When Sinners Play (Sinners of Hawthorne University 1)

“Hey, Declan! Elias!” A voice rises over the din in the kitchen, and Taylor, a second-year who’s on the football team with Gray, lifts one hand in the air as he grins. “Come on, you fuckers. Time to pay up.”

“Ah, fuck.” Elias groans and rolls his eyes. He glances down at me. “We’ll be right back.”

He and Declan make their way through the throng of people toward Taylor, and they head into another room off the kitchen with a few other guys.

I glance at Gray, my eyebrows pulling together. “What the hell was that about? Pay up for wh

at?”

He rolls his eyes. “Just a stupid bet they made. It’s nothing.”

Before I can press for more, Max grabs my elbow. “Come dance with me. Sorry, Gray, I’ll give her back to you soon.”

I snort at the implication that she’ll be giving me to anyone, least of all Gray, but I follow her through the crowd as she pulls me toward a large room that’s full of gyrating bodies. The music is even louder in here, the heavy beat thumping through my body, and I join Max in the middle of the crowd as we dance.

Gray didn’t join us, but I can feel his gaze on me as I move to the rhythm of the music, and it’s almost as good as his hands. When I glance over, I find him standing at the edge of the crowd, leaning languidly against the wall as his blue-green eyes burn with fire.

I let my movements become a little more sensual, arousal building deep in my core as I lock gazes with him.

A few guys come up to say hi to him, and several girls approach with a sway in their hips, obviously willing to try their luck even though it’s no secret on campus that Gray and I have been hooking up.

He barely speaks to the guys and flat-out ignores the girls. Something else spreads through me as I watch him; I don’t quite know what to call this new feeling. I’m almost scared to put a name to it, but it mingles with the desire that licks through my veins, flooding my chest with warmth.

Several more people crowd onto the dance floor as the song changes, and I lose sight of Gray for a bit as Max and I keep dancing. When the song changes again and a slow, heavy beat fills the room, I search for him again in the dimly lit room.

When I catch sight of him, my rhythm falters.

He’s moved a little, still standing against the wall but in a different part of the large space.

It’s not the change in his location that gives me pause though. It’s the change in him.

A few moments ago, his eyes were heated and warm, full of hunger as he watched me. Now he’s not looking at me at all. I’m not sure he’s looking at anything. He’s staring out over the sea of dancers with a hard edge to his expression, his jaw tight.

A knot slowly builds in my stomach as he presses away from the wall and makes his way around the perimeter of the room, his entire body rigid and tense. He glances over his shoulder once before heading up a set of stairs that lead to the second floor of the house.

What the fuck?

I don’t know what brought about the change in him, but a ripple of unease passes through me.

What just happened? What changed?

Telling myself it’s none of my damn business and it shouldn’t matter anyway, I try to go back to dancing with Max. But I only make it through half a song before the tension in my gut becomes too much for me to brush off.

I don’t know what’s going on with Gray, but I won’t be able to relax until I find out.

“Hey, I’ll be right back,” I whisper-yell over the music to Max, who nods. I shove my way through the press of bodies and set my drink down on a small table by the stairs before heading up them.

The din of music and voices fades only slightly as I step onto the second-floor landing. The hallway is dark, and the doors on either side of it are closed. Bedrooms, probably. Maybe one is a home office or a bathroom. Honestly, these fucking houses are so big I can’t even guess what half the rooms are for.

I move slowly down the hall, wondering if Gray ended up outside somehow. There’s a door that looks like it leads to a balcony at the end of the corridor, so maybe he went out that way.

But when I’m halfway down the dark hall, a muffled voice stops me.

It’s Gray. He didn’t go outside. He’s in one of the rooms.

I hesitate for a second, wondering if I should turn back or knock on the door, when he speaks again. His words are a little hard to hear, muffled by the thick wood and partially drowned out by the noise seeping up from below, but I hear enough.

“…can get rid of her. She’s almost dropped out more than once already, so it won’t be hard.”