Page 40 of Forever Defiant
It came from nowhere. No provocation. Just a flat statement. I didn’t take the bait. “College football is a competitive sport.”
I felt her glance at me and then back at her laptop. “You’re not defending him.”
“Did you say something that needed to be defended?” I countered.
“So you think he’s a dick too?”
I took another drink. Definitely too sweet. “Did I say that?”
“You didn’t not say it.”
I put the mug down. “Is that your interpretation?”
“I think—” She stopped when I turned my head to look at her. She licked her bottom lip, unsure. “Forget it.”
“Done.”
The silence crept around us again. I wasn’t buying it for a second, but I was in now. I refused to be the first one to leave.
Hadley stopped typing, her attention back on me. “Do you enjoy football?”
“I do.”
I gave her nothing more, and she was clearly expecting it. “Huh. Mike has more enthusiasm,” she murmured as ifthatwas going to provoke me.
“I’m sure he’d love to demonstrate that enthusiasm with you.” I took another drink, hiding my smile because I knew she was pissed at the innuendo.
“Not everyone is a dick like you.”
I gave an insolent shrug. “I know I’m not like everyone else, kind of you to notice.”
“I wasn’tcomplimentingyou, Slater.”
I pretended to think about it. “It sounded like a compliment.”
“How?” She closed the laptop, her attention fully on me now.
“You said not everyone had a dick like you.”
Her mouth dropped in surprise at my misunderstanding.
“I didn’t even mention your dick!”
Two girls rounded the corner and stopped dead at Hadley’s outburst, looking between us both in surprise, one lingering on me a little longer with a look of speculation.
“You really should,” I replied to Hadley while giving the curious one a wink.
“Are youflirtingwith her right now?”
The girls fled, thinking they’d walked in on a domestic dispute, and I couldn’t hold back my laughter.
“Chill the fuck out, Peterson, you’re too easy to mess with.” I drank my coffee.
I watched her out of the corner of my eye as she opened her laptop with a flourish and hammered angrily at the keys. Fucking with her was more fun than I thought.
“So you think about my dick a lot?” I asked quietly after a few minutes of listening to the sound of ‘death to keyboard.’
“I feel sorry for you.”
