First and Goal (Moving the Chains #1) (21 page)

“Thank you for your help before, but you’re off the hook now. You should go have fun after that awesome win. I was planning to leave in a few minutes anyway.”

He slows his pace a little and pulls me tighter into his side. “If you want to go, I’ll walk to you to your car. I can’t leave until the end of the night. Since I’m captain of the team this year, I’m expected to stay. And honestly, if you’re with me, then I won’t be tempted to kill Eddie or Joey for that stunt earlier. So as my friend, just indulge me for a bit and keep me out of trouble.”

I cough at his casual bestowal of the term “friend” on me. “Indulge what? Caveman behavior? Where’s Joey? Did you do something to him?”

He laughs, his body shaking against mine. “Trust me, sweetheart. You haven’t seen my caveman behavior. Joey did, though, and that’s all you need to know. I promise it was nothing too bad.”

That honestly makes me feel no better. The only hope I have is that he didn’t do anything so drastic as to jeopardize his spot on the team.

There are several girls huddled around the senior bonfire, trying to keep warm. Their eyes instantly perk up when they see Rob, but they all shoot nearly identical glares when they spot me tucked under his arm. He guides us around to the unoccupied side and sits down with his knees bent and spread apart, pulling me down between them, my back flush against his chest. He rubs my upper arms with his big hands, suffusing warmth into my chilled skin. My shaking eventually subsides. Soon I’m relaxing back against his chest, though I’m trying so hard to fight being this at ease with him.

He must sense my discomfort, because he nuzzles his face into my hair, his breath tickling my ear. “I’ll never hurt you, Eva.”

I stare dumbly at the dancing flames in front of my eyes. No way will I allow myself to completely let my guard down. I refuse to be so stupid again.

We sit in silence for some time. My body seems to have been swallowed by his with his long legs bent on either side of me, his big arms wrapped around me and propped on his knees. His chin rests on my shoulder. We aren’t quite watching the fire cheek to cheek, but it’s close enough that if anyone were to notice us here, they might have a very different idea of our current relationship than what’s true.

“Evie…” he starts softly. That snaps me back to reality quicker than a slap to the face.

“Eva. It’s Eva.” This comfortable little scenario cannot continue. It cannot.

He sits up behind me and tenses. “Right. Sorry. Eva. Thanks for being my damsel in shining armor tonight.”

I twist my body around so I can see his face. “Your wha…?”

He shrugs. “You know, sitting here with me and keeping the groupies away. Thanks. I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with the horny morons tonight.”

Oh. Okay. That’s what this is. This, I can do.

“You know,” I give him a smirk to convince myself I’m fine. “You’re going to have to learn how to fend for yourself. I can give you a few pointers if you want. I’m pretty good at beating off unwanted advances.”

He raises an eyebrow at me and tries very hard not to smile.

“Go on, ask me out,” I prompt.

His expression morphs from amusement, to confusion, to fear, to serious so quickly that it’s all I can do not to laugh in his face as he shortens the distance between us.

“Eva…will you let me take you out to dinner?” His voice is soft and almost pleading as the breath of his words fans across my flushed skin. Damn, he is a fine actor.

“No. I don’t date jocks. Stay the hell away from me.” I’m not so convincing.

A slow smile spreads across his face in earnest, though he leans back as his eyes sparkle in the firelight, making them appear a clear blue-green.

I twist back around to face the fire. “See? That’s how it’s done. You can come up with your own catchphrase if you want. I don’t think something like ‘I don’t date horny morons’ is really going to work, but it’s up to you. Now, you try…”

I turn my body perpendicular to his, my back resting against one of his knees while I put on my best bedroom eyes. Not that I actually have much practice at this, but I can channel skank if I have to. I’ve certainly seen the way they come onto him enough times to be able to somewhat mirror their behavior. He laughs. I guess I’m not doing a good enough job.

“I already did try,” he finally breathes. “You shot me down.”

“No, no, no. We’re role playing, Superjock. Now I’ll play the part of annoying, horny jersey chaser, and you tell me to get lost. Understand?”

He nods, still trying not to laugh.

