Everything felt a half-step out of sync.
I’d been good all week. Kept my distance. Got my treatment. Didn’t push too hard. Smiled for cameras, nodded through walk-throughs, stuck to my playbook, and didn’t let my eyes linger on Sloane longer than they should’ve.
Except they always lingered longer than they should’ve.
She’d been everywhere. Locker room hallway. Meeting room. Sidelines. Always out of reach. Professional and composed and guarded—but her mouth still went soft when she smiled, and her voice still scraped against something deep in my chest every time she said my name.
I didn’t regret what happened between us. Not even a little.
But I regretted the distance that followed.
And the truth was? I was scared. About tomorrow. About my body holding up. About her slipping further away the longer I let her pretend we didn’t have something worth fighting for.
So I threw on a T-shirt, slid on my shorts, and left my room to get some air.
The elevator hummed softly. The hallway smelled like chlorine and lemon-scented cleaner. I padded down the back stairwell toward the pool deck, hoping the heat might loosen up the tension in my legs. Hoping the quiet might clear my head.
The doors opened, and the first thing I noticed was the steam rising from the hot tub.
The second thing I noticed was her.
Sloane. Alone.
She sat in the far corner of the hot tub, water rippling gently around her bare shoulders. Her hair was piled into a messy knot on top of her head, a few damp strands clinging to her neck. Steam curled up around her face like a damn halo. She hadn’t seen me yet—her eyes were closed, her mouth parted slightly, and her head tilted back like she was finally letting herself breathe.
I stopped moving. Literally. My feet froze to the tile.
She looked... fuck. She looked peaceful. And glowing. And unfairly hot in a simple black two piece that showed a lot of skin. I had no business standing there staring, but I couldn’t help it. Not after the flight. Not after that steamy book. Not after the way she bit her lip during the barn scene and pretended not to notice me watching her read the filthiest chapter.
My body moved before I could talk myself out of it. She looked too good to walk away now. Not when I had a chance to see her like this.
She opened her eyes as I approached and blinked once, like maybe she thought I was a hallucination. Then her lips curved, soft and surprised. “You couldn’t sleep either?”
I shook my head, my body tight and coiled. The swells of her breasts were mouthwatering, and the way her eyes softened for me…the pulse at the base of her neck raced, and her teeth came down on her bottom lip, like she too felt the pull between us.
Without thinking of all the reasons why I shouldn’t join her, I tossed my shirt to the side chair and slid my sweats off, wearing my black boxer briefs. Sloane sucked in a breath, her lips parting as she watched me slide into the hot tub next to her.
“Don’t recall giving you an invitation to join me,” she teased, her cheeks pinker than before.
I grinned, enjoying the hell out of her attraction to me. She might fight our connection, but she couldn’t deny our chemistry.
“Wasn’t waiting for one, Doc.” I sighed, leaning back against the jets so the pressure touched my back. “Shit, this feels nice. I was tossing and turning in my room, not resting for shit.”
She glanced over, her eyes tracing my face. “Yeah. I’m a little unsettled too. Are you nervous about the game? Are you feeling okay?”
She didn’t say physically, but that was what she insinuated.I hated that she had to ask, shifting to work mode where she was so clinical. But she looked worried, like she cared about me.
I shifted slightly, resting my elbow on the edge of the hot tub. The water sloshed low around us, heat rising in gentle waves off the surface. “Yeah,” I said, my voice quieter than before. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot though.”
Her lips parted slightly, but she didn’t interrupt.
“I pushed too hard,” I admitted. “I knew I was hitting a wall. I could feel it in my chest, behind my eyes. I just… didn’t want to stop. I don’t want that to happen tomorrow. It fucking can’t happen.”
Her foot bumped mine under the water. It was a graze, but I felt it like a spark.
“I can’t be the guy who gets pulled,” I continued, “especially not the week after everything went down with Hayes. Everyone’s still on edge.”
Sloane’s brows pinched. She looked away for a second, then back at me. “Oliver, if you feel yourself getting worked up, you need to step away. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone.”
