He walked right past me, assuming I’d follow in his wake. Mean, spiteful comments crept up my throat, itching to worm their way across my tongue and out of my mouth, but I choked them back down. Whether or not he was being an ass, it was my fault. I owed him an explanation. He owed me a chance to explain. Right?
The girls giggled as he opened the doors to his Jeep. Tweedledee jumped in the back, and Tweedledum took the passenger side, leaving me behind Josh. He reached in and lifted up his seat. “After you.”
“Josh, really, I just need a minute.” I looked up into those brown eyes and almost forgot what I needed the minute for.
He caged me between his arms, pressing me against the back quarter of the Jeep. “Really? I can think of a lot to do in a minute, Ember. Then again, I bet Riley wouldn’t like to know what I’d be doing with you, would he?”
“That’s what I’m trying to talk to you about.” It took everything in me not to kiss him, to pull his face to mine and make him see. If he’d been irresistible when I was determined to stay away, what would he be like now that I was ready to jump?
He brushed his cheek against mine, his breath tickling my ear, so much warmer than the air. “Maybe I’m not quite ready to hear about how fucking perfect Riley is, and how you’ve forgiven him and worked it all out.”
“Josh—”
He placed two fingers across my lips, silencing me. “You want to talk? Fine. I’ll give you five minutes once I have enough alcohol in my system to hear it. You want it? Get in.”
Our eyes were locked in a silent, heated battle. “Fine.”
He gestured with his hand toward the open door. “Your chariot awaits.”
I swallowed the sarcastic remark that lingered on the edge of my tongue, took the hand he offered, and climbed into the Jeep. He leaned over me, fastening the buckle just like he had the night I’d found Riley with Kayla. I couldn’t fight off my need to touch him and brushed my hand along the bare skin of his neck. He jerked back with a hiss like I’d burned him. His eyes flashed to mine for an instant before he shut my door.
If I still had that kind of effect on him, I had a chance.
Once his gear was stored in the back, he climbed in, and we started the drive up to campus. Catching his reflection in the rearview mirror, I gave myself time to soak him in. His concentration on the road was fierce, but the way he worried his bottom lip between his teeth told me there was more on his mind than traffic. God, I wanted to steal that lip away from those teeth and kiss it free.
When we stopped at a red light a few minutes away from campus, we locked eyes in the mirror. Electricity passed between us, threatening to turn me to ash. Would it always be like this with him? Would this infatuation wear off? Something told me no, and that was scarier than the thought that one day we’d be complacent. If we ever reached a “one day.”
“Josh, which party are we headed to?” Tweedledee asked.
“I figured we’d head to the house, if that’s okay with you ladies.”
The girls squealed. Sweet mercy, they were freaking loud.
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’” He chuckled. “Ember?”
I locked onto those brown eyes again and stuck to the plan. No more hiding, no more fighting it. “I want to be wherever you are.”
I felt the girls both turn and stare at me, but I wasn’t letting go of his gaze long enough to acknowledge them. If this was a fight for his attention, I was winning. Period. His breath left his chest in a ragged sound as the light turned green, and he broke our stare.
Three minutes and a lifetime later, we pulled in front of the Kappa house. It wasn’t as packed as it had been for the Snow Bash, but there was still more than a decent showing. People scurried out of the way as Josh sped into his spot, threw the brake, and bolted from the car like he was on fire. The girls climbed down, pulling their skirts to cover their asses as they hit the ground.
“Walker!” his brothers called out from the porch, lifting red solo cups in salute. “Great game!”
Josh gave them a head nod and helped Tweedledee and Tweedledum over the roped markers that separated the parking lot from the sidewalk in front of the house. I climbed over on my own.
With one girl under each arm, he walked up the porch steps. Another set of puck bunnies, this time of the brunette variety, met him at the door. “Josh! We wanted to catch a ride with you!” one pouted, sliding her fingers up his chest.
The urge to hurl nearly overpowered me. Could they be any more pathetic? It seemed like the more desperate they were, the smaller their clothes got. “Don’t worry girls.” A cocky smile made his face less austere, more boyish. “There’s plenty to go around, and I’m feeling good tonight.”
The girls slid up next to him, giving Tweedledee and Tweedledum a run for their money, and exasperation nearly choked me. Who the hell was he tonight?
Then I realized, this was the Josh Walker everyone else knew. The one who scored the goals on the ice, and the girls off it. This was the Josh I was warned against, and here I was chasing after him like a naïve freshman again. Five years hadn’t changed much.
My feet hit the first steps and stopped as my hand clenched the thick porch railing. Who was I to call those girls pathetic? Sure, they had on less clothes than I did, but we were all there for the same reason: chasing Josh Walker. He was being an ass, and I was being pathetic.
“You coming, Ember?” The mocking look on his face pushed me over the edge I’d been walking.