Page 11

Adriana needs to find Maeve. She has shaken off her hurt from Maeve snapping at her earlier, and now she wants to comfort her friend, because she knows she’ll be beating herself up for getting told to cool off.

But also because she needs to tell her the crazy news, that she had an incredible one-night stand with their new club manager, and ask what the hell she thinks she should do about it.

Plus, she wants to ask what’s really going on between her and Kira.

After months of having no gossip at all to discuss, Adriana can’t believe how much has happened in one day.

Adriana had tried many times in the past, with varying levels of success, to get her friend to score off the pitch, but after her last relationship with a fellow footballer had ended (when Maeve had got a transfer to the Tigresses, a higher league), Maeve hadn’t dated anyone since.

That was over two years ago now. Adriana is excited at the thought of Maeve finally loosening up with some good old-fashioned snogging.

Adriana assumes Maeve would be waiting in the dressing room, but she isn’t there, which is surprising because it’s where Coach Hoffman would have expected her to go.

There’s only one place she could be and Adriana runs into the fitness suite, thinking Maeve must be on her favoured Peloton bike to work off some of her anger.

But she’s not there either. Adriana remembers another spot she could be – the barely used showers on the secondfloor.

But as she races up the stairs and opens the door to the long corridor, Adriana almost runs right into–

‘Jacob!’ she gasps.

‘Adriana.’

He’s holding a stack of papers and a briefcase, presumably just leaving some kind of meeting up here.

But he’s alone. They stand awkwardly facing each other.

Adriana catches a waft of that cedar cologne.

The last time she’d smelt that, less than forty-eight hours ago, she had been smelling it on his naked chest as she kissed his neck.

It must be expensive, she thinks, to make him smell so incredibly attractive.

‘Well,’ she grins, trying to recover herself. ‘Fancy seeing you here.’

But Jacob doesn’t smile. ‘This isn’t funny, Adriana.’

‘Really? I think it is kind of funny. When the last time we met, you were practically begging me to see you again.’

‘I was not begging -’ He corrects her.

‘You’re a lot cockier now that you’re wearing clothes.’

Jacob blinks rapidly. Adriana smiles broadly as she watches him. She loves discombobulating men, especially ones as serious and hot as Jacob. He swallows, then recomposes himself.

‘I want to make something very clear,’ his voice is firm. ‘I would never have– if I’d known that you were a member of this team, of course I would never have–’

‘Would never have what?’ teases Adriana, wanting to make him blush. But his expression is stony, and he folds his arms.

‘Well no, obviously not,’ she relents, realising she needs to play this a different way. ‘Neither would I, to be clear! But it’s not our fault, neither of us knew. It was an innocent mistake.’

Jacob wipes his glasses on a neat cleaning cloth he magicked from somewhere. ‘It is very unfortunate.’

‘It didn’t seem that unfortunate at the time,’ she says under her breath. ‘I’ve been thinking about it a lot ever since, actually.’

Adriana glances up at him. She thinks she sees his expression soften, just for a moment, and is reminded of that evening they spent together, the way he’d looked at her when she thought he wasn’t looking, the way his whole face had lit up when he’d laughed in the bar.

But now, the stern man before her looks incapable of that kind of delight.

He just puts his glasses back on, and takes a step back from her. Even his tailored suit can’t handle his muscles as he rubs his arm awkwardly.

‘I think it would be better for everyone if we kept what happened between us, as, well, exactly that,’ he tells her. ‘Just between us.’

‘I don’t know, Jacob. I’m not used to being anyone’s dirty little secret. I’m not ashamed of having sex.’

Jacob’s hazel eyes are unreadable as he speaks slowly, his voice low.

‘It’s not because of that, Adriana, believe me. Have you not considered that if your teammates found out, that they might think you were trying to sleep your way to the top?’

She scoffs. ‘As if! I’d just tell them I didn’t know who you were! That I thought you were just a random hot man in a bar! That it’s just a crazy coincidence that you’re also the son of the new owner.’

‘And you think they’d believe you?’ His question hangs in the air.

‘I–’

Adriana falters. A few days ago, she would have been defiant.

She would have said that she had absolute faith in her teammates, and they had absolute trust in her too.

But now… Adriana remembers Maeve snapping at her, Milo accusing her of favouritism from Coach Fernandez, and all the micro conflicts and insecurities rising to the surface now that the players are being pitted against each other.

The way Coach Hoffman’s new regime is breaking the team apart, now that everyone is so scared about the changing squad.

Of course they would all be more suspicious of her sleeping with Jacob.

Adriana hates keeping secrets, but she agrees with Jacob. It’s better this way, for everyone.

‘You’re right,’ she admits. ‘This is a time of a lot of change for the team. Everyone is really on edge, and I just think that the fewer surprises my teammates face right now, the better. I don’t want anyone to think there was anything at all, you know, below board, between us.

And I’m sure you wouldn’t want anyone to think that you’re using your position of power as a rich man involved with a women’s team. ’ She looks at him unwavering.

Jacob winces. ‘That’s true too.’

But the two of them still stand there together, the atmosphere still tense.

Adriana hates it. She would hate it with anyone, but Jacob isn’t just anyone.

Even if she wouldn’t admit it to him, or even to herself, Adriana had kind of, you know…

liked him. It wasn’t like her to keep thinking about someone afterwards.

