Before anyone else could answer, Phoebe arrived at my side, cocking her hip, so damn close yet still so far away. “How about whoever wins this next play wins the whole game?” Her brow rose, and a confident smirk came to life.
She knew they didn't stand a chance.
“You're on!” Jace called out, while Rhea just groaned at having to move around again in any capacity.
“Erm, teammate?” I said, nudging Phoebe's damp skin on her arm.
She looked up at me with beautiful doe eyes that made the colour of the ocean look shite in comparison. “What?”
I gestured between us both. “Don't you think that's something we should have discussed first?”
“Why? You scared?”
“Fear is not an emotion I carry.”
“Okay, Mr Hard Man.” Phoebe turned her back on the others, side-eyeing me as she looked up and created an intimate moment between us that felt far too natural for any good to come of it. “Look, we can take them out in three moves, no problem.”
“The sun sure makes you confident.”
“Not the sun. I just believe in us.”
Jesus.
Us.
There’s an us now?
What the hell could I say to that?
I found myself swallowing my thoughts and nodding my agreement. “Fine.” I moved away from her to take up my position without saying another word.
Staying too close to her would have been dangerous, and we were already playing with fire.
Within seconds, Jace and Rhea served the ball, took their hits, and the volley was sent over the net to us, coming directly to me. I clamped my hands together and waited for the ball to connect with my joined fists, and when it did, I carefully aimed it Phoebe's way.
She’d been waiting for me exactly where she should have been, and she eyed the ball the whole way, but the moment she moved, her ankle seemed to give way at an odd angle, making her stumble slightly to the right, and when the ball connected with her hands, it went flying up in the air far too high.
The two of us seemed to look at it for what felt like a lifetime, and then it registered with me where this ball was going to fall, and there was only one way for me to get her to it.
Without thought, I ran up behind Phoebe, wrapped my big hands around her delicate hips, and I lifted her up into the air before the ball sailed back down to hit the net. With one perfectlyoutstretched hand, she smashed it down into the other side of the court with all her might, before my own feet went out from beneath me, and we both went crashing down to the sand.
I took the weight of the fall and the weight of her as much as I could, the air bursting out of my lungs in one long grunt of pain when she twisted and landed on top of me as though she trusted me to keep her safe.
And then it was just the two of us in the sand.
Heaving breaths mingling. Skin on skin. Sweat on sweat. Sun lotion on sun lotion.
Her legs tangled with mine.
Her tits against my chest.
Heartbeat to heartbeat.
No air between us.
The world seemed to stop still for the entirety of it.
We didn't cheer or celebrate our win. We didn't jump to our feet to rub our victory in Jace or Rhea's faces. Instead, we stared at each other's chests before finally daring ourselves to look up into each other’s eyes.
