Page 176 of The Fall
“This okay?”
“God, yes. Don’t stop.”
His chuckle is warm and deep. “Demanding.”
I crack one eye open to look at him. With the sun behind him, his profile is limned in gold.
“Good practice today,” Blair says, tilting his face toward the sun. “I like the new breakout we’re building. You’re kicking ass with it.”
“I have a good liney. Makes kicking ass easy.”
“High praise from a second-overall pick.”
I kick at his hand gently. “Shut up.”
He catches my foot, holding it captive. “Make me.”
Three weeks in, and he still makes me dizzy. I sit up and close the distance between us, pressing my lips to his. He tastes like chlorine and the orange Gatorade he’s been nursing. His hand comes up to cup my jaw. I deepen the kiss, savoring the soft sound he makes in the back of his throat.
When we break apart, his eyes stay closed for a beat longer than mine.
“Come here,” I whisper, sliding my hand down his arm until our hands tangle. I stand, tugging him up with me. The heat of the concrete burns through my bare feet as I walk backward toward the pool, never breaking our gaze.
Blair follows me to the edge. The smile spreading across his face makes my heart stutter. Without warning, he wraps an arm around my waist and jumps, taking us both under in a rush of bubbles and tangled limbs.
We sink together, his arm tight around me, our bodies flush. The world goes muffled and blue. His eyes are open underwater, meeting mine, crinkled at the corners. Bubbles escape from his nose, from the corners of his grin. His hair floats around his face in dark tendrils. His hand spans my lower back, steady and sure.
We break the surface together, gasping and laughing.
“Sneak attack,” I sputter, pushing wet hair from my eyes.
He pulls me closer, our chests touching. “You were taking too long.”
I wrap my legs around his waist, letting him keep us both afloat. His hands move to support my thighs.
“How’s the shoulder?” he asks, hand moving to trace the edge of an old bruise on my upper arm.
“Better. That stretch you showed me helped.” I rotate my shoulder to demonstrate. The injury from last week had been minor, but Blair’s been checking on it daily.
His fingers continue their gentle explorations of my deltoid. “Good. You’re still icing it?”
“Yes, Coach,” I tease.
He dips his head, touching his lips to the fading yellow-green mark. “I don’t want you hurting.”
Before Blair, my injuries were my problem, my burden, but now there’s him.
Water laps against us, the gentle rhythm of the pool marking time as we float together.
“Hayes invited us for dinner tomorrow. Erin’s making enchiladas.” His voice is soft against my skin, his breath cooling the water droplets on my shoulder. “He says Lily misses us. Apparently we’ve been wrapped up in each other.”
Hayes isn’t wrong. The past three weeks have been a blur of hockey, kisses, and nights spent talking until dawn.
“We should bring dessert.”
“Mmm. I could pick up those Key lime tarts she likes.”
“Ilike those, too.”
