Page 24 of Pinkie Promise

He takes another step forward and I don’t back away. He braces one arm against the doorjamb and looks down at me.

“You didn’t need to apologise, I’m the one who’s been messing up. But I’m gonna push my luck anyway seeing as I’ve finally got you standing in front of me.” He rolls his right shoulder and then braces that arm on the doorframe too. It’s heavenly here in the cage between his biceps. “I want to go out with you, and I want you to say yes.”

I can imagine saying yes to a lot of things that Hunter asks of me.

“I’m still job hunting,” I say, “so I’ll need to find a good job before I let myself have any downtime.” Now is not the time to explain about getting benched from the cheer comp team and the arts grant that I now need if I want to stay on and do my Master’s.

There’s something burning in Hunter’s expression, like he’s fighting with himself to offer me something. He’s straining with the effort to keep himself from saying it.

Let me fix this.

For the briefest of moments I wonder what he meant by that.

He swipes his tongue over his lower lip before finally nodding and saying, “You’ll get one soon. A real good job, Fallon, I promise.”

He’s so unyieldingly confident that I can’t help but think,no wonder he’s the team captain – you can’t disobey a man who is this sure of himself.

“Okay,” I breathe out, feeling a little dizzy.

His mouth lifts up at the corner, pleased with the resolution that we have managed to come to, and he moves in so close that we’re almost touching.

“Go out with me, Fallon,” he repeats, his eyes burning into mine.

I’m about to say yes when the glass doors behind him swing open.

“How’s it going?” Connell calls over to me with a grin, eyeing me up and down like he’s never seen a girl before. Hunter glances at him over his shoulder and his tongue pokes roughly in the side of his cheek.

I feel like I’m having a fever dream.

Connell catches Hunter’s gaze and says cheerfully, “Hey, man. Didn’t know that you knew Fallon.”

Hunter stares at him for a long beat before replying with, “Uh, I didn’t know thatyouknew Fallon?”

Connell holds a palm out for Hunter to clasp and Hunter reluctantly drops an arm from the doorframe, drowning me in a quick wave of his post-workout heat, before smacking his palm roughly against Connell’s. I can tell that it was rough because when they finally let go of each other Connell shakes out his hand and his fingers crack.

“Fallon and I go way back,” Connell says, leaning against the wall beside the jamb and flashing me a quick smile. “We’re practically roommates.”

“Is that so,” Hunter says dryly, his knuckles turning white.

They’re talking like they actually know each other which I find greatly disturbing.

Connell jabs his thumb at the gym entrance and says to me, “Wanna stay for an hour and then dip?” He gives Hunter a look and adds on, “I’m her ride.”

I remain strategically silent. Hunter gives me a long heated look.

Connell must finally register Hunter’s hulking stance and the muscle rolling angrily in his jaw because, after retying his trainers, he finally asks, “Were you two in the middle of something?”

I think that Hunter and I have been in the middle of something since the first moment that we met. He’s lookingdown at me with such blatant interest that I don’t even feel embarrassed when I reciprocate the stare.

Hunter’s chest swells as he watches me watch him and then he says hoarsely to Connell, “Yeah, we are. But, actually, I kinda need to talk to you about something too. Meet you in the locker room in a minute, okay?”

Wait, what?

They clap hands again and I look between them in alarm.

As soon as Connell opens the door to the guys’ changing room I flash my eyes back up to Hunter and ask, “How do you two know each other? What do you need to talk to him about?”

“We’re in the same classes,” he says on a shrug, disregarding my second question entirely. “I have a game coming up and I want you to be there. Can I text you the details?”

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