Can you breathe?”

He huffed out a breath and shook his head before swallowing. “No, it’s not that. It’s that.” He pointed at the exit as though that was enough of an answer.

I looked at the door, then back to him, and realized that he must have figured it all out. How could he not? There was something going on with Madison and me. He could tell. Or he saw her caressing my dick with her foot because that was an obvious giveaway. “It’s what?” I played dumb.

“Madison.”

Well, that didn’t work.

He turned his knees, so we were face-to-face and glared at me, waiting for an explanation. I scratched my hand across my neck, trying to figure out the best way to frame this thing with Madison that would ensure he didn’t say anything to Cade before I had the chance to. “Yeah, about Madison.”

“Did you know?”

“Know what?”

“Oh, god. How do I say this?” He scraped a hand across his face and then through his hair. He looked like he’d walked through a bush backward, but clearly whatever he needed to tell me was really causing him some turmoil, so I should try to treat it with seriousness.

“Just say it.” I closed my eyes, waiting for the words, are you sleeping with Madison to come out of his mouth, knowing that I could deny that since technically we weren’t sleeping together. Not anymore, anyway.

“I think I accidentally asked Madison out.”

I popped open my eyes and stared at his guilt-ridden face. Biting back a laugh, I asked, “What?”

“Madison. I think she likes me, and I accidentally led her on with the jokey date comment.”

Don’t laugh.

He thought Madison was into him? Holding back my smirk was hard, and I crossed my brows, feigning concern because I had absolutely no idea where that came from. “Oh, really? What makes you think that?”

“She was flirting with me all day. ”

“Yeah, but she flirts with everyone. You know her. I wouldn’t get yourself worked up over it.” I slapped him on the shoulder, thinking that would slap some sense into him, but he looked just as worried as when Madison walked out. “What makes you think she’s into you?”

He shuffled in his seat uncomfortably. “Well, you know when I saw you guys today?” I nodded. “She gave me an extra-long hug.”

“Okay,” I drawled out, remembering the raised brows he gave me while he was hugging her, but to be honest, I was too pissed off that she was touching him to really care. “Is that the extent of your evidence? An extra-long hug? Because I’ve got to be honest, I’m probably guilty of giving you those at some point, too. And as cute as I think you are, I don’t have a crush on you.”

“No. It wasn’t just that.” He took a breath in and pointed at the table. “Just now, after I made the joke about taking her as my date to the party, she, she, she played footsie with me under the table.”

I completely froze because what the fuck did he just say? Madison playing footsie with Alex? That made no sense. Sure, she liked to say a few suggestive things every now and again, but play footsie? No. That wasn’t like her, especially since she’d just been playing footsie with me. Unless…no. Surely, she couldn’t have. But what if she’d gotten the wrong leg?

“Are you sure?”

“Sorry, Dash. Are you trying to get me to believe that you somehow managed to shrink your size fuckteen feet into a pair of cute teal Converses, so you could dig your foot into my dick from beside me? Because I find that hard to believe.”

Double fuck.

“She rubbed your dick?”

He swallowed, closed his eyes, and nodded like he was admitting he had committed a murder. “She did, but I didn’t do anything to encourage it. In fact, I just froze until she realized she was late for something.”

“Oh.” I was speechless, which didn’t happen often.

“Yeah, oh. What the hell do I do? Should I tell Cade? Shit, he’s going to kill me. The dude loves to fight, he just needs an excuse.”

I needed to think fast. “Why would you need to? Nothing happened, just a little innocent flirting.”

“Because when Henry cheated on her, he got a broken nose. Imagine if it came out that I asked her out and then let her rub my dick under the table.”

I sat up with a tense jaw. He was right about being worried, but he was worried about the wrong person. It was me that was angry because Madison had no right stroking anyone’s dick but mine.

Shit. Did I just think that? I had a serious problem on my hands.

“First, I was the one that gave Henry that broken nose. Cade had nothing to do with it. Remember that. Second, you didn’t touch her or kiss her or anything. It was all a joke. What are you going to tell Cade? You think she brushed her shoe against your dick? Do you know how weird that sounds?”

He nodded, taking it all in for a second. “I guess you’re right.”

“I know I’m right. Wait it out. If any more weird things happen, then maybe you should speak to Cade, but until then, there’s no point putting yourself in the firing line for no reason.”

“Yeah. You’re right. Thanks, man.”

“Anytime. Now, I’ve got to get something in the dorm before practice. I’ll catch you later?”

“Mhmm.”

Alex waved me off, and I started jogging to the dorm for no other reason than I needed to let off some steam. Madison fondled my friend’s dick, and it was making me rage in ways I couldn’t describe. Was this how it was going to be with us from now on? Madison flirting with every teammate while I had to sit on the side and watch? It was more than I could handle and making it hard to think straight.

Dash: What the hell was that?

I texted her. There was nothing else I could do because she needed to know that there had to be limits. I had no idea how she was able to function after last night, but I didn’t like how things were playing out.

Madison: Not sure what you’re talking about, Big Man. I was just having a little fun.

Dash: By playing with Alex’s dick?

Madison: What are you talking about? The only dick I’ve played with is yours, and let’s be honest. I didn’t get the opportunity to play with anything. I didn’t even see it.

She had no idea what I was talking about. My shoulders relaxed, and I blew out the breath that I’d been holding.

Dash: Sorry to tell you, but you may have molested Alex at lunch. That was his thigh you were playing with at the end, not mine.

Madison: *Skull Emoji* *Skull Emoji* *Skull Emoji*

She didn’t send another message for over a minute, so I sent her one.

Dash: Now the guy thinks you’re in love with him, and your first date is going to be at Cade’s birthday.

Madison: Maybe I am.

Dash: I know you’re not.

Madison: What should I wear? Do you think one of those inflatable dinosaur suits is too much? Might not show off my curves on our date.

Dash: You’re not going on a date with Alex.

Madison: Aw, Big Man. You’re not jealous, are you? Don’t worry, your eggplant is still the only one I’ve experimented any recipes on.

Dash: I’m going to block you soon if you keep sending me messages like that.

Madison: You’re no fun.

Dash: And you’re driving me insane.

Madison: By the way, have you figured out why you came and man-handled me in the computer science department yet? You told me you had something to tell me but forgot. Had any epiphanies since?

I shook my head because she was calling me out. She knew what I didn’t want to admit to myself. What I still wouldn’t admit to myself, because if I did, what would that say about me? I came to tell her about Henry. I left fuming about her flirting with Alex, and I’m walking around with a boner that I can’t get rid of because I can’t touch her.

Without answering, I stuffed my phone in my jeans, grumbling when I couldn’t shove it down far enough. That was another stupid thing I did today. Jeans and hair gel. I dressed up to tell Madison that her ex joined Covey U, because even though I was supposed to be telling her about him, I wanted her thinking about me. I wanted her to beg me for another round. I was holding myself back, yet she seemed completely fine with our arrangement.

This entire thing was a monumental fuckup, and the only thing I could do to tame any of my guilt or stop thinking about her was to go cold turkey. If I stopped talking to her, then maybe there’d be a chance that my dick wouldn’t get hard at the mere thought of her.

Maybe letting her move on would be the best course of action. Then maybe she’d stop teasing me, and we could go back to the way things were before we had sex.

Fat chance of that happening.