Page 54 of Code Violation

“Okay,” I reply on an exhale when we break the kiss.

He goes back for one more taste, and I melt into his body.

“I’ll see you soon, Knockout.”

18

. . .

Silas

“You see this, Tristan?” Will pulls back his driver and pauses midair, a gleeful smirk plastered across his face as he waits for my alternate captain to acknowledge him.

When Will doesn’t get a reaction, he powers through the ball, hitting it low, hard, and straight. I’ll be the first to admit that there’s no end to this guy’s talents, and I see the way it grinds on my teammate.

Will moves away from the tee, and Mason steps up next, ready to take his shot.

It’s past eight p.m. on a cold November night, and the driving range is the last fucking place I want to be. It’s possible I want to be here even less than Tristan does.

“Whose idea was this goddamn team-building night anyway?” Tristan bites, folding his arms across his chest.

“Mine.” Mason punches through the golf ball, sending it out into the night.

Will slow claps at the shot before tipping his chin at me to go next.

Like a petulant teenager, I throw my head back and see stars twinkling brightly in the sky. “As captain, I second the idea of a team-building night, but can the next one be in a bar or something?”

Mason’s lips curl into a suggestive smile as he rests his golf club on the wall behind me. “Did you have a specific bar in mind?”

I scowl at him as Tristan steps up in my place to take a shot. It goes wide of the target zone, and Will snickers at the effort.

Enraged, Tristan spins on his heel, pointing his driver straight at Will. “Do you ever get tired of being an asshole, or do you earn loyalty rewards for every day you piss me off?”

Mason flops his head between his shoulders, thankfully distracted from his previous line of thought. I don’t want to be here tonight because I’m grumpy as fuck and I haven’t heard from Vesper since I left her apartment yesterday. The last thing I need is to be goaded by my teammate about the woman who may or may not be carrying my unborn child.

“Jesus fucking Christ, why are you all so irritable? Here I was, trying to arrange a fun night for single guys looking to fill a boring weekday night, and all you can do is moan about not being in a bar or how intolerable your teammate is,” Mason snipes.

Will raises a hand like we’re back in school. We might as well be, considering the level of maturity on display.

“Should I have been invited? I’m getting married in February, and I am very unsingle.”

Tristan mock gasps. “Wait, you’re getting hitched in the bye week? Wow, you should’ve said, William. I don’t know how we overlooked it.”

Will arches a brow, ready to retort.

“Oh, fuck me,” I drawl, head tipped back again in despair. “Can we all stop acting like we don’t have huge things going on in our lives?”

When I reset my focus back on my three teammates, they’re all silent and staring at me.

Mason scratches at the back of his neck, wincing. “Well, Silas isn’t wrong. My wife has run back to France and won’t speak to me.”

“And I’m getting married, in case you aren’t aware.”

Mercifully, Tristan ignores Will. “And my season so far is a sack of shit, and I’ll likely be dropped to the farm team, so I guess that’s my drama.” He adds his own woes to our collective list.

Three pairs of eyes all land on me. Shit.

I sure walked into this one.