Page 94 of Playing for the Hat Trick
So, I go for the deflection. “We agreed this wasn’t going to be anything.”
“It wasn’t,” he says quietly. “Until it became everything.”
And, fuck. That lands.
He watches me. No pressure, no push. Just standing there in my kitchen like he belongs. Like we’re something already, and I’m the one pretending we’re not.
“And what if I don’t want it to be nothing?” he asks, low and maddeningly sure.
My heart skips.
Then crashes.
Because that’s the problem, isn’t it?
If it’s not nothing, it could be something. And something has an expiration date. A timeline. A detonation.
I grab my coffee like it can shield me from the very real risk of feeling too much. “Then we need new rules.”
Jason’s brow arches. “New rules?”
“Boundaries. Structure. Emotional fire escapes. In case one of us gets caught in the burning building.”
He stares at me for a second. Then actually laughs. “Too late, Scottie.”
“Jason—”
“There’s feelings. There’s need. There’s me wanting more than a casual fuck and you pretending you don’t feel it too.”
My stomach flips—my skin hums. My heart does the stupid thing where it dares to hope.
And still, I reach for structure.
“Fine,” I say, holding my mug like a gavel. “Then we negotiate.”
His smile sharpens. “Rules with loopholes?”
“Guidelines with gray areas.”
“Terms and conditions?”
“Mostly conditions.”
His eyes darken with interest. “God, I fucking love when you try to make chaos sound reasonable.”
“And I hate that you make vulnerability look hot,” I murmur, almost like it’s a crime he keeps committing.
“Too bad,” he says, stepping in like gravity’s got nothing on him. “Because I’m not stopping. Not until you stop pretending this doesn’t mean something.”
He reaches out, brushing his knuckles lightly down my arm—soft, grounding, maddening.
“And I’m going for the hat trick,” he adds, voice low and rough in the best way.
My brow lifts. “A hat trick?”
“Three goals,” he says, holding up one finger. “I recover. Fully. No excuses.”
A second finger. “I get back on the team. Earn my spot.”
