Chapter 17
HOW DO YOU FEEL?” ALEX’S VOICE RUMBLED IN HER EAR. SHE lay draped across his chest, their bodies entwined in the center of his bed. His fingertips traced patterns over her back, making her shiver despite the heat they generated together.
The sun rose behind the water in the distance, reflecting in through his bedroom windows, a spectacular sight to wake up to.
She stretched against him and brushed a kiss to the sharp cut of his collarbone, trailing kisses up over his neck, his stubble scratching against her lips until her mouth hovered over his.
“Incredible,” she said, letting her lips move against his. It felt so good to give in, to stop fighting against what her body had been pleading for since he’d arrived. The battle against her own will had been exhausting.
“Incredible sounds about right,” he said as her mouth moved down his jawline again. He drew her face to his and pressed his mouth to hers in a short, sweet kiss. “Good morning.”
“Is it?”
“Barely. It’s only six. You fell asleep on me,” he accused playfully, running his knuckles over the curve of her hip, then opening his hand and sliding it over her waist, pulling her even closer. “I was ready to go another round.”
“It’s been a long couple of days. I was tired,” she said, tracing a line of freckles that dotted his chest with her fingertip. She watched, fascinated, as gooseflesh broke out over his skin.
“Hmm, sleepiness is weakness of character.” His hand crept down her thigh and he lightly stroked the back of her knee, sending a shiver through her entire body.
Laughing, she snuggled closer. “You stole that.”
“Doesn’t make it any less true,” he teased, sliding out from beneath her and letting her head fall onto his pillow.
He reached for his nightstand, brushing aside the two empty condom wrappers, and picked up an orange plastic bottle.
He shook two pills into the palm of his hand and swallowed them dry.
“What’s that?” she asked, propping herself up on her elbows.
“Just some anti-inflammatories.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Prescription strength. Your knee?”
Alex smirked, and before she could react, he was leaning over her, his lips brushing against hers as he said, “I carried you in here last night, love. Did it seem like my knee was hurt?”
She could still feel his broad chest as she rested against it, his arms easily taking her weight, and the feeling that she was going to burst out of her skin. “No, but—”
“No buts.” He cut her off and the mattress shifted as he got out of bed. In seconds he had on a pair of basketball shorts and was digging around in his dresser for a shirt.
Feeling a little exposed, Penny pulled a sheet over her body.
He turned, mouth open, ready to say something, but he stopped himself. For a moment he stared, his eyes scorching her skin the way his hands and mouth had…
“What?” she asked, feeling heat rising in her cheeks. It seemed so natural to let him look at her during their frenzy in the night, but in the light of day, even the barely there red and orange beginnings of the sun rising through his windows, it was different, more personal.
He blinked and shook his head. “You feel like a run before we go to meet Dom? Unless I wore you out completely…”
Then, unbidden, a soft growl echoed up from her stomach.
Penny bit her lip. “Breakfast first?”
“As the lady wishes,” he said, his gaze raking over her again, before turning abruptly and leaving the room.
Penny slipped out from beneath the sheet and gathered her clothes.
After stepping into her shorts and sliding her shirt over her head, she sat back down on the bed, trying to tame her hair into a ponytail as reality set in.
She’d done exactly what she promised herself she wouldn’t do, and now what?
Had she woken up to a happily ever after or another walk of shame?
It felt more like limbo, like their fate was entirely in their own hands, but that the slightest misstep could shatter everything.
She wandered out of the bedroom and down the hallway toward the kitchen. A small pang fluttered through her chest when she saw his luggage against the wall. They weren’t leaving for another three days, and he didn’t strike her as the type to pack way in advance.
“You’re already packed for France?” she asked, propping herself against the archway that opened to the kitchen.
Alex was leaning against the island at the center of the room, facing away from her, flipping through a newspaper. “Nah, heading to London tomorrow to see my mum before the tournament.”
“Does Dom know?” It stung a little that she hadn’t known, but then again, why would he have told her?
“Yeah, had it planned for a while now.”
“Oh,” she said, moving to him. Her bare feet cold against the tile floor, she stepped up behind him, wrapping her arms around his torso and pressing her cheek against his warm back.
“I would have told you,” he said, turning in her arms, “but—honestly, love—I didn’t think you’d care.”
She sighed. He was right, she wouldn’t have cared or at least she would have pretended she didn’t.
Blinking up at him, she shrugged. “It’s okay. I’ll have to recruit Jack to hit with me until we leave.”
Narrowing his eyes, he leaned in close. He was about to kiss her, but her stomach growled again.
“I believe I promised you breakfast,” he said, motioning to the counter behind him, where two tall pink smoothies were waiting. “Strawberry banana.”
Her favorite. “Did you google me?”
Smirking, he shrugged. “Maybe. Drink up,” he said, handing her a straw, “and then we run. Gotta keep our legs under us if we’re going to kick ass in France.”
They drank in a comfortable silence and when they finished, Penny took their glasses and washed them out in the sink.
“Let me grab my trainers and we’ll go.”
“No,” she said, drying her hands. She grasped his hand and led him toward the glass doors that opened to the beach. “Barefoot.”
“Barefoot in the sand?”
“Barefoot,” she confirmed as she released him and took off across the beach, sand kicking up around her legs. He caught up easily enough and they ran together, their strides matching remarkably well for two people separated by almost a foot in height.
The rhythm of their steps set a beat behind her thoughts as she ran to the end of the inlet.
