Page 61 of Pucking the Team

But even as I straighten my shoulders and attack the keyboard with renewed determination, that poisonous anonymous message seeps into the cracks of my confidence. The ugly words flash in my mind despite my best efforts to banish them.

By late afternoon, my willpower is seriously flagging. Screw it, I need caffeine, and I need it now. I’m making a beeline for the break room when I nearly crash into a solid wall of muscle.

“Whoa there, Emma.” Alex’s hands grip my shoulders to steady me. His green eyes search my face, a frown tugging at his lips. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? You look upset.”

His gentle concern slams into me like a freight train, and I feel my composure crumbling. Before I can stop myself, I collapse against his broad chest, breathing in his comforting scent of clean soap and warm skin.

“Oh, Alex,” I mumble into his shirt. “It’s been a hell of a day.”

His strong arms wrap around me, one hand stroking soothing circles on my back. “I’m here, babe. Talk to me.”

And so I do. I start by telling him the truth about my dad. Alex confesses that he’d already figured it out, that he recognized me from around the facility all those years ago.

Once we get past that, the whole sordid story comes pouring out—the vandalism, Chloe’s warnings, the anonymous trolling. Alex listens quietly, but I can see his shoulders rising with each word.

“Who the fuck do they think they are?” he finally bites out, his normally calm voice laced with suppressed fury. He tilts my chin up, forcing me to meet his blazing gaze. “Emma, you are a star at your job. Anyone who can’t see that, or who doubts your reasons for being here, is a fucking idiot.”

The absolute conviction in his words takes my breath away. In that moment, with his unwavering faith wrapping around me like armor, I start to believe that maybe, just maybe, I can rise above all the bullshit.

That I am enough, exactly as I am.

An irresistible urge seizes me, and before I can second guess it, I stretch up and capture Alex’s lips in a scorching kiss. He makes a low noise of approval, his arms tightening around me as he takes control, deepening the kiss until I’m practically climbing him like a tree.

We stumble backward, my back hitting the wall as Alex presses his hard body flush against mine. The rest of the world fades away, narrowing down to the hot slide of his mouth, the intoxicating press of his hips, the electrifying dance of his fingers across my skin as they slip under the hem of my blouse.

Sweet baby Jesus. Making out with a gorgeous man at work is all kinds of inappropriate, but holy hell, I’m so far beyond caring right now. I just need more, more, more….

Alex’s hand roams higher beneath my shirt, his calloused fingertips skimming the lace edge of my bra. A moan escapes my lips, muffled against his insistent mouth as he swallows down the needy sound.

We shouldn’t be doing this here, not with the facility bustling just outside the flimsy break room door. But the exhibitionist thrill only amps up my desire, the forbidden nature of our tryst like a shot of adrenaline.

“Fuck, Emma,” Alex groans, tearing his mouth away to blaze a trail of open-mouthed kisses down the column of my throat. “You drive me crazy, you know that? I’ve been dying to get my hands on you all day.”

His words send a shiver racing down my spine, my head thunking back against the wall as his teeth graze the sensitive spot just below my ear. My hands rake his muscled back, nails digging through his dress shirt.

“God, Alex,” I gasp out, arching into the delicious pressure of his body against mine. “I need you. I don’t care if it’s wrong to be doing this at work, I just…I need this. Need you.”

A low growl rumbles through his chest, and then his mouth is back on mine, hot and demanding, his tongue sweeping past my parted lips to tangle with my own. I can feel the hard length of him pressing insistently against my stomach, and it makes me weak in the knees, my thighs clenching with the aching need to have him inside me.

We’re both panting when Alex suddenly wrenches himself away, putting a few inches of charged space between us. I blink dazedly, my kiss-swollen lips tingling with the loss of him.

“Emma, wait,” he rasps out, his voice rough with desire. “We can’t do this here. Not like this.”

I swallow hard, trying to corral my stampeding heart rate. He’s right, of course he is. Hooking up in the break room in the middle of the work day is a one-way ticket to HR purgatory. But oh, how I want to throw caution to the wind and drag him back to me.

Alex steps further back, visibly collecting himself even as his eyes devour me, dark with promise. “Tonight,” he says firmly. “Our place. I want to take my time with you, explore every inch of your gorgeous body until you’re begging for mercy. Think you can handle that, sweetheart?”

A whimper escapes my lips at his heated words. “God, yes,” I breathe out. “I’ll be counting down the minutes.”

He flashes me a wicked grin. “Atta girl. Now straighten yourself up and get that sexy ass back to work before I lose what’s left of my self-control and fuck you right here against this wall.”

I can’t suppress the full-body shudder his filthy promise elicits. Forcing my shaky legs to move, I smooth down my rumpled blouse and rake a hand through my mussed hair. Alex watches my every move with predatory intent, like he’s memorizing me, already stripping me bare in his mind.

“You know,” I say, “I used to watch you play in the junior leagues. I had the biggest crush on you.”

Alex laughs. “I’m aware. The looks you used to give me!”

I give him a playful smack on his rock-hard chest. “Hey, I was a tween! I thought I was being subtle.”

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