Page 24 of Crossing the Top Line

“What are you doing over here?” she asks, eyes slightly narrowed.

“Good afternoon to you, too, Miss Strauss. You look stunning, as always.” I greet her with a lopsided grin, which only makes her roll her eyes. God, I don’t know why riling her up is so much fun.

She opens her mouth, probably to spit out an annoyed retort, but stops as Oli slides into the seat beside me, giving her a warm smile.

“You, too?” she says, half groaning, but the lift to the corners of her mouth betrays her annoyance.

Oliver doesn’t respond, simply picking up his cutlery and beginning to eat. I give Tori another smirk before doing the same.

“What sort of gentlemen would we be if we let a woman as pretty as you eat alone?” I ask smoothly between bites.

Tori snaps her gaze away from mine, and it doesn’t escape my notice how pink the bridge of her nose is getting. I mentally add a tally to the count tracking the number of times I’ve rendered her speechless. Fifteen, so far, but I’m aiming for over thirty before the home opener.

“Well, for your information, I was trying to stay out of the way. Wouldn’t want to throw off anyone’s pre-game rituals and make y’all lose,” she says after another moment, clearing her throat as she gathers her considerable wits.

I make a noise of understanding, my mouth full of what might be the best sautéed vegetables I’ve ever had. Oliver, though, laughs once before shaking his head.

“We’re not that superstitious,” he says, still laughing to himself.

I swallow before I swing my head to look at him, a little astounded. “So, you’re saying that you’re not wearing your lucky underwear right now?”

Oliver chokes a little on the bite he’d just taken, and my heart skips a beat as Tori cackles. My mind screeches to a halt to watch her laugh, her head thrown back and one hand over her heart. Completely unfiltered amusement and joy, and it’s absolutely magnificent. It’s not until she sits up and looks at me that I realize I’m staring. I look away, heat blooming on my cheeks. She breaks eye contact quickly, turning back to her plate to resume eating.

“Alexi wouldn’t take a steak until there were only seven left,” I comment, keeping my voice light and casual.

“Ozzy only eats with his left hand, and only uses his right to drink,” Tori answers, jerking her head to the side.

I follow the hint and notice Zemgus Ozolins sitting with Owen and Caleb, and I’ll be damned, but she’s right.

“I’m not about to fuck with the juju and then get blamed when someone doesn’t play their best game,” she goes on.

“What if I said I play my best game if someone sucks my cock before warmups?” I mutter, voice dropping low into my chest, a hint of my alpha purr coming forward.

Tori’s fork stops halfway to her mouth as her entire body goes still. I can practically hear Oli’s jaw hitting the floor, and for a split second, I wonder if I’ve gone too far this time. But then Tori looks up at me, and while there’s exasperation and annoyance in her eyes, her pupils are wide and the pink on her nose has spread to nearly her entire face. And most importantly, she’s not immediately rejecting the idea. When her eyes flick to Oli, she smirks.

“We need everyone to be at their best, but I wouldn’t want to step on anyone’s toes,” she says, finishing her bite with a little more gusto than before.

I glance at Oli out of the corner of my eye, my throat tight. Are we that obvious? If she picked it up after only a few days of knowing us, then surely others must have figured us out as well. And while I don’t care if people know, Oliver hasn’t made any indication of being ready to come out as a couple.

“Seems like you’ve cleared up some of the complications,” Oli says simply, clearing his throat before turning his attention to his food.

I look back to Tori, trying to read her face for any hint of judgement or ill-intent. It’s more than a little reassuring that she hasn’t said anything, but she’s still a relative stranger to us. There’s nothing obvious in her soft smile and kind eyes, though. I relax slightly, my hand twitching on the table as I suppress the urge to touch Oli. But we have a strict ban on PDA, and even if the only people here are Mystic players and staff, we can’t be too careful.

“I’m not going to say anything unless and until you both give me the go ahead. But I do have to ask why you keep coming on to me,” she replies pointedly, looking first at Oli and then at me.

Oli looks up at me, too, eyebrows raised in curiosity. My ears heat a little as my mouth twists into a grin. I pause for another moment, asking Oli with my eyes how much he wants me to tell her. I’m not going to lay out the entirety of our situation and plans over a pre-game lunch, but she at least deserves to know more about our dynamic. And in that uncanny way of his, Oli only has to look at me for two heartbeats before he nods approvingly. I turn back to Tori, who’s still waiting expectantly for an answer, leaning forward and dropping my voice.

“We aren’t limiting ourselves to monogamy at this time,” I say, picking my words with care.

She hums thoughtfully, popping another veggie into her mouth and chewing while she considers.

“So, an open relationship?” she asks.

I shrug. “Sort of. It’s less about sleeping around and more about…finding someone to add to our lives. The right someone.”

There’s a heavy moment of silence, and my breath catches in my throat as I wait to see if she’ll hear what I’m not saying. That we want to find someone to bond with, someone we can form a pack with. Not a missing piece, but an addition to the portrait of our lives. Like how artists will find paintings at charity shops, bring them home, and paint over the original print, adding something new and wonderful to an already beautiful work of art.

Tori opens her mouth to say something else, but movement behind me catches her attention and the blood drains from her face, smile falling and walls slamming up in her eyes. I move to look, but then Spencer rounds the table and sits down next to Tori, his plate half empty.

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