Chapter 24 #2
“I don’t want things to get weird between us.”
“The only thing changing is that I get to have you sleeping in my bed and moaning beneath me, Lana.” A shiver runs through her, and my lips tip up at the edges. “Bonus if I wake up with you in my bed, but we can work on it.”
“So I can still be mean to you when everyone’s around?” she asks.
“Oh, I hope you’re mean to me for a good long time, heartbreaker.”
“Mmm, you like that, huh? A girl being mean to you?”
“From you? Yeah. But I think I like a lot of things from you, Lana.” She smiles, and the look is similar to the one she gave me yesterday when we were in that store and saw all of the toys. It reminds me of what’s in my pocket. “I brought you something.”
“You did?” she asks, confused, and I nod, pulling out the small item.
While pacing the drug testing center, I found a store with a Calico Critters display in a corner and bought a couple for Lana without thinking.
I grabbed one and slid it into my pocket before heading down to the arena.
I’d nearly forgotten about it, but now that she has that pretty, happy look on her face, I’m pleased I remembered.
A teeny tiny Calico Critter, a cat with a little sun hat.
“Oh my god, look at her!” she squeals, pulling it from my hand. After inspecting it, she looks at me with bright, delighted eyes before moving to her tiptoes and pressing kisses to my face. “You’re the sweetest ever.”
“There’s another one in my room, plus more of those Nerds candies, but you have to come to my room tonight to get it.”
“Are you bribing me to spend time with you?” she asks, lifting an eyebrow.
“Whatever it takes, Lana,” I say, then dip my head to finally kiss her.
It’s the same as when she patched my eye, in the closet, and all of the kisses we shared last night—filled with heat and desire and something unexpectedly familiar.
It’s like my body has always known her, always known the way to move my lips against hers, known the way to run my tongue along her skin to make her breath hitch.
Her arms slide around my neck, and my hands move to her hips, then down to her ass to pull her closer.
As also seems to happen when I kiss Lana, we both forget about the outside world; only the moment we’re sharing matters. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last long before we’re interrupted.
“Ahem,” a voice says, and when I look over my shoulder, a brunette stands there, an exasperated look on her face.
“Love that you two are boning, but everyone’s looking for you,” Demi says, wearing a shit-eating grin. The woman is just as much of a ballbuster as Lana is, but in a different way.
“Come on, pretty boy. We’ve got a crowd to please,” Lana says with a sigh. My hand is on her lower back as I guide her out toward the arena, the crowd already cheering loudly.
Everything feels a bit different, a bit lighter as I slide into my truck and perform my admittedly a bit neurotic pre-race checks. I could tell myself it’s different just because I finally landed the front flip, that I finally tackled that hurdle, but deep down I know that’s not it.
It’s Lana.
It’s Lana’s sunshine, joy, and ease that have me feeling more confident than I can remember.
And when I land a front flip again, everything is loud.
The crowd’s cheers are near deafening. An announcer shouts over the loudspeaker, “He’s back!
” My crew chief is shouting excitedly through my in-helmet comms. But the only thing I care about is Lana cheering in her truck.
I point to her as I park my truck, Jordan lining up to perform his own freestyle routine.
She returns the gesture, and even though I can’t see through her helmet and visor, I know she’s grinning.
When we move from the press room to the greenroom, I brush against her, my hand just barely grazing over her lower back, and she gives me a subtle smile.
I desperately want to pull her into me, to kiss her hard and deep in front of everyone, to stake my claim, but I won’t until I know that’s what she wants.
As a woman in a sport dominated by men, with a large chunk of the industry already looking down on her just because of her gender, I don’t want to make things any harder for her.
She’s seated beside me, and while I don’t tease her this time, I thoroughly enjoy setting my hand on her thigh beneath the table.
Even more, I love the way hers settles on top of mine, thumb grazing over my knuckles in a way that feels just as unexpectedly natural.
She holds my hand tighter when a reporter asks about the drug testing, and I refute the claim the same way Courtney instructed me to.
“Rome, you landed a trick you haven’t in some time—my notes show you haven’t flipped since before the accident. What was special today?” I look around the room, catching my moment and grinning wide at the reporter, then at Lana, who looks even more confused.
“Had the right team behind me, and the right competition motivating me.” Without even looking, I know she rolls her eyes in a way I like a whole hell of a lot.