Kissing the Player - Maggie Dallen Page 0,13

get trampled by the post-lunch crowd. “What about her?”

Simone’s brows arched meaningfully. “What if she gets hurt?”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Simone was too sweet for words sometimes. And because of that, she just couldn’t understand someone like Rose. “Trust me, Simone. She won’t get hurt. She’d have to have actual feelings to get hurt.”

Simone opened her mouth to protest, but I cut her off with a shake of my head as I kept going in the direction of Rose’s locker.

“I know her better than you do, Simone. The girl is as shallow as they come. She needs a steady stream of male admirers to keep her vanity happy and she doesn’t care who she hurts in the process.” I spotted her at her locker. “If anything, I’m doing her a favor. Maybe this will teach her a lesson.”

“Teach her a lesson?” Simone sputtered. “Do you even hear yourself right now?”

I ignored her protests right up until I reached Rose’s side. “Hey.”

I leaned against the locker beside hers and noticed the slight widening of her bright blue eyes when she saw me. “Hi,” she said slowly, her voice rising at the end and with a hint of a question. Her gaze never left mine as she reached for a book in her locker. “Can I help you?”

I heard Simone’s soft laugh and Rose must have too because her gaze flickered from me to my friend who was half hidden behind me, and half hidden inside her oversized hoodie. The girl was good at hiding. I’d never once won hide-and-seek as kids.

“Hey, Simone.” Rose’s pretty features softened in a genuine smile and it was only then I remembered that Rose and Simone likely knew each other somewhat well thanks to Simone’s involvement in the art department. She did a lot of the set work for the plays that Rose starred in.

Simone waved her hand and wiggled her fingers but when Rose’s brows arched in question, Simone looked to me to keep talking. They both did.

The vibe was far from welcoming and more like ‘what on earth are you doing here?’

I shifted uncomfortably but my smile never faded. “I, uh…I heard what happened between you and Ryan.”

Her expression didn’t so much as flicker. Her blank stare was…unnerving, actually. She waited patiently for me to make my point.

And my point was…what exactly?

I gave her a rueful wince. “He’s not exactly taking it well.”

Rose turned away to reach for another book and I felt the loss of her gaze. I felt the loss of her attention. “If you’re trying to play matchmaker or whatever, I’m not really into the whole passing notes through friends thing.”

Her tone was as flat and uncharming as I’d ever heard it and Simone choked on a laugh at my expense.

“No, no, nothing like that.” I scrambled to salvage this situation. “All I meant to say was…you have nothing to worry about.”

That got her attention, at least. She shot me a sidelong look that I couldn’t decipher. “Really?”

I straightened a bit. See? This wouldn’t be so hard. I knew girls, and I absolutely knew how to play this girl. “He’s all bark and no bite,” I said with an assured smile. “He’ll get over it eventually, and until then…I’ve got your back.”

She blinked once. Twice. Then she slammed her locker shut and turned to face me. No, she didn’t just face me. She leaned into me, her body softening like she was melting against me. “Is that right?” her voice was so breathy, so tempting…

I fought hard to swallow or else I might have drooled. Man, I’d forgotten just how tempting she could be. How the world seemed to stop spinning when she was looking at you like this. Like you were her Prince Charming and the center of the universe.

Like you were the only man on the planet.

Her fingertips trailed over my chest, tiptoeing up toward my shoulder teasingly as she batted her lashes. “You’d do that for me?”

It was the slight hint of a Southern belle accent that made me blink and threatened to ruin this haze of desire. “Uh…yeah.”

“You would protect little ol’ me from that big, bad wolf?” There was no denying the teasing—nay, mocking—glint in her eyes as she leaned in even closer and batted her eyelashes dramatically.

She moved back so quickly I felt a rush of cold where she’d once been and she smacked her forehead with the back of her hand as her voice rose in that ridiculous accent. “Why, I do