Page 43 of Drop Shot (On the Court #2)

“You looked like you wanted to cool off,” Maddie laughs, swimming away.

Noah grabs her by the ankle and tugs her back to him. “You little…”

He doesn’t finish the sentence, so I have to assume Sabrina quiets him with a look.

Elias dives easily into the pool. I envy the casual grace he has even with that. If I attempted to dive in, I’m sure I would end up belly flopping. Walking over to the table Sabrina sits at, her hair damp from the pool and quickly curling, I set my tote bag down and give her an easy smile.

“Hey,” she greets with a happy blissed out smile—the kind of smile you only wear when you’re truly in love. “What brought you two out here?”

“Elias took me to play tennis so we decided it might be nice to cool off in the pool.”

“It’s a great day.” She watches Maddie swim toward Elias. He grabs her and tosses her. She comes up shoving her hair from her face and giggling incessantly. “Maddie needed to burn off some energy.”

“I can tell.” I can’t help but laugh as she attempts to dunk Elias but he’s far too tall for her to even reach.

“I haven’t seen you much lately.” She takes a sip of some fruity drink I assume she’s ordered from the pool area’s bar. “I thought for sure now that you weren’t working for Elias that I’d see more of you around, but if anything I see you less.”

“I think I haven’t quite known what to do with myself,” I admit honestly.

“It’s weird for me. The not working. Though, I did have an old friend reach out to see if I was still drawing, and if I’d illustrate their children’s novel so I’m working on that.

They already picked a style they liked and I’ve been working on the first few pages. ”

“Oh, wow. That’s incredible, Whimsy!”

“Thanks. I’ve never tried to illustrate a kids book before, but I’m having fun with it. It’s stressful because I want to get it right for them, but there’s something freeing about it at the same time since it’s catered to kids. There’s so much room for creativity.”

“That sounds like so much fun. You’ll have to let me see some sketches if you’re allowed to share.”

“Totally.” I pull out my iPad and quickly bring up the last piece I was working on which is the main character—Layla—talking to the raccoon she meets along her journey.

Sabrina gasps. “This is only a sketch?” she asks in disbelief. “This is incredible.”

Her praise has my shoulders curling forward like I’m physically trying to shield myself from embarrassment. I don’t know what it is about showing my art that makes me feel so shy.

“Thank you.”

“Has Ebba seen these?” she asks curiously.

“No, I haven’t seen her much.” She has some old university friends she made when studying abroad that she’s been visiting in Brighton.

“Whimsy, baby, are you going to get in or not?” Elias hollers out, disrupting whatever Sabrina might’ve said next.

I give her a playful eyeroll. “I better join before he gets out and throws me in.”

“Have fun.” She scoots down in her chair and kicks her feet up on another chair. Picking up her book, she flips it open and sets her bookmark on the table.

Standing, I carefully remove my top and shorts and kick off my shoes.

When I turn around, I’m greeted by Elias’s open-mouthed stare from where he leans against the side of the pool waiting for me.

“Fucking hell,” he mutters lowly when I near. “That bikini outta be fucking illegal, Whim. Just look at you.”

I look down to check if my whole body is as red as I feel, but my skin is still the slightly tanned version it normally is from all the time sitting in the stands in the sun. Even when I practically bathe myself in sunscreen, I still get tan.

“Other people are around,” I whisper.

I settle on the edge of the pool beside where he kicks the water lazily and let my legs drop in the water so I can get used to the temperature.

Beneath the water, his hand finds my calf. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay, honestly.” A shiver makes its way up my spine at his touch.

“Not sore?” He massages his thumb into my muscle.

“A l-little,” I stutter. “Tennis is harder than I thought it would be.”

An amused, closed-lipped smile has his mouth rising only on the right corner. That dimple that serves to make him even more devastatingly handsome than usual winks at me and I can’t stop myself as I reach out and poke it.

He tosses his head back with a belly laugh. “Did you poke my dimple?”

“It’s very pokable,” I defend.

He places his hands on either side of my hips, and I squeal as he rises out of the water, getting me wet as water sloshes up with him.

The joking leaves his eyes, replaced by something serious. I gulp, my heart accelerating.

“I really want to kiss you right now,” he confesses, eyes flicking to my lips. Pool water drips off his chin, landing on my breasts.

Say no , I tell myself. No one’s near enough to have heard what he said.

I’m the one that keeps reinforcing this barrier between us and he’s proved time and time again that he’s more than happy to keep crashing into them.

But truthfully, I’m so tired of pushing him away, of trying to do the smart thing and protect my heart.

“Are you gonna let me kiss you now?” he asks when I still haven’t said anything.

The word, “Yes,” leaves my mouth before I can overthink it.

He kisses me soft and slow—just a taste of what it could be if I truly gave in to him. I lean in, practically begging him for more. It can’t be possible that there’s someone else on this earth that could possibly kiss me as well as he does. He pulls away with a satisfied smirk.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” The defensive retort slips out as he swims backwards. My skin pebbles with goosebumps at the loss of his warmth.

“Because”—that smile only grows bigger— “that kiss proved something to me.”

“And what’s that?” I retort.

