Page 26 of Offsides

“That’s why I’m apologizing now!” Avery said. “Talia here is the one to watch; she dances like she was made for it.”

“Hardly,” Talia huffed.

Talia. So this was Gunnar’s daughter. The girl that she’d been jealous of for absolutely no reason the other night. Well done, Theo…

“Hola Bonita,” Dash said, sliding up next to Talia. He gave her a smirk that said only one thing—the star rookie was interested in the coach’s daughter. Theo bit her lip, trying not to laugh as Talia rolled her eyes.

“Dash!” Cowboy scolded from behind Theo. She turned to look at him, finding him glaring at the player. “Back off.”

Dash did as he was told, slowly backing away, arms partially raised in mock surrender. Talia rolled her eyes again, this time silently communicating something to Avery that Theo didn’t quite understand. Cowboy looked back to Theo, his expression still hard from his protection mode. A tingle crept through Theo, observing Cowboy like this. Damn, it was sexy—completely different from his normal playful and outgoing self. That playful side had been more than enough to fill her dreams and fantasies for years, but seeing this alpha side to him, fuck, was she in trouble.

Pop music filled the air, and they all turned forward to see Link marching in place. Following his lead, Theo mimicked his actions. It was just marching—that wasn’t so hard. A moment later, Link added in some arm movement.

OK, marching, arms…maybe I can do this…

“Ready, everyone? Grapevine to the right…grapevine to the left…” Link called.

The whole group moved with him. Theo watched a set of feet in front of her, making sure she knew what a grapevine was in this context. Side stepping to her right, and then again to her left, she tried to let herself relax. Cowboy was right; this kind of thing was supposed to be fun. It was certainly better than running. Yet, her insides were still tied in knots, too worried about what everyone would think if she tripped. Would the players still respect her and want her to be the one to tell their story once they’d seen her fall on her ass? It was not a risk she was sure she wanted to take.

Even more than that, there was the man currently dancing behind her. The cool, playful, sexy as all get-out technical director. The man who held the keys to her access to this club. And if she wasn’t careful, he was going to hold the keys to her heart. Hell, who was she kidding, he already did. For as much as she reminded herself career first, personal life second, that personal life—or the desire for one—was pushing back harder every day. Up until recently it’d been easy to stay focused on work, on getting the story no one else could. To keep all personal entanglements locked away. Then her very real teenage crush sauntered right off the pages of Sports Illustrated and into her life.

Teenage crush? The only person she was kidding with that one was herself. She’d never stopped crushing on him. Of being in awe of him. It was how she’d almost lost everything in the first place. It was the reason she’d let Tim into her life. But Cowboy wasn’t Tim. Still, she couldn’t open herself up to all that again. Not if she was going to win her SPA.

“Alright, Cumbia!” Link shouted, the familiar pop song fading into a new song, one that had a lot more Latin influence than its predecessor.

Cumbia? What the fuck is a cumbia?

Avery bobbed up and down next to her, seemingly having given up on any attempt at following along. She moved around, somehow against the beat of the music, doing something that Theo wouldn’t have really called dancing.

At least I’m not alone in this…

“You’re too tight,” Cowboy said, stopping his own steps and coming over to stand in front of her.

“What?”

“You’re too tense,” he repeated. “You need to loosen your hips.”

As if on cue, right as he said the word hips, Cowboy’s strong hands landed on hers. The heat from them seared through her clothing, her skin tingling from the touch. She stopped herself from letting out a sigh, not wanting him to know that this simple touch had sent her reeling. It was all she could do not to think about what those hands would feel like against her skin, without the fabric in between.

“Follow my lead,” he whispered, hands still firmly in place.

Theo nodded, sure that words would betray her right now. Because in this moment, the hard-nosed reporter was gone. In her place was a woman who couldn’t tear her eyes away from the chocolate-colored gaze of the most beautiful man she’d ever seen.

Cowboy nudged her hip backward, his own rolling forward, before repeating the motion on the other side. Theo relaxed into his touch, letting him move her back and forth in time with the beat. They found a rhythm, slowly, carefully shifting their weight, never breaking eye contact. Theo’s pulse seemed to pick up with each step, her heart feeling like it could gallop right out of her chest. Could he hear that? Did he know the effect he was having on her?

He must have been reading her mind, because on the next step, he slipped an arm around her, pulling her into him. Her arms found his biceps, holding on to him like he was the only thing that could save her. The only thing she wanted to be holding on to. Their bodies were all but touching, and Theo could smell that musky scent of him. It was delicious, filling her nostrils, making her dizzy with desire, like she had inhaled a drug of some kind. That was exactly what Cowboy was like—a drug. How else could she explain what she was feeling? Why it seemed like they were the only two on this field, with only the sound of her racing heart surrounding them.

“Everything okay back there?” Link shouted, pulling Theo from her daze.

Shaking her head to clear the fog, she stepped back, her heart still racing. She could feel the flush rushing up her neck and onto her cheeks, looking around to see if everyone was watching her. Only about half the team had turned to see what Link was referring to, but it was enough. Especially since both Felicity and Gunnar were included.

Well, shit. Way to be unprofessional…

“Yeah, fine!” she answered, giving Link an embarrassed wave. He nodded, then turned his attention back to class, shouting out the next instruction. Felicity, however, was still looking at her, an impish grin tugging at her lips as she waggled her eyebrows at Theo.

Even more embarrassed now, she looked back at Cowboy, who was still standing close by. Giving him an apologetic smile, she stepped back, trying to turn her focus back to class. He gave her a wink in response and closed the gap once again, leaning in to whisper in her ear.

“We can continue that later."