Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
LEO
“I can’t even move,” she breathed.
I chuckled next to her, half my face buried in the pillows as I mumbled a response, “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“Good,” she couldn’t even roll over to look at me, “Very, very good.”
* * *
It was one week after Vincent gave me a concussion. It was my first day back at rugby training because Taylor didn’t want me participating in any games or taking any hard hits yet. They didn’t hesitate to remind me how hard I fell when I wasn’t recovering from a concussion. But I needed to get out of my flat. I wasn’t allowed back at work until next week, according to Brandon, and I was itching to do something with my time besides spiral over Jacqueline Williams.
Jacqueline never came over again. She never invited me over to her flat again. Instead, she would text me to check in and make sure I didn’t have any additional symptoms from my concussion or to simply chat. She would send me what songs she was listening to, and we would FaceTime when we ate dinner at our separate flats.
I didn’t care about my fucking concussion anymore.
I just wanted to know where she and I stood.
Could I keep casually interacting with her at work without knowing if she loved me like I loved her? I wasn’t sure. Each passing day felt like torture. My mind spiraled with a constant stream of worst-case scenarios.
“Last one!” Taylor shouted when we finished the last lap of the day. Zaid was glued to my side, even though I told him he didn’t have to be, he watched me carefully as we came to a slow jog, stopping by our bags at the edge of the pitch.
“Over here!” I heard Taylor call from behind us. I glanced at them over my shoulder, confused by the smirk they were wearing as they jogged toward us. They winked at me before waving their hand at someone near the edge of the park.
When I followed their gaze, I widened mine when I saw a familiar beauty walking toward the pitch.
Next to her was a man. Instinctually, I wanted to shove him away from her, but as they approached I realized the similarities. The dark chocolate hair, dark eyes, the shape of their mouths.
It must have been her brother, Marco. He was speaking low, and his dark eyes kept darting over to me with a smile on his face. Jacqueline would nod at him, but her eyes stayed locked on me.
Behind them, Signe, Mary, Jamie, and even Nicole all followed. Mary and Jamie were carrying a large speaker, and Taylor ran over to them to take it before it dropped.
Jacqueline wasn’t wearing her office attire, even though she must have come straight from the office based on the time of day. She wore a cream-colored sweatshirt and sweatpants. She loved baggy clothes, but these were a couple of sizes too big for her.
She probably loved it.
“Do you have any plans right now?” Jacqueline asked as she finally approached Zaid and me, with no segue into the question.
I stared at her, wondering how in the fuck she still took my breath away when she was dressed in the frumpiest clothes I had ever seen her wear, before I answered, “Um, no.”
She nodded.
Then she shifted from foot to foot, twisting her hands together.
She was nervous. But why?
I was practically holding my breath before she released a large one of her own and stepped closer to me, speaking lower.
Behind her, Marco smiled, crossing his arms.
“…Have I ever told you what I think about your eyes?” Jacqueline asked. She kept her own down, tracing a delicate finger along the collar of her sweatshirt.
I thought about it for half a second before replying, “No?” like my answer was a question.
She nodded, tucking her lips between her teeth before replying, “I think that they’re beautiful.”
I gave Mary and Signe curious glances, because they just stood behind Jacqueline with amused expressions, before looking back at her and responding with, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she sucked in a short breath, holding it, and lifted her gaze to meet mine, “…They’re such a specific shade of light blue. Icy, almost. The first time I saw your eye color in that bar… I thought that they reminded me of glaciers.”
My facial expression smoothed at her words, but my body tensed.
Jacqueline held my eyes captive as I tilted my head at her in question, wondering if her words meant what I thought. She nodded once, her lips in a hard line as she silently confirmed my suspicion.
“…as long as we have a safety word. Do you have one in mind?”
“Glacier.”
I didn’t know what to say.
I was speechless.
But Jacqueline didn’t let me go. No, she locked me in with her stare, the two of us forgetting about our audience on the grass. It wasn’t until Jacqueline tapped her collar with a finger that she released her hypnotic hold on me and turned towards Mary.
“Can you help me set it up?” Jacqueline asked.
Mary pulled her phone out, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Alright,” Jacqueline stepped back from me and shook her hands out, nerves taking over her body language, “Alright.”
Marco stepped around Jacqueline to hold his hand toward to me, “Before we get distracted, I wanted to introduce myself. I’m the one she took the picture for.” He winked at me after that.
I shook his hand and nodded as if any of this made sense.
Then he stepped back to pat Jacqueline on the back before joining the others.
“What’s happening?” I asked, but all of them ignored me. Signe was beaming though, her eyes bouncing between Jacqueline and me with anticipation. I stared again at the sweatpants and sweatshirt that Jacqueline wore, wondering why this seemed important.
Jacqueline shifted from foot to foot as Mary and Taylor started doing something with the large speaker they set on the ground, “Think you can stick around for a few more minutes?”
I stared at her for a moment before nodding again, because apparently, that was all I could manage right now.
She licked her lips before her eyes shifted to something over my shoulder. I followed her gaze to see the rest of my rugby team scattered where they left their own bags, watching this interaction with curiosity.
