Page 7 of Poke the Bear

“Really?” Adam’s face transformed when he smiled. He was all golden and perfect before, but now he was dazzling. I found myself blinking at the brightness of his grin. “That’s awesome. Shit.” His smile faded. “I mean, if you wanted… If you like…” I just stared at him, sure a full sentence would come out at some point. “So friends, huh.” He nodded slowly. “Cool. Cool.”

“If you want to go back to your friends or your family,” I said, “that’s fine. Jack wanted me here for moral support after she broke up with Laila, but when she’s busy she tends to foist me off onto other people. This is your night and—”

“I wouldn’t want to spend it with anyone else.”

He barely breathed that out and as I stared, those bright blue eyes seemed to gleam.

What?

Fuck, I even said that, because I couldn’t hold back the surprise.

What?

I said that again, prompting him to respond, even though I never meant to say it the first time, let alone the second.

“Look, you’re gonna think I’m a fucking freak…” he said, shaking his head slightly before rolling his eyes back to me. “But…” That strong hand took mine and it felt heavy and hot and I felt the rasp of his calluses on his thumb as he rubbed the back of my hand. “Do you wanna get out of here?”

“What?” Jesus, find another word, Frey! I snapped at myself. “God, I want that more than anything else in the world.”

“Yeah?” That cocky smile was back and he seemed to settle right then.

“But we can’t.” I forced myself to smile. “This is your night—”

“I don’t fucking care.” I’d read about guys that growled, but that guy actually did, stepping closer, his body almost pressed into mine. Suddenly the room didn’t seem so big. He sheltered me from the cameras and the players and WAGs and everything, reducing the world down to just this. “They can give the medal to Nathan…”

His speech ended before it’d really began, the haze seeming to fade in his eyes and that’s when I thought it’d happen. He’d pull away, realising this was a mistake, that I was a mistake and— When he shook his head and shot me a rueful smile, I prepared myself for what was going to come next.

I’m just not that into you. Some variation of that was what every guy had said to me since high school. We’d go on a few dates, but it’d fizzle before it even started, or it seemed like there was a real connection, only for them to ghost me. I’d get my hopes up each and every time, enjoying the rush that came at the start of something, the possibilities, the potential all starting to play out in my head, but then… I fixed a polite, sweet smile on my face, readying myself for the rejection.

“I can’t leave,” he admitted. “Fuck!” Adam picked up his drink and took a few long swallows from it. “I can’t…” But whatever else he seemed to be about to say, it all fell away when he stared at me.

There was something so unguarded about Adam, his face an open book, so I saw the moment his head edged closer, his body claiming more of my space. His tongue flicked over his lips, letting me know it wasn’t just my mouth that was bone dry as he stared.

“I can’t leave,” he said finally. “Jack would fucking kill me.”

“She’d fucking kill me too,” I said with a grin, a real one this time.

“I don’t want to be here though.” I watched the man, the one my dad assured me was a likely winner of the medal, stare at me, willing me to hear him. “I want to take you out somewhere nice, to dinner or something. I want…”

This was insane, right? When I blinked, glanced past him, I saw other women staring at us, obviously wondering why he’d bother with the likes of me and I couldn’t help but ask the same question. Like if he wanted to create a personal logo, or design a series of t-shirts, I was his girl, but… When I looked across the ballroom, getting more and more crowded by the minute, I saw it immediately.

I didn’t fit in here.

I didn’t fill my dress in the right places and filled it too much in others. I looked nice by my standards, but by theirs… As if in answer to that, the guy Adam had been with before returned with two beautiful women on his arms.

“Mate, I ran into these two pretty ladies,” he said to Adam and only Adam, angling his body specifically to block me out. “And they said they’re dying to meet the next Magarey medal winner, perhaps the next selection for the AFL draft.” The two women smiled at both the guy and Adam. “This is Felicity…” the guy said, virtually handing the woman to Adam, but he didn’t accept the gift. An arm wrapped itself around my waist and then pulled me into his side. The women watched me get super bloody flustered with a slightly quizzical look.

“And this is my date, Freya.”

Wait, what?

Had I said that aloud? I looked around, but no one was responding, so perhaps not, though… Plenty of people ignored every fucking thing that came out of my mouth, which made being a waitress super awkward. But I couldn’t think of work, words, anything, when I was drawn in this close.

My hands went up instinctively and one landed on his shoulder and what a shoulder. It was rigid and heavy with muscle. But then his arm went around my waist, and the satin of my dress felt all too thin.

I could feel the heat of his hand through it, how big and how strong it was. I was by no means a slight woman, but I felt like it right now. He towered over me, over almost everyone and that massive body felt like some kind of wall between me and everything else.

Which made me wonder if him pulling me close was deliberate.

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