Page 29 of Sinful Storms

Stripping down to my underwear as quickly as I could, I reached for my lacrosse jersey. Most of my teammates were already outside warming up for practice, and I needed to get a move on before Saunders realised his team captain was missing.

A loud wolf whistle had me spinning around, jersey in hand.

“Who gave you those scratches on your back? A wildcat?”

Scratches? What the fuck? I stared at Tyrell’s smirking face until comprehension hit me.

Not a wildcat. Those were the stings from a scorpion.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” I pulled my jersey on and then stepped into my shorts.

“I think I can probably guess.”

He probably could, the fucker. He’d been in the crypts that night, after all.

“Could’ve been any one of a number of people,” I said as I took a seat on the edge of the bench to pull on my boots.

“Only one who’d want to mark you up like that.” He did have a point. No one had ever dared to be as savage with me as AriaHarper was. I grinned, forgetting for a minute that we’d agreed the whole thing had been a mistake, never to be repeated.

Glancing around us to make sure we were alone, I stepped closer, lowering my voice. “You say anything to anyone else…”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry, I’m not the type to spread rumours. I didn’t tell anyone about you kicking me and Harriet out of your fuck dungeon so you could have alone time with Aria, did I?”

I ignored the insinuation that I’d been fucking Aria down there. It was completely untrue. We’d just…delayed the fucking until we were alone in my parents’ mansion.

Fuck’s sake. There went my resolution not to think about that ill-advised series of events that had begun with me taunting her in the kitchen and ended with my cock buried inside her. “It’s not a fuck dungeon.”

He laughed. “Sorry. Aria called it that, and I guess the name stuck. It fits; you can’t deny it.” When he noticed me gritting my teeth, his grin widened, turning shark-like. “Hey, her tits are fucking?—”

I had him pressed up against the wall with my arm across his throat before he could complete his sentence.

“Don’t. Fucking. Speak. About. Her,” I ground out, and his brows flew up.

“Okay, okay. Fucking hell. Calm down.”

Stepping back, I shook my arms out and then swiped my gloves from the bench, tugging them over my hands. “Just don’t.”

He huffed out a breath. “It’s not like you to be so possessive over a girl you haven’t even publicly claimed. It’s not me you have a problem with, is it?”

“No. It’s just—it’s nothing. Forget it,” I muttered. “Come on, let’s get out there before Saunders gives us shit for being late for practice.”

There was no way I could respond to his comments without incriminating myself. I had no fucking right to act that way, but when it came to Aria Harper, I couldn’t seem to help myself.

Thank fuck for Saunders and his need to push us as hard as possible to make sure we were prepared for our game against Burford. Every point counted now we were so close to the end of the season, and the teams at the top of the league had so few points separating them. The endless drills left me with no room for any other thoughts. As I completed my sixth lap of the field, my lungs and legs burning and my body dripping with sweat, Saunders blew his whistle and waved me over to the sidelines.

Panting for breath, I bent over, placing my hands on my thighs. When I felt like I could breathe again without risk of dying, I straightened up.

“Cool-down stretches,” Saunders instructed. “Then you’re going to take off your helmet and sit down over there and tell me your plan for switching up the team positions.”

I sank into a lunge. “You’re open to changing it up?”

“Maybe. We’ll do a test run, and I’ll make a decision after that. I’m the coach, so I get the final say, but you’re the one out there on the ground, making it happen.” He paused, giving me a brief, rare smile. “You’re a good captain, and your instincts are usually spot on. If you have an idea that helps us win the league, I’m all ears.”

My grin stretched across my face. “We’re gonna win. I’ve been studying their practices, and I’m confident I know where their weak spots are.”

Throwing a bottle of water to me, he nodded. “Okay. Drink that, and let’s hear your plan.”

16

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