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The look on her face said she was proud of me, but she wanted to hide it, and that set my chest alight. I didn’t think or second-guess anything that had happened between us until that point. I simply took her face in my hands and kissed her.

Dakota didn’t just let me in… She melted. When my tongue grazed the seam of her lips, she let out a shallow, shaky breath that tasted sweeter than I remembered. I deepened the kiss with a desperate kind of hunger, wanting her to feel the thrum of my pulse against her palms. To understand, without a single word, that this win meant nothing if I couldn’t share the fire of it with her.

25

Dakota

The kiss leveled me. For months, Trace had been a wall of professional indifference, yet here he was, pouring all his restrained heat into the press of his mouth. Every biting comment and cold shoulder we’d traded since day one seemed to evaporate the second he tasted me. It was terrifying how quickly I went weak.

I’d spent so long wondering if he even saw me as a person, but the way he gripped me now made me realize I’d been blind. This wasn’t just a post-game high. It was a confession he didn’t have the words for.

My knees buckled, the strength leaving my legs as I realized Frank, with the dirty politics and the ethical tightrope I’d been walking, wasn’t just a job anymore. I’d convinced myself I was just being a good professional.

But this was personal.

This whole time, Trace had played his part perfectly. He hadn’t given me a single hint. No lingering looks, no softened edges. Until now.

There was no faking the desperation in this kiss. Or in the way his touch on my waist made a deafening claim of its own.

“Let’s get out of here,” he breathed against my lips.

The heat of it made my head spin, but I forced a hand against his chest, feeling the gallop of his heart. “Okay, but there’s one condition.”

He gripped my ass and hauled me flush against him, letting me feel exactly how much he wanted to leave. “And what’s that?”

“You can’t tell anyone about this because if you do, I’ll break your knees and make sure you never play another game of football for the rest of your life.”

A faint, knowing smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth as he caught my hand, his thumb grazing my knuckles with a texture earned from years on the field. He said nothing, just started walking, hauling me toward the shadows at the edge of the field.

We moved fast, as if we were both trying to outrun our better judgment before it had a chance to catch up and stop us. My heart struck a rhythm that had nothing to do with the pace he was setting and everything to do with the way he wouldn’t let go.

“What’s the matter, Dakota?” he asked as he steered us into the treeline. “Are you ashamed of the way I make you feel? Afraid someone will see you finally folding for the enemy?”

Before I could think of a snapping response, he spun me around and stole the breath from my lungs. My back hit the coarse bark of a tree with a dull crack, and he was there instantly, pinning me against it with the weight of his heat.

“I’m not—” The words died in my throat as he buried his face in the crook of my neck, his lips searing a path toward my collarbone.

My head fell back, my eyes fluttering shut against the contrast of cool air and the sudden, overwhelming friction. I reached for him, my fingers fumbling for his shirt, but he was faster.

His hand slid under the hem of my top, his palm warm and rough as it swept upward to cup my breast. All coherent thought left my brain, and I couldn’t remember why any of this would be a bad idea.

“I… have…” I moaned as my fingers tangled in his hair. “A reputation to… uphold.”

“Is that so?”

His hot breath caressed my neck, and a jolt of icy adrenaline chased itself down my back. It was deliciously torturous, and the feel of the hardening bulge in his pants pressing against me was even better. Trace pinched my nipple, and I buckled against the tree as a mercurial heat flooded my veins, flushing away the last of my composure. My grip on him tightened even more, and because of that, he dropped his head even lower.

“Is your reputation as good as this feels?” He took my nipple into his mouth.

A splintered breath caught in my throat. Goosebumps broke out across my arms as he lightly bit down with toe-curling relish, sucking me into his mouth right after. Warm arousal pooled between my legs as my body begged for more of his touch.

But that wasn’t all it wanted.

“You’re gonna need to do more than that to impress me.” A fresh wave of heat surged through me, my hips instinctively searching for the friction of his.

I was playing a dangerous game of chicken with my own restraint, and I was losing beautifully.

“Is that so?”