Page 37 of Risky Play

“No way, sweet pea. I got this.”

She groaned. “Fine. Do you want to hang out? Watch a movie?”

There was a hopeful look in her eye that should have made me suspicious.

“Do you want to hang out?” I slid my credit card onto the table and left it waiting for the server to come grab it while we finished our beers.

“Sure. Aren’t we friends?” Maddie asked, that bright smile of hers returning.

“Are we?”

I wouldn’t say we were friends, especially when I found out she moved to Philly and she looked like she wanted nothing to do with me. Although we had been chatting since I promised to help her with ‘operation lose it’ as she called it.

She frowned. “I thought we were.”

“We’re getting there,” I teased.

She slapped my arm. “Then come hang out with me! It’ll be fun. Then you don’t have to go back to the awkwardness at my brother’s.”

I shuddered. It was pretty obvious what had been going on when I came home. Noah had looked embarrassed, but Dinah laughed her ass off. That lady did not give a single fuck about anything.

I was sure my unease was painted across my face because Maddie’s laughter rang out through the bar again.

I couldn’t help the way her bubbly laughter made my lips upturn in a smile. Or how the way she looked at me made me want to forget the fact I lived with her brother.

“You’re not gonna make me watch a chick flick?” I teased after I finished my beer.

“First of all, sexist! Second of all, no. I prefer cheesy action flicks.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“If The Rock’s in it, I’m in!”

“Really?”

“Yes. He can get it.”

I laughed again, and she gave me a teasing smile. God, that smile. I needed to stop feeling like it was for me. Our server dropped off my credit card. I hadn’t noticed she picked it up, having gotten lost in the conversation with Maddie.

I picked up my card and signed my name. I gave the server a nice tip. She had been good, and I always tipped well.

“Okay Action Queen, let’s roll.”

I grabbed our jackets and helped her into hers. I untucked her hair out of the collar once she had it on, and she gave me a shy smile in thanks. I pulled my jacket on, and we walked out of the bar together. She didn’t link our arms together like she had on the walk in, and part of me was bummed about that.

I was so screwed when it came to Maddie Kennedy. She had me wrapped around her little finger. I had no business going back to her dorm room with her. Red flashing lights were shining in my head, but I didn’t want to stop hanging out with her or talking to her.

We walked toward her dorm, and she scanned her ID to unlock the door. I held it open for her and let her go inside first. I followed her through the lobby and onto the elevator, where we went up to her floor.

It was a bad idea to come upstairs with her, but the truth was, I liked Maddie. A lot. I hadn’t stopped thinking about her since our hookup at Noah’s wedding. When she helped me with the ad spot, it shone a different light on her. Maddie was smart and kind, and the more I hung out with her, the more I wanted to get to know her better. We had been texting a lot, and I’d gone with her to parties twice already, but none of the guys she told me she was interested in could measure up. They weren’t worthy of this beacon of sunshine.

She unlocked the door to her suite and led me through a small hallway, then through another door where a small room held a twin bed and a desk across from it. She toed off her shoes, and I repeated the action.

“You can sit on the bed. Sorry, I know my room’s small,” she said with an apologetic smile.

“I’m surprised you don’t have to share a room. I thought that’s what all colleges were like.”

“It surprised me too. I think the first-year dorms are like that, but I’m in the four-year house since I’m an international student.”