Page 37 of Breakpoint

They both knew they should move, prepare to face the day.

Yet, the magnetic pull of them in a shared space was too strong to resist. Both were playing here in Cincinnati, but only Dani was on court today.

Jaz just received word that she had a bye into the next round because her opponent pulled out this morning with an injury.

Which was a blessing in disguise because her knees could use the extra day of rest from the pounding they took on these hardcourts.

The sunlight streamed through the kitchen window, illuminating the dust dancing in the air, a world away from the pressure and expectation of the tournament grounds.

The clock on the microwave blinked nine in the morning, a silent, flashing reminder of the impending commitment that awaited them.

The urgent beep of text messages, likely from Tom, went unanswered, buried beneath the soft sounds of their kisses.

They stood leaning against the kitchen island, wrapped up in each other.

The kisses were slow, their tongues sliding in and out, but no less passionate.

She knew Dani had to leave, but she yearned for her kisses.

When they were kissing, a part of her Jaz she’d never known existed blew wide open.

Dani pulled back slightly, her breath warm against Jaz’s lips. “I should really go,” she murmured, the words a reluctant concession to the outside world .

Jaz’s hands, usually wielding a tennis racket with ferocious power, were gentle as they traced the curve of her back in that spot that always sent shivers down Dani’s spine.

“I know,” she whispered, her voice husky. She tilted her head, her lips brushing her again, effectively silencing any further protest.

Dani moaned, a low, throaty sound that vibrated through her chest. “Jaz, baby.”

“Just five more minutes,” she whispered, pulling Dani back in. Her fingers tightened in her curly hair, the soft strands a tactile anchor. Five minutes stretched into ten, then fifteen. Each kiss was a precious indulgence, a defiant act against the ticking clock.

As the intensity picked up, Jaz couldn’t take it anymore.

She needed to touch her again. She pulled at the hem of Dani’s tennis skirt until it was up around her waist. She ran her middle finger up and down Dani’s pouting slit through the fabric of her underwear, dipping deeper into the cleft with each pass.

“Jaz, we can’t,” Dani whined, but she didn’t move from Jaz’s grasp, her hips canting into Jaz’s touch.

The magnetic pull of their connection, the sheer pleasure of being lost in each other, was too strong for Jaz to resist. She moved to pull the crotch of Dani’s panties to the side so she could slip her fingers inside. “I promise, I’ll be quick.”

Dani finally stepped back, pulling her skirt back down, letting out a long breath. “You said that this morning, and we spent an extra hour in bed.”

Jaz smirked. “I didn’t see you complaining. ”

“Who would throw you out of bed? I’m not stupid.” Dani smiled. “But I need to be at the facility in less than twenty minutes so I can get a decent warm-up and hit session before my match.”

“Look at you being the responsible one.” Normally, Jaz was the one keeping them on schedule and making sure that they got out the door, no matter who was on court first. But Dani had done something to her where all rational thought left her brain when she kissed her.

She wanted the world outside to fade away and be replaced by the intimate bubble they had created.

“I’ve never been someone like the woman I am with you,” she admitted.

Dani bit her lip in obvious worry. It was a tell Jaz had picked up when she was nervous. “Is that a good thing or not?”

“You know what? It’s better than I could have imagined.” Dani had gone a long way toward opening up new parts of Jaz Mason.

“Good, and if you haven’t noticed, I’m a fan of yours too.” She smiled and crossed the room to put her tennis shoes in her bag and pick up her gear. “I’ll see you this afternoon?”

Jaz nodded. “You can count on it.”

She turned to walk to the door. But just when Jaz thought she was going to leave, she turned back and kissed her once more, this time more soulfully. Jaz brought her hands up to tangle in her hair to deepen this final kiss of the morning.

Dani pulled back with a slight nip of Jaz’s bottom lip. She finally opened the door, turned to exit, and almost ran over Kira, whose hand was well placed to knock.

“Oh, hey Kira.” Dani’s eyes widened at seeing Jaz’s agent standing right there .

“Hey Dani. How are things?” Kira smirked and crossed her arms across her chest.

Dani blushed. “Good, good.”

“Aren’t you due on court today?” she asked, glancing down at her watch.

