Page 22 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10

Tuesday

Alina

We crushed Serbia in the first game. I was sitting on the bench gulping down water when Kristen nudged me in the ribs.

"They're here."

I turned around to see where she was looking. Bryce, Tim, and Alex were squeezing their way past some other spectators. Bryce smiled and winked at me as soon as he caught me staring. Tim blew Kristen a kiss and Alex slapped his hand, clearly embarrassed by what Tim was doing.

But I didn't dwell on what Tim and Alex were doing, because my gaze was stuck on Bryce. He was still sporting his workout clothes. He had this sweaty V down the middle of his T-shirt that made me gulp. Some of his hair was sticking to his forehead. It was somehow sexy and adorable at the same time.

I had dreamed about him all night. I wasn't sure if Kristen had gotten in my head or if I was a lot kinkier than I had originally thought, because I had dreamed about being with Bryce in the village square.

Or at least, near it. He had pulled me down an alley in the village square, pressed my back up against the wall, and kissed me like he had during Operation Red Rip.

Only this time, I was encouraging him to go farther.

His hand slowly traced up my thigh while his other hand unzipped my dress.

The ref blowing the whistle drew me out of my daydream.

I squeezed my thighs together.

"You okay?" Kristen asked.

"Mhm." I'm just ridiculously horny. I took one last long sip of my water and got in the circle that my team had formed.

"Two more games like that first one, and we're going to the semi-finals," Coach Hammond said. "Stay focused and let's get this done."

The ref blew the whistle again and I ran onto the court. I looked back over at Bryce. He was waving a poster in the air. It read, "I Dig Alina - Go Team USA." Tim was holding one that said, "Kristen Loves Juggling Balls - Go Team USA."

Bryce digs me.

Kristen laughed in front of me. She turned around. "Tim is really trying to get that devil's threesome going."

"Pay attention," I said and gestured to the other side of the net.

I smiled to myself and looked at the girl that was about to serve for Serbia.

I thought I might be nervous with Bryce watching me.

Instead, it made me play even better. I wanted to impress him.

I wanted to forget about Chris, win gold, and win over Bryce.

It was just like Kristen had said. I could have it all.

The hitter on the other side spiked it hard. I dove to the left and bumped it perfectly to our setter. I was on fire.

***

The crowd went wild as Kristen landed the final spike on Serbia's side. I joined the hug in the middle of the volleyball court. We were soon surrounded by all the members on our bench too, laughing, crying, and screaming. We're heading to the semi-finals!

After shaking hands with the other team, Kristen and I rushed toward the exit.

I wanted to see Bryce. All I could think about was kissing him.

I wanted to jump into his arms. Him bringing that sign and cheering me on was such a sweet thing to do.

I just hoped he was going to kiss me back.

Kristen seemed just as eager to see Tim, even though she would never admit it.

"Is that Chris?" Kristen asked, stopping in front of a row of bleachers. I almost ran into her as she abruptly stopped in the middle of the crowd exiting the stadium.

I turned toward where she was looking. Chris was standing on the stairs talking to some tan brunette girl with big breasts. She was a Gabriela Santos wannabe. He was holding a bouquet of flowers and smiling at her.

If I hadn't been about to go meet up with Bryce, I probably would have burst into tears.

Chris had seriously come to my game to give some random girl flowers?

What an asshole. He never brought me flowers.

He said they were a waste of money because they died so fast. Apparently this girl was worth the wasted money.

Chris leaned in and whispered something in her ear. The girl laughed and touched his bicep.

I rolled my eyes. "Who cares if it is?" I said. I brushed past Kristen.

"Alina!" Chris' voice made me cringe. I looked over my shoulder to see him running down the steps. Before I could say anything, Kristen was walking toward him.

For some reason, I felt frozen in place. The stadium was too loud for me to hear what they were saying. So I just watched the scene unfold in silence.

Kristen poked him in the middle of the chest and said something.

Chris laughed and lifted up the flowers.

Kristen pointed over his shoulder at the girl he had clearly been flirting with.

Chris shrugged and looked over at me. He gave me one of those looks that used to get him anything he wanted. But today I wasn't fazed.

He put his hand on Kristen's shoulder and lightly shoved her to the side so he could get past her.

My feet unfroze and I walked over to him. "What do you want, Chris?" All the joy I had felt from my team's victory seemed to evaporate.

"To give you these." He held up the flowers. "Congratulations, babe." He leaned forward to kiss me.

I put my hand on his chest to stop him. "Chris, stop."

He pulled back and gave me a funny look. "I stayed away for a few days to give you time to cool off. Let's move forward, okay?"

"Is that an apology?"

"Yes. We've already talked about this. Gabriela tricked me. We shared a kiss. End of story."

"Shared a kiss? You said she kissed you and you shoved her off."

"Yeah, that's what I meant."

"Those two things are different, Chris. How do you expect me to trust you?"

He smiled again. "Babe, come on. It's me. Don't do that thing you always do."

"What thing?"

He sighed. "Where you don't let things go.

You need to learn how to forgive people.

If you had forgiven Gabriela years ago, this whole thing wouldn't have been that big of a deal.

And she couldn't have used your own anger against you.

You're not even mad at me. You're just upset with her.

So how about you come back to my room and we can celebrate your victory how we should have celebrated mine. "

Each word out of his mouth made me even more angry. "You're such an asshole, Chris."

"Because I'm right?" There was that damn cocky smile again.

"Why do you always have to be right about everything? I told you that stuff about Gabriela so you'd support me, not hang it over my head. How could you do this to me? With her?"

