Page 61 of What if It's Us

“Hey Ledger.”

“Marlee.” I nod.

“Damn good shot you had tonight,” she says with a smirk. “Congratulations.”

I glance around the space where we stand together. One of our trainers walks by but pays us no attention. A door slams somewhere down the hall. Technically, we’re alone, though not really. At least, we’re not alone in the way I wish we could be.

“You saw that, huh?”

She lifts a shoulder. “I might have seen a replay.”

Her answer makes me chuckle.

Oh, this is how she’s going to play this?

She’s teasing me.

Cute.

“The replay.”

“Mhmm.” She twists the corner of her mouth and I know she’s trying to hide her guilty grin.

I take another step closer to her, the distance between us is less than three feet and hell if it doesn’t buzz like a live wire. I want to touch her arm or her cheek. Brush her hand. Tell her how pretty she looks. Just—something. Anything. But anyone could come around the corner. A coach. A teammate. A headline waiting to happen.

And I don’t want to put her in a position she doesn’t want to be in.

I mean, I do.

I want to put her in all sorts of positions.

But not this one.

So instead, I shift a little closer to her. Not close enough to touch, but close enough that I can safely lower my voice and not be overheard.

“I’m sorry you missed the live action. Maybe next time I’ll spot you cheering in the crowd.”

“Depends,” she says with teasing grin. “You planning to score again?”

I can’t control the grin that spreads across my face. If she’s flirting with me on purpose, she’s doing a damn good job, so I hoist my duffle bag over my shoulder and stare into her beautiful blue eyes—they have a cobalt hue to them tonight—and tell her, “Every fucking chance I get.”

There have beennights in my past that I’ve laid in my hotel room when we’re on the road appreciating the quiet solace of being alone. And there have been nights when I’ve appreciated the springiness of the mattress having invited any number of women to join me in my bed. Those days have become few and far between over the last three years though thanks to Marlee.

That woman has unknowingly cockblocked me on more than one occasion.

She was dating some shmuck of a guy when she joined the staff. He came around a lot and I was never convinced he was there to support Marlee. It seemed to most of us that he came around just for the opportunity to ham it up with anyone he could from the team. We saw past him though and didn’t give him the time of day. There were so many times I wanted to swoop into her office and ask her out only to hear that she had started seeing someone else.

But that’s my luck, I suppose.

I didn’t man up and tell her how I felt from the get-go so watching her with other men because of my lack of balls was my own fucked up form of punishment.

Dreaming about her when I’m alone has always been my reward. Just like tonight. I reach over and turn off the light to the side of the bed, the lights of the city now the only illumination in the room. Sliding under the blankets, I palm my cock while I think about finally getting to see Marlee after tonight’s game. The way she complimented my gameplay.

That’s right baby, because I own the motherfucking ice.

The way she smiled when I caught her flirting.

Maybe she’s beginning to feel it too.

---