38 #2
Tears filled her eyes. Instinctively, I stepped forward to catch them. I felt hollow knowing how much pain she went through, and how much she had loved someone else. How much she had sacrificed.
“Are you still in love with him?” I asked. My pulse ticked in my ears like a clock, waiting for her response.
“No.” Her voice was wet with a laugh. Her cheeks rose under my hand. “He’s kind of the worst.”
“I’m more than happy to go back out there and take care of the left side of his face,” I offered.
She smiled again, her tears lessening. “That’s pretty tempting. But I think one punch was enough.”
I nodded reluctantly. “Does he have anything to do with the PR stunt?”
She nodded. “He did an interview, months after our divorce, saying that I was verbally abusive and negligent. I assumed it was to get my attention because I refused to hear him out anymore. But the press had a field day with it. There was a recording of one of our phone calls released where I was screaming at him, and they used it as proof of what he said. I had lost everyone’s respect as an athlete.
I just hid because I couldn’t get away from the noise.
The PR stunt was my team’s only option to maintain my last sponsor. ”
It all made sense. The constant worry of people’s opinions and having to play perfectly. The fake smiles, the flawless appearance, the subtle reactions to wins. She didn’t want to give them anything else to criticize.
I ran my thumb along her cheekbone. It took every muscle in my body to keep it at a steady rhythm. “Why did no one question whether he was lying? Why did no one on your team make a statement about the cheating?” Why did no one help her?
“If I mentioned infidelity, no journalist would’ve stopped until they found the girl he slept with. They would’ve moved on to ruining her career next.”
I loved how much she cared, but I had no sympathy for this girl. “Who is she?”
“Another tennis player.” Jesus.
“Someone needs to know how much of an asshole he is. There must be something we can do. Something I can do.” I would personally pull apart every brick in his home to make him feel as alone and scared as she had.
“There’s nothing I can do. I’m already doing everything I can so that people don’t hate me.”
“Nobody hates you,” I argued.
“They do; you don’t get it.”
“The people that matter in your life love you.”
She shook her head insistently.
“Is this why you couldn’t answer me on the beach?” I asked.
“Kieran.” She parted her lips and then closed them, pacing again. “I’m not what you want.”
I couldn’t accurately explain how far from the truth that was. But I knew she wouldn’t believe me if I could. “What do you want?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “I want you to leave me alone.”
“Do you love me?” The words fell out before I could collect them.
I was fourteen all over again. I wanted to write her name in my notebook, put her picture in my locker, get a glimpse of her in the hallway.
My love for her was scrawled into the lines of my palm, the same way the impression of a racket was embedded in hers.
And now I was standing in front of her, my heart in her hands.
“There’s so much you still don’t know about me, and my career—my career, it’s hectic, and it takes so much out of me, but it comes first.”
I took a step forward. “That’s not what I asked.”
“You have no idea what type of person I am when I’m in a relationship and how much I let everything—”
“Luna—”
“Kieran, you don’t understand, there’s so much you haven’t—”
“Luna Aldridge, do you love me?”
“Yes!” she shouted with grit. She exhaled. “Yes, I love you.” It came out in a soft breath. Her chest dipped and rose. My shoulders did the same. Fighting for air, absorbing her answer.
“Good, because I’ve loved you for quite some time, and I’ve been waiting to say anything about it until I was positive that you didn’t absolutely hate me.”
Her mouth fell open. Then closed. Then opened. “But you don’t know—”
“God, you’re so damn stubborn.” I groaned, putting my hand on the back of her neck, pulling her in, and pressing my lips against hers. My hands traced the exposed skin on her back while she gripped my hips in a mind-numbing motion. “I want all of you. I want to be enough for you.”
Fifteen days. Fifteen days I had gone without touching her, smelling the vanilla along her neck, letting her nails sink into my hair, and feeling her skin under my hands.
Knowing she loved me amplified everything.
To be loved by her was to be the sun in the moon’s life.
But in reality, she was the sun, and I’d follow her the same way the moon did.
“I love you,” I mumbled between our lips.
“Say it again,” she sighed.
“I love you, Luna.” I pulled her hips against mine as she tilted her head, deepening the kiss. I ran my tongue along her bottom lip. Satisfyingly, she moaned in response, pulling me in closer by my belt loops.
“What are the chances this door locks?” She sighed.
“I will hold the doorknob myself if it means I can take this dress—”
Light wafted in as the door clicked open. We separated suddenly.
“Dear lord, I feel like I shouldn’t have seen that,” a woman with long blond hair protested.
“It’s about time!” another shouted, followed by whistling.
I pulled away, ready to step in front of Luna. But she twisted.
“It’s fine, we weren’t in the middle of something,” she grumbled. There were five women poking their heads in.
A woman with a dark bob stuck her head in next. “We need to get going now before someone comes in and kicks the two of you out for harming a guest. Let’s get moving before you make front page news tomorrow.”