Melissa groaned under her breath.
Liam made a gargling sound.
Kash stepped forward, his hand to Matt’s chest, and pushed him upward. “Okay. Calm down, brother.” He winked at me over his shoulder. “Let’s find our seats.”
Whoa.
Wow.
That wink … I was the one who just learned what a combustible climax was.
Melissa sidled close to me. “How do you handle that?”
I spoke, “In bed. As much as possible.”
“Your brother?”
My head jackknifed to hers. “What?”
“I was talking about your brother.” Her eyebrows pinched together.
“Oh!” Matt. I waved that off. “You’ll either love Matt or you’re going to hate him. Don’t sleep with him and you’ll enjoy him. But that’s key. Don’t sleep with him.”
Liam had lingered, overhearing. “Solid advice.”
“Looks like they found some seats.”
An entire row was cleared when we got there, and Matt was already making friends with Liam’s friends. A seat was left open on the other side of Matt, and Fitz went behind our row, dropping into that empty seat.
Matt went first. Kash. Me. Melissa. Scott on Melissa’s side.
Liam moved around so he was in the row in front of us, right beneath Melissa and me.
His friends looked nice.
I didn’t think they were graduate students, just a year younger than Liam.
They, in turn, were studying Kash and me, but Kash laid an arm around me, pulling me to him.
As he did this, my front to his side, he moved to my ear and said, “They’ll stop paying attention to us. Matt will distract them in three, two, one—”
Matt started, “What do you guys lift? What’s the average weight?”
Kash continued, without pausing, “Now all they’ll know is that their computer friend brought another computer friend, a couple, Matt, and two other guys who don’t seem too friendly. They’ll talk to your brother because he’ll make them, and they’ll ignore the rest of us, except maybe one or two will give Melissa attention, wondering if their boy Liam is interested. If he is, we’ll find out who are the good friends and who are the douchebags.”
I slid a hand over his stomach, wrapping around his side. “What do you mean?”
“The ones who respect Liam will be nice to Melissa, but keep their distance. The douchebags will try to hit on her. They’ll either do it at the game or wait till the after-game party.”
“There’s an after-game party?”
Kash lifted his head, cupping my face, and smiled down at me. His thumb traced my top lip. “There’s always an after-game party, and because Matt’s here, he’ll control that.”
I liked how he traced my lip. I tried to catch his thumb in my mouth. “How do you know that?”
He laughed lightly, evading my mouth. “Because Matt likes your friend and he’s going to want to control who’s in her space. He knows I’d rather take you home after the game, have our own after-game party.” He moved more into my space. “And he knows Liam doesn’t want Melissa around him, because what Liam’s friends will notice, too, is that Liam is interested in your friend Melissa.”
“He is? Wait…”
Kash’s eyes sobered. “Matt wants to sleep with her. That’s all.”
I tensed up.
He smoothed a hand down my side, massaging at my waist. It helped loosen some of the tension. “So he wants to sleep with her,” he continued, “but he won’t, because he knows if he does he’s basically just a predator. And that’s what he wants to save her from with Liam’s friends, because some of them are predators.”
Air caught in my throat. “Does Liam know?”
Kash looked over my shoulder, observing a moment. “I don’t think so. Some guys know. Some guys don’t. He seems clueless.”
I frowned.
He eased away, tilting his head, his eyes back on me. His thumb rubbed at my lip again. “But no one needs to worry, because your friend has eyes only for Fitz, when it’s really Scott who’s more interested in her. And both Fitz and Scott know this. Fitz is respecting him by staying away, and Scott isn’t worried about anyone else because he knows he’s the one who’ll reel her in.”
The air escaped me in a sudden rush. I glanced over my shoulder and saw it all in one look.
Scott was next to Melissa, the same grin he always wore on his face, as he watched her talking to Liam. She was nodding, smiling, but kept sending furtive looks down our aisle. I turned. Fitz pointedly had his eyes elsewhere, and Matt was still talking to a bunch of the other guys, but he was seeing it all, too.
I turned back to Kash. “You noticed all of this on the ride over?”
“No. I noticed this the second I met your friend.”
Kash said I was smart, but so was he. Just in different ways.
“Well, I can say one thing for sure.” I cocked my head back so I could really look into Kash’s face. “My friend’s gonna get a boyfriend soon.”