Faking the Play (Hot Mess Harems #2)

28. Ryan

Chapter twenty-eight

Ryan

G oing out to a bar wasn’t usually my favorite way to unwind and this past week had been seriously stressful, but when Ethan had suggested that we celebrate taking Jason down, and Amelia had liked the idea, nothing could’ve kept me from going too.

Now, as I made my way through the crowd to the table Ethan had grabbed, I wondered how long we’d have to stay before we could take Amelia back home to celebrate privately. After the four of us spent that explosive night together, I’d been looking forward to the chance to do it again, and I knew the others were too. Tonight seemed like as good a time as any.

“Here.” I set all four drinks down on the table and slid into the booth next to Logan.

Amelia took a sip of her drink, her eyes widening as she let out a soft moan that had my cock pressing uncomfortably against the front of my jeans. Judging by the way the guys shifted in their seats, they had the same problem. It didn’t matter that Amelia wore a pair of jeans and a simple fitted sweater that brought out the blue in her eyes. She turned me on just by existing. Always had.

“This is amazing,” Amelia said, taking another long drink from her straw.

She sucked hard enough for her cheeks to hollow out and I heard Ethan mutter a curse that I mentally echoed. Apparently clueless about how she looked and sounded, she began humming while she finished every drop of the Fuzzy Navel I’d ordered for her. As she leaned back, smacking her lips together like she’d just had the most delicious thing in the world, the three of us stared at her.

After a moment, she realized what we were doing and her cheeks turned pink. “What?”

“I’ve seen porn less erotic than watching you drink that,” Logan said.

“I’m pretty sure my dick is going to have imprints from my zipper,” Ethan announced, not even trying to keep his voice down.

“Ethan!” Amelia hissed as she elbowed him in the stomach hard enough for him to let out a rush of air.

“Ow.” He rubbed at the spot she’d hit. “You still have bony elbows.”

“And you still have a loud mouth,” she shot back.

“Come on, baby, you know you love my mouth.” He grinned, wiggling his tongue at her.

“You’re an ass.” She shoved at his shoulder, but laughed while she did it.

“You love my ass too,” Ethan said, leaning closer.

Amelia squealed, pushing herself into Logan who sat on her other side. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his cheek to hers.

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from him.” He didn’t talk as loudly as Ethan, but he wasn’t exactly being quiet either.

“What about you, Ryan?” she asked, giving me a flirty look even though she was snuggled up to Logan. “Will you protect me from Ethan?”

“Hey!” Ethan pretended to be offended. “What did I do?”

“You said my elbows were bony,” she reminded him.

“Logan, help a guy out here,” Ethan said. “Her elbows are bony.”

“Dude, you don’t tell the girl you’re with that anything about her is bony,” Logan said, shaking his head.

“Doesn’t matter,” I said, setting down my beer after a long drink.

Three sets of eyes turned in my direction.

“What?” Logan asked for all of them.

“It doesn’t matter if her elbows are bony,” I said. My eyes locked with Amelia’s. “Everything about her is perfect.”

“What the hell are you drinking?” Ethan asked after pausing for a moment. “And can I have some?”

I rolled my eyes. “Just because you keep sticking your foot in your mouth doesn’t mean all of us have to act like idiots.”

Another moment of silence and then Amelia snorted a laugh. She clapped a hand over her mouth but couldn’t quite stop us from hearing her giggles.

A middle-aged man with a ponytail gave her an amused look as he set down a plate of food in the center of the table.

“Thanks,” Logan said.

The man nodded and headed back to the kitchen, sidestepping a pair of drunk frat guys who were stumbling toward the bar.

“I can’t believe you guys ordered all of this after we just had pizza,” Amelia said as she sat up straight and reached for an onion ring.

I shrugged. “This place makes the best potato skins.”

I stabbed one with a fork, making sure to get plenty of sour cream on it, and then shoved the whole thing into my mouth.

“Are you using a fork?” Ethan asked, grabbing for a cheese fry. “This is finger food, Ryan.”

I ignored him and focused on Amelia. “When you want to get away from greasy fingers, you can come right to me. I won’t get anything on your clothes. I’m considerate that way.”

Ethan’s jaw dropped and Amelia burst out laughing.

“All right,” Logan said. “The food’s making me thirsty. Who wants a second round?”

Thirty minutes later, the guys and I were pleasantly buzzed and Amelia had crossed the line into drunk. I could’ve been disappointed that this meant no sex tonight—no way in hell any of us would take advantage of her—but I found myself enjoying drunk Amelia. It seemed that when she got enough alcohol in her system, she turned back into the dorky little girl we knew back then.

And the last of her filters disappeared.

“I really like fooseball.” Amelia frowned. “Footsball. Yes. I love footsball.”

“You do?” Logan asked, not even trying to hide his smile. “Is it because the three of us play?”

Amelia made a back-and-forth motion with her hand. “It’s because—” She dropped her voice to a stage whisper. “Those tight pants show off everyone’s butts.” She giggled, putting her hands over her mouth. “And you guys have really nice butts.”

