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My feet hesitantly moved closer to him, as if they were being pulled closer by some invisible string. Tommy’s hand slipped from my face to cup the back of my neck, tilting my head up toward his. His blue eyes looked dark as they drank in every inch of my face. My heart felt like it was going to burst right through my rib cage as Tommy leaned closer, his lips now a breath away from mine. My eyes drifted closed as I waited for the moment to happen, to feel his lips against mine. An eternity must have passed before his lips brushed against the corner of my mouth, almost like a question.
When I didn’t pull back, they enveloped mine. Tommy’s hands drifted down to my waist as he pulled my body against his, pressing every inch of me against every inch of him. A moan escaped my lips as I felt my body melt into his, giving in to the feel of him everywhere on my body. Tommy’s arms wrapped around me tighter in response, like he wanted to devour me where we stood.
Years must have passed by the time we had pulled away from each other. The night was quiet; not a single paparazzo yelled at us. Or maybe they did, but I couldn’t hear any of them because my senses were still zeroed in on Tommy. His lips looked bruised as he stared at me with a look of bewilderment on his face. My chest was still rising and falling quickly as my brain tried to make sense of what had just happened.
Sure, Tommy had kissed me like Monica had asked, but that felt like more than a simple kiss. I had to shake that thought from my head. It was bad enough that I was having to pretend to date the hottest guy I’d ever seen. It was even worse that the hottest guy I’d ever seen had kissed me like I was water and he had been stranded in the desert for the past month. If Tommy was going to kiss me like that every time we had to in public, I was sure my feelings would forever be fucked.
My hand drifted up to touch my lips as Tommy continued to stare at me, his eyes dazed. All at once, the world came back to me as my senses snapped back to normal. First, it started with the sounds of the traffic and the distant throb of the music inside the party. Then, it was the intoxicating smell of Tommy’s cologne, cedar wood. I managed to pull my eyes away from his face as I took in the lights of the city around us. Then I heard it.
Silence.
I glanced down the stairs toward the paparazzi to see them quietly staring at us. The guy with the video camera still recording while the others stood there, their cameras hanging around their necks as they watched us. It was as if they were as shocked by the intensity of that kiss as I was.
Tommy’s arm slowly wound back around my waist, and the two of us finished descending the stairs. Neither of us looked at each other, even after we got in the car and started back toward the hotel.
Tommy walked me all the way back to my hotel room, still not a word shared between us. He kept a respectful distance away from me as I swiped my key card and opened the door. I turned to look at him, unsure of what to do or say. He looked exactly how I felt as he rubbed the back of his neck. Neither of us was sure if our kiss had crossed a line, and after I realized that Tommy wasn’t going to break the awkward silence, I knew I needed to or I would explode from the anticipation.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at the game.” With that, Tommy turned and walked away. Leaving me standing alone in a hotel hallway in a dress far fancier than anything I’d ever worn before, with bruised lips and a pounding heart.
“I don’t even have to ask you if your date was good. That kiss said everything.” Olivia practically swooned next to me as we shot the game. The second I stepped on the bus the next morning she had swarmed me like a colony of wasps, stinging me with every question she had.
“Was it like straight out of a romance movie?” Olivia continued. I knew she meant well, and if my head still wasn’t scrambled like eggs from the very kiss she was talking about, I was sure I would be playing along with her.
“Just like Pretty Woman,” I replied absentmindedly as I took a few photos. My mind was too distracted for today’s game, and I knew none of my pictures would be good enough to use. I was hoping I wouldn’t hear about it from May.
Luckily, we were stationed outside the dugout for this game. I wasn’t sure I would be able to keep myself from watching Tommy’s every move if I were within five feet of him. I had waited anxiously by my phone all morning to hear from him after we had been congratulated for a job well done by Monica. But it was silent. That silence had been picking at a corner of my brain all morning. Luckily, Olivia didn’t seem to read anything strange coming from me today and never pressured me for more information.
“Can we all hang out sometime?” she asked me after a few minutes of working. “I’d like to get to know him better.”
The moment those words left Olivia’s mouth, I knew I was stuck. There was no way I could tell her no without raising any suspicion from her. We’d already established that if we could sell this relationship to the ones closest to us, we could sell it to the world. So I reluctantly told her that I thought it would be a great idea for us all to hang out and that I would talk to Tommy after the game.
Which led to me cornering Tommy as he came out of the locker room. He was always the last one to leave, which was convenient for me to have this conversation with him. When the team started to trickle out of the locker room, they only looked at me for a few seconds before they moved on. Except Jamil. Jamil came out of the locker room, noticed me, and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“Waiting on Loverboy?”
I rolled my eyes at the nickname he had given Tommy and tried to hide the smile that was spreading across my face.
“No.” It came out of my mouth an octave too high, and Jamil let out a belly laugh so loud it brought heat to my cheeks, before turning and walking away. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wallow in my embarrassment for long because the locker room door opened one more time and Tommy Mikals walked out.
His eyes widened in surprise when he noticed me. Honestly, I wasn’t really sure why I had rushed to ask him about hanging out with Olivia. This question could have waited until we had all gone back to the hotel. Heat rushed to my cheeks at the thought of someone catching me knocking on Tommy’s door like some lovesick girl.
“Maggie?”
My gaze refocused as I realized that Tommy had stopped right outside the locker room and was staring at me.
“Olivia wants to hang out.” It was like I couldn’t hold back the word vomit that had spewed from my mouth.
“Okay?” Tommy replied slowly, clearly not getting the situation I was trying to convey.
“With both of us.” His eyebrows raised in surprise. “We have to convince her about us.”
“Okay.” Tommy let out a breath. “When?”
“On this trip, I think. I guess she really didn’t say, but I’m assuming she wants to hang out sooner rather than later—” Tommy had taken a few steps closer to me and moved to cover my mouth, silencing me.
“Tell her we will tomorrow.” Tommy had morphed into the man of action he had been last night. He took on the responsibility of the situation, easing some of the worry from my shoulders. “We’ll be in San Francisco tomorrow. We can all go to the pier.”
I stood there feeling like I had forced Tommy’s hand, and guilt spread through my body. “Are you sure?”
