I felt my cheeks burn. “Sorry, I didn’t realize it had been so long.”
He had his body turned, so he was looking me straight on. His voice was gentle when he said, “I’m teasing you, Hazel.”
“Oh,” I replied, embarrassed. I should have known he was teasing, but there was a part of me that was so worried that I’d been so oblivious that I hadn’t noticed that we were being rude. I tried to make light of it by saying, “Well, I hope you didn’t have people telling you to kick your partner out.”
Dom laughed and I felt my entire body relax. “No worries. Even if they did, I’d just tell them to shut up. You could get away with a lot, you know.”
I turned so I could rest my head on the back of the couch. Now that I knew how late it was, I was suddenly feeling it. Or maybe that was just the alcohol. “How much?” I asked. “I need to know if I’m not taking advantage of you enough.”
“A lot,” Dom said with a smirk. “And it will be even more if you keep helping me win things with how awesome you are.”
I giggled. “So that’s it? All I have to do to have you defend me from complaints is get you a few gold medals?”
Dom shook his head, looking incredulous. “That’s it!? You say that like getting a few gold medals is easy.”
“Well, like you said, I’m awesome,” I joked. “And let’s get real. You’d defend me anyway.”
He suddenly sounded much more serious when he said, “Yeah, I would. Even if you fell on your ass six times in the next skate, I’d stick up for you.” He rested his head on the back of the couch too, so we were looking directly at each other. “How could I not?” His eyes were boring into mine, making my brain feel like mush.
I was still struggling to come up with a response when Alexis walked over. “Hey,” she said, seemingly oblivious to the tension between Dom and I. “We’re heading out now. I have to work in the morning, and I should probably already be asleep.” She didn’t seem bothered by the fact that she wasn’t. She merely said it like maybe she should plan on getting some sleep soon. “Do you want to come back with us, or are you going to head to your own place in a bit?”
I turned back to Dom, who was staring at me. My chest tightened again. “I’ll head back to my place later,” I said, trying not to make it obvious that I was finding it hard to breathe evenly.
It must have worked, because she didn’t seem to realize anything was amiss. “Okay, cool.” She turned to Dom and said, “It was nice seeing you again. C’mon, Kendra.”
Kendra, clearly the drunker of the two, insisted on giving me a giant hug before following Alexis out the door. “Bye!” she shouted, seemingly to everyone, before leaving.
“She had fun,” Dom said, amused, as he turned back around.
“I think they both did, even if Alexis didn’t get the hookup she was hoping for.”
Dom raised his eyebrows. “Was that why she came here?”
“In part,” I admitted. “I think she got distracted by beer pong too early in the night to make much headway, though. And afterwards I don’t think she could focus, even if we had stopped being couch hogs. If I was thinking straight, I would have pointed her towards Mike.”
“Why?” Dom asked, leaning forward. “Was he interested?”
“Not in her. At least I don’t think so, but he was definitely interested in hooking up with somebody.”
There were several seconds of silence before Dom seemed to register what I’d said. “Wait, Mike was hitting on you?”
Was that jealousy in his voice? If it was Brandon, it would have pissed me off, but with Dom it seemed more protective rather than possessive. “Yeah. He seemed very interested in how flexible I am and was making all these double entendres about you picking me up.”
Dom opened and closed his mouth a few times, but no sound came out. Finally, he said, “Son of a bitch. Do you want me to tell him to back off?”
“What? No,” I said, surprised. “He was very respectful when I said no. Well, first he made a comment that he didn’t actually say anything about dating when I said I wasn’t in a place to date. But once I made it clear that I wasn’t into being a hook up either, he left it alone. Didn’t bug me the rest of the night or anything.”
He stretched his arm across the back of the couch, so his hand was close to my head. “You sure?” he asked.
“I’m sure,” I affirmed.
He seemed almost disappointed by my reply. I didn’t think much of it until he added, “I don’t like when people talk about you like that.”
“What?” I said, confused. I wasn’t sure I was following. “Like I’m an attractive woman they wouldn’t mind hooking up with?”
“No, like you’re appealing just because you can put your feet up over your head.” His fingers danced along my scalp, sending a shiver up my spine.
I couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Really? I’m sure that is part of the reason people are into me. People appreciate flexibility, you know.”
