Authors: Marian Tee
“You say you don’t want to quit, but that’s already what you’re doing. If you stay with that team of yours, it wouldn’t matter they’re a First Division team—”
“Division I,” she corrected.
“Whatever the hell they are, it wouldn’t matter. Because with them, your career won’t go anywhere. You need to go where what you’d be doing would matter—” He paused before letting the penny drop. “Even if you have to start all over again.”
Lace stared at him like he had just told her he was going to burn all thirty-four pairs of rubber shoes she had in her closet.
After a long moment, she spoke again, her voice barely audible. “I’m scared.”
He knew how difficult it was for Lace to have admitted her fear, knew she wouldn’t have done it with another man except him. He breathed hard, everything in him wanting to pull her into his lap then and there. He wanted to promise he would take care of everything, would fucking buy Lace her own Division I team if she wanted. He could do that, but then she could do that, too. He had done his research and knew the Wyndhams were just as wealthy as his family. Buying her way to a successful career wasn’t her thing, and he wouldn’t do her the dishonor of even suggesting it.
All he wanted was to give her what she needed, and right now, she needed to be told the truth.
“It’s okay to be afraid.” He held her gaze. “But what’s not okay is being a coward. I don’t think you ever were, so don’t start now.”
Her head lowered. “I can’t change schools just like that.”
“Yes. You can.” She was merely grasping at straws, and they both knew it.
“It could still not work.”
“But at least you did something.”
He watched her take a deep breath. “I’ll think about it.”
Silver nodded. He changed the subject then, knowing she needed time to take it all in. When it was time to go, they left the ballroom together, side by side but their hands not touching. It wasn’t that he was not a fast mover. He was. But with Lace, aggression would only backfire. With his rebellious little lamb, he had to force himself to slow things down, to take things one step at a time.
The elevator doors opened, and he gestured for her to precede him. She wrinkled her nose, but he didn’t move. He didn’t give a damn if she thought it was old-fashioned of him. She was a woman. His woman. He would treat her as such.
Finally, she stepped inside, and he followed her in, pressing the button for the hotel’s basement parking.
When he turned around to face her—
Bam.
His lamb had thrown herself at him, forcing him back against the wall. Her hands clutched his shoulders as she tiptoed and pressed her lips against his, a feather-soft brush that even for all its briefness was incredibly hot, so much so that their sexual chemistry instantly exploded, transforming from a subtle presence into something living and tangible.
Silver froze at the kiss, but before he could figure out whether it was just his imagination or not, Lace was already pulling away, looking more beautiful than ever with her flushed cheeks.
What the hell was that? And why the fuck was it over already?
He cupped her face as he demanded starkly, “Why did you kiss me?”
She was so obviously embarrassed at what she had just done that he expected her to look away when she answered. But she didn’t, proving he hadn’t been wrong about her. She had her moments of fear, but his lamb was no coward.
“When my guys do something really well, I usually reward them with a day off from practice.” Her cheeks turned redder with every word, but her beautiful blue eyes remained on him. “With you, I don’t think that would work.”
His lips curved. “No. It won’t.”
“So all the way here, I was wondering what would be a suitable way to thank you for being honest, for telling me what I had to hear…” She was squirming now, her face scrunched up like she was being forced to bathe in a sewer. “And I thought…a kiss would work?”
His smile widened, more so when he saw how her eyes were drawn to his lips. Ah, God, his lamb was a seductive sight, the way she could be all sensual and womanly only with him.
“You knew I wanted you?”
He expected her to be honest with him, and she was. It was one of the many things he loved about her, the way she was anything but coy, like “sportsmanlike conduct” had to be applied to every aspect of her life, even off the court.
“Liam told me last week…”
At the mention of the groom’s name, Silver could feel himself flushing, knowing what she was about to say.
“Your older brother found another guy willing to take his place in the dance.” She stopped speaking, as if the next words she had to say were just too mortifying.
So he continued it for her, his voice silky as he said, “And you learned from Liam that I refused to let the other man take my place.”
A tiny nod.
“Which means you know how long I’ve wanted you.”
A tinier nod.
“You’re wrong.”
Lace jerked. A moment later, she tried to pull away, but he didn’t let her. Reaching behind her, he pressed the elevator’s
Hold
button. The hotel was Aehrenthal property, one of the many that belonged to his brother-in-law’s family. It meant his face would be familiar to security, enough for them to look the other way if he desired more than a moment of privacy with his sly little lamb.
And she was sly, more than he gave her credit for. She had known about his feelings and she had never given him a clue.
He had to punish her for that.
Slowly, he traced her lips, making her stiffen even more. “You actually think I only wanted you for the past two weeks?” A humorless laugh escaped him. “You have to be fucking joking. I’ve wanted you the first time I met you. From the very first moment,” he rasped, “I’ve been this way in your presence.”
He took her hand, pressing it to his cock, and his erection hardened even more at the way she whimpered with a mixture of shock and desire, her eyes those of a deer caught in the headlights.
