Page 109 of Cheap Shot

“What the fuck are you doing withLuke Crawford?” Brie hissed once they were inside the kitchen.

Sebastian rubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t know,” he admitted. At this point, he really, really fucking didn’t.

She glared. “C’mon, you can do better thanthat!”

“I’m serious!” he whispered. “I don’t know what the fuck we’re doing.”

“You act like you hate the man but upstairs just now you were staring at him like he was that Indian buffet near your place in New York that you could never get enough of.”

Sebastian snorted. Well, that was embarrassingly accurate.

She sighed. “Just be honest, Seb. Are you hooking up with him? Because that’s sure what it fucking seems like. The shirt you’re wearing definitely isn’tyours.”

Sebastian groaned. “I probably shouldn’t even be telling you this because he’s notout, but yeah, we’ve hooked up some.”

Even if Crawford had said it was fine if Brie figured it out, Sebastian still felt weird about the invasion of his privacy.

“When did it start?” Brie asked.

“Uhh, January-ish?” he said, keeping it vague.

“Before or after Harper’s day with the team—oh! It wasbefore, wasn’t it? That’s why you were all cagey about going and he dragged you off to the bathroom. Please tell me you two didn’t hook up then.”

“No!” Sebastian protested, then lowered his voice again. “No. Of course not. He was just pissed I was there. We argued. We, uh, do a lot of arguing, actually.”

She snorted. “Oh God. I don’t know if I want the answer to this but are your hookups like that too?”

“Pretty much,” he admitted. “We push each other’s buttons a lot.”

“And this isfunfor you?” She looked disbelieving.

“Weirdly enough, yes.”

“I willneverunderstand men,” she muttered under her breath.

Sebastian fought back a smile because several times, usually under the influence of alcohol, she’d said she wished she was attracted to women because dealing with men was a nightmare. Since she’d been by his side every step of the way as a teenager when he dealt with how his own sexuality impacted his hockey career, he didn’t think she said that lightly.

If that wasn’t proof that sexuality wasn’t a choice, Sebastian didn’t know what was.

“Okay, so how did it start?” she asked.

“A hookup app. We didn’t know who the other one was until he showed up at my door.”

“And you two fucked about it anyway?”

“Uhh, pretty much.”

“Yep,” she said with another shake of her head. “Nevergonna get it.”

He shrugged.

“So that’s it then? Just sex?”

“More or less. We’ve watched some hockey together lately. We’re, I dunno … I wouldn’t say friends, exactly. But we’ve been having some fun together.”

“And you were”—she made finger quotes with her hands—“‘having fun’ when I called?”

“Sort of? We watched hockey and um, had some fun after. When you called, we were gonna have a bite to eat and then, uh, probably do more stuff.”