Winning It All (Hometown Players Book 4) by Victoria Denault Page B

me, so I allow myself to unabashedly admire the sight of Frenchie. He looks sexy as hell in his casual clothes. Just as sexy as he does in a suit. And in sweaty workout wear. His hair is an intricate, tousled mess, curling slightly at the ends. My fingertips tingle with the need to touch it. His hair was so soft and deceivingly thick when I held on to it that night while I came…
    I give my head a shake to fight the heat rising in my body. “You should have warned me.” I pull my gaze back to my best friend and give her a pointed stare.
    “You said you didn’t care if you ever saw him again,” Audrey reminds me, shaking the water out of her dirty blond hair. “You said it was no big deal and you were over it.”
    I swallow. I did say that. A few nights ago when she came over for wine and Scandal . And clearly I was rather convincing. Or maybe not, judging by the devious glimmer in Audrey’s brown eyes. I frown at her. “A heads-up would have been cool,” I repeat firmly.
    “So have you fucked him again yet?” she asks in a voice that is way too loud for my liking.
    I shush her and frown. “Of course not! We just drove here.”
    “I’d fuck in that car,” she replies with a shrug of her tiny shoulders, and I flip her the bird.
    Suddenly there’s a beer dangling in front of my face. I tip my head back and see Sebastian smiling down at me from behind my chair. “Something to cool off that hot little temper of yours, ma belle ,” Seb says softly as he gives the can a little tilt from side to side.
    Butterflies take off from my belly and bounce off my rib cage. My hormones are clearly ignoring the memo my brain sent regarding this matter. I stand, turn to face him, and take the beer from him. He’s cracked it already. I tilt my head skeptically and switch the cans, giving him the one he offered me and taking the one he just sipped from.
    “You could have roofied this one,” I explain. “You can never be too safe.”
    With that I leave him standing there, his mouth hanging open. Audrey laughs and I hear Josh say, “Yeah, ’cause Sebastian has so much trouble finding a chick that he has to drug them.”
    I ignore them all and stomp over to where a few friends are playing volleyball.

Sebastian
    Two can play at this game, I remind myself as I watch Shayne. She’s sitting on the top of the picnic table, legs crossed under her dress, while some dude in a trucker hat talks her ear off as she eats carrot sticks with ranch dip off her plate.
    She’s been talking to him, and only him, for the last hour. The sun is quickly setting and the whole lake is reflecting golden light from the pink-and-gold sunset and it’s making her look even hotter. And naturally that’s making me nuts. Josh started a fire. Audrey is pulling out marshmallows and hunting down sticks. The air is still muggy and warm, and my mood is making me even hotter under the collar.
    It’s one thing for her to brush me off. I mean, I guess I kind of deserve it since I haven’t explained why I’ve been MIA for almost two weeks. I really want to, but I can’t tell her I’m a hockey player just yet, and I haven’t figured out how to lie without really lying. I could say I was on a business trip, which is technically true, but what if she asks me what I do? I’ve already admitted I have money, which is also not a lie, so she’s probably curious how I earn it.
    I have to tell her what I do, but I want to get back to what we were that first night. And I’m not just talking about the sex part. I’m talking about the way she smiled at me, the way she flirted. The excitement in her eyes. I want to bring that out again. I want her to feel that again so she’s willing to make an exception to her silly hockey hate thing.
    The douche in the trucker hat leans down and whispers something in her ear. Shayne tips her head back to laugh, but when she rights herself, her eyes find mine. And I am suddenly very certain she wants me to see this. I stand up