I take a breath to steel myself and look up at him again. I give it all I’ve got in the come hither department since my last try was apparently a dismal failure. I lean my body against him until my head rests on his shoulder as I look up and trail my finger from his neck down his chest…slowly.

His lips part. His breath hitches.

I’m onto something. “Rob, take me now. I’m all yours.”

He swallows thickly. “Okay, but…maybe not in front of everyone.”

We both start laughing before he even has the last syllable out. “You’re supposed to tell me no, Superjock!”

“Well you’re doing it all wrong, Eva.” He smiles down at me. “You were looking at my face.”

The easy laughter is back, and this feels much better than earlier. This is safe.

“Thank you for the pointers though. I’ll remember those for a long time.” He sighs and leans back on his hands.

“You owe me.” I smile up at him.

“Name your price.”

I look around us, surprised to see that there are still very few people around the fire.

“Where are those s’mores you spoke of?”

He looks around too, then pulls himself away from me before getting up. “I dunno. I’ll find out.”

Sitting here alone, I’m conscious of how much colder it is without his body heat around me. I pull my knees to my chest, huddling to stay warm. People mill about, occasionally glancing my way. Their reactions fall into three categories: immediate whispering about my sluthood, evil glares because I’m obviously banging my bio partner, and last but not least, winks and nods. Is it weird that I actually miss Rob?

A rustling behind me makes me jump and twist my body around in surprise. It’s Rob with a bag of marshmallows, Hershey bars, and graham crackers in one hand and two camp forks in the other.

“Sorry, it’s just me.” He peers down at my huddled form. “You okay? Still cold?”

I’m frozen.

“I’m fine.”

“All right…” he clearly doesn’t believe me. “I’m gonna go get more logs on the fire. Relax and make your s’mores.”

I grimace in pain as he stalks away. A muscle throbs at my waist from twisting so quickly when he startled me. Pulling open the bag, I pop some marshmallows on the end of a fork. Rob is back a few minutes later, several logs perched in his arms. His biceps bulge with the weight, no doubt making the single girls around the fire drool. He throws the wood down beside the fire like they’re Lincoln Logs. The muscles in his arms work and flex as he carefully adds two more onto the fire. Not that I notice the way he looks or anything.

He waits, making sure the timber catches, and the flames get higher. Two girls that I don’t actually know giggle and try unsuccessfully to catch his eye. They’ve been watching his every move too. They’re not being overly flirty, and they’re both pretty, but Rob doesn’t pay them any attention before walking back to me.

I burn one marshmallow after another, tossing them into the fire. It’s kind of hard to roast marshmallows properly in my current state. My knees are pulled up to my chest for warmth, one arm wrapped around them. I’m leaning to the side to try and stretch the stupid pulled muscle. I must look like an absolute idiot.

Rob’s silence stretches on forever as he stands and watches me. The longer he towers over me, saying nothing, the more self-conscious I become. His height casts a shadow directly over me, blocking out the light of the fire and crushing me with his invisible weight. I peer up to find him studying me with a frown on his face, some sort of debate raging behind his eyes. It seems he still hasn’t reached a decision when he resumes his position behind me. I can’t stretch to the side any longer because his knees have me boxed in, forcing me upright. Ouch.

“What on earth are you doing?” He finally asks.

“I don’t even know at this point.” I’m frustrated, sore, and just generally annoyed with everything.

“Gimme that.” He takes the fork from me and eats the burnt marshmallows off the end. Gross. When he puts on fresh marshmallows, he sticks them low in the fire near the embers and starts slowly twirling them around. “Haven’t you ever been camping before?”

“Yeah, every summer. Why?”

“How do you not know how to properly toast marshmallows then?”

“I know how; I’m just picky. I don’t like them black. I like them only browned enough to melt the chocolate.”

As he turns the fork over and over, I get out some graham crackers and break apart a few squares of chocolate, setting everything up.

He brings the perfectly golden marshmallows over for me to catch between the grahams. “You’re doing it wrong. You have to put them near the heat source, not stick them in to actually catch fire.”

I ignore him as I bite down into gooey chocolate heaven while wiggling to stretch my side as much as I can. Without another word, he pushes me until I’m leaning completely against his one leg and starts massaging my waist with his hand.

“Fuck,” I grind out. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to work out whatever you’ve got going on here.” He digs his fingers in deeper.

