Page 239 of Playing Dirty
People yelling lyrics. Drinks in the air. Absolute chaos.
Tessa grabbed Luca’s hand. “Come dance with me before these two startcommunicating through eye contact again.”
“We do not—” I started.
Too late.
They were already gone.
Jace looked between me and Mason.
Then sighed dramatically. “I can literally feel the tension in my fucking teeth.”
“Why are you like this,” Mason asked.
“I’m funny and observant. It’s a burden.”
Then he left too.
Just like that.
And suddenly it was quiet again.
Well.
Not actually quiet.
But quieter around us.
Mason leaned against the bar beside me. “I need better friends.”
“You picked them.”
“That feels unfairly victim-blamey.”
I snorted into my drink.
He looked at me immediately after.
That happened a lot now.
Every laugh. Every smile. Every reaction.
He noticed all of it.
And honestly?
I noticed him noticing.
MASON
Okay, this was bad now.
Because somewhere between the jokes and the drinks and the accidental touching earlier—
being around Rowan had started feeling easy.
Not simple.