"I said I was sorry."

"Actually, you didn't say you were sorry. You just shoved flowers in my face."

"Well, I'm saying it now."

I stared into his eyes. He didn't look sorry.

Last night I had promised myself that I wouldn't let Chris ruin this week for me.

Yet, here he was ruining this victory. I should be celebrating right now, not fuming.

This wasn't what love was. Love was putting the other person first. It was supporting them.

It wasn't hooking up with their arch nemesis during the most important week of their life.

This relationship was so one sided, and I had been too blind to see it before.

"I don't forgive you, Chris. And I don't believe it was only one kiss.

" I turned around to walk away from him.

"Alina." He grabbed my wrist. "I'm choosing you."

"Over Gabriela? I didn't realize that was a choice you were debating."

"You know what I mean."

"Well, I'm not choosing you."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means that what we have isn't healthy. All you care about is physical needs, not emotional. You don't love me because you're too in love with yourself."

"God you're pathetic." He said it under his breath, but I still heard him.

"You know what? How about you just be you. And I'll be me. And one thing's for damn sure. We're not together anymore, Chris."

"Fine. If that's what you want. Good luck in the rest of your games. If you end up facing Brazil in the finals, you're going to need it. Gabriela's so much better than you." He tossed the flowers at me and walked away.

My whole body felt cold. It wasn't just what he said, but the way he said it.

He wasn't talking about Gabriela being better at volleyball.

He was talking about their kiss. Or whatever else they did.

And it didn't matter how horrible Chris had been the past few days.

His words cut through me just like they would have when we were happy.

His opinion had always mattered so much to me.

I wasn't good enough for him. I wasn't as good as Gabriela.

It felt like I was a freshman at NYCU again.

Gabriela had spread rumors about me to the rest of my team to the point where none of them would even look at me.

Then she found a way to barricade my dorm room from the outside so that I'd miss important practices and games.

And finally, the night before our term papers were due, she snuck into my room and smashed my laptop and shredded all my papers.

After that, I went home and never went back. But this time I couldn't run home.

"Why didn't you tell me the whole story?" Kristen asked.

I took a deep breath. How much had she heard of that? The expression on her face made it seem like she had heard all of it. "I don't know. I didn't want you to hate him anymore if we got back together. You don't have to worry about that now."

"Alina." She put her arm around my shoulders. "I'm so, so sorry."

And even though she hated Chris, I knew she meant it. "I can't believe he kissed her back," I said.

"I know."

"You were right about him. Why didn't I listen to you?"

"Because he's pretty. And you never had a boyfriend before."

I laughed.

"Can I tell you something, though?" She let go of my shoulders and stood right in front of me. "I'm actually glad that you two dated."

"Seriously?"

"Because now you'll recognize a good thing. In comparison."

"You mean Bryce?"

Kristen smiled.

"I'm already sold on Bryce. Do I look okay?"

"You look like you just played three games of volleyball."

"So...bad?"

Kristen laughed. "But he's already seen you after ugly crying with snot all over your jersey. And he still likes you."

"Still." I wiped some of the sweat off my face with the back of my hand.

"Come on." She grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the exit.

Bryce was standing by the door with his friends. I chucked the flowers in the trash right before we reached them, but not before Bryce had seen them. He glanced at the trashcan and then back at my face.

"Congrats on the win," Alex said. "Who knew our volleyball team was so good?"

Kristen laughed. "Everyone except you, apparently. We're favored to win gold. And we're going to win."

"I like my women confident," Tim said.

I tuned them out and looked up at Bryce. He was smiling at me. I suddenly felt extremely self conscious.

"You dig me, huh?" I asked. "I like the volleyball pun."

"I'd never lie on a poster." He had rolled the poster up and was holding it in his hand. I thought he might give it to me, but the fact that he didn't was even better. It meant he wanted to use it again.

"Congratulations, Alina," he said and leaned in for a hug.

I didn't hesitate to hug him back. He smelled like his cologne and sweat.

I'm pretty sure the combination was my new favorite smell in the world.

I could easily feel the muscles in his back through his shirt.

I had the urge to trace every muscle with my fingertips, but kept my hands rooted in place.

I reluctantly pulled back when I felt like I had probably been hugging him for too long.

But he hadn't stopped hugging me either.

Maybe he liked having me in his arms just as much as I liked being in his.

I nervously tugged the bottom of my jersey. "Are you feeling better?"

"What?"

"Last night, Alex said you weren't feeling well..."

"Oh, right." Bryce laughed. I loved the sound of him laughing. "I'm good. My Uber driver just took the bumpiest route possible. That combined with eating way too much Brazilian steak was not a pretty sight."

"I'm sorry about all the texts. I thought you'd been kidnapped." I smiled up at him. He was going to think I was so ridiculous.

"It's okay. It was nice that someone was looking out for me."

The way he said it reminded me of when he was talking about the reason why he was such a good runner. Because he had something to run from. I wanted to ask him about it, but not in front of Kristen and his friends.

He leaned in close to me. "As much as I love my friends, maybe you and I could hang out tonight just us?"

"I'd love that." I coughed awkwardly. "I'd like that I mean." Love? I can't say love this soon. I'm going to freak him out.

Bryce smiled at me. "We'll catch you guys later," he said as he grabbed my hand.

I immediately interlaced my fingers with his. Again, I couldn't help but notice his large, manly hands. My hand felt so small in his.

Kristen looked down at our intertwined hands. "Have fun," she said with a wink.