Breakaway (Penalty Kill 1)

“Yes, they finished them when I was a freshman.” We make it to my door. I unlock it, and I can feel the heat from Levi’s body as he stands extremely close to me. I really hope that he doesn’t t

ry to kiss me because I’m not sure what I will do. I step over my threshold and turn back to him. His hands are on his hips, and he has that killer smirk on his face. His piercing blue eyes are staring right through me, and I can feel my heart fluttering again.

“We should go out on a date.”

“What?” I almost shout my question at him. Did I hear him correctly? I knew all night that he was planning something.

“We. Should. Go. Out,” he says each word slowly and seductively back at me. I need to stand my ground. I come up with a quick plan in my head, and I know that he will get the message that I am not into him. Of course, that isn’t totally true, but it’s the right thing to do.

I smile and look him right in the eyes. His smirk goes deeper, and I know that he’s thinking that I’m going to say yes to the date.

“Absolutely, not.” Then I slam my door shut.

Chapter Three

Levi

I want to groan. She seemed to be so close to agreeing to go out with me and then bam! She said no and shut her door a little harder than necessary. For a moment, I was shocked, can’t lie about that. It wore off and now I’m driving back to my apartment. The party is more than likely still in full swing, and I’m debating if I should go back and dive into a Bunny. I don’t bring girls back to the apartment. We decided that after Gavin ended up with a crazy, wild eyed Bunny that wouldn’t leave him alone. We don’t want any girls, especially the crazy ones, showing up where we live.

I take a left instead of a right and return to the party. Just as I thought, people were still hanging out and having a good time. Now, it’s time for me to have a good time and forget all about little Miss Presley, who doesn’t do anything but challenge my every word. My eyes quickly land on one of the Bunnies from earlier. She seems to be pouting on the couch. Like a snake slithering to its prey, I slink over and sit beside her, placing my arm around her shoulders.

“Having a good time?” I smile fully as she looks up at me. Her smile grows, and she leans into me.

“Of course,” she lies. “It’s a little boring here, don’t you think?” If possible, her smile gets bigger as she gives me the opening. “Maybe we could go back to your place?”

The girl is ruthless with no shame, not even giving me a chance to take her opening before she forges forward. Her bleach blonde hair looks like it’s been dyed one too many times, but her big, round eyes are pretty. She’ll do for now.

“Not my place, baby,” I say, laying it on thick. “Too far away,” I add the lie when she slightly frowns, thinking that she won’t have her way with me. Ha. “C’mon,” I stand, not bothering holding out my hand for her. That disappoints her, I can tell, but that’s not my concern. Bunnies are good for one thing with me, and I’m not about to waste any gentlemanly gestures to make her think otherwise.

We find an empty room upstairs, and my first thought is that she definitely isn’t Presley. She’s thinner, almost too thin and her smile seems fake. Whatever. Let me get my fill and sleep the rest off. Some time later, I’m on my way home, not feeling completely satisfied, but happy enough for now.

~ ~ ~

As promised, I’m making the guys’ lives hell. I can go on little sleep, that’s no problem. The boys should have known better than to stay out too late last night because ever since we lost to McCarthy, we’ve been having practice at 4:30 every morning for four hours. Four hours of relentless drills. For the most part, I just watch. I played well. They didn’t. So I skated around and barked orders, intervening here and there to play. It’s hard to watch and not to get in the action and play.

Being the weekend, I don’t care what their plans are. We have two more practices later today. One at noon for three hours and one at six for three hours. Sunday will be our last day of hell-filled practices. Nichols has been giving me lip all morning, and he’s starting to piss me off. I don’t know what’s gotten into him lately, but he needs to fix it and fast. It’s not going to do me any favors to have my own teammate talking back to their captain. One more time and I’m going to put him effectively in his place.

He stays quiet enough and once practice is over, I decide to press my luck a bit. Jere is one of the last ones out of the locker room, and he is a few paces ahead of me.

“Hey, Jere. Wait up.” I jog to catch up, and he smiles easily. “You did good today,” I say easing into things.

“Thanks, Captain,” he grins. He’s a pretty easy going guy, and I’m assuming I’ll be able to get some information from him.

“Marley seems nice,” I fumble, thinking talk of Marley will lead to talk of Presley. Her rejection last night only made me want her more and the anticipation of seeing the look on Trevor’s face is almost too much.

“Yeah, she’s cool,” he shrugs. “Presley grilled ya last night, huh?” he chuckles.

“She’s feisty, that’s for sure.” I don’t know how much I can say with Jere. We’re teammates, sure and I made sure to know everyone, but I’m not exactly close with him.

“What did you do to her anyway?”

It’s my turn to laugh. “Nothing. McCarthy and I go back a few years and we weren’t exactly friends. That’s her problem,” I clarify.

He nods and there’s no time left to talk as we’ve stepped outside. “Hey, Marley is dragging me to a party over at JWU. Maybe you should come with us? That way I won’t be the only guy from the team with all of McCarthy’s guys there. I know the rules, but those guys,” he shakes his head. McCarthy’s team has lots of big guys and intimidation is their forte.

“Sure.”

We make arrangements and Jere’s going to drive us across town. Between practices, I grab a bite to eat each time and take a nap. I’m positive that I’ll be able to follow through with my plan, but Presley will need a little convincing. I’m sure of it.