Page 41 of Tempest

“Have we ever tried daring Vaughn to do anything?” Axel asks Oliver.

“No, come to think of it. We’ll have to change that.”

“Oh no, have I started something?” I ask.

“Are they being too much?” Isla asks, handing me a glass of wine.

“Thank you,” I tell her. “Not at all. This is all…refreshing.”

“Come sit with me?” she asks, gesturing to two chairs off in a corner. I nod, follow, and sit with her. “I imagine these yahoos are a lot rowdier than your usual crowd.”

“It’s night and day,” I agree. “But I’m having a great time.”

“I’m glad. Cill told me Gavin was bringing you and I worried their razzing would be too much. They can’t be reined in, though, not even for Gavin’s sake.”

“I get the impression he’s very respected,” I say, looking to confirm what I’ve already caught on to.

“Every one of them plays a role for the rest of the team. Letty is the clown, with a little help from Hugo and Axel. Gavin is the veteran on the team, he has more experience in the game. But also, the life experience of being a father and husband. He’s been there to help guide many of the younger players through the rough life during the season.”

“That tracks with who I knew him to be,” I admit.

“Cillian said the two of you grew up together?”

“We did. And now I mentor his daughter in college.”

“Do you miss it? Your life in New York?”

“Just between the two of us, because if this got out it would demolish my reputation,” I say, and she laughs but nods. “I thought I would miss it so much more than I do. Honestly, I think I needed the change for a long time and was too stubborn to confront it.”

“Oh, I understand stubborn better than most,” Isla says. “I’m kind of a professional at it.”

“We all have our strengths,” I say.

“You might be the first person to ever imply it’s something to be proud of,” Isla says. “I may have just fallen a little in love with you, Odette.”

“I do love a fan club, so that works out just fine for me.”

We chat for a while, with some of the other ladies coming to join in. They talk about some gala that the team has every year to benefit a charity. A few of them, Isla included, perk up when I offer to help with dressing them for the event. After a time, most start to disperse and it’s just me and Willa standing alone talking. She’s smart, funny, and passionate. She and her sister would be impossible not to like.

Her eyes light with curiosity when she notices Gavin approach us wearing a strange look of his own. Excitement mixed with trepidation, maybe.

“Are you about ready to head out,” he says, stepping up close to me. His hand once again finds purchase on my hip. “I have to be up early in the morning.”

Then he pulls me close, and his mouth hovers over mine, so close. My body reacts, my breasts brushing his chest and heat pooling low in my stomach. My heart frantically chants, We can’t, we can’t, we can’t. We won’t survive this.

It’s just a kiss between old friends. It’s just a kiss. It doesn’t mean anything.

We can’t.

“Yes.” The word barely escapes, and his lips meet mine with feverish heat. Gavin doesn’t hold back; he’s not starting slow and building up. He’s picking up where he left off. His hand skates up my back, supporting me as he leans in, leading with his tongue. It’s passion, desire, a need to be closer, further, deeper. Connected. He doesn’t let up until I’m practically gasping for breath. After I fill my lungs, staring him down eye to eye, I realize it only lasted a matter of seconds. Though it felt like a lifetime. I mentally shake away the butterflies that have taken up residence in my chest and secure my armor back in place. I’d been so at ease here today that I’d forgotten it all together. “Did they dare you to kiss me?”

“No, Ode,” he says, looking wounded. “Those aren’t the games I play.”

Gavin takes my hand and weaves us throughout the house to say our goodbyes. I trade numbers with Isla and Willa. Letty tries to give me his, but Gavin shuts the idea down quickly. I play along with his possessiveness because, in truth, I don’t want to call him out on anything in front of his coworkers and peers. It feels good to have made a couple of friends today, people who don’t know me as a socialite but as just a woman, a teacher, an old friend of their old friend.

“You have great friends,” I tell him when we’re in his SUV. Gavin hums but doesn’t say anything. He hasn’t said anything to me since the kiss. Perhaps accusing him was mean spirited, but I’m sure I didn’t give him any signal that it was okay to pursue a kiss, either. No matter how much I liked it. My feelings for and about Gavin are so tangled and still so raw. Maybe a friendship with him isn’t possible. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry,” he says at the same time.

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