Page 37 of Forbid It

He nods his head. “Thanks. Enjoy the box?”

I quirk my brow, back straightening even as I sense his eyes catching on my lips. “Watching me when you should be watching the ball, Bert?”

I run my tongue across my lip, the gloss I reapplied in the bathroom tasting like strawberries and terrible decisions.

I can’t breathe as his stance widens just slightly, as if granting me access to step closer. My shoes brush against his bare feet. I’m more than aware that all that’s separating us are my clothes and his tiny white shorts which seem to be getting tighter and tighter…

His hand finally releases the table behind him, tugging at a curl hanging across my shoulder, his knuckle gently brushing against my breast as he winds a spiral around his finger. “I’m always watching you,” he confesses, lowly.

Even in my heels and with him leaning against the table, he still towers over me. Like a magnet, I’m drawn to him, desperate for him to claim me, to make the move, and I swear he’s just about to touch his lips to mine…

A noise blares and I jump back, spinning on my heels as if someone’s about to burst through the doors and catch us doing something we shouldn’t.

“It’s my alarm.” His voice is gruff as he turns his back to me, the moment broken. “I can stop icing now.” He pulls a t-shirt back over his head.

“Are you going to the lounge?” I ask, flicking my hair over my shoulder and loving the way his eyes trace the action.

He shakes his head. “I’m heading home.”

“To your bike?”

“Yeah, I’ve not got a beach on my doorstep, unfortunately.”

I’m about to offer for him to come back to mine, but then I remember my app. By the time I get home after showing my face in the lounge, there won’t be any waves to surf.

“You going up there?” he asks me.

I nod with an exhausted breath. “Yeah, my dad asked me to so…” I trail off uneasily.

Robbie steps up to me again, his hand rising, and I hold my breath at the thought of him touching me. He gently twists my earring, freeing a strand of my hair curled around the gemstone droplet dangling from my earlobe and letting it fall back behind my ear. “This is quite a deal you’ve got going on here. What are you getting out of it?”

“Huh?”

“Well I’m getting paid to do this, Sandra. It’s my job. Why are you here?”

I don’t know, I want to tell him.

“My dad asked me to.”

He nods. “It seems to me that you’re doing a lot for you not to be benefiting from this, Cassie. Take a night off.”

I swallow harshly. “I made a commitment to be here.”

His eyebrows scrunch again. This close, I can see the way his brown eyes slightly blink at the motion.

He shrugs. “Seems like you could use an escape.” The echo of the words I told him when I dragged him to the sea fall heavily in the room.

I don’t have the chance to reply before he quietly slips out of the door, leaving me feeling strangely bare.

I can’t shake off his words all the way back to the lounge. I plaster a smile on my face as I meet the fans the sponsors brought with them, and I don’t think about his words again until I’m back in my bedroom straining to hear the ocean, but instead just hearing the air con blowing around the room.

Seems like you could use an escape.

17

ROBBIE

When I was nineteen, I scored the winning goal in my first Champion’s League final. The crowd was so loud, I had a fleeting worry that the stands would collapse, and they’d all come rushing onto the pitch. I had taken a lap to listen to the cheers before my teammates jumped all over my body, crushing me in a group hug filled with joy and relief and ecstasy.