“Fine,” I said eventually, after what had to be a full minute of my teammates staring at me, waiting for me to confirm what they thought they already knew. “There might be someone.”
The rows around me erupted in cheers and catcalls, and I groaned, burying my face in my hands.
“I fucking knew it!” Petrov shouted in my ear. “What’s her name? What does she do? How’d you meet her?”
“Get away from me.” Lowering my hands from my face, I shoved at his shoulder. “I don’t want to speak about it anymore. And if any of you assholes say anything to the media, I’ll personally make sure you can’t walk for a week.”
Petrov’s humour died away. “We wouldn’t say anything.”
“I know. Just…can you drop it now? Please?”
“Alright.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “Consider it dropped. Just know we’re happy for you.”
They thought they were happy for me. But how would they feel if they knew the person who was having this effect on me wasn’t a girlfriend but was Brayden’s little brother?
My phone buzzed as I was lying on my bed, reviewing footage from Dallas’s previous games. It was a lost cause because as much as I wanted to do everything in my power to give myself and the team an advantage, my mind was filled with thoughts of a gorgeous green-eyed man who looked at me like no one else ever had before.
Jude:
What’s your room number? When can I see you?
Me:
Room 1909. Bed check at 11. Come after that
Jude:
What if someone sees me?
Me:
Say you’re going to see Brayden. He’s on my floor
Jude:
OK. See you soon
The smile I’d been suppressing on the plane reappeared, and this time, I didn’t try to bite it back.
See you soon, British.
Twenty minutes after the assistant coaches had made their rounds of curfew checks, there was a soft knock at my door. I opened it to find Jude standing in the hallway, dressed in dark jeans and a black hoodie, like he was trying to blend into the shadows.
“Nice room,” he murmured as I closed the door behind him.
“Is it?” I moved closer to him, dipping my head to trail my nose up the side of his face.
“Mmm. Dunno,” he said with a breathless laugh, sliding his fingers around my nape and then up into my hair.
I pressed a kiss to the sensitive skin beneath his ear, making him shiver. “Me neither. How was your flight?”
“Long. Boring. How was yours?”
“It was okay. The team gave me shit for my secret girlfriend. I admitted I was seeing someone, but they didn’t get anything more out of me.”
“Seeing someone, huh?” He fucking beamed at me with that dimpled smile, and I had to kiss his dimples.
“Yeah.”For nowwent unspoken, and I pushed our expiry date to the back of my mind.
