Silver (23 page)

And Stacia was afraid it was all her fault.

“Shh,” Trihn said as Stacia tried to hold back tears. “You did not do this!”

Stacia nodded. “Okay.”

“Hold your chin up,” Bryna told her.

“Yeah, don’t let anyone see you hurting,” Maya told her. “You don’t want rumors to spread, okay?”

“You’re right. I know. I just feel bad.”

“So, he had a bad game. It happens,” Bryna said. “I’ve seen it happen. Breathe. Just breathe.”

Stacia nodded again and waited as everyone cleared out. After all the players had showered and changed and the press had left, finally, Pace reappeared.

“Hey,” she whispered. “What a game.”

“Not my best,” he admitted.

“Are you okay?”

“I could use a beer—or ten, to be honest.” He shouldered his backpack and reached for her.

She stepped into his embrace. “I could see that.”

“You going to tell me what’s really up with you?” he asked.

Stacia sighed. “Can I tell you in a minute?”

“So, something is wrong!” he said. He yanked her away from him and stared down at her. “I knew it.”

“Nothing’s wrong exactly, Pace. Just something I heard. I didn’t want to mess with you before the game, but I guess I fucked up your play anyway.”

“That wasn’t you,” he insisted. “It was just a bad game.”

“Sure.”

“Well, tell me what’s going on, so I can stop wondering,” he insisted.

“Actually…I kind of wanted to introduce you to my dad first.”

Pace’s eyes rounded. “Right now? After I just lost to the man?”

“Um…yeah. Should we do it some other time?” she asked.

She felt like an idiot for even asking. Of course he wouldn’t want to meet her dad right now. But she had asked her dad about it last night. She hadn’t thought that LV State had a chance of losing. Plus, she wanted to make sure her dad was aware of what was going on before he found out from the press first.

“No, it’s fine. Let’s go. It must not be serious if you want to introduce me to your dad,” Pace said with a rough laugh. “God, I need to get my head on straight.”

Stacia walked him around the stadium to where her father’s office was. She could feel Pace tense next to her. She was sure this wasn’t easy for him. Meeting her dad was bad enough, but after that game, she kind of felt like a horrible person, letting this go on.

She grabbed him before they went inside. “We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“Stacia, I do want to,” he confirmed with a tense smile.

“Okay,” she murmured before knocking on the door.

Derek opened the door with a beaming smile. “Stacy!”

“Derek,” she groaned. “We talked about this.”

Pace laughed. “Stacy?”

Stacia’s cheeks heated. “Unfortunately, that is my name. Though I had it legally changed at eighteen before coming to college.”

Pace’s eyes widened. “Damn, this whole time, I had the wrong name.”

“No! The right name. But I can’t get Derek or Dad to change.”

Derek shrugged. “Guilty as charged.” He turned to Pace and held out his hand. “Good game, man.”

They shook.

“Thanks,” Pace said.

Then, Derek disappeared down the hallway.

“Come on in,” her dad, Curt, said, standing and walking around his desk.

“Hey, Dad,” Stacia said with a practiced calm she didn’t feel. “I know that you know Pace Larson, but I just wanted to introduce him to you as…my boyfriend.”

Pace stepped forward and stuck his hand out. “Nice to officially meet you, sir.”

Stacia breathed a sigh of relief when he reached forward and shook Pace’s hand.

“Good to meet you, too. Now, I know you’re an excellent football player,” Curt said.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Just want to make sure you’re treating my daughter just as well.”

“Only the best for Stacia,” Pace confirmed.

“Good. That’s what I like to hear.” Curt smiled down at his only daughter. “Once the season is over, you should come over for dinner sometime. It would be good to get to know you.”

“I’d like that, sir.”

Her dad smiled. “Call me Curt.”

Pace grinned. “Yes, sir.”

“Now, get on out of here. I’m sure you both have some…disappointment to deal with.” Curt grinned broadly.

Stacia groaned. “I thought we’d make it all the way through without you making some bad comment,” she said.

