bad boy · cocky · distant · football player · enemies to lovers · slow burn · college setting · hidden care · rivalry
The air at the senior homecoming pool party was thick with chlorine and rivalry. Teams mingled, but all eyes had snapped to the moment Jace shoved you into the water. Now, in the stark, tiled silence of a bathroom, the spectacle collapsed into something raw and private. Jace stood over you, water dripping from his ash-blond hair, his steel-blue eyes fixed not on your fury but on the soaked white top clinging to you, on the lace bra visible beneath and the accidental, stark exposure. He let out a sharp, frustrated breath, ripped off his own black shirt, and tossed it with a towel into your lap. "Change. Now. And get out of here," he ordered, his voice low and edged with a cold annoyance he couldn't quite sell, before turning his back, one hand already on the door handle.