So I didn’t. I kissed her back, matching the urgency, the frustration, the fire that had been simmering between us since the elevator—since years before that, if I was being honest with myself. Her lips were soft, exactly how I’d imagined they’d be, but the kiss wasn’t soft at all. Teddy kissed with purpose, not wasting a moment. I’d imagined kissing her before, but nothing in my mind had come close to this. She met me head-on, demanding more.
She tasted like the champagne she’d had moments ago, sharp and sweet and even that was perfectly her. I parted her lips with my tongue, needing to taste more, and she met me stroke for stroke.
Her breath hitched when my hand slid down past her waist, settling on her ass. Pulling me closer, she eliminated every inch of space left between us. Without thinking, I gripped her harder, lifting her.
Her gasp stuttered in my ear as I spun us, her legs wrapping around my waist and tightening. The power of her body was as intoxicating as her kisses. The press of her against me stole any rational thoughts I might’ve had.
The door hit the back of her shoulders as I pinned her there, the soft thud vibrating through both of us. Her fingers slid into my hair, fisting at the roots, dragging me back to her mouth before I even had the chance to breathe.Shit. This was… not how I’d expected tonight to go.
The moment her nails scraped lightly against my scalp, heat shot straight to my dick, and if I wasn’t hard already, I was made of fucking stone now. Her hips instinctively moved againstwhat I knew she could feel, and I pushed into her core more as I dipped my head to her neck. Drawn there like gravity, my mouth traced the curve of her throat as her hips surged forward against me again and again, breathy moans falling from her lips like a prayer. Her legs tightened, pulling me in harder, deeper, and I pushed her more firmly into the door. She met every push, strong and hungry. That lit a fuse in me that I wasn’t convinced would go out.
Breath shaking against my jaw, she arched her back, her hands roaming over my shoulders, gripping at my shirt like she needed something to hold on to while everything else faded away.
Then there was a rattle of the door handle behind her, and the moment was doused in ice-cold water. Her whole body locked against mine, breath caught halfway up her throat. Her hands dropped from my hair. Her legs loosened from around me so fast, I had to catch her hips to keep her steady as her feet found the floor.
“Teddy—” I said quietly, reaching for her again. She looked up at me, and it was the first time all night she hadn’t looked completely composed. Her cheeks were flushed, lips swollen, pupils blown wide. There were faint pink marks on her neck that did nothing to stop my raging hard-on from pushing against my slacks.
The reality of kissing her, seeing her so affected by what we did, set off some kind of atomic bomb in my brain. But she slipped out from in front of me, and in a blink, the door was open and she was gone.
The waiter on the other side froze, eyes going wide as Teddy bolted past him down the hallway. His gaze flicked to me, my shirt pulled at, my hair everywhere from her fingers. I raked a hand through it, flattening what I could. Pointless, really. There was no hiding from being caught in a coat closet.
I wanted to chase her; every instinct I had screamed to go after her. But another part knew she needed space. Hell, maybe I did too. My pulse was still hammering, my body on high alert. I covertly removed my jacket to hide my erection and awkwardly moved past the waiter without saying a thing.
Around the corner, I stopped and stood still, trying to figure out how the hell everything had changed in less than five seconds flat.
19
Teddy
I hadn’t left my apartment since Friday night. Every time I thought about facing the world again, I remembered that I’d kissed Connor, and the memory of his mouth on mine—him pinning me to the door—shoved me right back into my bed.
Evie, Lola, and Micah, all texted me endlessly, but I’d faked a migraine and hid like a coward. That didn’t mean they gave up, though. Micah lived in the same building as me, after all, and of course she had my spare key. Sunday morning, I’d woken up to a note and soup on my kitchen counter from her and then proceeded to feel guilty the entire day for lying, so I had to text her back, at least.
I’d also ignored texts from Connor, as in deleted them before opening them because I wasn’t prepared to talk yet.
All in all, it was shit.
I wasn’t suffering from a migraine, I was suffering from red-hot embarrassment. How was I supposed to face him today? Usually, I was good at avoiding him, opposite schedules and all, but I had a feeling he’d seek me out. I’d have to admit that Igrabbed him, kissed him, rubbed myself all over his dick while his hands roamed over my ass… No, I wouldn’t let my mind go there again.
Training started in ten minutes. This wasn’t like me. On a normal day, I’d already be inside warming up, instead of sitting in my car in the parking lot like a big scaredy cat.
I blew out a breath. “Just get out,” I muttered to myself. “Get out, walk in, act normal. This is just another Monday.”
My head collapsed onto the steering wheel for a second as I groaned.
What had possessed me?
Why him?
It wasn’t even just a little kiss. I’d jumped him. I’dwantedhim.
Heat shot up my neck so violently, I jerked upright. No, no, no. Absolutely not. I wasn’t doing this again. Forcing my fingers to unclench, my pulse still skittered in my neck, but I ignored it. For someone who captained a professional team, who handled press and pressure and bullshit investors, I was doing a spectacularly bad job at handling one kiss. I’d kissed men before—not many lately, but I had. But none of them had ever made my body react days later.
I reached for the door handle before I spiraled into another round of humiliation. The moment I pushed through the side entrance, the familiar scent of eucalyptus rub and detergent wrapped around me. Normally, it would soothe me, even out my pulse—routine, order, purpose. Today, it only reminded me of how wildly out of control I’d been on Friday night.
Voices echoed from the changing room as I approached. A familiar chorus of laughter. The thud of feet. Those noises confirmed why I get up every morning, what my job was when I stepped inside these doors. But after two days of self-imposedexile, all it managed to do was tighten the ball of anxiety lodged in my throat.
If I kept my head down, maybe no one would notice the neon sign that I’d walked in here with. The one that saidyes, I did kiss Connor O’Riley.I stepped inside, praying the crackle of nerves running through me wasn’t obvious to anyone looking.
