“Don’t you dare!” I exclaimed and bumped my shoulder into his as he tightened something around the new battery he’d just installed under the hood of my car.
“Thanks, by the way,” I said. “I really appreciate you coming to my rescue once again. I really wish there was some way I could repay you.”
I glanced over at him as he turned to look at me with the heart-stopping gaze that I kept getting caught up in. Our eyes locked with an intensity that coursed through every nerve of my being.
“A kiss would go a long way,” he said in a soft, velvety voice. “That’s how it’s done in the movies, right? Hero gets a kiss?”
He said it as a joke – except that it wasn't…and both of us knew it.
“I like the sound of that,” I whispered.
I felt his fingers wrapping themselves around my hand as he pulled me closer to him. My pulse quickened, and heat began spreading through my bod
y. On some level, I knew this shouldn't be happening. I knew that he knew it, as well, but somehow, that didn’t stop the pull toward each other. It couldn't stop it.
His hand tangled itself in the hair at the base of my neck, and he pulled me to him. Seconds later, our lips were pressed together, and his tongue began to explore my mouth, slowly and gently at first, and then I felt fire and heat rushing through me as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders as the kiss grew heavy and passionate. I ran my fingers through his hair and felt his strong arms pulling me tight against him.
I felt his hands run down my back as we kissed with more and more intensity. Waves of pleasure whistled through my body as I pressed myself up against his hard, muscled torso.
His hands moved further down to wrap around my waist, pulling my lower body against his and making me very aware of his member starting to throb as it hardened, pressing against my belly.
We parted from the passionate kiss, both panting softly. I didn’t know who stepped back first, but suddenly, we were standing apart.
“Wow,” he gasped. “That was...just wow. That was pretty damn amazing.”
“Yeah,” I replied, also trying to catch my breath. “It really, really was.”
“I’m sorry, Eryn,” he said, “I know I shouldn’t have done that. I was out of line.”
His words said one thing, but the way he was looking at me screamed that he wanted to do it again. And, I wanted him to. But I couldn’t say that. Could I?
“Yeah. Ummm…probably not a great idea. Was it?”
We both stood in silence for a while.
“I need to go see my mom,” I said suddenly, a nasty awkwardness creeping through me. “I'll talk to you later, okay? Thanks again for the ride to the store.” With that, I got into my car as quickly as I could and drove off, a huge storm of conflicting thoughts and emotions raging within me.
Chapter Twelve
Wade
I was still trying to catch my breath as I watched Eryn drive away and trying to tame the fireworks going off in my mind – cliché, I knew, but there was no other way to describe how it felt when we had kissed.
I didn’t even know what prompted me to suggest the kiss. Of course, it had been the first thing that had popped into my head when she'd asked if there was any way she could repay me for my help, but I didn't intend for the words to actually come out of my mouth! I really didn’t expect her to encourage it.
But now, damn… I was really glad they had. Wrong or not, that kiss had confirmed what I had secretly been feeling for her, she had also secretly been feeling for me.
But now what? That was the big question. There was, of course, the massive elephant in the room that I knew neither of us wanted to confront, even though we ultimately were going to have to: the fact that I was her coach and she was my player.
Not to mention the age difference.
But it was just so easy to talk with her. The conversation always flowed quickly and smoothly between us. It really wasn't as if there was any difference at all in years between us.
But the coach-player thing...there was no way that that wouldn't be a problem. A huge problem, in fact.
I supposed I needed to do some research, and that would mean chatting to a few people who had been working here a lot longer than I had. Different schools had different policies on things like this, and I needed to find out exactly what ours was. There was only one person I trusted to ask about a subject so delicate. Someone who had worked at Florida State for a long time; someone I knew pretty well, since he'd been my coach once upon a time: Coach Hatting.
The fact that we'd just won our first game by a very convincing margin would be a good reason to go speak to him and would make for an easy lead into the conversation. I took out my phone and called him up.