Except…she had. She’d looked at Lia with hooded, dark eyes, and surged close, close enough for Lia to feel the ghost of her touch, her heat, her racing heart.
The only explanation must be that Erin had somehow hit her head as well as injured her hamstring. Clearly, she wasn’t in a right frame of mind. Because Erin tolerated Lia nowadays, but she’d never given the merest hint of anything more.
And now Lia was supposed to forget it had happened?
A hysterical laugh bubbled to the surface as Lia stepped outside into the dark. The pool glittered in front of her, the surface rippling in the wind that also whipped at her hair.
Disco music came from the hotel bar, along with the excited chatter of the teammates Lia had left behind in order to check on Erin. She should go back, but how could she when everything had changed in the blink of an eye? Lia felt like an entirely different person.
Because she couldn’t stop wondering what might have happened if she hadn’t stopped Erin. What would Erin’s lips have felt like, moving against hers? Was Erin as good at kissing as she was at football? Would she have wanted to take the lead, or would she have let Lia take over?
With a groan, Lia sat heavily on an empty sun lounger and glanced at the sky and the stars twinkling overhead. The thing was—before tonight, she hadn’t thought of Erin in any particular way.
Sure, she had eyes. Erin was attractive, and Lia had thought so ever since Erin had burst on the scene when Lia was a starry-eyed teenager. She could blame some of that attraction on a dash of hero worship.
But since coming to Albion, Lia had never allowed herself to think of Erin as anything other than her teammate. A clear line had been drawn in the sand there—by both of them. Erin had rules, and Lia knew from bitter experience that they were good ones—ones she’d sworn to adopt herself in order to avoid another Hannah situation.
Now, she had an itch under her skin, a burning desire to know what Erin would feel like pressed against her, a distracting need to know the cadence of Erin’s lips against her own.
Lia was utterly ruined, and they hadn’t even done anything.
Filled with restless energy, she pushed herself to her feet. Was it too late to go for a run? Or maybe she should leap into the pool—it would be as effective as a cold shower and might dull the ache that had settled between her thighs.
Or…she could return to the fifth floor, knock on the door to room 512, and demand to know what Erin had been thinking. Why she’d done this to her. Ask her how on earth Lia was supposed to pretend nothing had happened—though, technically, it hadn’t.
Yet.
Because there was another way to dull the ache that wouldn’t involve drenching herself in chlorinated water.
It was a terrible idea, of course. Lia should walk away—and stay away. Erin was dangerous, a flickering flame daring her to lean in close enough to get burned. Erin was everything Lia had sworn she’d never involve herself with again.
But Lia had never been good at steering clear of danger.
What she did excel at, though, was going after what she wanted.
* * *
Erin didn’t make a lot of mistakes in life.
She was careful. Meticulous. She thought ten steps ahead to make sure everything went to plan. But when she did make a mistake, boy, did she go hard. And trying to kiss Lia Ashcroft was a mistake of epic proportions.
Lying in the dark after Lia had gone, staring at the hotel room ceiling fan, Erin kept replaying the moment over and over in her mind. When was the last time she’d done something so stupid?
And even more stupid: What upset her the most was the fact that Lia had pushed her away.
Someone knocked on her door. Erin glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Midnight. Alex wouldn’t call on her so late. But Lia wouldn’t have come back, would she?
Erin ignored it—she didn’t want to see anyone anyway. They’d soon go away.
Another knock. This one was louder, more insistent. “I know you’re in there, Erin. Let me in.”
God, it was Lia. What had she come back for? To rub salt in the wounds? To ask Erin what the hell she’d been thinking?
Erin wasn’t entirely sure she could answer that question.
“I’m going to keep knocking until you open this door.” Lia continued to tap her knuckles against the wood. “I can stand out here all night.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Erin wrenched off her covers and stalked to the room door for the second time that night. This time, she only opened it a crack. “What do you want?”
