Page 32 of Breakpoint
“That may be true, but besides the age, we’re too different. I’m drawn to routine and stability, and you’re not. You like to go out and party with the Sascha Rudds of the world. We’re doubles partners, and this is just too messy to be anything, Dani.”
“The last time I partied with Sascha was in Paris, and the last party I went to was with you. And we know how that night ended?” Dani moved even closer into her space and touched her arm. “Tell me you don’t feel this thing between us?”
Just like that, it was back, the spark that she’d felt when they touched eight nights ago. She felt that tug all over. Dani didn’t care that Jaz had just played a grueling match. She was standing in front of her sweaty without her shirt on, and all she could think about was touching Jaz again. To act, to take what she craved. To have her lips pressed against Jaz’s again. “This connection. It’s real.”
Jaz’s gaze flickered to her hand, then back to her eyes. A muscle in her jaw tightened. “I...” she began, then stopped, her usual composure faltering. Walking her backwards, Dani pressed her back into the wall beside the row of lockers. And closed the remaining distance andleaned in close.
Jaz didn’t resist. Her body was rigid, but she didn’t pull away. Dani’s hand moved from her arm to her waist, her other hand coming up to cup Jaz’s face. “Don’t deny it, Jaz,” Dani murmured, her breath warm against her lips. “Don’t deny us.”
Then she kissed her. It was a kiss filled with eight days of unspoken longing, a fierce, passionate collision of lips and teeth and tongues. Jaz responded with a soft moan that vibrated against Dani’s lips, sending a thrill through her body. Kissing this woman was like a newly discovered drug.
Jaz’s hands gripped Dani’s hips, pulling her closer. The air between them crackled with electricity as their mouths moved hungrily together, tongues tangling, breaths mingling, completely lost in each other.
The kiss was deep and desperate. Their mouths moved together flawlessly, fearlessly, asking and granting access all at once. She gripped the back of her neck, kissing her so deeply she lost the feeling in her legs. She pulled back, panting heavily, trying to get breath back in her lungs, and to make sure that this was what Jaz wanted, that she wouldn’t run again.
Staring into those chocolate eyes, all she saw was want. They must have shared the same thought because they both leaned in and crashed their mouths together again. Both of them were eager and searching. Jaz hummed with appreciation without realizing her body had arched into her. Dani's body relented, pressing her weight against her even more as she slipped her thigh between Jaz’s legs. Parting them.
They both moaned at her leg contacting Jaz’s center.
Their ensuing kiss turned frantic, and she wanted to touch Jaz everywhere. All at once. Her hands roamed, tracing the hard lines of her back, pulling her closer until there wasn’t an inch of space left. Their hips seemed to grind and reach for one another without conscious thought. Her hands drifted lower to Jaz’s strong and luscious thighs, then back up until she gripped her tight ass.
At Jaz’s moan, she felt a faint pulse between her legs. Her need escalated.
She brought her hand from Jaz’s ass to around her front. Jaz groaned, a low rumble in her chest, as Dani’s fingers went up her tennis skirt and rubbed her panties, creating friction in the place Dani couldn’t wait to explore. Whatever was bubbling between them seemed to gain momentum by the second.
She arched into Dani, a soft moan escaping her full lips. Dani hooked her fingers on the gusset of Jaz’s underwear and pulled it to the side, running her fingers up her slit. “Jesus, you’re so wet.”
Before Jaz could speak, Dani’s mouth was back, hot and wet against the vein throbbing in Jaz’s neck. She tasted of salt and sweat, her breath hot against Jaz’s neck as brown fingers tangled in Dani’s damp hair. Jaz may have just played a match and was beyond sweaty, but she didn’t care. Dani wanted her now. Each touch was electric, a spark igniting a fire that threatened to consume them both. The world had narrowed to this—the small, enclosed space and the urgent press of her body against Jaz’s.
And then the locker room door slammed open. The sound was like a thunderclap in the sudden silence. They froze and then, as if remembering where they were, Dani jumped back. Jaz slid away from the lockers. Both of them were breathing heavily, chestsexpanding rapidly. Dani’s neck and face were beet red, unable to hide the exertion and need. Her cheeks were flushed, and her lips were definitely pink and swollen.
Whoever had entered must have gone straight to the showers, because after a few seconds, they heard the sounds of a door slamming and water running. Jaz had turned back to her locker, closing herself off. But Dani would not let her run again. In this moment, Dani needed to be the strong, confident one.
She approached Jaz again but kept a bit of distance because she didn’t think she could be that close to her again and not touch her. “So you think dating me would be wrong? Please don’t tell me you don’t feel this, too? Don’t deny it. Not to me. Not to yourself. Go out with me tonight,” she pleaded.
Jaz turned and looked at her. “I’m not going out and partying in the middle of a tournament. And didn’t you just tell Sascha Rudd the same thing?”
Dani smiled because Jaz always had a comeback. “Um, technically, we are both now out of this tournament. And not out partying, but to a healthy, well-balanced dinner, just the two of us.”
The air between them was thick with unspoken questions, unanswered anxieties, and the heavy weight of a kiss, now tworeallyhot kisses, that had changed everything. Or perhaps, revealed what was already there hidden beneath the surface of their burgeoning friendship.
For a second, uncertainty flitted across Jaz’s face. “Okay,” she finally murmured. The only time Dani’s smile had been wider was right after she won Wimbledon. She was quickly learning that sometimes the biggest wins came off the court.
Chapter 12
Jaz couldn’t remember the last time she had been this nervous. Not during her first professional match or her first Grand Slam tournament. Maybe her first US Open final?
She paced the foyer area of her rental house in DC, the polished wood floor reflecting the muted glow of the overhead light. The foyer wasn’t large, and she could only walk four steps before she had to turn around and walk back in the other direction. Her heart hammered an uneasy rhythm against her ribs. Each step, an attempt to contain the energy that buzzed beneath her skin.
She was going on a date tonight with Dani. Her one-time doubles partner. Someone who had become her best friend. The one person who had miraculously become something…more. Her stomach fluttered with a sensation she hadn’t felt in years, a giddy mix of excitement and fear.
The shift had been subtle. Months of friendship, of comfortable silences and shared laughter, now felt like a prelude to this moment. This whole thing was terrifying but also exhilarating. It was just as exhilarating as that first kiss had been. If she was beinghonest, it was a perfect first kiss, hesitant at first, then deepening with a shared, unspoken understanding.
This was before the panic set in for Jaz. The alcohol’s warmth was quickly replaced by a chilling wave of doubt.Did I just ruin everything?She thought, her mind reeling.Dani had been drinking. I was drinking. Did she even want the kiss?
The beer, which had fueled her courage to lean in, seemed to fuel her doubt. Suddenly convinced she’d misinterpreted everything, that she’d taken advantage of their friendship and Dani’s slightly inebriated state. She was older and knew better because there was no way that a woman, as awesome as Dani and fifteen years her junior, would want Jaz. Dani was the one person she simply could not let herself go there with.
As she escaped into the night, her heart hammered in her chest, each beat echoing the terrible refrain:She doesn’t like you. You ruined everything. The amazingness of that kiss was completely overshadowed by a surge of shame she felt that night. She knew Dani was queer, but that didn’t mean she wanted Jaz. Had she pressured Dani into something she didn’t want?