I frowned at them, ready to tell Jacqueline we could talk somewhere else, but her back was already to me.
She seemed to be looking for a good spot, her sneaker-covered foot dragging across the grass.
I exhaled a breath and ran my hands through my hair, before scraping one down my face in an attempt to relax. I almost stepped toward her again but stopped. Instead, my leg started bouncing, a restless movement I hadn’t dealt with in quite a while. I wasn’t sure how I could focus on anything else after Jacqueline dropped that bomb on me.
Do you have one in mind?
Glacier.
I wouldn’t get any sleep tonight knowing that’s how she chose her safe word for us.
“How’s it goin’, Zaiddy?” Signe asked as she stepped toward her boyfriend and puckered her lips for a kiss. He had just put his glasses back on, now that training was over, and leaned down to comply with a loud smack of lips.
“Good, how are you?” Zaid replied and glanced up toward the random speaker, “Do you need help with that, T?”
“I think we got it,” they replied.
“What is going on?” I asked again.
Taylor didn’t respond, instead, they just wiggled their eyebrows at me over their shoulder while they stood back from Jacqueline and the speaker.
“Connected.” Mary gave Jacqueline a thumbs up before promptly following Taylor off to the side, giving Jacqueline a wide berth.
“Oi—” I tried asking again, “What are you—”
“Calm your British-booty down.” Taylor pointed at me, then pointed behind me. For some reason, I obeyed, crossing my arms and taking a couple of steps back from Jacqueline like everyone else had, as she shook her hands out.
“You ready, J?” Taylor asked.
“Wait, wait, let me record this for Violet,” Signe spoke from the opposite side of the small semi-circle all of us created around Jacqueline.
“Not gonna lie, I was kind of hoping you all would have better things to do…” Jacqueline’s voice sounded nervous, and my muscles tensed with the need to hold her.
“Absolutely not,” Mary shook her head “Chop, chop, girlie.”
“Tell me when,” Taylor instructed, as they tapped on Mary’s mobile.
“Fine, fine,” Jacqueline grumbled, “Ready!”
“You got this, sis,” Marco added, with a grin toward his sister.
Mary tapped on her cell a few times, and suddenly, “Everytime We Touch” by Cascada started playing from the speaker. Very loudly. It echoed across the pitch and gained the attention of some teammates who were in the middle of leaving but halted in curiosity.
Jacqueline dramatically straightened her spine. She brushed her hair behind her shoulders and lifted her chin as she inhaled through her nose. She pulled heart-shaped sunglasses out of her sweatpants pockets and placed them over her eyes. Then she started shifting her hips sensually from side to side.
It took my brain a second to catch up to what I was seeing, but it wasn’t until Jacqueline stepped to the side and back, and the bass dropped that I realized I wasn’t hallucinating.
Jacqueline was… dancing .
At my rugby training.
And the moves she used reminded me a lot of the ancient, pixelated music video to this song.
…It was then that I realized that this was a planned performance.
Behind Jacqueline, Signe had her phone out, recording it.
Cheers, applause, and laughter came from everyone else as Jacqueline stepped forward and ripped off her sweatshirt.
My eyes could not have gotten any bigger.
My mouth was hanging open in shock, but I couldn’t find it in me to close it.
Because Jacqueline was making unwavering eye contact with me through her sunglasses—miraculously still on her face. When she bent down to rip off her break-away sweatpants, I almost fainted at the sight of her in a very similar outfit that Cascada wore in the music video.
She wore a bright orange tube top with a thick black belt around the waist and a black skirt. Instead of knee-high black leather boots, Jacqueline opted for sneakers with scrunched socks at her ankles.
Jacqueline even went as far as to run her fingers through her dark hair as she continued to dance.
There was a long break in between verses, where just the music played and the beat bumped.
During this time, Jacqueline danced.
And danced, taking up most of the space in the half-circle our friends created for her.
It was choreography that was simple and easy to pull off but didn’t reduce how effortlessly sexy she looked. How her hips swung perfectly with the beat, and how her hands traced the delicate curve of her waist.
The music video that Mary and I used to play on repeat over and over as teens.
It was obvious that Jacqueline had practiced this performance many, many times.
The final bridge of the song played, and Jacqueline was panting as she strutted up to me, sensually lip-syncing the lyrics. She even went as far as to dramatically flip her hair, sliding one of her palms up my chest, running her other hand down her neck, staying in character.
I was hypnotized, vaguely aware of the cheering coming from our rugby team and Taylor. Of Zaid bringing his thumb and finger to his mouth to whistle. Jacqueline lifted her hands to her hair again, turning around to grind her arse near my groin to tease me with her dancing.
She looked up at me over her shoulder, and I instinctively leaned down to bring our lips closer together, before Jacqueline smirked and stepped away from me.
No .
There was obviously more to the dance because the chorus still needed to play two more times, but I didn’t give a damn.
I grabbed Jacqueline’s arm, startling her out of her routine as I tugged her back to me.
And I kissed her.
Right then and there, in front of all of our friends and my teammates.