“What?” he asked with a smile. “I had to make one comment about the game. I wouldn’t be me otherwise, Stacy.”

Stacia gave her dad a hug. “I love you. I’ll see you soon for Thanksgiving.”

He kissed the top of her head. “See you later, honey.”

Stacia and Pace backed out of her dad’s office and then out of the stadium. They made it all the way back to Pace’s hotel room before he seemed to relax.

“That wasn’t so bad,” he said.

Stacia laughed. “You were worried?”

He sank back onto the bed and dragged her toward him. “I’d feel a lot better about everything if you told me what the fuck you heard.”

“It’s not a big deal,” she mumbled.

“Stop trying to dodge it and talk to me. I need to know what you heard. You can always come to me with everything. Now, what is it?”

Stacia blew out a breath and tilted her head back. “Did you sleep with Madison more than once?”

Pace looked relieved and confused, all at the same time. “What? Where did this come from?”

“Did you, or didn’t you?” she asked. “I know you said you slept with her that night before she told me, but did it happen before then?”

“No,” he said without hesitation.

“Okay. Well, it didn’t happen after, did it?”

“No,” he said again. “It was only that one time.”

Stacia felt all the tension in her shoulders evaporate. This was exactly what she’d needed to hear. She hadn’t truly believed it, but she also hadn’t been completely sure. But he hadn’t sounded at all like he was lying to her, and she had no reason to doubt him.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” he asked. “That’s it?”

“Well, Woods, who is Madison’s ex, told me that he broke up with Madison because she’d cheated on him. Then, she ran straight to you. So, he was worried—”

“That I was the one she cheated with,” Pace finished for her.

Stacia nodded. “Yeah.”

“I might be a jackass, but I’m not that dumb.”

“Debatable,” she said with a laugh.

“Come here,” he said. He pulled her across his lap, so her ass was in the air. “We’ll see about that back talk from you.”

He yanked up her skirt and then slapped her ass. She screamed for dramatic effect until it turned into a giggle.

“You think that’s funny?” he asked.

He smacked the other cheek once, twice, and then a third time until her ass was sensitive. She squirmed on his lap, and he slapped the other cheek.

“
Funny
isn’t the word I’d use,” she got out breathlessly.

“Oh, so you like it,” he said, adding another smack to her bare bottom.

At this point, what had started as humor turned purely erotic. She could feel the hard length of him through his pants, and she was pretty sure she was soaking her own underwear.

“Pace,” she groaned as another slap hit her ass.

“Yes, Pink?”

He started rubbing her cheeks with his open palm, and she groaned as the sensation lessened some of the pain.

He chuckled. “Pink, I think I like the color on your ass as much as what you’re wearing.”

He slipped his hand down between her ass cheeks and rubbed across her wet opening. A groan escaped her lips, and she felt his dick twitch.

“Fuck, you’re wet,” he muttered.

“Take me,” she pleaded. “Right now.”

He didn’t have to be told twice.

He removed her underwear and then moved her onto her hands and knees. He released his dick from his pants and then thrust forward into her. Whatever anger and frustration and anxiety he had felt on that football field, it all disappeared in the bedroom. And, while he was rough with her, she loved every second of it. Then, they both came harder than ever before and promptly passed out from ecstasy and exhaustion.

STACIA THOUGHT THE AFTER-PARTY
would be somber. After all, LV State had suffered a devastating loss to their rival school. It ended their hope for a perfect season. But she should have known better.

The party was alive and kicking. By the time she and Pace showed up, most people were past intoxicated. Girls were dancing on tables. Couples were making out in corners. Beer pong and flip cup were happening outside. Idiots were jumping into the pool after doing funnels. Stacia even saw a keg stand or two. No one acted at all as if LV State had lost a huge game.

Except that they all stared when she and Pace walked into the room. It felt as if they—or at least she—were tainted. Instead of raising up Pace as their hero, as they had every other game, they talked behind their hands and whispered in corners. One bad game had turned the tide of an adoring crowd; that was for damn sure.