He had just seemed so kind. And hot. And into her. But now…

‘Well. If that’s all,’ he says abruptly, looking round, and walks towards the stairs.

Adriana is trying not to be offended by how quickly this man has done a 180 on their night together – she understands that they’re both just trying to be practical and, after all, her no repeats rule would still be in operation even if they weren’t in this unhappy proximity together.

But does he have to be quite so standoffish?

They’d seemed to have a real connection, didn’t they?

Adriana reaches forwards and grabs his arm.

‘Jacob, wait.’

He turns, looks down at her hand and shakes her off. This seems particularly outrageous given the other ways this hand had touched him the other night.

‘Look, I really want to clear the air,’ she forces a smile. ‘I agree with you that we shouldn’t tell anyone. But if we’re going to keep this a secret then you need to be, you know, normal with me. Is there something else going on?’

He looks away from her.

‘I–’ he sighs. ‘I just wish you’d at least told me that you’re a footballer. We could have avoided this whole… mess if we’d known we would be working together.’

‘Yeah, well, sorry, but men tend to freak out if they find out that I play football for a living! I didn’t want to go through yet another evening of someone trying to mansplain the offside rule to me.

Most guys can’t stand the thought that I’m way better at football than they will ever be.

And besides, we’d already agreed that it was a one-night thing so it just didn’t seem that hugely important to give you my life story! ’

This is all perfectly reasonable to Adriana, but Jacob still looks sour, avoiding her eyes. She throws her hands up.

‘I hardly think you can get mad at me for not telling you my real job when you didn’t tell me that you’re a football club director!’

‘I told you that I am a business manager which is essentially what a club director is.’

Adriana scoffs. ‘Football isn’t a business.’

Jacob raises an eyebrow. How dare he raise his eyebrow! At her, the queen of raising eyebrows!

‘Yes, football is a business. And this?’ He waves his hand towards their football pitch. ‘This is my business now.’

‘Well,’ Adriana can’t resist a dig. ‘It’s your dad’s business.’

Adriana sees something tighten in Jacob’s jaw. It was the wrong thing to say. He doubles down on his poker face.

‘It is technically my father’s business, that’s correct.

However, I am on the board and a director.

And since he won’t even–’ Jacob stops himself, his jaw clenching even harder.

‘I am the owner in absentia when he’s not here, overseeing everything to ensure the club is operating at maximum profitability. ’

‘Profitability?’ Adriana tries to laugh, joshing his shoulder.

‘For heaven’s sake, this is football we’re talking about!

Football is a celebration of athletic mastery and camaraderie!

Football is about unifying communities in the essential story of victory and defeat!

Football is about being human, not always about the bottom line! Football has a soul to it.’

Jacob’s face is unmoved. He adjusts his tie. ‘You’re just doing your job, and I’m just doing my job. It just so happens that my job is essentially being your boss.’

Up to this point, Adriana’s natural cheeriness had been winning out. Sure, they were having a healthy sparring match, but while Jacob might be grumpy around her in the light of day, Adriana’s glow from their night together had been giving him a halo in her mind.

‘It doesn’t matter to me how you describe your job role,’ he continues. ‘Call yourself a “foot artist” if you want. It doesn’t matter to me whether you love your job or hate your job, it only matters to me whether you deliver good results on the pitch, worthy of a salaried place in the team.’

She shakes her hair furiously. ‘How dare you! I am not some product!’

Jacob shrugs a broad shoulder. ‘Well, you may not like it, but since my father bought this club, didn’t he implicitly buy its players too? Coach Hoffmann is here to offer her expertise and for any players that aren’t up to scratch, they’ll swiftly be moved on.’

‘Jesus Christ, Jacob, you sound so cold about it all.’

Jacob’s jaw clenched.

‘I think it would be better if you called me Mr Astor.’

‘Oh, do you indeed? I remember you wanting me to call you some other things just a few nights ago.’

The heat in Jacob’s cheeks rise. Adriana feels rather pleased with herself for this reaction.

But it does mean that she senses the phantoms of their night together in the air between them again.

As she looks up at his chiseled face – his jawline even sharper with his jaw clenched, his blue eyes even brighter as he’s frowning at her – something comes over her.

She remembers how they were in that bar, in his corridor, in his bedroom.

She remembers wrapping her arms around those broad shoulders and pressing herself against him.

She remembers how wonderful it is to make this man lose his composure.

He adjusts his tie, even though it was already perfectly straight, and then adjusts his belt. But then to her surprise instead of leaning in and kissing her like she wants, he steps back from her.

‘I would like to remind you, Ms Summers, that we now work together,’ he says.

But his voice isn’t angry, or stern. Just regretful.

‘Like it or not – and believe me, I do not like it at all – but I agree with you that it would be best for all involved for us to be completely professional from now on. You don’t want your teammates to think that you are receiving any… preferential treatment.’

She can’t help it. Right now, there’s a part of Adriana that would really, really like some ‘preferential treatment’ from Jacob.

But then she remembers the difference between this Jacob and the Jacob she’d kissed the other night.

This is exactly why she never gets attached to men.

The more you like someone, the more they’ll let you down.

So she bites her lip and holds a hand out.

‘I agree,’ she says. ‘Purely business.’

Jacob’s large hand covers hers, and his eyes have softened now.

‘Purely business,’ he agrees.

Adriana doesn’t know if it’s her or him, but she does know that their hands linger held together for a little too long.