Page 65 of Stumped

“I’m yours too,” she admits softly and I’m kissing her again.She’s mine. And no matter how long it takes her to get comfortable with us as a couple, I’ll fucking wait. Even if it means forever.

“What now?”

After our conversation and kissing, a grouchy old security guard from the building we were parked in front of shooed us away, I started driving aimlessly. It’s getting late but I don’t care, because I’m on the top of the world.

With her free hand, Vera scrolls through her phone. “Hungry?”

“For you.”

“If we hurry, we can visit my favourite thattukada?1 before it closes,” she says, ignoring my flirting.

“Is it close by?”

“On Marina?2.” As the GPS directs me, she adds, “We can pick it up and eat at home, so you can eat a late dinner and me without prying eyes.”

The straight way she says it surprises me and I choke on my spit. When I glance at her, she’s grinning devilishly, and I’m reminded again how much I fucking love her. I turn onto Beach Road and I stop at the curb. I know if the cops at either end of the road see me there, they’ll fine me. But before I can say as much, Vera’s out of the car and hurrying towards the blue cart at the edge of the beach. I check my surroundings, while also keeping an eye on my woman and after fifteen minutes, she hurries backwith three bundles wrapped in newspaper, oil already seeping through the layers. I hear a loud whistle and know our time is up, so I quickly put the car in gear and hit the accelerator and drive as fast as possible away from being caught.

Half turned around in the passenger seat, Vera’s cackling makes me smile. This woman has me doing things I never would have even imagined in the past. I’ve gone to secret gigs, parked illegally on the side of the road and I’ve wandered around the city in the middle of the ICL season in a ball cap.

All because I would do anything to have more time with her and make her smile.

Twenty-One. The slut life

Vera

It’s been five days and two matches since our late night date, and things with Elias are perfect. Having a deep conversation on a dark street wasn’t my plan, but the minute he said he didn’t want to be my friend, I knew I’d fucked up. There was absolutely no way I could convince anyone I wanted only sex with Elias. Things had more than changed and I was powerless to stop myself from falling.

But I was still keeping an emotional distance between us.

The issue wasn’t that we were on different pages, but that I was afraid to say the words and have everything fall apart. Elias’s feelings weren’t locked away anymore and I felt like he was seconds away from saying the three words. He always caught himself though and I was eternally grateful. While he was very different from Ajay and Rakesh, my past wounds resurfaced at the wrong times and I struggled to navigate us without hurting myself.

He’s been annoyingly perfect, though. Which makes it even harder to keep ignoring the way he makes me feel. All it takes is a phone call during practice, an early morning kiss before he has to leave me alone in bed or even a silly text about how many runshe scored during training—I find myself smiling to myself like an idiot.

As the owner of a company, and having worked multiple jobs, I know we’re walking a fine line. While Lucky Shot doesn’t have anything against coworkers dating, I don’t know how the Renegades feel about it. Brushing it off is a little dangerous, but there’s no way to get their policies and guidelines without triggering an avalanche of questions. And I’m not ready for them to find out the woman in those photographs from a month ago is me. It’s hard enough getting men in high places to respect a woman at their same level. This will give them all kinds of excuses to treat me like shit. I don’t have time for that.

I do, however, have all the time in the world for my cousin. She doesn’t give me much of a choice, really. Tamara shows up with a paper bag filled with food and plonks herself on my couch despite James loudly announcing that I have a very busy day.

“It’s her lunch break, James. I won’t stay longer than an hour, I promise.”

My assistant narrows his eyes, because heknowsshe will never leave. But he does exit the room, shooting another glare her way, which cracks me up.

“Is it weird that I love him?” she says and unloads food from our favourite pan-Asian restaurant on the table. “Also, I can’t believe it took you this long to invite me to the office for lunch. Didn’t realise Elias had so much power.”

“Technically you invited yourself.”

“Semantics.” She waves me off.

“Don’t you have a really demanding job?”

“Do I? More importantly, I needed a break and my boss knows it.”

As one of the top interior architects at her firm, Tamara is damn good at her job. She gets to design incredible spaces and has access to some of the rich and famous in the city. Because ofthat she works a lot, so her midweek days-off are common. She’s the reason I started to work from home at least once a week if I can. I’ve burned out at past jobs and I never want it to happen here, so I take care of myself as much as possible.

Itdefinitelyhelps to have a sexy athlete for a boyfriend taking care of me too.

I can barely contain the squeal as I shove a California roll into my mouth, drawing her attention.

“Is the foodthatgood?”

---