Excerpt of Play Dirty by L.P. Maxa

The bathroom door opened and Dylan stepped out, wearing
nothing but a towel around her body with her long dark
hair piled on top of her head. There were still water
droplets running down her skin from her shower. Holy
fuck, the desire to lick them off was so strong I took a
step towards her.

“You’re back.” Dylan looked from me to the door, almost
like she was surprised to see me.

“Yeah, the reporters were crazy…took me a little while to
push my way through. Dash was right to hire more
security…” I let my words trail off. The sight of her in
her towel was making my brain short circuit. “Were you
going to bed?”

She gripped her towel tighter and nodded her head. “Yeah,
I…I figured you guys would be out late…So…”

This was ridiculous. We both seem nervous and unsure of
what to say. Plus, I’m sure the sexual tension coming off
my body was making her uncomfortable as fuck. I glanced
towards the bathroom again. My pills were so close, I
could take two and down half a bottle of whiskey and then
I wouldn’t feel anything until morning.

Dylan cleared her throat. “Are you okay? You just look a
little…do you feel okay?”

Yep, my mask slipped and she saw it right away. “I feel
great.” I smiled, probably too big to be real. “Just
tired after the show. It takes a lot of energy to look
that good up there.” I winked, for added affect.

She nodded, slowly. “Yeah, I’m sure it does…” She shifted
her weight from one foot to the other. “Are you, uh, I
mean, are you going to sleep?”

I could say yes, I should say yes. I should just go take
a shower and take some pills and climb into my bunk. I
wouldn’t need to fake a smile; I wouldn’t need to pretend
to be okay. I could just fall apart in my bed, all by
myself. It might be a mistake, but for some reason, the
need to be next to her seemed to outweigh my need for
numbness. “No. I was, uh, why don’t you go put on some
clothes and we can watch a movie.”

She eyed me with her head cocked to the side, like she
couldn’t figure out if I was joking or not.

I raised an eyebrow. “Or you could just stand there in
your towel and keep staring at me. I’m enjoying the
view.” I added another wink.

It must be the wink that did her in because she rolled
her eyes and nodded her head. “Yeah, okay. Just let me
change real quickly.” She grabbed some clothes and went
back into the bathroom.

“Oh for fucks sake, that was the most uncomfortable
conversation I’ve ever had to sit through! You’ve been
stuttering since Dylan walked out of the bathroom.” Luke
sat up and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Awww, Sleeping Beauty decided to wake up?” I went with
sarcasm, when all I really wanted to do was grab him by
the shirt and send him flying out the room. I wanted
Dylan all to myself.

“How could I sleep through that awkward as fuck
exchange?” He got up and cracked his neck to either side.
“Since when do you have a hard time talking to girls?”

I shrugged. I didn’t want to answer him honestly; since
the girl I was talking to was Dylan.

“I’m going to bed. I hope for your sake, your skills
return before she thinks you’ve had a stroke.”

When she came out a second later all the air left my
lungs. She was wearing some loose black pants that looked
softer than silk and hung dangerously low on her hips
with a tight white tank top that made her skin look more
tan than olive. Her hair was still a mess on top of her
head, and most of her makeup was gone. But I had never in
my life seen anyone more beautiful. And it was in that
moment that I knew, without a doubt, that a quick roll in
hay wasn’t going to get this girl out of my system.