The Prince and the Pawn (When Rivals Play #4) - B.B.Reid Page 0,2

thought you could manipulate my feelings with sex?” If possible, his tone became even colder than before. “While you were a phenomenal fuck, Bradley, no pussy is that good.”

I looked away, unable to meet his gaze, my tone despondent when I spoke. “I guess it doesn’t matter now.”

“Finally, something we can agree on,” he immediately spat. “No, it doesn’t matter now.”

I never realized before how much power Vaughn had over me. For a moment, we listened to the waves crash. For a moment, I wanted to walk into the sea and let them drown me.

“Just tell me one thing,” I urged as a lone tear slipped down my cheek. I vowed that it would be the last I shed over him. Vaughn said nothing while he waited. “Of all the girls you could have screwed, why did it have to be her?”

One month ago

“DON’T GO.”

Despite my shift starting in ten minutes, I pressed myself harder into Vaughn’s lap. I could feel his hard dick through his gray sweatpants, and it was begging me to throw caution to the wind. It would be ten times harder to walk away from Vaughn right now than it would be to walk away from the job I’ve had since I was fifteen.

“Stay with me,” he continued to plead between kisses.

It was his fault for insisting he drive me to work when I had my own car and then being bold enough to do it without a shirt. During the entire fifteen-minute drive, I kept stealing peeks at his bare chest, ripped arms, and that crazy six-pack of his until he caught me ogling and pulled the car over. We ended up making out on the side of the forest-lined road for twenty minutes.

“I can’t,” I whined even though I really wanted to stay. I recognized the look in his eyes. Vaughn wanted to play, and I was more than eager to be his mate. In the blink of an eye, we’d gone from strangers to friends to something we weren’t allowed to put a label on. Still, it was a long way from him being a god among men—one that I had secretly pined for from a safe distance.

With a sigh, I returned to the quilted leather passenger seat of the Aventador. The car was worth over four-hundred grand, and I wondered about the man brave enough to buy his teenage son a Lamborghini. With pursed lips, I realized the only thing the star quarterback loved more than football was this car, so there was little chance of anything happening to it. Deciding not to go down that road, I turned to face the green-eyed boy who kept my stomach in knots. Although—after raking my gaze over his broad shoulders—I realized using the term boy to describe Vaughn was a straight-up felony.

“I need to save as much money as I can,” I reasoned when Vaughn gripped the steering wheel in frustration. “I don’t know how long it will be before I find something in Cambridge.”

I’d gotten accepted into Harvard, my life-long dream, yet, somehow, I couldn’t muster the excitement that was expected. All I could think about was the distance it would put between Vaughn and me—however much. Everyone knew he’d gotten offers to play at several schools, but he’d been tight-lipped for some reason about the one he’d chosen.

Vaughn said nothing as he started the engine and steered the foreign car back onto the road. Just like a spoiled prince used to getting everything he wanted, Vaughn was pissed. I could feel the sweat we’d worked up drying as my skin suddenly cooled. How much longer could he go without? Overnight, Vaughn had gone from having a little too much sex to none at all. He’d been patient, but I wondered if he was reaching the end of his rope.

Five minutes later, we were pulling into the parking lot of the coffee shop where I worked, and he still hadn’t said a word. Rather than continue this guessing game, I took a deep breath, knowing the risk I was taking. He’d always shut down whenever the subject came up.

“Speaking of school,” I started and almost lost my nerve when I felt his gaze. How was it possible that, after nine and a half months, he could still send the butterflies in my stomach soaring? “Have you decided who you’re going to play for?”

Vaughn didn’t immediately look away. In fact, he stared at me long and hard until I began to squirm in his