“Oh yeah, I… uh… we were…I was just chatting with Jaz about my match today. But I’m running late and I’m sure Tom is going to lose his shit if I don’t get there soon.

” She finished with a nervous laugh that sounded hollow to everyone.

She quickly slid by Kira, bumping her with her tennis bag as she moved past her. “Bye, Jaz.”

“Later, Dani,” she shouted at Dani’s retreating form. “Hey, Kira, what brings you by so early?”

Kira closed the door behind her and crossed the room, putting her across her chest again. “So you want to talk about that?”

“Dani just stopped by,” Jaz replied nonchalantly.

Kira threw her hands up. “Jaz, really? We’re doing this? Again? I know there’s something going on. Which is cool. Good for you both. But I am a little annoyed and disappointed that you lied to my face when I asked you at Wimbledon.”

“I wasn’t lying. We were just friends then, and nothing had happened yet,” she rushed out. She hated it when Kira gave her a disappointed face. It was worse than Brandon’s. “I promise I was telling the truth then, and I am now.”

Kira squinted her eyes at Jaz and lasered in on her face. She was doing that thing where she tried to read Jaz’s innermost thoughts. “Okay, I believe you. ”

Jaz released a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She respected Kira and valued her opinion of her. “Thank you. Do you think the rest of the team knows?”

“Duh, of course they know, girl. It’s obvious there’s been a change between the two of you, even if y’all didn’t announce it to anyone.

These are the people who know you better than anyone, and honestly, Jaz, you know they don’t care.

I’m at least glad you didn’t wait a year like with Lena to admit to us what we already knew. ”

“Well for the record, I’m really happy with her.”

“I can tell. There’s this lightness about you lately. You’re not strung as tight as one of your four-hundred-dollar rackets. Plus, when she’s in the room, you just smile more.”

Jaz smiled at that, thinking about the impact Dani had on her life in these last few months. “I know you didn’t stop by to talk about me and Dani since you didn’t even know about us. What’s up? Please don’t tell me you scheduled a sponsorship event today now that I’m no longer playing.”

Kira shook her head. “No, you’re going to wish I did when I show you this. It’s why I came down here, but I got distracted by your heart eyes. We have a problem.”

“Problem?” she repeated, her voice anxious. Kira rarely brought problems to her unless they were big problems she couldn’t solve herself.

“We got a package,” Kira said, her voice low and serious. She slid a manila envelope across the polished surface of the marble countertops .

Jaz’s hands, usually steady, trembled slightly as she reached for it and opened.

Inside were glossy prints, stills ripped from a video.

She flipped through them, her breath catching in her throat and the color draining from her face.

Each image was a crystal-clear snapshot of her and Dani, laughing, leaning into each other, and then a passionate kiss.

The pictures looked to be from their date in DC at the outdoor movie.

They thought they had been so careful. No one had approached them that day for autographs or to even to say hi.

She just assumed they had escaped under the radar with their hats as disguises.

Even on all their other excursions, when they had been training together or date nights, they kept the public displays of affection at a minimum for plausible deniability.

Kira watched her, her expression a mix of professional concern and something akin to pity. “There’s video, too,” she said quietly. “They sent a short clip. Same…content as photos. It’s clearly... intimate.”

A cold dread seeped into Jaz’s bones. This wasn’t just a threat; it was an invasion, a violation that went beyond her own fiercely guarded privacy and clawed at the vulnerability of her relationship with Dani. And with a video, there was no way to deny it and say the photos had been doctored.

“Which outlet?” she whispered softly, the words barely able to leave her mouth.

“It looks to be just some random person. They reached out to me through DM and not through the normal channels that the press would. But they could sell it to the biggest outlet that was interested. ”

Her relationship with Dani, a flame she had guarded so fiercely, was now exposed in the harsh, exploitative light of some fucker’s cell phone camera. Jaz’s head started spinning. She paced around the room and struggled to take deep, even breaths.

The crushing weight of expectation on the court, the constant scrutiny of the media—she’d built walls, defenses. But this…this was different.

She could already picture the headlines that would be made about them.

The online comments would be predictably vicious, homophobic, and racist. She knew the risks when they started this, the potential for gossip and judgment.

