“You have your own constellation.” He connects the dots of the beauty marks scattered across my back—the places he previously had been kissing. “I think I’ll use these stars as my reminder from now on.”
He places a final kiss to my neck and stands, moving to the opposite side of the tub before reaching in and grabbing my right ankle. I place my arms on the edge of the basin to keep my balance, dropping my head back in ecstasy as he wages war on the arches of my feet.
“I love that your toes are blue.”
“Foot fetish?” I tease, cracking an eye open. He’s looking at me intently, so intently that I start to squirm under his gaze. “What?”
“Will you go to the gala with me? As my date.” It's not what I was expecting him to say, and my heart takes flight at the same time as it nosedives.
“You know we can’t go together.”
“Maybe not, but you can still be my date.We’ll know, even if no one else can.”
Bitterness coats my tongue, because for the first time in my life, I want to be seen on someone's arm. I wanteveryone to know he’s mine and I’m his, but I can’t jeopardize his opportunity for a spot on the National Team. Thinking about the impermanence of our situation makes me want to throw up after what he just admitted, because for once in my life, I don’t have a solution, and it’s killing me.
But one look into his eager eyes so full of trust, kindness, andlovehas me speaking without thinking. “Yes.”
The smile that stretches across his face is worth more money than I have to my name. It’s worth everything—he’sworth everything.
Out of nowhere, he’s springing forward, scooping me out of the tub, and splashing water all over the floor. My legs wrap around his waist of their own accord, and my wet body soaks through his clothes instantly.
“Are you crazy?” I shout, devolving into a fit of giggles.
“For you? Most definitely.”
I crush my lips against his, coaxing his mouth open and kissing him soundly, forgetting about all the work piling up in my inbox, about the threats to our relationship looming on the horizon, and, for once in my life, I do what I want instead.
Two weeks have passedsince I fully gave in to the pull I feel towards Tieran.
It’s been the best couple weeks of my life, and I wasn’t sure if I should be moderately depressed over that fact or just let it be. Happiness like this has never come easy or felt this natural, and I feel like I’m waiting for the other rugby boot to drop.
Why was it this easy? Nothing ever was.
But with Tieran, everything feels effortless. Waking up to find him in the kitchen making me blueberry lemon pancakes, Pebble at his feet begging for scraps. It settled something deep within me, domesticity at its finest, and I never realized how much I could want that—an easy partnership with someone. Starting a family was never a thought because no one ever made me feel safe enough to even consider it. But now…now, my mind is imagining all sorts of futures, and every day, every time he makes me laugh, every time he kisses me like his life depends on it, I understand more and more that my life does depend on it—him.
It’s a thought as scary as it is freeing, because I know in my bones he feels the same. I’m falling for him at a rapid rate—not because of who the world thinks he is, but because of who I know him to be.
Tieran would light up the deepest pit of Hell with his smile alone, and he makes me want to be better—bolder. I want to see the world through his lens; trust easier, laugh more, love harder. I want to give the world what he gives me in a cosmic sort of pay it forward. He’s softened me in a way I didn’t know would make me stronger.
But I have no idea how we’re going to continue seeing each other when our circumstances tell us there is no future. I can’t give up the team—he would never even let me consider it anyway—and there is no way I would jeopardize his chances of the National Team when his best shot of making it is through The Legends.
Problem solving is my thing, and I can’t find a way around this other than to continue seeing each other in secret. An abhorrent thought. How cruel is the world that I finally want something for myself, and I can’t even have it? Tieran deserves someone who can be proudly on his arm after what his ex put him through. He deserves the world. I want to give it to him, but I don’t know how.
Maybe we just have to wait until after he secures his spot on the National Team before we go public. Would he be willing to wait that long?
All these thoughts crowd my mind as I walk into my office, but I halt upon seeing Lawrence Chapman hovering over the bookshelves covered in business books, personal achievement awards, and a few decorative objects. Uneasiness settles in my gut, just as it does every time I’m in his presence.
I steel my spine, because the last thing I’m willing to do is let this man see any form of intimidation. “Lawrence. What are you doing in my office without me here?”
He pops up from inspecting something on the middle shelf and holds up his hands in a supplicative gesture. “I’ve come to throw a white flag on the pitch.”
Skepticism rings alarm bells as loud as bombs detonating. “I didn’t realize we were at war,” I lie.
“Didn’t you?” When I remain quiet, he continues. “Look, I see what you’ve done for the team, for the stadium, and I have to say, I was apprehensive at first—” I scoff, but he goes on, undeterred— “but you really are quite impressive.”
Condescension sandwiched between compliments. What he means is he’s surprisedsomeone like mecould effectively lead and improve a situation he never bothered to address.
I walk over to my desk, setting my leather handbag on the surface with a definitive plop, and sit down in my chair, crossing my arms. “Why the sudden change of heart? You’ve been leading the charge on seeing me out of this office.”
