Page 117 of Facing Off
The expression on my face must communicate some turmoil.
“Sorry. I’m—sorry—” He palms the back of my head, protecting it from the wall. “We don’t have to kiss, if you don’t want to.” Adrian turns his head so his temple touches the corner of mine. With that, his mouth has been put away, but it hasn’t been neutralized.
“Did you like me on my knees?” he whispers into my ear.
My face heats at his tone. It’s filthy, eager, and pained all at once.
“Should I do that again? You can keep me on my knees all night long, Sonya.”
My nails dig into his shoulders. I’ve never been so turned on in my life before. Need is clawing up inside me.
“Say yes. Give me this chance. To prove to you how good I can be, darling.”
How can he speak when all coherent thoughts are knocked out of my head? All I can muster is a throaty, “More.”
“More what? Baby, you have to tell me what exactly I can do.” A lock of blonde hair falls over his forehead as he pants between words. His brow furrows. “Because you said no, so I need to know what you don’t want.”
“I want,” I whisper, reaching for…
“Yo, Cap! Is that you?” yells a voice behind us. “I heard you’ve been looking for me!”
I might be pressed against a wall, but we’re still in the heart of the party. And someone with dark hair and a bleary drunken expression has spotted Adrian.
The guy is approaching, but when he gets closer,realization dawns on his expression fast. “Oh, shit. Never mind! I’ll find you later!”
He’s about to spin around and leave us alone, but it’s too late. I’m already ducking out from underneath Adrian’s arms. “You’re Jung, right? You guys have a lot to talk about.”
Adrian flinches back slightly. “Wait, Sonya.”
I’m not waiting. I’m taking advantage of the interruption and running away as fast as I can through the crowd.
Because I shouldn’t have kissed him. Because now I know. Touching Adrian is what ballet feels like when I’m dancing as close to a perfect performance as I’ve ever gotten. Adrenaline and elation, feeling free, and how everything else fades into the background. It’s everything.
That also means…
It has the power to shred me.
Shredme…a woman who thought she stopped giving out that power a long time ago. Now I’m faced with the fact that I’m not as strong, as well-shielded, as unaffected or vigilant as I believed myself to be.
A kiss isn’t supposed to turn your world upside down, but this one has.
46
ADRIAN
With how long I’vebeen thinking about kissing Sonya, I knew it would be good. Really, really good. But now I know that using the wordgoodis nowhere close enough to describing what it felt like.
Fuck. It was unreal. It broke me apart, and put me back together again. I can’t stop replaying it in my head, and it messes with my mind that forty-eight hours later I’m no longer with her or in Oslo anymore.
The Vancouver Wings’ stadium is a domed arena decorated with huge blue banners, hanging flags of famous retired jersey numbers, and a mega screen suspended above the center of the rink. It blasts out colors, flashing lights, and music every time we score a goal, sharing a real-time replay for our fans to watch.
All twenty thousand of them.
That’s about how many fit in the arena. On any game day, this place is packed. A sea of Wings jerseys screaming their love and support for us.
This early in the morning, it couldn’t be more different.Everything is quiet and echoey, and all the seats are empty—except for one.
“Ignore him,” I tell Jung.