He swims back to me, so we’re not overheard. “You want me as bad I want you.”

His smile only grows when I don’t refute.

“Get in here.” He grabs my hand, and I let him pull me into the water. “You’re scared, though, and I don’t know why,” he says, still holding my hand so I can’t swim away. Noah and Maddie are on the opposite end of the pool now, so we don’t have to worry as much about whispering.

“I’m not scared.” God, I sound way too defensive to my own ears.

“You are.” It’s a statement, not a question. “Why?”

I hate being cornered like this, because I’m not good at keeping secrets. My mom always used to say when I was kid that I always gave myself away when I did something wrong because I could never lie.

I press my lips together, but there’s no hiding their trembling.

“Be honest with me,” he begs. “We have chemistry. There’s no denying that. So, please, tell me what I’m doing wrong.”

“You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re doing everything right and that’s the problem.”

Confusion has a wrinkle appearing between his brows. I want to smooth it away, but I keep my hands to myself. I can’t be trusted when it comes to touching this man.

“Okay, so what is it? Is this truly just a job to you or?—”

The words burst from my mouth before I can stop them and cut him off mid-sentence.

“I’ve always had a crush on you.” He looks at me in stunned silence, so the words keep falling out of my mouth in pitiful word vomit.

“I was never going to act on it. You’re like way out of my league, and I’m aware of that.

Besides, you were my boss, and I loved being your assistant.

Even when you made me do stupid shit.” He laughs at that, so at least he’s listening.

“And then I got roped into this whole faking it thing, and you’re an annoyingly perfect fake boyfriend, and I like you even more the more time we spend together, and you do sweet things, like buy me a stuffed brachiosaurus because you know they’re my favorite, and you never complain no matter how many times I make you watch the Jurassic Park movies, and you call me Clever Girl sometimes, and every time you do, my stomach does this weird flip-floppy thing.

And frankly”—I finally pause long enough to take a breath— “it would be all too easy for me to fall in love with you, and honestly, I’m afraid I might already be there, but we have a contract relationship, and what if we try this for real, and quickly realize it’s not going to work out?

Then we’re fucked and we both end up murdered by Jackson.

” His lips part and he blinks at me. I can see him trying to form thoughts, but no words are coming out of his mouth.

All the energy leaves my body and I go limp.

Of course he’s not saying anything. Why would he?

I just went psycho on his ass. “It’s okay,” I mutter, and pull out of his hold. “Forget I said anything, please.”

I swim away toward the stairs and quickly climb out. I yank my clothes right over my wet bikini and wring my hair out.

“What’s wrong?” Sabrina asks me, hands on the chair ready to push herself up to rising but I shake my head.

“I started my period,” I lie. “I’ve got to go.”

I practically sprint out of the pool area, flip-flops clapping loudly as I do.

Stupid.

I’m so fucking stupid.

I hurriedly push the button for the elevator and take it up to our floor.

My plan is to quickly grab some of my clothes and ask Ebba if I can crash in her room.

Even though she’s not here right now, I know she already checked into her room before going on her trip.

I can just tell her we had a fight, and I need some space.

I know she’ll let me, no questions asked.

I reach the door to the suite and pull the keycard from my pocket. I’m so glad I thought to slide my own into my pocket earlier.

The door shuts behind me and I run around the room like a mad woman, shoving clothes into one of my smaller overnight bags. I’m not an idiot—I know I can’t avoid Elias forever—but I just need a night away to get over my embarrassment and then I’ll be fine.

I hurry into the bathroom to grab my necessities like shampoo and conditioner, my toothbrush and toothpaste. Shit, I need my skincare too. And my makeup.

This is taking longer than I thought.

A blood curdling scream rips out of me when the hotel room door opens and hits the opposite wall.

An out of breath Elias stands in the doorway to the bathroom, chest heaving like he ran all the way here from the pool.

My bag drops from my hands, things rolling out the bag.

Crap, crap, triple crap.

I don’t have a chance to scoop it up because Elias crosses the few feet between us in one giant stride.

I swallow.

I’m not scared of him, I know he’d never hurt me, but there’s an intensity about him I’ve never seen before.

“You left and didn’t give me a chance to respond.” His eyes are darker than usual—a storm blackening the sky.

“It’s okay, really. I know you said before that you wanted to try this for real, but I know you couldn’t have possibly meant that, and don’t feel bad. I don’t need you to let me down, I get it. You’ve never dated seriously before, so why would I be any different?”

He grabs my face and silences me with a kiss.

Pressing his forehead to mine, he says, “Goddamn, woman, if you’d let me get one fucking word in, I’d tell you that I want you so fucking bad.

I’ve never wanted anyone like I want you.

It wasn’t some fluke when I said I wanted you for real.

I meant it then and I mean it now. Don’t make me beg again.

Get it through that pretty blond head of yours that it’s you I want. No one else.”

I wait for self-doubt to rear its ugly head—to tell me again that this man could have anyone else and there’s no possible way he’s talking about me, but this time that voice doesn’t come.

“We both want this.” He strokes my cheek. “Don’t we?”

I inhale a shaky breath and give him that word he wanted to hear so badly in France, but I wasn’t ready to hand over. “Yes.”