by Toni Aleo
I’m lost in her.
She’s a good dancer—of course she is; she’s a gymnast. Then again, sometimes they’re a little tight and controlled, but Sofia lets go. Her hips are threatening, and when I turn her in my arms, she moves her ass against my thighs. I am thankful for her height, because a few inches taller and she’d be feeling a lot more. I move my hands down her thighs, leaning into her as her head falls back on my chest before she looks up at me. Her chin is so dainty, and I love the length of her neck. Her hazel eyes are wide and full of an excitement that leaves me wanting nothing more than to kiss her. But I don’t feel right about it.
When I kiss this girl, I want it to be in a place where I know I won’t have to stop right away. I’m not saying I want to take her to bed as soon as my lips touch hers, but I want to be able to kiss her long and hard because she needs to be kissed like that. My lips quirk as I lean down, gliding my nose along her cheek as she moves against me. Her eyes don’t leave mine, and I swear she’s holding her breath. I press my lips to the spot below her ear, and when she jumps in surprise, I can’t help but grin.
“I got you.” I tighten my arms around her waist, hugging her close. Soon she isn’t dancing, she’s just leaning into me. “Wanna get out of here?”
She goes still in my arms. When she turns in my embrace, she moves her hands up my chest, her eyes meeting mine. “Where?”
I lean down, my lips moving against her ear. “My special place?”
She moves her head slightly, her lips now tickling my earlobe. “Your bed?”
I want to say yes, but I shake my head, moving so she can hear me. “While that does sound like a good time, I’d rather take you somewhere else.” When I pull back to gauge her reaction, something catches my eye. “That son of a bitch!”
Amelia and Moon.
Her ass in his lap.
I see red.
Sofia’s hands quickly flatten on my chest. “Yes.”
Her one-syllable word actually stops me. “Yes?”
“Yeah, take me to your special spot.”
“Can I do it after I kill him?” I ask, pointing to where Amelia and Moon are talking very closely.
She shakes her head. “Now or never.”
I narrow my eyes. “Are you trying to distract me so I don’t kill him because my sister is your best friend and you want her to have a good time?”
She nods with a grin pulling at her lips. “Exactly.”
I sigh heavily, and while I want to kill Moon, I know this is my chance with her. “You win.”
She grins in victory as I take her hand in mine, pulling her through the crowd. I have to trust that my best friend won’t do anything he isn’t supposed to do to my sister and also that my sister isn’t a completely boy-crazy dumbass.
God, I hope Moon remembers I can kill him.
Going through the kitchen, I lead Sofia up the stairs until she pauses. I look back at her, and she looks terrified. “What’s wrong?”
“Isn’t this the way to the bedrooms?”
I shrug. “Yeah.”
“Oh, well—”
“But it’s also the way to my special place that is not my bedroom,” I say when her face scrunches up. “Promise. Scout’s honor,” I say, holding up three fingers while holding down my pinkie with my thumb. When I realize I remember the sign, I laugh. “Ha, I didn’t forget that.”
She snorts before shaking her head. “You’re a dork.”
“Yup,” I agree, walking backward up the stairs. “And I’m pretty sure you won’t be impressed by my special spot.”
She lifts her brows as she asks, “You think?”
“Yeah, I’m actually unsure why I’m bringing you up here.” She looks excited, her lips curving as I turn, taking the stairs one at a time as she follows. Her hand feels warm in mine, and I’m worried if I let her go, she won’t be there anymore. Thankfully, we reach the ladder, and I start to climb to push the door open. When I do, I look down at her to find her gawking at me.
“Is that the roof?”
I nod eagerly. “Yeah, we did this my freshman year. Took four months to get it approved. Come on.”
She doesn’t move. “Is it safe?”
“Ish,” I answer, and I think that might almost be the deal-breaker. She just laughs before she starts to climb up.
“Thank God I wore tennis shoes.”