The whispers and scrutiny on tour and in the locker rooms would also start.

Then there would be even more press and pictures taken of them.

Lots and lots of pictures. Even more flash bulbs in her face.

“You need to tell Dani about this,” Kira declared firmly.

Jaz was brought out of her spiral by Kira’s words. Fuck Dani. This was not something that she needed. Her career was just starting to take off, and to be thrown into this scandal with Jaz would ruin everything she had built.

“I know. But let’s also figure out what they want and how we can make it go away as quickly as possible. No matter the cost. Whatever they are asking for, double it to get every picture and file out there.”

Kira nodded. “I’m on it. I’ll also watch your socials and the gossip blogs for breaking news.” She walked across the room and took Jaz in her arms. Jaz could count on one hand the number of times that Kira had hugged her, but in this moment, she somehow knew it was exactly what Jaz needed .

Jaz was still sitting at the kitchen island hours later when Dani slammed the door to the apartment, the force of it rattling the framed stocked photos on the entryway table.

She tossed her racket bag onto the floor, the dull thud a counterpoint to the sharp clang of the door.

Jaz watched her pull a racket out of the bag and peel back like she was going to smash it.

It remained up high, but she must have thought twice about it because she chucked it to the floor.

The clatter caused Jaz to jump in shock.

Dani stalked towards the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city of Cincinnati, her back rigid, her fists clenched. Jaz could see this wasn’t the carefree Dani that had just left a few hours ago. Her shoulders were tight, a knot of frustration and anger pulling at her muscles.

“Hey, you.” She moved to the living room area to greet the woman causing all the commotion.

Her thoughts about how to break the news about the photos to Dani faltered at the edges as she took in her girlfriend’s rigid posture and the thundercloud brewing in her eyes. “Rough match?” she ventured, keeping her voice light.

Dani just grunted and crossed the room, collapsing onto the sofa with a heavy sigh.

She scrubbed a hand over her face, the gesture full of barely contained fury.

“Rough doesn’t even begin to cover it,” she muttered, her voice thick with frustration.

“I played like... like a beginner. I lost in the first round to someone who is like one hundred rankings below me.”

This was a first for them as a couple. Losing was a part of the game, something they both knew, but it rarely made its way into their private moments. Apparently, Dani took getting her ass kicked as well as Jaz did.

Jaz moved to sit on the armrest of the sofa, a safe distance but close enough to offer comfort. “You had an off day. It happens.”

Dani shook her head at the pity. “Not to you. Not like this. Not a first-round blowout.”

“Well, you know who I am.” Jaz smiled playfully, trying to bring levity to the situation. “Even though you’re not me, you’re still Daniela fucking Kappas. One bad day doesn’t change that.”

Dani gave a slight chuckle, but then the frustration quickly returned as she blew out her breath in one long whoosh. “Thankfully, I won Montreal because I didn’t win enough this week to cover Chris, Tom, and my expenses for this trip. I think I actually lost money.”

“Hey, look at me,” she said softly. Dani reluctantly met her gaze, her eyes blazing with a mixture of anger and self-reproach.

“You’re one of the most talented players I know.

I have no reason to bullshit you because I already got into your pants.

But you’ll bounce back. You always do. At least the one good thing about tennis is if you have a shit week, there’s always a tournament next week. ”

“Thanks, babe. I really needed to hear that.”

“I’m only speaking the truth.” She opened her mouth to speak, to tell Dani the truth about the photos and video Kira received.

But she closed it quickly because announcing it now, while Dani was drowning in this self-imposed misery, would be like throwing gasoline on a fire.

Her raw disappointment was a palpable force in the room.

This was not the time to send her spiraling even further .

She leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to Dani’s temple. A tiny flicker of a smile played on Dani’s lips, a fragile spark in the darkness. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

Dani looked up at her with wide, expectant eyes. “Do you wanna try to hit this afternoon? I figured you might need a session since your match was cancelled, and I need to hit off this anger from my shitty play today. Try to remember who the fuck I am.”

Jaz nodded and kissed her again. “Sure, honey.”

Dani definitely wasn’t in a good place. She knew certain losses rattled your confidence, and this was one of those moments for Dani. So this was not the time to bring it up. She would tell her later. When the storm had passed.