Stacia finally found Bryna, Trihn, and Maya dancing on top of a table at the center of the room.

“S!” Trihn cried. “Come dance with us.”

“I need a drink,” Stacia said with a laugh at her drunk friends.

They didn’t have a care in the world.

“It took you forever,” Bryna said, crouching down and wobbling on her five-inch Louboutins. “Come…come on.” Bryna grabbed at Stacia’s hands, trying to drag her up to the table.

“Whoa there, sis,” Pace said.

“Ew. Don’t say that.”

He just laughed. Getting under Bryna’s skin was Pace’s specialty.

“Here,” he said to Stacia. “Let me help you up. I’ll go get you a drink.”

He dropped a hasty kiss on her lips and then lifted her onto the table, as if she were as light as a feather. Her heels clicked on the table, and she winked down at him.

“So, I’m guessing he didn’t help Madison cheat on Woods,” Bryna said.

Stacia shook her head as she sashayed her body to the music. “Nope. I don’t know who Madison slept with, but it wasn’t Pace.”

“Good,” Trihn said with a sigh. “That would have sucked.”

“Where’s E?” Stacia asked.

Bryna fluttered her fingers. “Around. I think he’s trying to keep an eye on Boomer.”

“Our knight in shining armor,” Maya said with a giggle. “Dray went with him.”

“And, yet again, Damon is in another city,” Trihn said with a hard sigh.

“Must be so hard to have a rock-star boyfriend,” Bryna said sarcastically. “Just the worst.”

“Hey, bitch, watch it. He’s busy, and half of the world wants him and his sexy British accent. Don’t make me bring up the Chloe incident!” Trihn said, reminding them all of the pop star who had helped start Damon’s career.

Chloe Avana had kissed him onstage in the middle of a mental breakdown and allowed the press to believe that she and Damon were together. Trihn and Chloe were on good terms now…especially because Chloe had gone back into film instead of recording another album.

“Ugh. I just wish that Chloe wouldn’t snag all my time with Gates,” Bryna said. She stuck her bottom lip out.

Gates Hartman was the hottest rising movie star and Bryna’s ex-boyfriend, who she was still on good terms with. He was currently working on another movie with Chloe, and if you could believe the rumors, they were hitting it off romantically again.

“At least they seem happy,” Stacia reasoned.

Bryna shrugged. “I don’t want him to be happy with her. Nothing against her, but considering Gates slept with her after we broke up, the thought of them together is not super appealing. But you win some, you lose some.” She stared down at her hand where the engagement ring rested.

Stacia was pretty sure she was still getting used to it.

“Oh, look, the entire posse is here,” Lindsay said, materializing below them with her own entourage, including Madison, behind her.

Bryna rolled her eyes. “Can’t you all go party elsewhere?”

“We would, but I just wanted Stacy’s opinion on how she feels about being responsible for ruining the game.”

“Her name is Stacia,” Bryna snapped. “
Stay-sha
.”

Lindsay laughed. “Oh, you didn’t know her real name is Stacy? Cute.”

Bryna glanced at Stacia with raised eyebrows. Stacia wanted to crawl into a hole.
What else had Madison told her, if calling me Stacy was something that Lindsay was throwing my way?

Stacia put on a brave face and gave Lindsay her best bored look. “I had it legally changed at eighteen. I don’t see why it’s so shocking, Lindsay.”

“Okay, that’s it,” Bryna said. She stepped down off the table, and the other girls followed her. “You want to do this? Let’s do this. Why do you have to be such a fucking bitch, Lindsay? Why can’t you just enjoy the party? Are you so desperate for attention that the only way you can get your kicks is by bringing other people down? I knew from day one that I could never be friends with you because you make most people’s cold and calculating looks seem like a summer breeze.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Bri,” Lindsay said with a fake smile. “I thought we were all friends.”

“You thought wrong.”

“Guys, let’s just not,” Stacia piped up.

“Yeah, Bri. She’s really not worth it,” Trihn said. “Just let it go.”