“Yeah, or you’d be climbing up barefoot,” I say before taking her hand again and helping her up. “But I have to say, I’m digging the outfit.”
“I thought you’d want me in a dress like Amelia’s.”
“It’s not you.”
She looks away shyly, but then she’s looking around. “Holy crap.”
I nod as I take in the city lights and hills of Tennessee.
“This is beautiful.”
“I thought you might like it.”
She eyes me. “Why? Did you think I would think you were dorky?”
I turn, holding out my hand to the spot where two lawn chairs sit with a table between them. On the table are two cups of coffee and a tray of Oreos. “Because when you agree to sit down, I might do a little jig.”
She fights back a grin. “Will it be like what you did downstairs?”
I shake my head. “No way. My jig is more of a wiggle.”
She giggles then, shaking her head as she looks back at the spot I set up for us. “So you tricked me into a date?”
I shrug. “That’s one way of looking at it.”
“What way are you looking at it?”
“Two people drinking coffee, eating some Oreos, and getting to know each other.”
Her gaze meets mine, and I turn on my flashy grin, to which she just shakes her head. The struggle is all over her face, but after a few moments that feel like hours, she is moving. She walks past me, and her stride is like a tornado. Her walk has so much sass it has the power to knock me on my ass, but then it pulls me in, making me dizzy. I want to grab on to her, hold her, kiss her, but before I know it, she is sitting back in one of the lawn chairs. Crossing her legs, she reaches for a cookie and then takes a coffee cup in her hand. Looking up at me, she tips her chin at me. “Jig time, please.”
I can’t contain my grin.
I wiggle with no cares in the world, and her laughter fills the little spot we’re in. “That is a mighty fine jig.”
“It is,” I agree as I come to sit beside her, grabbing my coffee and cookie. “I was going to have beer up here, but I don’t think you drink.”
She nods. “You’re right, I don’t.”
“Figured,” I say, taking a bite. “So I went with coffee, though it may keep us up all night.”
When she glances over at me, I waggle my brows at her. I’m rewarded with her snorting laughter that lights up her whole face. “You’d love that.”
“I would.”
Her cheeks fill with color as she takes a bite of her cookie.
“I don’t know how I feel about your hair.”
She leans back, bouncing her toe up and down as she looks over to me. “No?”
“I like it, it’s shiny as hell, but I wanted to see the curls down.”
She scoffs. “They’re a mess, I can promise you that.”
“I want to see them.”
Her eyes darken, and I didn’t realize talking about her hair could make me so hot. “Maybe I’ll wear it down Wednesday.”
I lick my lips. “I think I might like that a lot.”
“Well, I wouldn’t be doing it for you.”
“Well, duh, but just saying.”
“Yeah, just saying.”
“Passing time.”
“Yeah, ’cause the party is lame,” she says, and when she looks up to me, pressing a cookie to her lips, I grin.
“It is, which is why I brought you up here.”
She rolls her eyes and then turns her gaze to the horizon. “So hockey is your dream?”
I nod. “It is. NHL is what I want. Do you follow hockey?”
&n
bsp; She chuckles. “Not even kinda.”
I smile. “My uncle Shea is one of the best defensemen in NHL history. He played for and retired from the team my aunt Elli owns, the Assassins. My goal is to play for the Assassins and be just like him.”
Man, saying it out loud just gives me the drive to do more.
When I glance over to Sofia, she is tearing apart a cookie, licking the frosting out of it. “You guys are really close to them, right? Shelli is their daughter?”
“Yeah, we all grew up together. I had just turned six when Shelli came, and since I idolized my uncle even back then, I wanted to be there to help.”
She smiles fondly. “That’s really nice.”
“Did you not have that?”
She shakes her head. “Not really. Too busy. I hardly saw my mom.”
“No?”
“No, I trained, I did homework, and slept. Nothing more, nothing less. Even when I was hurt, I was in the gym watching the girls and living through them until I could get back on the floor.”
