Breakaway (Beyond the Play, #2)(68)

“I’ll see you,” Penny squeaks. She darts out of the room.

I scrub my hand over my face. It’s a good thing she left, because if we’d had another moment alone, I’d either have spilled my guts to her or tried to fuck her against the wall, and I don’t know which would have been worse for someone to walk in on.

“Man, you have it bad,” Evan says. He crosses the room to where I’m still rooted in place, clapping a hand onto my shoulder and squeezing. “I didn’t even realize.”

“I don’t,” I snap.

“Dude, you were looking at her like she—what do they say? Hung the moon? You were looking at her like that. Like she climbed up on a ladder and put it in the sky just for you.”

I practically bare my teeth at Evan, who just grins, clearly delighted by this entire situation. “Don’t worry,” he adds. “It happens to the best of us. What was she doing in Finau’s sweater, though?”





Screw waiting until everyone settles down for the night to see her again. As soon as we wrap up at the arena, I grab an Uber to the hotel and head straight for her floor. She’s on the same one as the coaching staff, which means I could run into anyone from the equipment manager to Coach himself, but at the moment, I don’t give a shit. I’ll lie my way through it if I need to. I’m desperate to finish what we started in the locker room.

She slipped me her room key earlier, but I knock anyway. She peers through the peephole first, good girl, and then unlocks the door.

Before she can say a word, I crowd the doorway, pulling her into my arms and kissing her hard. I kick the door closed, then spin her around, pressing her against it as I devour her mouth. She tastes like mint, and there’s something sweet mixed in with the lavender of her perfume, and when I finally break away, gasping, she whines and tugs me back.

“Callahan,” she murmurs against my mouth. “What’s gotten into you?”

I pull away, even though it’s torture; I’m rock hard in my jeans. Every particle of me is dying to kiss her, to taste her, to swallow down her moans, but instead, I tilt up her chin. She gulps as we lock eyes, her tongue darting out to wet her lips. I bite back a curse. “You know my name.”

“But—”

I push my thigh between her legs, effectively shutting her up, and drag my hand down from her chin to her throat. Not squeezing, not hurting her—just holding it there like it’s a necklace. There’s a blue-hot fire in her eyes, passion crackling in the air between us like a live wire. I can tell she’s three seconds from launching herself into my arms, so I press my thumb against her pulse to still her. It jumps just underneath her skin.

“You’re calling me Callahan because it helps you pretend there’s nothing deeper going on here,” I say in a low voice. “Cut the shit, Penny. You know my name. Say it.”

She stares at me for a long moment, defiance in her eyes and the upturn of her nose, but then she pushes me away—and pulls the sweater off her head.

She lets it crumple to the floor.

“Cooper,” she whispers. “I’m scared.”

“Is that why you wore his sweater?”

She wraps her arms around herself. Without the sweater, she’s just in a tank top with a bralette underneath; both are canary yellow. The sight of the freckles clustered on her shoulders like so many constellations make my ribs ache. I want to pull her into my arms, but the energy in the room has shifted; one false step and she might shove me back into the hallway.

“Maybe you’re right,” she admits. “Maybe it was another layer of distance.”

“I don’t want distance.” I reach out, taking one of her hands in mine and squeezing. “I just want you. Not as friends. Not as the person you fuck. I want to be with you in all those ways and more.”

She shakes her head. “You don’t know the whole story.”

“I don’t need it to know I want to be with you.”

“Cooper, it’s not—” She stops herself. Her eyes are swimming in tears. “You heard my dad. There’s a reason I wanted to go through a list in the first place.”

“And I don’t care what it is.”

“You say that now, but you don’t know.”

“So tell me.” I brush away the tears on her cheeks. My heart is breaking for her, but I don’t even know why, and that doesn’t sit well with me. How can I help her—truly help her—if I don’t know the whole story? “Tell me, Red.”

She shakes her head, pulling me into a bruising kiss instead of answering. Her hands tug at my shirt until I go along with letting her pull it over my head; she takes off her tank top, too, and then her bra. She presses in for another kiss. I can feel her trembling against me. I bite her lip gently. I don’t want to stop talking, but if she needs this, I’m more than willing to give it to her first.

I’m just about to pull her over to the bed when someone knocks on the door.

“Penelope? You in there?”

It’s Coach’s voice.





41





PENNY





I freeze at the sound of my father’s voice. I can feel that Cooper is frozen too, but he breaks first, bending to pick up my tank top and pulling it over my head. I wipe at my face furiously as I smooth down my hair.