“Hey,” I manage, eloquently.
Then a couple other guys shoulder past him, including Pat, I guess, because he wraps his arms around Anna and practically lifts her off the ground, spinning her around as they kiss.
“So.” I clear my throat softly. “I hear it’s, uh, good luck, to…”
“Kiss me?” Charlie arches an eyebrow. Steps closer. I can feel the heat radiating off him. See the way his sweat-slicked hair sticks to his forehead. It makes me itch to push it back. Or better yet, drag his face down to mine. “So I hear,” he says, that sly, halfway smile lingering on his mouth.
So I just fucking do it. I step forward, wrap both arms around the back of his neck, and draw his mouth down against mine. It catches him by surprise, I can tell. His eyebrows shoot up. But then our lips collide, and his hands frame my face, white hot against my cheeks, and his lips are every bit as soft as I remembered. Not to mention as strong.
They part mine, and his tongue collides with my own, tangling with it, hungry, like we’re both trying to devour each other whole.
When we pull apart again, my chest is heaving, and it’s a wonder I’m still standing upright on my own two feet, with all the sensations flooding through my body.
“Damn. Need a lot of luck tonight or what?” asks a female voice somewhere behind us. A familiar one.
Charlie glances up, before his gaze returns to mine, as if drawn by a magnet. Like he can’t resist looking at me whenever he possibly can. “Oh, Lila. This is Sammy. She lives in the same apartment complex as me.”
When I turn, I find the same girl who offered to let me into Charlie’s building that first day I went back to propose this whole mess to him. My stomach tenses. I remember the way she grilled me, wanting to know if I went here, what I was doing visiting Charlie. But she’s smiling now, so I smile back, even if it feels strained around the edges. Forced. “We met, actually. She let me into your building once.”
“Good to know you weren’t some random stalker,” Sammy says, in a tone that tells me that’s exactly what she thought I was.
All around us, other girls are hugging or kissing their partners. At least half a dozen couples. But Sammy doesn’t kiss anyone. I wonder why she came here, until I notice a couple other girls say goodbye to their partners and go back to Sammy’s side.
“Well. See you around I guess. Lila, was it?” Sammy starts back up the hallway, her eyes lingering on me in a way that makes my stomach tense.
Is she jealous? Did she want her own boytoy on the team, is that why she’s mad at me? Because I stole Charlie?
Well, joke’s on her. He’s not really mine to begin with. And once this article is all said and done, after he and I end our fake relationship, she can have him.
Except, for some reason, the thought of that makes my nausea redouble. Probably just because she seems like a possessive jerk, I tell myself.
Definitely not because I’d be jealous of whoever Charlie hooked up with after me. No way.
Still, it leaves a sour taste in the back of my mouth, until Charlie leans down to kiss me one more time. “Got to get back in there,” he says. But he lingers, winks at me. “Thanks for the luck.”
“Not that you need it,” I reply, grinning. “You are a hell of a lot better than you led me to believe with all that false modesty crap, Charlie Cross.”
“Isn’t he, though?” Pat says, slapping Charlie on the back as he heads back into the locker room himself.
Next to me, Anna laughs. “Charlie’s always been too modest,” she murmurs, though her voice is still loud enough for Charlie to hear, as he rolls his eyes and follows Pat inside. “To be honest, I’m shocked this is the first time a guy like Charlie Cross is bringing a girl back to the locker room for a lucky kiss,” she adds, as she starts back up the hallway toward our seats, where we can watch the rest of the game.
My eyebrows shoot up my forehead. I can’t have heard that right. “Wait, you mean he’s never brought anyone else back here?”
Anna shakes her head. “He’s had a couple hookups, I think, over the years. But nothing that ever stuck.” She glances over her shoulder as if checking for eavesdroppers, before she lowers her voice confidentially. “If you ask me, that Sammy girl has been trying so desperately to get with him for the last year that Charlie just gave up on dating at all. She chases any prospects away.” Anna shrugs. “But, also, he just never seemed that into anybody. Tonight, though…” Anna’s eyes dance with amusement when they find mine again.