Page 32 of Breakaway to You

I didn’t have a problem helping Piper out. Iwantedto help her. Especially if it meant keeping Jordan away from her. What I was having a hard time with was how she only seemed excited to see me because of how I could help her, not because she wanted to spend time with me. Which…what in the world? Why was I all of a sudden a sappy guy getting sad about a woman?

I pushed back my shoulders and rolled my neck. I was being ridiculous. Who cared if Piper only needed me to repel Jordan? Fine by me.

Jordan had sulked away as we approached, shooting daggers at me with his eyes. Seth looked between me and Piper, his devilish grin showing how much he was enjoying all the drama.

“I knew you were lying to me when you said nothing was going on between you two,” Seth said, elbowing Piper.

I looked down at Piper, who still had her hand tucked in my arm.

I raised one brow, giving her an almost challenging look. “I wouldn’t call that kiss nothing.” There was no denying that she and I had chemistry. That kiss had been electric, and whether it was fake or not, everyone witnessed the sparks flying between us.

Right on cue, her cheeks blushed that pretty pink, rapidly becoming my favorite color.

She swallowed and couldn’t quite look me in the eyes. “We’ve been trying to keep things quiet,” she told Seth.

“And you thought kissing him in front of both teams at a public bar would do that?” Seth asked sarcastically.

She gave him a deadpan look. “Oh, shush. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t get Jordan to leave me alone.”

Seth lifted his hands in surrender. “Hey, you know I don’t have anything against physical displays of affection. I’m not complaining.”

She rolled her eyes at him and then turned to me. “Sorry about that.” She gestured her thumb over her shoulder to where we’d been standing for our kiss.

I knew she was apologizing for kissing me and not for outing our fake secret relationship, but Seth didn’t. So I continued our ruse.

“I’m not,” I told her with a smirk. “Now everyone knows your mine.”

She bit her lip, as if she were trying to hide a coy smile.

Wow. She was a good actress. Even I was almost buying it. That look and the way she tugged at her lips had my eyes dropping down to her mouth, the desire to kiss her again flaring up inside of me. I needed a breather.

“Do you want something to drink?” I asked her.

She nodded, giving me her order of a club soda. I had known she was going to order that, not because she had ordered it last time we were at a bar, but because it reminded her of her dad. A weird sensation went through my body as I realized I knew that about her.

I took Seth’s order as well and headed over to the bar.

Several of my teammates said hello and congratulated me again on scoring the winning goal. A few mentioned my kiss with Piper, their smirks and waggling eyebrows making me feel itchy under their scrutiny. I was quick to brush off their comments as I continued through the room.

Leaning against the dark wood bar, I waited for the bartender to take my order.

“You and Piper?” Holden’s voice surprised me as he came up beside me.

I should have known that everyone would want to talk to me about that kiss, especially Holden since he and I had known each other before getting traded to the Wolves. He knew I wasn’t a relationship kind of guy.

I had been too wrapped up in the kiss and what it all meant to consider what my teammates were going to think about it, which had left me at a loss of words.

“Uh, yeah.”

I hadn’t thought any of this through. Piper and I hadn’t even talked about this whole fake dating thing. I think we both figured it wouldn’t leave the physical therapy room. Which, looking back, was probably naive of us—but now that it was public, we needed rules.

“I had no idea,” he said, still looking surprised. “I guess you have been spending a lot of time with her. I thought you were a forever bachelor.”

Yeah, you and me both. But I kept that to myself.

I didn’t like the idea of lying to Holden. He was really my only friend on the team, even if I was using the word friend loosely. But I had to tell him something, so sticking to the truth as much as possible would be the best.

“Yeah.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I wasn’t expecting it.”

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