Past the jetty, she could see the edge of her neighborhood bathed in the early-morning light.
She was just a few blocks from home, could run there if she wanted.
Her parents’ faces swam in her head and for a second she entertained the idea of bringing him home with her and introducing him to her mom and dad.
And just as fast, she dismissed it. She still hadn’t figured out what this was for herself yet.
Bringing her parents into things would be way too much, way too fast.
Penny stopped, and it took a few strides for Alex to realize she was no longer beside him. He jogged back, his breathing harsh.
“What’s wrong?”
She didn’t know how to put it into words. How could she explain that she wanted him to be a part of her life, but she didn’t know if it was possible?
“I…” she began, but stopped, shaking her head and looking up into the sky for answers.
“I swear to God, love, you’re scaring me. Whatever it is, out with it.”
“I don’t know what this is, you and me,” she said in one breath.
He brought a hand up and ran it through his hair. “Christ, is that all? I thought…”
“What did you think?” Her eyes met his.
“I thought you were…” He hesitated, searching for the right words. “I don’t know, regretting it, like in Australia.”
Shaking her head, she stepped closer. “Should I? Regret it, I mean?”
Alex stepped forward, his hands reaching for her, settling against her cheeks, his thumbs brushing gently over her skin.
“Penny, I’ve never—I don’t know how to describe how I feel about you, but I know I’ve never felt it before, and I’ve spent every moment since I got here scared shitless that you wouldn’t want anything to do with me.
For a while there, I thought I’d have to live with that, and trust me when I say, it wasn’t pretty. ”
He was one of the most confident men she’d ever met. She couldn’t imagine what he said was even possible, let alone how he actually felt.
“I don’t believe you,” she said with a laugh, pulling away—the seriousness in his voice was a little scary.
Alex reached for her hand. “Maybe we ought to have a little more faith in each other. Can you do that? Can you have faith in me?”
Penny pushed up onto her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips, hoping he wouldn’t notice she didn’t answer. The truth was, she wasn’t sure if she could, at least not yet.
A few moments later, she pulled away breathlessly. “As much as I’d love to stay here all day, we better get going.”
“Relax, love. It’s early still.”
“It’s not that early. Dom’ll be waiting for us. Come on.”
Dom stood on their practice court, arms crossed, clearly unimpressed that they’d arrived ten minutes after seven, the time he’d asked them to be there: an early start time to help them acclimate to the time change once they arrived in Paris.
He raised an eyebrow, clearly expecting an explanation, but Alex beat Penny to it.
“My fault,” he said. “I asked her to wait for me.”
Their coach’s mouth twisted into a frown. “All right. You know the drill. Ten minutes, ten Einsteins. Stretch out and then get going.”
Alex groaned beside her, but Penny laughed.
“I told you so,” she said as they ran through their stretching regime, starting with the toes and working their way up the body.
Then they ran side by side, sprinting from line to line, pushing each other with every stride.
They ran through the last line after their tenth circuit, and as they pulled up, his shoulder bumped hers.
She caught herself easily and brushed against him as she turned back toward the court.
“All right, enough messing around,” Dom barked, pushing off the fence where he’d been watching them run. “I’m not going to have another fight on my hands, am I?”
Penny glanced up at Alex, who’d sidled up to her, leaning over her shoulder.
A day ago, she would have pulled away, but now she reveled in having him close.
If she was truly going to surrender to this, to stop fighting, she had to go all in and try to maintain a balance between those feelings and what she wanted to accomplish on the court.
“Good,” Dom said. “I want the both of you at the top of your game in Paris.”
He tossed Alex a ball. “You serve first.”
They fell into the routine they’d established over the last few weeks of training as they warmed up. The tension from their previous sessions was gone, replaced by a comfortable rhythm, controlled and precise.
When they were both ready, Alex tossed a ball high in the air and fired a laser beam down the centerline, a perfect ace, impossible for anyone to return.
“Wow,” Penny called out across the court, but her eyes narrowed when she saw a flash of pain flit across his face. She wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“Al, you okay?” Dom asked, rising from his seat on the sidelines and ignoring the wave of dismissal from the younger man.
“I’m fine,” Alex protested when Penny jogged to the other side of the court.
“You’re not fine,” Dom said. “It’s your knee, right?”
“Left, actually, and it’s fine, only a twinge.”
“But you took meds this morning—you shouldn’t have any pain at all,” Penny said, but as the words flew from her mouth, she knew they were the wrong ones. Dom’s eyes widened.
“You’re on pain medication?” he asked. “You told me that knee was fine.”
“It is fine,” Alex snapped. “I wouldn’t even call it pain, like I said, just a twinge now and again.”
“Bullshit. Go get it looked at in the trainers’ room and we’re going to get an MRI done before you leave for London.”
“If I say I’m fine, I’m fine, Dom,” Alex said. “I’m not one of your students. I don’t jump when you snap your fingers.”
“Alex, maybe you should get it looked at,” Penny said, her brow furrowing as she studied his knee, like she could see what was wrong with it from the outside.
“Don’t be bullheaded about this, Al. We’re just asking you to have it checked,” Dom said, his tone softening.
Alex wasn’t having any of it. “And I’m asking you to trust me, but apparently there isn’t a lot of that around here.”
He said the words to Dom, but Penny felt them deep in her chest, and as she watched him walk off the court, his stride confident and steady—no hint of a limp at all—she knew they were meant for her.