“I thought I had to take things slow with you, but you never cease to surprise me.” Her fingers started to move, but he pressed her hand closer towards his erection, almost groaning when her fingers moved in reflex, curling around his length. “I never thought you’d kiss me, never thought you’d be so bold to tell me you know I want you.”
Before she could speak, he pressed a finger to her lips.
She fell silent.
“I like it.” He watched her swallow at his words. “I like it very much.” Another swallow, her cheeks the deepest shade of rose now. “But as for my reward…” His voice lowered. “I think I should teach you the proper way to do it.”
At his words, her entire body jerked.
“When I kiss you…” He exerted the slightest bit of pressure on her hand on his cock. “Don’t let go.”
After a long moment, she nodded slowly, shakily.
It was all he needed, his mouth replacing his finger on her lips. He kissed her slowly and softly at first, patiently coaxing Lace to open her mouth under his. And when she did, he took his time, nibbling on that beautiful lower lip of hers, sucking it the way he had wanted to from the very start. And when he felt her body softening against him, that was only when Silver deepened the kiss, one arm curling around her nape while another moved to curve around her bottom, using it to press her closer to his body.
When his tongue moved inside her mouth, she whimpered, and he groaned a second later, the way her fingers involuntarily tightening around his cock driving him crazy with need.
There was no way he could be gentle now, not even if his life depended on it. And she didn’t seem to mind, her wildly responsive ways making him badly want to start pushing his cock in and out of her tight grip.
Only when he knew he had to let her breathe did he force himself to move away. She was staring up at him, dazed, her breathing choppy. Slowly, he reached for her hand on his cock and reluctantly pulled it away.
Seeing the way she trembled with fear and confusion, knowing that her world would soon be turned upside down because of his own advice, Silver knew he had to give her time.
He pressed the
Hold
button and the elevator started to move again.
“Lace.” His voice was harsh with suppressed desire.
Her eyes jerked to his.
God, those pretty rosebud lips. His fists clenched at the effort it took not to kiss them again and make her lips even more swollen that they already were. “Don’t you fucking think it’s over between us.”
The elevator doors opened.
He forced himself to step out first.
Time,
he told himself determinedly. For her, he would do his damnedest to give her time to realize that what they had was once in a lifetime, and because it was, nothing else mattered.
Not the fact that she was nineteen and he was twenty-five. Or that she was still in college while his work took him all over the world.
Lace was looking at him like she was doing her best not to cry, like she thought he was just making excuses and that he was in fact abandoning her.
With a silent curse, he reached for her, and the way she went to him so willingly nearly broke his self-control. He gave her a short hard kiss – the only thing he could trust himself to do – before pulling away. “I’ll come back for you, little lamb.”
And then he forced himself to walk away without looking back.
Part Two: Lace
First Promise
One month later
Lace stood at the edge of the court, back straight, shoulders stiff. A thousand thoughts ran through her mind, but none of them made it past her lips.
Vasyl.
The eighteen-year-old point guard, the youngest in the team but also the most agile. He had the makings of a future leader, if only he stopped thinking of his age as a disadvantage.
Drew.
The nineteen-year-old small forward. He was unbelievably sly, like a damn fox. But he was also incredibly distrustful, preferring to run the show on his own. Didn’t he know that even His Airness couldn’t have made it without Pippen, Rodman, and the rest of the Bulls supporting him?
Alexio.
The power forward, also the same age as Drew. He was the most volatile of them all, his temper getting him in foul trouble within the first minutes of the game.
Damian.
The twenty-year-old center. He was the tallest in the team at six-foot-seven and built like an MMA fighter. She could train him to be NCAA’s top blocker – but first she had to learn Greek since he didn’t seem to speak English.
Ivan.
Like Damian, he was also twenty years old, and he had been appointed as team captain by the previous one, Reid Chalkias, the university’s so-called Prince of Darkness. Since Reid was a player she greatly respected, Lace knew he must have had a good reason to choose Ivan as a successor. She just wished she could have asked him what it was. So far, Ivan was the one that puzzled her the most. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the skills. He was one of the most impressive players she had ever seen, as deadly inside the paint as he was beyond the three-point-line. But that was
not
the problem. What she couldn’t get was how someone so dispassionate about basketball could lead the team.
The other players making up her 12-man team all had problems, too, but so far her starting five posed the biggest headaches.
Coach Rob gestured for her to come over from the other side of the court, and she quickly jogged to his side. When she reached him, he blew the whistle, and everyone came to a halt, every player turning towards them.
Then Coach Rob turned to her, too.
Lace froze.
“Anything you want to say to the team before we dismiss them?”
Silence.
A huge, gaping silence that was an embarrassing reflection of the current state of her mind.
God.
She was Lace Wyndham, the one girl who was never at a loss for words when it came to coaching players.
But right now, she couldn’t think of a single word to say to her one-month-old team. They were just so different.
Her old team in high school had been like family, a group of unruly boys she had to alternately discipline and babysit, depending on which they needed more.