Page 51 of Rule 5: Never Crush on the Captain
He turns around. “I did.”
“Did you mean—” I swallow hard, as if to force away the fears swirling in my body.
“I meant relationship,” he says, his voice slow. He doesn’t lose eye contact with me, and I fall into his dark pools. His eyes are warmth and reassurance.
His cheeks pinken, and God, I never realized how adorable that color is on him. “The, um, romantic kind.”
“With me,” I clarify, blinking.
His lips—the ones I know for a fact are sultry and succulent—quirk into a grin. “With you.”
“You want to date me?” I ask.
“Uh-huh.”
My mind spins. “We could do that. I mean, maybe there are some private places...” I knit my forehead.
Hockey fans are everywhere. But they are especially everywhere in Boston. Usually, that’s one of the things I love about Boston.
“I don’t want to be private,” he says.
His eyes soften again, and I realize my mouth is hanging open.
I close it.
“You don’t?” I breathe.
“Not unless you want to,” he says. “I want what you want.”
I stare at him, unsure I’m following. This is important, and I don’t want my heart to take over from my ears.
Because when I was in his arms, I also thought he was offering...everything, and in the morning, he vanished, like he was slipping away from a bad motel.
“And we are a bit past dating,” he says. “Don’t you think?”
“I—”
Vinnie takes my hands in his. My gaze flickers down to them. His hands are large and rough and tanner than someone’s hands should be who spends most of the year in wintry New England.
Warmth surges through me.
“I’m in love with you, Evan,” Vinnie says, his voice rough.
My pulse jumps. “You are?”
“Absolutely.” He narrows the distance between us, and my nostrils flare, taking in his familiar scent. “I’m utterly and completely in love with you. I have been for a long time.”
“But when the photos showed up on social media...” I stop. The words are too painful.
“I left,” he says. “And that was wrong. I thought if I got out of there as soon as possible, then the photographers wouldn’t really think there was a story. And maybe I was jealous. Valentina is literally ranked as one of the most beautiful people in the world in some magazines.”
“You’ve made some pretty high rankings yourself.”
“I wasn’t supposed to fall for my captain. It’s a rule. And I don’t like breaking rules.”
“I don’t think they literally put that in the rule book.”
“Only because they don’t think people would do it.”