“Yours isn’t bad either, you know.” Ethan winked at her for the tenth time tonight, but I couldn’t be annoyed by it, not when it made her eyes shine like that.

“Butts is a funny word.” She reached for her drink and then scowled at the glass when she saw it was empty. “Can I have another?”

“Why don’t you have some water?” I pushed a different glass toward her. “You’ll appreciate it tomorrow.”

She pursed her lips and put her finger on her chin like she was thinking. “What do I get if I drink it all?”

“What do you want?”

She got this mischievous look that I hadn’t seen from her since we were kids. Crooking her finger at me, she said, “I have to whistle—wiper—fuck. I have to quiet talk it.”

Already laughing, I leaned forward, totally unprepared to have her say, in a very not quiet voice, “I wanna touch your pen—pin—dammit. Wanna touch your dick.”

Logan spit out his drink as Ethan roared with laughter and Amelia turned on them, glaring at Logan.

“Hey, mister. We don’t spit. We swallow.”

Everyone within ten feet turned and stared. Ethan bent over, holding his stomach, while Logan tried to clean up the mess he’d made while not looking at anyone. Amelia just hummed happily and picked ice cubes out of her glass, popping them into her mouth like they were candy.

And I couldn’t do anything but let the train wreck happen and hope that something else distracted everyone before she said anything else. Fortunately, less than a minute later, a tray crashed to the floor on the other side of the bar and everyone’s attention went that way.

“Fuck me,” I muttered, running a hand over my face. “I really hope no one got video of that.”

“I ate the crunchy water,” Amelia announced. She reached toward me. “Can I touch—”

“How about we dance?” I grabbed her hand before she could finish her sentence.

Her face lit up. “I love dancing!”

And I hated it, but I’d do it, and not just so she didn’t embarrass us both by grabbing my cock in public. I liked holding her.

I led us to the edge of the dance floor and put my arms around her, my hands settling at the small of her back. She stretched her arms up, barely able to lace her fingers together at the back of my neck, but when she put her cheek on my chest, we couldn’t have fit together more perfectly. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and began to sway with me. We weren’t really dancing, not like the people around us, but as long as I got to hold her, I didn’t care how we looked.

We made it through two songs before something a little faster came on and I reluctantly eased back from her.

“I can take this one,” Ethan said as he came up beside me.

“Ethan!” Amelia threw her arms around him. “Look, Ry-Ry! Ethan’s gonna dance with us!”

I was so focused on the ridiculous nickname that it took me a second to realize what else she’d said.

Dance with us .

“Um, Lia, why don’t you go ahead and dance with Ethan? I’ll go wait with Logan.”

“Don’t be silly,” she said, grabbing my hand. “Why would I want to dance with one when I can dance with two?”

She turned to face Ethan as she wrapped my arm around her waist and held it there. With her back to my front, that firm ass of hers brushing against my crotch, I didn’t know how to get away without making a scene. And Ethan wasn’t being any help. He simply started moving in sync with her as if this was completely normal.

“C’mon, Ryan, please.” She looked up at me with those gorgeous eyes of hers and I knew I couldn’t say no.

“All right.” I sighed and found their rhythm, matching it as easily here as I had in the bedroom.

Me being awkward when I danced wasn’t because I didn’t know how to move. I just always felt out of step with whoever my partner was, and now I realized that maybe the problem wasn’t that I didn’t like dancing. Maybe the problem was that I’d never had the right partner before.

Amelia reached out for Ethan, grabbing his shirt and pulling him closer. His hands settled on her hips and we were suddenly all three dancing together. This wasn’t just a couple guys dancing around a woman. We were very clearly dancing with her.

And her hands were wandering.

She slid her palms over Ethan’s chest and up to his neck, then reached back to brush her hand against my side. It was all I could do not to lean down and press my lips to that sweet spot where her shoulder met her neck. On some level, I knew that we were being a little too touchy-feely in public, that there was a good chance we’d unintentionally gone public with our less-than-traditional relationship way before we’d even talked about it. But I couldn’t bring myself to pull away from her.

I needed her in a way I hadn’t needed anyone before, and the fact that I’d wanted her for so long just made everything I felt that much stronger.

So I let it go. Let her dance with us until she said she was thirsty and we went back to our table where Logan was waiting. After she finished her water, he took her onto the dance floor while Ethan and I took a break. It took two more songs before the pair returned to the table and Amelia announced that she was ready for bed.

I caught a few people giving us looks when they heard what she said, but a glare from me had them minding their business before Amelia noticed them. Putting an arm around her, I led the way out to our car, satisfied with Logan’s assessment that he’d sobered up enough to drive. We’d take her home with us, but only because I didn’t trust her roommate to take care of her if Amelia was hungover in the morning. And I wouldn’t even let myself think about what could happen if Jason was at the dorm and Amelia came in this drunk.

No, she was ours and we’d take care of her. It was that simple.