Page 32 of My Best Bet

His thumb swiped across the center of my workout top, making it feel like I was hit with a current of electricity, and I gasped into his mouth.

“Sorry, is this… okay?” he whispered against my lips. His mouth moved to my jaw, down my neck, making my entire body tremble.

Was this okay? Was I allowed to be doing this? I knew one thing for sure– I liked it… A lot.

“I don’t know, is it?” I asked in a breathless voice.

He stopped moving and pulled back, slightly laughing. His hands dropped to hold my hips. “You have to decide and tell me. Because everything with you is good with me. My brain doesn’t really work right around you. I should probably-”

I decided right then that I didn’t want him to stop. My arms looped around his neck and I pulled him forward to kiss me more. He groaned in pleasure, making me feel elated. Absolutely elated.

But then the hockey boys’ signature “wooo!” erupted from the other side of the door. We both froze like we were waiting for someone to come in and find us like that.

When the noise passed, he sighed. “That’s probably my team.”

I reached out and slid my thumb over the faded freckles under his eye. He closed his eyes and heaved a deep sigh, like he enjoyed the touch.

“You have to go?” I asked.

He nodded with his eyes still closed. When they opened, they darted over my face, like he was memorizing every detail.

“I love your eyes so much,” he said in a husky voice. “They’re like… they’re like the sky on a sunny winter day.”

My heart flip-flopped in my chest.

More cheers erupted in the hallway, and he dropped his head back against the cinderblock wall. “I should probably get back. Gotta get screamed at before I can leave.”

Nodding, I scrambled off his lap, still feeling a little dizzy from that kiss.

“Thank you,” he said, reaching down for his helmet.

“For what?” I rolled my lips together.

“For being my angel around here.” He dipped his head and a blush crept into his face. “Sorry, you’re not mine. That sounded weird.”

If that was weird, I was weirder. Because I suddenly wanted to be his.

“I just mean… When it’s a shit day, I like watching you.” He started swishing over to the door. “You make it better.”

I stared at his back while he walked to the door and my heart beat faster. I didn’t want him to leave. I didn’t want to go back to wondering about him. We just made out, but what would happen next? Would we slide right back into sneaking glances at each other? I couldn’t go back to building up false hope over him just to be disappointed when nothing happened.

“Colt,” I forced out, right as his hand was about to push open the locker room door. “What you said to me last time… did you mean that?”

He turned and blinked at me.

Oh God.He didn’t even know what I was even talking about. My face started burning with embarrassment. He probably totally forgot about his bet and how he said he’d see me around and now I felt like the most pathetic girl in the world because my mind drifted back to it way too often. Practically every time a guy ignored me at school or when Dmitry and Iryna insulted me, I thought of that day in the hallway. I thought of how he looked at me like I was special, like he wanted me.

He stalked back toward me and used his finger to gently move my chin.

“I meant every word of it,” he said firmly.

My breath hitched.

“Hundred bucks, baby.”

And then his lips claimed mine one more time.

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