Slammed #4 (The Slammed Romance Series - Book #4) by Claire Adams Page B

first reunited and then
in the picture—made me angrier and angrier. I couldn’t put it out of my mind;
it was impossible. I stood up and took a deep breath. I would have to actually
confront him about it. There was just no two ways about it. I had to do it
before I could psych myself out, before I had a chance to make myself miserable
during my morning classes dwelling on it.
    I strode out of my room, stepping into a pair of
slip-on shoes and grabbing up the newspaper that Jess had brought in from the
coffee table where I’d let it fall. I made sure to grab my keys and card so I
wouldn’t be locked out of the dorms, but I didn’t make time or take time for
anything else. As I walked down the hall to the stairwell, I considered where I
could actually find Zack. It was early enough in the morning that my first
thought was that he would be at the frat house, still asleep. But then I
corrected myself; Zack had told me about his training routine in our interview
together. He and the team would be in the school gym, in the weight room,
working out.
    I walked across campus, ignoring the chill in the
air that cut through my pajamas and barely looking around me. It was early
enough in the day that there weren’t very many people up and about; there was
no one to see how upset I was at the whole situation. I caught sight of a few
people rushing to early-morning classes in their pajamas, or heading for the
dining hall, but anyone who was out of the dorms and the frats that early in
the morning was focused entirely on themselves . As I
walked I got more and more upset; how could Zack have led me on, if this was
the kind of playing around he did? He and I—I thought—had had something
special. The words from one of his frat brothers, the first night we had seen
each other since we’d broken up in high school, filled my head. Zack was one of
those guys, the kind I had started to avoid. All I was to him was a piece of
ass—and that’s all I was to his frat brothers; another one of Zack’s conquests.
    It was easy to get into the gym; the card that let
me into the dorm building was just as effective on the locked doors in the rec
center. As soon as I got into the nearly-vacant building, I could hear the hard
workouts going on in the weight room. The entire team would be there. For just
a moment I checked, remembering just how much I hated making a public spectacle
of myself—and how much I had hated Zack for making me a public spectacle the
two times he had done it. But I knew I couldn’t wait. If I waited and let
myself cool off, I’d accept any explanation from Zack and never get to the
bottom of the situation. I plunged into the weight room and looked around.
    It wasn’t just the football team on the machines and
using the free weights; the basketball team was also in the room, going through
their own paces—some of them on treadmills, some of them on bikes, most of them
lifting weights heavy enough to daunt me. I moved through the room as quickly
as possible, ignoring the eddying pause of conversation all around me as I
looked around for Zack. He was lying on a bench, a heavy weight hooked on a bar
over him, getting ready to do presses.
    “Zack!” I called out, intending only to get his attention before he started; but my
voice was shriller, sharper than I wanted it to be. Zack started, pulling his
hands back from the barbell as if it was hot. Looking around, he spotted me and
grinned.
    “Hey, Evie ,” he said,
slipping out from underneath the bar and standing up quickly. “I can’t really
talk now—but I can hit you up right after class.”
    I shook my head, my heart pounding in my chest. I
could feel everyone looking at us, but I couldn’t make myself stop long enough
to calm down and think about the best way to do what I needed to do.
    “What the hell is this?” I asked, waving the
newspaper in front of his face. Zack grabbed at it, looking at the picture and
article. He went red, and then white.
    “This is