I suck in a sharp breath. Jesus, that hurts.

“What’d you do? Pull something? Did this happen when Joey tripped you?”

“No,” I hiss out. “It happened when you scared the shit out of me a while ago.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you like that. Stop tensing up, you’re making it worse. Just lay there and eat your melted chocolate…and perfectly toasted marshmallow.” There’s the huge ego I’m familiar with.

Hoping this isn’t some sort of trick, or that it will get worse, I do as he instructs and forcefully relax my body against him. His fingers slowly work out the kinks. He’s good at this. Really good. Another few minutes and I’ll be drooling on his knee with my eyes rolled in the back of my head.

He laughs softly. “Better?”

I’m not sure my voice works right now nor do I trust it to sound normal, so I just nod my head against his knee.

“Getting warmer too?”

I nod again.

“Are you going to go to sleep there? ‘Cause that doesn’t look particularly comfortable.”

Actually, I’m quite comfortable. I would be perfectly happy and content to sleep here, and shit, if that isn’t the creepiest thought I’ve ever had. Time to change the subject.

“I need another s’more. Make me more perfectly toasted marshmallows, please,” I mock.

“Yes, ma’am.” He laughs and does my bidding like a good little bio partner.

When the marshmallows are to his liking, he pulls the poker out for me to put the little sandwiches together and succeeds in searing my hand with the hot metal.

I’m not entirely sure I don’t scream, but I’m absolutely certain that I jump about six feet in the air. I don’t know how he moves faster than me. The next thing I’m aware of is Rob crouched beside me and inspecting the growing welt.

“Oh my God, Evie. I’m so sorry. I’m gonna go get some ice.” He kisses my hand and stands up.

“Where are you going to find ice?”

“The beer coolers…”

Oh, right. Before I can utter another word, he’s gone.

Within minutes he’s back at my side, pressing a large chunk of ice on my blister.

“I am so sorry,” he mutters.

The longer the ice numbs my skin, the colder the rest of me gets until I’m shivering again.

“Well, that’s not gonna make you feel any warmer.” He returns to his seat behind me and pulls me against him, wrapping himself around me once more. “And here, I was just saying how I’d never hurt you…”

“It’s okay. It was an accident.” As a gesture of my forgiveness, I lean back into him, resting the back of my head on his shoulder.

He nuzzles my hair with his face. “Please don’t go back to hating me. Please?”

“You are so indebted to me tonight, Falls. I’m gonna need at least a dozen of those cupcakes, I think.” If anything we’re even after what he did for me during initiation, but his head shoots straight up.

“I’ll bring them over tomorrow.”

I can’t help but laugh. “I was just kidding.”

“We do have to get together to finish those bio questions. Tomorrow at one still good?”

“Sure.” I’m actually getting kind of sleepy here, warm and snuggled up in Rob. My hand is good and numb, and I’ve had just enough s’mores to fill my stomach, all of which add up to a feeling of peacefulness. I see Eddie stumbling away from one of the beer coolers out of the corner of my eye. Rob must too because I feel him tense up around me. I stay perfectly calm where I am. I feel…surprisingly comfortable.

Another junior whom I don’t know with fire engine red hair stumbles down next to us, intent on draping herself over Rob. Until her drunken eyes focus on me. She throws me a look of disgust before getting up with a huff and stalking off to find different prey.

“In biology, this is what you would call a mutually beneficial relationship,” he says quietly against my ear. His warm, damp breath fans over me with his words, and his lips just barely make contact with my skin.

I must be dreaming.

I’m not sure how long we stay like this, watching the fire in silence. My eyelids grow increasingly heavy as the steady movement of Rob’s breathing against my back lulls me into that twilight state between wakefulness and slumber.

I’m jolted from near sleep when Rob pulls one of his big arms from around me to wrap it around one of the most beautiful girls in our class who just sat down next to us.

She’s taller than I am, probably around five foot ten, with lustrous, shoulder-length brown hair, brown eyes to match, and the curves of a Victoria’s Secret model. She’s also the captain of the cheerleading squad.

“Hey, Rach. Cold?” His supposed distaste of well-endowed girls throwing themselves at him apparently does not apply to her.