Scoring Wilder(28)

He bent down so I could hear him over the music. "What are you doing here?" he asked with a hard tone.

Okay. Not the best first line. Something like, you look beautiful, have my babies would have been a little bit better.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I was invited."

He stood back up to his full height and nodded as his eyes roamed the room behind me. What was he looking for?

Liam was intimidating. He captivated a room simply with his presence, and had he not chosen a career in soccer, I could have seen him in a suit and tie, commanding a corporation. His air of confidence was absolute and nonnegotiable.

He sported an afternoon’s worth of stubble that blended well with his sexy brows and brooding grey eyes. He seemed like the type that kept people at arm's length, maybe out of arrogance or maybe from personal choice— either way, I wanted to know him. I wanted to possess him so that those eyes were narrowed and focused solely on me.

Oh, wait. Coach. Coach. Coach.

He’s my coach, not my lover.

That reminder felt like having a bucket of ice water poured over my head.

"Are we allowed to talk or is that against the rules?" I asked with a note of attitude. Not enough that he could call me on it, but enough for the edge of his mouth to curve up.

"It depends on what we talk about, I guess," he answered, finally returning his gaze to me. I felt goose bumps rise down my arms. I knew he wasn’t happy to see me, but I couldn’t figure out why.

"Why'd you give me that gift certificate?" I asked, surprised at my own boldness.

His dark eyes scanned down to my body before he narrowed them in thought. "I shouldn’t have. I wasn't thinking. It was nothing."

Right.

I nodded and chewed on my bottom lip. He'd been so charming on the Tonight Show; he'd smiled and laughed with the host. But with me, he was nothing but serious. I wished I knew what was going on behind those eyes.

"Have you used it?" he asked just as I heard Becca's voice growing closer. I guess she and Jace had spotted us.

I paled. Have I used it yet? Why yes, you paid to give me my first Brazilian, Coach Wilder. The idea that he somehow knew what I'd used the gift certificate for made me want to fake amnesia. “I’m sorry, where am I?”

Instead, I answered him vaguely.

"Yeah, I went with Becca yesterday after practice," I said, just as Becca threw her arm around me. Speak of the tipsy Devil.

"Ohhh, are you telling him about the spa?" she said with a drunken slur. "Are you going to show him the Brazilian wax?" she asked, and then slowly covered her mouth. Her eyes were the size of saucers. "Oh, oops! I wasn't supposed to say that."

She giggled drunkenly and then looked at me. "I'm soooooo sorry, Kinsley. I thought you wanted to show it off like we were joking about, so that's why I said that. I would never embarrass you like that on purpose." I had a serious suspicion that Becca was acting more drunk than she actually was. She was slurring her speech and talking much louder than she usually did, but her eyes were crystal clear. Tipsy or not, she knew exactly what she was doing.

"I'm going to go find Jace!" she sang, and then danced off before I could even think fast enough to yell at her.

I wanted to strangle her.

No, I wanted to strangle her then bring her back to life, and then strangle her again. I couldn't even look at Liam. I felt his eyes on me, but I was focused on the floor beneath his shoes. This couldn't actually be happening. Rewind. Someone hit rewind!

"You used my gift card to get a Brazilian wax?” Liam asked, and I could hear a hint of a smile in his voice. That's what finally made me glance up. Sure enough, he was sporting a cocky grin and there was a lightness to his grey eyes that hadn’t been there before.

I crossed my arms tighter. "She made me do it. It was nothing," I answered, mimicking his own words.

Liam wiped his hand down his sharp cheek bones and strong jaw before he let it fall away.

I could almost see the fight seep out of him.

His jaw clicked back and forth, and I thought he'd say something to dismiss himself from my presence, but instead he murmured, "Come here," as he reached down to take my hand.

I’d like to think that as I glanced down to see my hand engulfed in his, that I at least hesitated for a moment, but let’s not kid ourselves. As he pulled me down the hallway, I had to hold back the urge to yell, “Move it or lose it people.” Sure, in the back of my mind I hoped no one spotted us, but that concern was buried deep, deep beneath the rest of my thoughts.

We kept going down the hallway until Liam pushed a random door open and pulled me inside, then closed it and locked it behind him. I was standing against the back of the door, breathing hard and clenching my fists, when he finally turned to look toward me.

"I'm seriously trying here. There's about a million reasons I should walk out of this room right now.”

"What are you talking about?" I asked, even though I knew exactly what he meant. I could feel the tension between us. My skin was practically crackling from it.

But until that moment, I thought it’d been one sided. I thought I was pining for something I could never have, should never have.

"Do you realize what's at stake for you? If Coach Davis finds out I’m interested in you, we’ll be in deep shit. Do you understand how influential she is for Olympic tryouts? That’s your future, Kinsley.”