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  Nick glanced across the room, where his teammate Chase Hartman stood, still wearing his jacket. Must have just arrived. And yes, he was accompanied by Jordyn Banks, who he was apparently dating now. Obviously Jodie knew who Jordyn was—a pretty famous rising pop singer. “Yeah.”

  “Holy crap!” She blinked her long eyelashes rapidly behind her glasses, staring at the couple. Then she muttered, “I knew I wasn’t going to fit in at this party.”

  He frowned. What the hell did that mean?

  “Uh, everyone’s a little starstruck around her,” he said.

  She grimaced. “Oh sure. You’re all frickin’ famous.”

  Kendra waved at them from where she stood talking to Chaser and Jordyn, beckoning them over. Jodie stretched her mouth into a smile and started toward them.

  Most people would rush over to meet a famous pop star. She seemed…reluctant. Huh.

  Nick headed the other direction, over to the bar to pour another generous splash of Scotch into his empty glass, then gulped back a mouthful that burned its way down his esophagus. Good thing he’d taken an Uber here.

  Kendra was motioning him to come meet Jordyn Banks, too. Swallowing a sigh, he crossed the room and let Kendra introduce him. “Nice to meet you,” he said to Jordyn, shaking the pop star’s hand.

  “I heard you had to have surgery on your vocal cords,” Jodie said to Jordyn. “That must have been scary.”

  “It was. But I seem to be recovering well, so I’m staying positive.”

  Nick made an effort to be sociable as Boosh and Brick joined them, and somehow the conversation took a turn into the bizarre.

  “You gotta be careful having sex,” Brick said. “I read about this guy who went blind because he came so hard.”

  Jodie choked on her wine.

  “Bullshit.” Chaser frowned. “I mean, I’ve gone temporarily blind, but you can’t go blind from an orgasm.”

  Jordyn lifted a hand to her mouth to cover her smile.

  “No, for real. He lost the sight in one eye.”

  “I don’t believe it.” Chaser shook his head.

  “How much you wanna bet?”

  “Shit.” Now Chase started to look doubtful.

  “I think it could be true,” Jodie offered. “He probably had a hemorrhage in his eye—popped a blood vessel.”

  “Yeah, I think that was it,” Brick said. “I don’t think it was permanent.”

  “Okay, never mind the bet,” Chaser said. “You would have ended up washing my jockstraps for the next year.”

  Jodie grinned, and Nick blinked. And stared. She had a gorgeous smile. Then he frowned because Brick and Boosh were both staring at her, too. Brick moved closer to her, eyes on her face. “Sex injuries—the struggle is real.”

  She shot him an amused look. “Speaking from experience?”

  “Not me.” Brick grinned. “Well, unless you count carpet burn.”

  Jodie laughed, a low musical sound that made the base of Nick’s spine tingle. “I guess that counts,” she said. “Lucky girl.”

  Everybody laughed. Except Nick. Brick’s gaze homed in on Jodie even more.

  Nick’s lip curled.

  “I knew a guy who broke his penis,” Boosh said, wincing.

  All the guys made sounds of pain.

  “Also, shower sex sounds fun,” Brick said. “But remember last year when Pilker was out for a few games? Well, apparently it was because he slipped in the shower doing the deed and fell on his shoulder.”

  “Shut up!” Chaser laughed. “Is that true? Why didn’t we know that?”

  Brick shrugged. “Like he’d want us to know that. Remember, he was acting all weird and evasive about how it happened?”

  “Nonslip mats give new meaning to the words ‘safe sex,’ ” Jodie commented.

  Brick grinned approvingly.

  “Oh, remember the stories we heard about sex toys getting lost up in there?” Kendra said to Jodie.

  “Oh yeah.” Jodie nodded. “It’s pretty common actually.”

  The men all gave her mildly horrified looks.

  “It’s worse when it’s not actually a toy,” she added. “Sometimes people improvise with, ah, other objects. Phallic-shaped objects. Food.”

  “Say no more,” Brick said. He moved closer to Jodie with a flirtatious smile. “So you and Kendra are business partners in your sex toy company, right?”

  Oh, that was why she liked to talk about sex so much. Jesus. Nick scowled as Brick and Jodie separated from the group, watching Jodie as she laughed and gave Brick a flirty smile back.

  Huh.

  Were they still talking about sex? Brick looked totally enthralled, until Boosh joined them, apparently also interested in talking about sex with Jodie. The two guys gave each other a long look that clearly said, Back the fuck off, dude.

  Nick blew out a puff of air and gulped his Scotch. He needed another one. Laughing and flirting weren’t exactly his thing.

  A while later, a few more drinks down the hatch, he was standing talking to Hallsy, Benny, and the team captain, Duper, when the room started to spin. He gave his head a shake. Damn. He’d been tossing back the drinks a little too fast. Should’ve known better.

  He made his way unsteadily down the hall to the bathroom, where he used a paper cup to guzzle back water after he’d washed his hands. Fuck. All he wanted to do was lie down and close his eyes.

  Hallsy had lots of bedrooms. Why the hell not? He left the bathroom and stepped across the hall to one of the rooms, knowing Hally’s master bedroom was next door. He opened the door and moved into the dark room. The blinds on the window were still open and city lights and moonlight gave him just enough illumination to find the bed in the shadows. He staggered over and threw himself down onto it.

  He breathed in the scent of the pillow, a lush, sexy scent. Kendra must use nice fabric softener. He closed his eyes against the spinning room. Ugh. Not good. He rolled and set a foot on the floor, an old trick he’d learned back in his teenage party years. Yeah. That helped. He took a few deep breaths and let himself fall into dark oblivion.

  Love stories you’ll never forget

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  eOriginal Romance from Random House

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