Double Score

She shoved me.

I laughed. She was adventurous in bed and I fucking loved it. Talking about it, however, didn’t seem to be her strong suit.

“I’ll see you this week.”

She looked up. “I still think it’s going to be a bad idea to see each other.”

“It’s a ninety-minute drive. I will be there. We just have to figure out our schedules. We can do this, Natalia.”

“But the Warriors have a home game and then we travel the next week to the DC Sharks.

“Damn, I forgot they played the Sharks next week. I mean, you play the Sharks.”

It was going to take some getting used to that I was seeing a girl who worked for the Warriors. She wasn’t completely wrong about the implications it would have for us. My job wasn’t at stake, but I didn’t think it would go over well with the fans if they knew I was hooking up with a Goddess. I was trying to ignore all that noise and focus on her. On us. On what I needed to get through this season. She was what I needed.

“Yes, and we have another road game the next week. I’m basically gone half of October.”

I took her by the shoulders. “Don’t worry. I will see you this week.”

She chewed her lower lip. “I want that more than anything. I do.”

“Then don’t say anything else. I’ll make it happen. Now get back to your room, before the tattletale rats you out.”

She reached up on her toes to kiss me. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

I closed the door behind her and walked back to the bed. It was covered in whipped cream and smelled like us, but I fell on top of it and slept for hours.

That same day I checked out of the suite around noon. My phone had been blowing up. The team was pissed I missed the Dean. I was going to have to come up with some story that didn’t include Natalia.

No one would believe I’d turn down the kind of girls at that party for one of my own. It didn’t work like that. At the very least, I probably should have shown up for a few minutes. But after the game, instead of getting ready for the Dean, I tracked down the Goddesses’ hotel.

And when the elevator doors opened and I saw Natalia, there was no way I was headed to a different party. She was all the party I needed.

I pulled my hoodie over my head and found my car in the garage under the hotel. I had meant every word I said to her in the doorway. I was headed to Austin this week. I would see her and we would figure this out.

I had let her get away once before and I wasn’t going to let it happen again.

20

Natalia

It must have been the post-sex glow, but everyone kept asking me what new skin care products I used for the photo shoot.

I laughed them off. “I’ve been drinking a ton of water,” I explained.

Heather eyed me. She was next to me in the row. We were standing on a bridge over the river. “Really?”

“Really,” I responded.

“Nothing else?”

“Nope.” I smiled at the camera. God, I couldn’t remember being this happy. Every part of me felt light and airy. It was strange and unique. It reminded me of how I used to feel on stage. That feeling of euphoria as the prima ballerina.

The photographer asked us to pose for a few more shots and then he called it a wrap. I jogged down the stairs. Heather was on my heels.

“I didn’t hear you come in last night,” she snickered.