After I successfully transferred the popcorn from its bag to an oversized bowl, Rayah patted the couch cushion beside her. “Come on. Film time,” she urged. “I promise I’ll keep my hands to myself.”
I barked out a nervous laugh before I could stop myself. Rayah had a way of making jokes that landed just south of appropriate, but somehow it came out charming instead of crass.
I sat down, my gaming controller abandoned on the coffee table. Rayah queued up highlights from our last game and began breaking down spacing and defensive reads like she was born to coach. It was … normal.Useful. I relaxed into the couch, crunching on popcorn between comments about switching versus trapping.
Mid-review, her buttery fingers brushed mine as we both reached for the bowl. It was nothing. Except it wasn’t. My stomach did a stupid flip, and the couch suddenly felt smaller, the glow of the TV more intimate, like we were teenagers on a movie date.
Rayah noticed the change. She tilted her head, dimples appearing again. “See? Just like I said. Timing.” She wet her lips. “I don’t know what it is …” she trailed off. “But there’s something about you, Bennet. You’ve got that rizz.”
Rayah Thompson was gorgeous. Everyone knew it. She was the kind of woman that made you do a double-take, the kind who made highlight reelsandmagazine covers. And she was sitting next to me, inches away, smelling like cocoa butter and salt, and looking at me like she’d already made up her mind.
“I’m not … I mean—Eva.” My words came out rough and uneven.
Rayah leaned back, giving me space, but her smile didn’t falter. “Relax, Lex. I’m not trying to steal you. I just thought that maybe with her gone, with Tash gone—we could keep each other company. No drama, no strings. Just popcorn and …” she wiggled her buttery fingers, “…whatever.”
For a heartbeat, I didn’t breathe.
I could feel the weight of the moment—the soft trap of temptation, the almost-too-easy out if I wanted it. But Eva’s face was the one that lit up my phone. Eva’s voice was the one that steadied me when everything else felt off.
My hand twitched against the couch cushion, wanting to retreat but afraid to make it more awkward. I was too stunned to come up with a response. My throat worked, but nothing came out.
Rayah didn’t need words. She licked the salt from her fingers, grinning at my silence like it was the confirmation she wanted.
“Think on it. Talk to Eva. Or not,” she said, standing up. “We’re going to be down here for a while.”
She left me on the couch, the game tape still running in the background, the popcorn bowl heavy in my lap.
The clankof weights hitting the rack echoed through the training room. My arms were already on fire, but I could feel the events from the previous evening burning a hole in my chest even worse. Jazz hovered just behind the barbell as she spotted me. I’d been dying to tell someone the moment it had happened, and she was the only person I trusted.
I gripped the bar, feeling the tension in my arms and the heat in my chest. “You’re not going to believe this.”
Jazz’s eyes narrowed, steadying me. “Try me.”
“Rayah hit on me.”
Her hands tightened slightly on the bar, but she didn’t flinch. “For real?”
“Last night.” I exhaled and pressed the bar up one last time before locking it back into place. “She came over unannounced for popcorn and game tape.”
Jazz snorted. “Is that code for freaky sex?”
“No.” I sat up and huffed. “We literally ate microwave popcorn and watched footage of our last game against the Inferno. And then she hit on me.”
“Define ‘hit on me,” Jazz pressed.
“She and her girlfriend apparently have an open relationship while they’re on different sides of the planet,” I said. “She basically implied that I should do the same.”
Jazz leaned against the bench. Her expression was somewhere between amused and impressed. “That seems very enlightened.”
“I should tell Eva, right?” The words felt a little desperate in my throat.
“Shit, I don’t know, Lex. It’s not like it’s going to happen again. You told Rayah you’re not interested, right?”
“I told her I was dating Eva, yeah.”
Jazz cocked her head. “But did you specifically say you weren’t interested?”
“Not in so many words, no.” I grimaced.
