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Alf eventually looks my way with a smug look on his face. “Sure thing,” he speaks. “I’ll stay here while you go talk to Delaney. Sounds like agreatplan.”
Heat rises to my cheeks, though Alf cuts my panic short as he places a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “Oh, relax, son.” His voice drops so that the boys don’t hear, or so I assume. “Do you think I don’t already know?”
“Know what?” I stammer, deciding that playing “dumb” is the best course of action here. It’s all I know how to do right now. Play dumb, act dumb. Make dumb choices.
Alf shakes his head, leaning in close. “I’ve not got the best eyesight, lad…” His voice is that of a whisper at this point. “But I can see that there’s something between the two of you from a mile away.”
I’m blinking rapidly, having to pause and push the realization that everything he’s saying is true to the back of mymind. I can’t confirm, but I also refuse to deny. Instead, I find the middle ground by saying, “Don’t be ridiculous, Alf.”
It’s ambiguous enough that as I pat him on the back and mutter a simple “thank you,” all I hear before I turn down the hallway is. “Good luck with thatpaperwork, Park. Sounds like you’re going to need it.”
Now that I'm finally out of sight, I can relax my face as I run my cool hands across my jaw. Each step towards the changing room feels like an aching reminder of the other night.
I slap myself ever so softly across the cheek as I wait outside the changing room. I need a pep talk. No, I need someone to pep talk some sense into me.
Go in there and tell Delaney that you made a mistake.Thiscan’t happen.Wecan’t happen. That’s easy enough. Say it and be done with it?—
“Took you long enough.”
God help me.
I’m frozen. Frozen in place at the sight that meets me as soon as I enter the changing room. I’d been charging my way forward with a confidence that has now completely dissipated from my body.
“What?” Delaney asks me innocently, slowly inching her way forward in nothing but lingerie.
A sheer black set—with lace. God, how I love lace.
God, how I love…
“You seem surprised,” she remarks, cockily raising her eyebrows with her arms folded across her chest.
Fuckin’ hell, I’m surprised.
What the hell is going on?
In processing that thought, she somehow finds her way in front of me, her fingertips dancing along my shoulder. “Why so tense?” she asks rhetorically. “Don’t you like what you see?”
She rests a hand on my chest as she leans in closer. It’s enough for me to catch the intoxicating scent of her whispering into my ear. The feeling of her breath against my skin sends shivers down my spine. “Oh, wait…you haven’t seen it all.”
She pulls back, striding her way back over to the benches that line the back of the change room while I’m left staring at the back of her.
It’s a cynical sight. I’m going to hell for liking this so much.
“Delaney…what are you doing?” I finally choke out, forcing myself to come back to reality, even if it’s a pathetic attempt that lasts a brief moment. “Put your clothes on,now.” My demand lacks such a force that even I find it laughable.
She pouts with those lips—ones I know the taste of all too well.
“No,” she responds simply, placing her hands on her hips, an action that used to frustrate me, but now…
Yeah, I’m definitely going to hell.
“Delaney…” I’m quick to look over my shoulder as I speak. “Someone could walk inside. Alf isn’t going to hold the practice for much longer.”
“So?” She remarks with a shrug. “Let them. Then they’ll see exactly whatyoumissed out on.”
Her words infuriate me to my core. No one is seeing her like this. No one but me.Fuck.
“Delaney, I?—”