“Wow,” I say. I feel sorry for her. “You didn’t want more?”
She shrugs. “I didn’t know there was more. Or maybe I did, but I ignored it. I had a goal. The Olympics.”
I scoot to the edge of my seat. “Why didn’t you make it? I mean, you’re fucking awesome.”
She grins, her face warming as she waves me off. “I’m good, but my body let me down.”
When she points to her knee, I shake my head. “No way.”
“Oh yeah. Because of the break, there is no way I can throw big skills that will get me the points to beat the girls who aren’t hurt. There is difficulty in my skills but not enough difficulty to get me a gold.”
“That sucks ass.”
She nods quickly. “Very much so. It broke my heart, but then my mom got real sick, and my goals changed.”
Concern fills my features. “Is she okay?”
“She’s better, but with MS, there isn’t a cure, so each day is different.”
“Man, I’m sorry.”
She sends me a grin. “Thank you, but really, she is doing so much better. She just has off days where she has to use a walker. But she still works three jobs because she’s trying to put me in an early grave.”
I chuckle. “Three?”
“Yes, she’s insane,” she says, shaking her head. “But that’s what she knows. She did it my whole childhood. That’s how we paid for everything, and when I blew out my knee, she had no choice but to work even more and—” When her lips turn down, I lean forward on my knees to see her better. She holds her hands up. “Jesus, what is wrong with me?”
“What?”
“I was about to tell you something I haven’t told anyone.”
That only makes me want to know even more. “What?”
“No way,” she says with a laugh. “I don’t even know why I almost said that.”
“Tell me.”
Her eyes burn into mine as she brings her lip between her teeth. As she shakes her head, I swear she whispers she is a dumbass, but then her eyes are back on mine. “I sometimes feel like it’s my fault she has MS. That I ran her into the ground.”
My heart breaks for Sofia. “No way.”
“I mean, I know I didn’t. It’s a disease of the nervous system, but still, if I were just a regular gymnast instead of an elite, maybe things would have been different.”
I reach over to her, taking her hand in mine. She looks down at our fingers as I lace them together. Our gazes meet, and a jolt of electricity runs through me as I say, “I’m pretty sure your mom did what she did to make you happy, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.”
I can see the pain in her eyes. “Which is why I have to do everything in my power to get a damn good education and then open my gym so I can take care of her.”
My heart clenches in my chest. “I think that’s amazing.”
“She did it for me.”
I swallow. “Is it hard to be away from her?”
Her shoulders fall as she turns toward me, putting her coffee down before grabbing another cookie. She could have let my hand go to do that, and the fact that she didn’t has my heart knocking in my chest. “It is, even though I was in the gym and I trained in Texas for a while, away from her. After I got hurt and then she got sick, we spent every second together, but she pushed me to come to Bellevue. I mean, not too many girls get the scholarship or the funding I received. I didn’t even know I could have a sponsor like I do.”
I grin. “It’s an awesome program they have here. Usually, the hockey sponsors are some of the players from the Assassins.”
She grins. “That’s neat. I wonder who does the gymnastics program?”
“I don’t know, but I assume someone who believes in the program. And after the show you guys put on for the first meet, I bet they’re happy.”
“I hope so,” she says softly. “I want to meet mine, thank them.”
“Maybe you can ask to?”
“Yeah,” she says offhandedly. Her face turns suddenly serious. “I’m worried about working for your mom.”
I startle a bit at the change in subject. “Why?”
“Well, my coach says it should be fine as long as I don’t mess up anywhere. But in my scholarship contract, it says that they want me to focus on school and gymnastics. That if I need anything to request it. But my mom is totally against me asking for a plane ticket for her to come see me at a meet, so I took the job with your mom to pay for it.”
“Oh, but it’s not like you’re doing it daily.”
“Yeah, I know,” she says, and then I realize that her thumb is moving along the back of my hand. It sets my body on fire. “I just want to pay for my mom to fly because she’s trying to drive, and that’s not good for her legs.”