For everyone to see.
I kissed her because as far as everyone on this pitch was concerned, from this point on, Jacqueline Williams was mine .
This dance of hers only proved it.
And she kissed me back, falling into my arms.
She looped her arms around my neck, pressing the entirety of her body against me as I secured one arm around her waist to hold her there.
And we kissed and kissed until I decided I couldn’t keep tasting her tongue with mine with so many people still watching. Reluctantly, I pulled back.
Jacqueline was panting in my arms still. She reached up to remove her heart-shaped sunglasses and set them on top of her head before letting me see into her wide, nervous gaze.
And then she huffed her embarrassed laugh.
Which made a grin bloom across my face seconds before I realized everyone around us was cheering and clapping and whistling even louder.
Suddenly, Signe wrapped her arms around us and squealed something about “I love love!” before Zaid tugged her off. Everyone was smiling as they broke apart the semi-circle to chat with each other, getting ready to leave.
Marco nodded at me with a brotherly look of warning on his expression before he started strolling toward the exit of the park.
The entire time, I kept Jacqueline in my arms.
And she stayed snug against my chest, her breathy laughter tickling my neck in a way that really made me wish we weren’t in a public space right now.
“Damn, he couldn’t even wait for the song to end.” Taylor grinned as they gathered their bag to leave. They stepped backward as they waved goodbye, accidentally bumping into Nicole. She had been quiet, near the back of the crowd the entire time, and as Taylor reached a hand behind them to prevent Nicole from falling over, they raised their brows.
“Oh, my bad—”
“I’m sorry—”
But neither of them finished their sentences when they made eye contact. I leaned down to rest my face in Jacqueline’s fruity-scented hair as I watched Taylor’s cheeks turn pink.
Eventually, Nicole smiled at them and turned away, and after a moment, Taylor shouldered their strap and decided to stick around as well.
My attention was pulled away from my teammate at the sound of Zaid’s voice, “So are you two going to stop pretending you aren’t dating yet, or…?”
Mary cackled at his question.
“Yeah, we’re done pretending,” Jacqueline replied. She looked up at me, “If that’s what you want?”
“ Fuck yes.”
Jacqueline’s brows raised at that, “Wow.”
“Sorry,” then I shook my head, “I’m not sorry. We’re off the clock. Fuck, I love you so fucking much.” I wrapped her up tighter in my arms, letting her feet dangle against my legs as I pinned her arms to her sides, her laughter in my ear as I murmured, “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she whispered as I loosened my hold on her, “You deserved something big when I finally said those words to you. But...I don’t know, was it too much?”
I raised my eyebrows as I pulled back to rake my gaze over her little outfit.
“I don’t think it was enough, actually,” I leaned down to kiss her neck, still feeling the rush of finally, finally being able to hold her and kiss her whenever I wanted, “We should go home and have you redo your dance, though.”
Jacqueline’s brows pinched together as her beautiful frown pulled at her lips, “Oh. Was it bad? Marco helped me practice it for hours yesterday—”
I placed a finger over her delicious lips and shook my head, smirking at the sight of her hopelessly confused eyes staring up at me.
My Jacqueline, who thrived on direct communication, widened her eyes when I leaned down to whisper, “I want you to give me a private dance, love.” Her breath picked up when I slid my hand up her arm, over her shoulder, to tangle in the soft strands of her dark hair, “Do you have any idea how hard it is to conceal what you’re doing to me, in front of everyone here?”
Her dark eyes glanced down between us, and I used my hand that wasn’t in her hair to subtly adjust my shorts so it wasn’t painfully obvious how I felt about Jacqueline dressing up as one of my old celebrity crushes.
“Oh,” Jacqueline blushed, raising a hand to cover her smile as she looked at me with a sparkle in her eyes, “Yeah. Let’s go.”
“Do you understand what I’m saying?” I asked as we started to follow our friends off the pitch. My hands didn’t let her step too far away from me, though. One was busy cupping her arse.
“I think I got it,” Jacqueline laughed as she reached around to pinch mine in retaliation.
“Are you positive? I could be clearer if I need to.” I offered as she laced my fingers with hers.
“I think you’re being crystal clear,” she giggled before snuggling against my chest, “You should shower, though.”
I chuckled as I led us off the grass, leaning down close to her ear, “I will. Then I want to watch you dance while slowly peeling those clothes off,” I pinched the fabric of her tube top, grinning like the Cheshire cat when I both felt and watched her shiver against me, “I want to kiss every inch of your skin, before sinking into you—officially—as your boyfriend.”
Jacqueline smirked, turning to face me, our lips centimeters apart, “Why does referring to you as my ‘boyfriend’ feel so childish?”
I pecked her lips with a quick kiss as she led us toward my bike, our coworkers were all gathered near Zaid’s car as they chatted without us.
“Probably because we’re much more than that, love.” I smiled down at her, “We’re partners. Lovers. I’m yours, and you’re mine. There’s nothing casual about it, right?”
Jacqueline’s lips slowly pulled back into a wide smile, before tucking her lips between her teeth in that nervous tell I adored, “Right.”