“I am. But don’t get too close.” I keep her at arm’s length. “I don’t want to pass this on.”
“Have you kissed Holland lately?” Britt’s question is so abrupt I choke on my own spit and start coughing.
“I’m sorry,what?“ I ask, recovering myself. I’m acutely aware of both Zelda and Jennah frowning in my periphery.
Britt seems oblivious. She shrugs. “I’m thinking he’d be the one who had the most to be concerned about if you were swapping spit with him. He’s got his tournament coming up.”
“Right. Yeah. I mean, no. No kissing between Holland and me. I mean, not yet at least.” I laugh nervously, knowing that’s a lie, and the only person I have to blame for our golf cart kiss is myself. I don’t dare meet Holland’s gaze, though I can imagine his brown eyes are twinkling with delight at my expense. I square my shoulders. “He should be all good in terms of staying healthy—at least in regard to me.”
The lies I spewed sit all wrong on my tongue, and a vine of guilt grows up my spine. I don’t want to be dishonest with my new friends, but I’ve got to save face here, right? Also, if Holland comes down with this virus ahead of the Grand Masters, I’ll never forgive myself. I say a silent prayer that he wasn’t kidding when he said he has a solid immune system.
And then all coherent thought flees my mind when I feel his pinky finger brush against mine. A chill shoots down the length of my spine, and fire simultaneously licks its way up the back of my neck. All the hairs come alive on my skin, and I don’t dare look down because I’m not going to draw attention to it. I shift my hand slightly, thinking it was probably a mistake. But a moment later, his finger is back, grazing mine and causing a thousand tiny shooting stars to fly through my head.
22
Shivers
Holland
“Did you sleep alright, Mallory?” I ask, and Mallory’s gaze snaps to mine. She squints question marks from her eyes, and I know it’s going to set me back, but I’m trying to immortalize the feel of her skin brushing against mine and the way the contact is sending shivers of awareness to nerve endings I didn’t know existed. I don’t move my hand, just keep it dangling casually at my side. My pinky is on fire where it’s gently resting against hers. She pulled away once, but now she’s not moving. I keep my face completely neutral, betraying nothing.
“I slept fine,” she says stiffly.
“That makes one of us. I slept horribly,” I announce to the group.
“Oh no!” Jennah puts her hand on my chest from my opposite side and pouts. “What happened?”
“Fell asleep on my couch.” I shrug, trying to subtly dislodge her talons. “It’s not nearly as comfy as my bed. I would have slept better in my bed.”
I move my gaze around the circle, and when I finally cut a side-eyed glance to Mallory, her face is redder than an overly ripe tomato. But she has her mouth set in a challenging line, and I know that look. It’s the one that says she’s not going to let me get away with any of my crap. She’s also not going to pull her hand away from mine. I can read her mind right now. That would be letting me win, and she’s nothing if not a fierce competitor. She moves her hands slightly, rubbing her skin against mine, puttingsome space between us, only to brush the back of my hand again, and I swear my stomach bottoms out.
“I’m sure you could have moved to your bed, right? If you had gotten off the couch earlier in the evening?” She clicks her tongue. “Sounds like we should work on your discipline at practice.”
She turns and stares me down, a challenging gleam in her green eyes. I suppress a smile.
What I want to say is that I exercised more discipline than most last night. A gorgeous woman who I have feelings for was asleep in my bed. My discipline was tried to within an inch of its life by giving Mallory her privacy, by not making some excuse about needing to share the bed with her so I could “accidentally” fall asleep with my arms wrapped around her and her body pressed against mine.
Now my heart rate is kicking up with frustration, thinking about how much I want that and how Mallory all but said I can’t have it.
“Maybe we should.” I shrug easily. “But I also kept feeling like I wasn’t alone in my apartment. I didn’t want to make any sudden movements, you know? Because who knows what would have happened then.”
Zelda gasps. “Do you live with a ghost? Is your apartment haunted?”
“Not that I know of.” I keep my eyes on Mallory. “Though, last night, it felt like a little fairy had cast a spell on me. It was like I was in a dreamland.”
A dreamland where Mallory opened up to me and I to her, and we were getting to know each other like normal people. Normal people who might actually be attracted to each other. Who might be falling for someone they least expected to fall for but now kind of can’t help it.
Or maybe I’m speaking for myself.
Because Mallory looks like she wants to murder me right now. Was the fairy analogy too much? Maybe so. But she is a sprite, that one, all fiery and fluttering.
“Hopefully you were dreaming of us,” Jennah giggles.
I glance at her with a smile and look around the circle again before isolating Mallory. I drag my pinky across hers one last time before slinging my hands into my pockets. I wasn’t dreaming about all of them, but one woman in particular? One hundred percent.
I let my smile widen with the truth. “Yeah, definitely.”
Chad Erikson takes his position at the front of the room, and that’s my cue. I step up alongside him and don’t look at Mallory again.
