Blind Side (Red Zone Rivals, #2)

by Kandi Steiner

The more I pretended like she was mine to tease like that, the more it felt like she really was.

Giana was unexpectedly addicting. Her and her weird books, her unique clothes, her innocence that she tried so hard to cover up with unfaltering sass. She was… refreshing. And fun.

But her turquoise eyes were trained on me, and I bent, ready to catch her before she even launched herself off the ground and into my arms.

my hands caught her ass — her bare ass under the skirt she wore.

“You’re picking up on this game quickly, Kitten.” She flushed against a smile. “I’ve got a good coach.”

“I’m going to ignore you,” he said. “Hang out with my friends, maybe flirt with some other girls. Use that to your advantage. Talk a little shit about me.” I frowned. “What? To Shawn?” Clay nodded. “Drop hints that you’re unhappy, that you’re used to being ignored in situations like this.”

I watched him do a body shot off her as she squirmed beneath him, and then as soon as she hopped down, another girl crawled up to take her place. Clay didn’t even hesitate.

“She doesn’t hold a candle to you.”

“There you are, Kitten.”

Look at him, playing the jealous boyfriend.

He ain’t playing.

“See you around, Steve.” “Shawn,” he corrected, his frown just as severe, chest puffed.

“If you’re not playing, you’re losing, remember?” I rolled my lips together, swallowing past the knot forming in my throat. “So, let’s play.”

“Use me,” I clarified. “Make her remember what you had. Show her what she’s missing.”

His next kiss was like a brand, demanding and brutal, and for the first time, he slid his tongue against the seam of my lips, requesting access. And I opened.

It was possessive, the way he cradled me, the way he pulled me in tighter, kissed me harder, his hand slowly pushing up under the hem of my skirt.

“Meow,” I repeated, louder, firmer. Recognition hit his face, and Clay paled, peeling himself off me with concern laden in his eyes. “Giana,” he tried, but I couldn’t look at him any longer. I couldn’t be near him, couldn’t contain the fire roaring inside me.

giving in to my own selfish desire as playing with her in that party became less about Maliyah and more about seeing what noises I could get to come from that pretty mouth of hers.

But the more Giana opened for me, the more she writhed under my touch… The less I was looking at anything or anyone else but her.

Like a drug addict, I was greedy for more.

“I’m a virgin.”

Something feral roared inside me, the teeth of it bared as I clenched my jaw against it threatening to break out of its cage. A long, searing inhale forced it back down.

“I know,” Giana said, folding her arms over her chest as she caved in on herself. “It’s embarrassing.”

I immediately reached for her, lifting her chin until she was looking at me again. “W...

“Because I’m a sophomore in college and I haven’t had sex,” s...

“It’s not something to be embarrassed about.” “Well, it feels like it.” “It’s not,” I reiterated, and then I pulled back, framing her arms in my hands. “Thank you. For telling me.”

“Sometimes I just wish I could just do it with someone and get it over with, you know?”

“I think if you wouldn’t have showed up, he would have kissed me.” I laughed despite the way those words made anger flare in my gut.

That was a side effect I hadn’t been prepared for when we’d entered into this fake relationship, how kissing and touching Giana would blur that line and make me feel like she was actually mine. I didn’t have a right to feel any sort of possessiveness over her, so I shoved it down and remembered why we did this in the first place. For her to get Shawn. For me to get Maliyah back.

I like your legs when they’re spread and you’re burning for me, babe.”

“Beg for me, baby, scream out my name. Get on your knees for me, baby, let desire erase all the shame.”

“I want you to fuck me.”

“Uh, Kitten, I don’t think—” “No, I mean it,” she said, cutting me off. “I want you to take my virginity, Clay.”

I wrinkled my nose, again thankful for the dark that covered my not-so-subtle disagreement with every word she just said.

“You don’t know what it’s like to be an almost twenty-year-old virgin because you probably lost your virginity when you were sixteen.”

“Teach me how to kiss, how to make a man feel good,” she whispered. “Teach me how to do it all.”

I’d agreed. I was going to take her virginity. Against every obvious red flag telling me this was a bad idea, I couldn’t say no. Somewhere deep inside me, that wild creature I’d tried so hard to tame smiled in victory… And anticipation.

I’d dreamed about having this moment for so long, what I would say, what I would do… but none of it felt like I thought it would.

“I see the way you still watch me when you’re with her,” she said, smiling as my skin pebbled under her touch. “What exactly is it you’re doing, Clay?”

The urge to crush her to me and claim her mouth with my own battled with the powerful desire to give her a taste of her own medicine. And something else… something foreign that I couldn’t quite name.

“There’s dumplings and rice, and pizza, and some slider burgers from the bar down the street. I got some pretzel bites with beer cheese because yum.” She rolled her eyes up to the ceiling, patting her stomach like a starved man before she popped a finger up. “Oh! And fries. And donuts. And ice cream in the freezer. I might also have some… chips… up… here,” she added, struggling as she reached up onto her tiptoes to open the small cabinet above her stove.

She was so strange, and intelligent, and curious, and full of wonder. She was like a child and a grown ass woman somehow wrapped up in one.

“Sorry. Cheeto breath,” she explained. I barked out a laugh at that. “I’m not worried about your breath. And besides, I’ve been eating the same shit. Do you want me to go brush my teeth?” “No. Cheeto breath wouldn’t make you disgusting the way it would on me. You’d somehow find a way to make it sexy.”

the way she was perched there, propped up on her knees, her chest swelling and falling, eyes eager… it was the sweetest, most intoxicating sight. She watched me like I had all the answers, like I was her lifeline. Like she trusted me with everything that she was.

“Don’t look so sad, Kitten,” he teased, pressing a kiss light as air to my jaw. “There are many things that come before that, and trust me when I say you won’t want to skip them.”

“Why does that feel so good?” I breathed, my eyes still closed as Clay’s tongue lashed out against mine again. “Do you want the science of it, or the layman’s terms?” I bit my lip against a smile as he kissed down my neck, and his hips rolled between mine, striking me with that hot spark of electricity again. “Both.”

“When we kiss, your brain lets off a cocktail of chemicals,” he whispered, crawling his kisses back up until he claimed my mouth. “But it’s not really about them. It’s about what they’re telling you.” “Which is?” He nosed my chin, nipping at my neck. “You tell me.”

“Tell me what you feel,” he demanded again. “Excited,” I breathed, chest heaving at the admission. “And… hot.”

“That warmth is desire,” he explained, rolling his thumb around my nipple again. “You’re turned on.” “Yes,” I breathed. Then, I rolled my lips together, fighting for the words. “How do I make you feel that?”

Threading his fingers around mine, he slowly slid my hand along his stomach, and I felt every ridge and valley of his abdomen on the way down. Until he cupped my hand in his, guiding my palm down to where his thick, solid erection strained against his sweatpants.

Clay dropped his forehead to mine, swallowing. “There’s your answer, Kitten,” he husked.