AllFreeNovel
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I take a step back, extending my arms in challenge. “You sureI’mthe one who’s fearful? You seem awfully jumpy for someone who’s standing pretty on the other side of the fence.”
“Are you flirting with me?”
My mouth turns crooked. “And if I am? What’re you going to do about it?” I provoke, dribbling the ball seamlessly between my legs.
Hailey’s eyes glint. “Don’t be a dick.”
“Then get off mine.”
This does the trick, as I knew it would. If it was possible, I imagine smoke would be flaming past her ears. Good.Thisanger erases whatever’s plaguing that head of hers and forces her attention elsewhere, which is on me.
Me.
I want her focus.
“…And don’t call me pretty,” Hailey orders as an afterthought, stomping her way through the opening.
I raise my hands in surrender, a permanent smile glued to my face since she’s stolen the ball right from my grip.
She wants to play hardball; we can play hardball.
“Replant your feet,” she demands, and I play along, doing exactly as she demonstrates beside me on the free throw line.
Adorable. This is adorable. Hailey thinks she knows more than me.
“You know volleyball and basketball are similar in a lot of ways.”
“How so?” I muse, continuing my part in this charade as she rounds me, coming to a stop directly in my line of vision, which also happens to be dead center to the rim.
There is absolutely no way she could ever understand more about basketball than I do. This sport is my life. There isn’t anything new she can show me that I haven’t already researched, tried, or practiced.
Someone must’ve put an extra batch of cuckoo in her cereal this morning. Volleyball and basketball are not alike.
“There’s no rim in volleyball,” I point out.
She lifts a nonchalant shoulder. “Maybe not, but both do have a net and an objective of getting the ball to it.”
“And?”
“And both involve rules that include picking up and passing as a team.”
“So?”
Hailey’s smile is hidden, and it does something to my cock, stirring it more awake at her cheekiness. My eyes turn wolfish as I press the tip of my tongue to the swell of my lip.
“Free throws are my problem, babe, and those are just on me.” I wink. “Or haveyouforgotten the rules?”
This is the main problem. Making a basket isn’t an issue when the pressure’s on. It’s as soon as I’m standing there, alone with zero influence of another person defending me, that throws me off. My mind has time to wonder, and it throws everything else off.
She bounces the ball back to me. “I haven’t forgotten.”
I have the sudden urge to grab her by the chin and kiss the offended defiance right off her perfect little smart-ass mouth—
Whoa!Where did that come from?
Unfortunately for Hailey, she’s always been about as easy as a napkin to read. She doesn’t have to respond because odds are, her face will answer the question for you.
The same is true at this very moment.
