“Fine. Your tights are outlining every inch of your calves, thighs, ass, and pussy. I don’t want my teammates, or anyone else on the courts, to know the shape of your cunt.”
Caught off guard at his bluntness, a laugh escapes me. “I...” I laugh harder and Royce joins in. “I got nothing to say back to that. They’re leggings, not tights by the way, but yeah okay. Since you did as I asked, I’ll entertain your bossiness. This time.”
I run upstairs and pull some baggy sweats over my leggings and run back down.
“Man, RaeRae.” Royce shakes his head and Maddoc curses, throwing the front door open harder than necessary as he steps out.
I raise my arms as to ask ‘what.’
“Maddoc is trippin’. It’s not what you wear, it’s how you wear it.”
He holds the door open for me to slip through. “And how do I wear it?”
“With a plump ass and a ‘fuck you too.’”
I laugh and move for the SUV calling, “Shotgun,” with a wink.
And the boy actually pouts as he climbs in.
I put my seat belt on but spin in the seat to look back at him. “Come on, Royce, don’t be a baby about it. Consider this game on for an epic battle of the throne that is, a heated leather seat in Maddoc’s ride.”
He says nothing, still seeming put out, so I face forward again.
Maddoc keeps side glancing me, but I pretend not to notice.
He wants to know what I’m thinking, to confirm if I’m as perceptive as he assumes. I am, and now the front seat doesn’t feel so good.
Maddoc climbs out right away and heads straight for the guys waiting – something tells me it was purposeful.
I unbuckle and climb over the center console, dropping next to Royce as he ties his shoe.
He glances at me quickly. “What’s up, RaeRae, ready to watch us drive on these fools?”
“Royce.”
“Hmm?” He drops his foot and looks up, and when he does his features tighten a bit.
“You don’t like being alone.”
He opens his mouth, but clamps it shut and looks out the front windshield. “I like it ‘bout as much as you do.”
My head draws back. “I don’t mind it.”
He scoffs and glares my way. “Come on, Raven. You’re used to it, sure, you don’t mind it, fine. But do you like it?” He climbs out, looking back at me quickly. “No. You don’t. And it’s a lie if you tell yourself different.” And then the door slams.
With a sigh, I lay across the back seat ‘cause fuck this shit now.
He’s half wrong. I never minded being alone, but that was before I knew what having someone there looked like. And stupid me, I’m accidentally starting to like it.
A couple hours pass before Captain’s SUV pulls up beside this one.
I quickly shove open my door and knock on his passenger one before he can even shut off the engine.
The lock pops and I climb inside.
“What’s up, Raven?” He rubs his hand over his eyebrow, and I note the defeated look in his eyes.
While I do want to know what happened, I have to be selfish right now.
“I need a ride.”
His posture stiffens, and he eyes me a moment before it hits him. “Raven ...” He starts to shake his head, but I shift toward him.
“Look, it’s either one of you takes me or I blow this bitch and things go down a helluva allot differently. Say no all you want, but that’ll only be your words. Not my actions.”
“Why you doin’ this?”
“I have to.”
He shakes his head. “I’m not talking about where you’re wanting to go or why. I mean, why you doing this, coming to me when you know you should be talking to Maddoc right now.”
“What difference does it make?” I grow defensive and he frowns.
“Raven, you need to stop acting like the two of you aren’t happening.”
Unease stirs in my stomach and I glare. I ignore his direct comment and fire back with a different truth. “You think I want any of you, let alone Maddoc, anywhere near my mother? She’s fucking cancer, Captain, a damn contagious kind if such a thing exists. She’s literally toxic. Maddoc will ask questions, demand answers and likely hand her her own ass. I need someone who will let me handle her.”
His eyes narrow and just when I think I’ve got him ... he honks the fucking horn and in an instant, one becomes three.
“We don’t make decisions alone, Raven,” Captain tells me quickly before the other two slide in the back.
“She wants a ride.”
“No,” Maddoc says quick and calm.
“Hell no,” comes from Royce.
“For fuck’s sake.” I shake my head, then spin in my seat. “I get it, you guys need to be the boss. You even think you are the boss, but guess what, fuckers, you’re not my boss. So for you to sit there and think you can bring the hammer down, you’ve got another thing coming. I’m not asking ‘cause I have to, I’m asking to make my life easier, so I don’t have to figure out another way, and I’ll admit, hoping it keeps you off my case a bit.”