Page 43 of Ace My Heart

We hopped into the back seat of the car, and I relaxed back against the leather as we left the airport, peering out of the tinted window at the city rising out of the desert. It was stark, but there was a sort of beauty to it – the way the ultra-modern skyscrapers jutted out of the barren landscape.

Joel pulled his phone out from his shorts pocket and studied it. I leaned closer to read it over his shoulder.

“Oh, great! How did I get Norieva first round?” I wailed. Joel gave me a sharp look and I snapped my mouth shut.

“It shouldn’t matter who you play first round. You just focus on being the bestyoucan be.”

“But is the best I can be going to be better than Katinka Norieva?” I muttered. I was all kinds of nervous. This would be my first professional tournament without Steve. Every eye would be on me, waiting for me to fail. Waiting to leap on my mistakes. Waiting to harass me about Pete.

“Have some faith in yourself, Stink, it’s all about thinkingpositive.” Joel smiled at me in his most winning way. I tried not to smile back at him and failed miserably. I was beginning to realise that his upbeat mood had a way of rubbing off on me, even when I tried to fight it.

When we pulled up out the front of Ben’s building, I craned my neck upwards – completely amazed at the sheer height of it.

“He liveshere?” I asked incredulously. Joel chuckled as he handed me my suitcase.

“Yep – penthouse.”

I gaped at him, his laughter intensifying. “Never picked you for a gold digger, Stinky.”

I adjusted my expression and scowled at him. “Not everyone is as shallow as you, Joel. Sometimes people look for deeper connections in a relationship.”

Joel snorted. “Mel, I know all about deep connections. Every woman who connects with me gets it deep.”

I pretended to puke. “Seriously, why do you always have to make everything about sex?” I snapped over my shoulder as I dragged my suitcase awkwardly up the steps. Joel appeared beside me and took the suitcase from me, hefting it easily along with his own and my tennis bag, and carrying the whole lot the rest of the way. He put them down at the top and pulled out a card, which he scanned on a panel. The heavily tinted glass and steel doors swung inwards silently.

Joel turned to me with a grin. “Because, Stink, you can have the most profound connection with a person, but nothing will ever come of it if they can’t satisfy you in bed. We’re all just animals ruled by our hormones really.”

I eyed Joel with irritation as the lift took us very quickly up to the top floor. The doors slid open with a quiet whooshing noise and my mouth fell open.

The lift opened directly into the apartment. I turned to Joel in disbelief. He grinned at me.

“How is that secure?” I demanded. He lifted the cases out of the elevator and the doors closed silently behind us.

He held the card up to me. “This has to be programmed tobring you to this floor.” I sneered at him and turned back to the apartment.

The floors were polished concrete. The large kitchen was industrial – the benches stainless steel, with black doors and drawers. The whole floor seemed open plan, with the long narrow dining table made from metal and concrete forming a barrier between the kitchen and the living area, where an ultra-modern leather sofa sprawled in front of the biggest flat screen television I had ever seen.

Hallways opened off from either end of the space – one to the side of the kitchen, and the other at the living room end. I guessed these led to the bedrooms.

Directly in front of me, behind the dining table and through the tinted glass wall, was an indoor swimming pool – it was roofed in glass to let the sunlight in but kept out the worst of the heat. There were exotic plants in a garden along the far side of the pool, and nestled among them was a spa.

“And you thought Mum and Dad were rich,” Joel murmured in my ear as he led the way. He took my stuff through a doorway, along a wide hall and into a massive bedroom with a king-sized bed and en suite. He propped my suitcase up against the bed and sat my tennis gear on top of the covers.

“Shower,” he commanded and then turned for the door. “Then we’ll swim some laps before dinner.”

I was tired and jet-lagged and cranky, but I did as I was told, and I surprisingly didn’t feel too bad as I pulled my training swimmers on.

Joel was waiting for me in the pool already, wearing his Speedos. He more than filled them out – oh God, why did I have to havethosethoughts aboutJoel?!

“Oh, I was looking forward to the itty-bitty yellow bikini again.” Joel commented mockingly as I slipped into the pool beside him.

“Well, I wishyou’dcover up more, but we don’t always get what we want, do we, Joel?” I responded, pushing off and swimming a length of the pool and back.

Joel grinned lopsidedly at me. “You only wish that because youhate it that you crave a piece of this.” He ran those big hands down his rippling abs.

I groaned. “I thought we were here to train, not so that I had to listen to you wax lyrical about how great you are.”

Joel shrugged and pushed off from the edge of the pool. “Okay, Stink, let’s see if you can keep up with me with your racing togs on.”

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