“It was awful last night,” she said, brows bending together. “With Shawn. I mean, it was fine, like if I wasn’t in my head about you, I’m sure it would have been a great date. But I was so sick,” she admitted, shaking her head. “When he kissed me, I—”

“He kissed you?”

The ice in my words knocked her silent. “Y-yes.”

I gritted my teeth. “I’ll murder him.”

“Hey, this was our plan, technically. I don’t think we can kill him for doing exactly what we wanted him to.”

I arched a brow in my beg to differ, but Giana smoothed her thumb over it before leaning in for a long, slow kiss.

“I don’t want him,” she said against my lips. “You’ve had me since the first fake kiss.”

I let out a deeper exhale with that, wrapping her up. “That kiss was not fake.”

Giana buried her head in my chest for only a moment before she hopped off my lap altogether, grabbing me by the wrists and tugging me up, too.

“Come on. We have a game to win,” she said, tossing me my t-shirt. I caught her wrist when she did and pulled her back into me.

“I think we already won.”

She smiled against my kiss, letting me dip her back before she shoved me off again.

“Shirt. Now,” she said, snapping her fingers and pointing at the cloth in my hand. “You can try another tabbed scene on me later.”

“Oh, trust me. I plan to. The ones you highlighted in Sated Love…”

Her cheeks burned bright red before she was smacking me in the chest and shoving me toward the front door.

“Get your own breakfast, you book stealer,” she barked.

But that didn’t stop her from melting into me when I pulled her in for one last kiss on my way out.

“COME ON, BOYS! HOLD ’EM!”

Coach Sanders’s voice rang out over the roar of the crowd, almost thirty-thousand people in the stands — most of them wearing the other team’s colors. The Waterville University Bandits were the largest in the state, and they drowned out the NBU students who had dedicated themselves enough to make the drive from Boston to cheer us on.

It had been like that all four quarters.

Rain assaulted us yet again this game, only this time, it was cold enough to turn to sleet, a nasty mixture of rain and snow that made the playing conditions absolutely horrendous. I was already so sore and tired that I thought my body would revolt when I bent into position for the next play, training my mind on our one goal.

Stop the Bandits offense from getting the first down.