“I’d say not.” Man, Sofia is so pretty. I love that she loves her mom. When she licks the inside of the Oreo, it pleases me that she likes them. I was worried she wouldn’t eat them. Some athletes are weird. “What about your dad?”
She shrugs dismissively. “I don’t have one.”
“You don’t have one?”
“Nope,” she says, shrugging again. “My mom was busy when she was younger, I guess you can say. She didn’t know who my dad was, and to be honest with you, I doubt he wanted to know me. He never tried to find me, so I don’t want to know him.” Before I can comment, she sends me a grin. “Wow, I’m talking a lot. Let’s change the subject.”
“I love it.”
Her grin grows, her lashes falling slightly, sending my heart into a frenzy. “Oh. Well, okay, but come on, tell me something.”
Tell her something. Gazing at her, I can’t help but adore everything about her face. Her nose is cute, and those freckles are driving me mad. Listening to her speak about her mom does all kinds of things to my heart. I am all about family, and knowing that she is too rattles me. Her eyes are so dark, so beautiful, and without realizing what I’m saying, I blurt out, “I think you are by far the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”
She’s fully grinning at me now, shaking her head. “You’re ruthless.”
I grin back. “How so?”
“You know ‘how so’!” she accuses, and I laugh.
“Maybe I know what I want.”
She eyes me. “Which is?”
I let out a breath. “Oh, the list is long.”
She purses her lips. “What’s the first thing?”
I don’t hesitate, nor do I answer. I pull her toward me, and she comes, by the grace of God. We meet in the middle, my eyes searching hers, and everything inside me is going wild. “Your lips.”
Before she can answer or even comment, I press my lips into her lush ones. The contact is mind-blowing and hot as fuck. Her lips are warm, thick, and when my nose presses into the side of hers, I know I found the spot I want to stay for the rest of my life. Unable to keep my hands to myself, I move them up her face, cupping her at the back of her neck as I run my tongue along her lips.
She doesn’t open her lips at first, and I can feel her heart thumping in her chest, rattling her whole body. It does nothing but make me hotter. When I graze my tongue along her lips once more, she finally opens her mouth, and the moan that leaves my lips is two seconds from belonging in a porno. I tangle my tongue with hers, and she responds, but I notice she is holding back a bit, and it’s driving me mad.
But this is exactly what I wanted.
When a loud bang fills our little spot, she jerks back, covering her mouth with her hand as she looks to the left, but I’m watching her. Shit, I am smitten with her.
Seriously.
“Justice, I need your help.”
Moon. Fucking Moon.
I glance over to where he is standing, his fingers pointing to the ladder that leads down. “Willy is drunk as fuck, and I need help getting him to his room.”
“There was no one else you could have asked?” I growl, noticing that Sofia is burning with embarrassment.
“You think I didn’t ask?” he asks dryly. “No one likes him, and since you’re one of the seniors, it’s your job.”
When he turns, he knows I’ll follow him because he’s right. As much as I wish he weren’t, he is. “Fuck.”
“Ryan—”
“I’m really sorry, but I doubt he saw anything.”
“He didn’t, but he isn’t stupid.”
“No, he isn’t.”
“And I doubt you bring girls up here to chitchat.”
“Actually, I’ve never brought anyone up here,” I say, taking her hand in mine and rubbing the inside of her wrist. “You’re the first.”
“Liar.”
“Promise.”
Her lips tilt a bit as her eyes search mine. “I should find Amelia.”
“Yeah, I gotta get Willy.”
When she tries to stand, I hold her hand, keeping her in place. She looks at me expectantly, but I can’t let her go yet. “Can I have your number?”
Her lips turn up into a wide grin. “For?”
“Figured we can chitchat.”
Her eyes brighten as she giggles softly. “Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Yeah, I’m a bit confused.”
“Confused? Did I do something to make you feel like that?” I ask, furrowing my brows. “I never meant to do that.”