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I don’t look back as I pull Laney out of the full banquet hall that’s been set up. I’m not entirely familiar with this place, so I take a couple of wrong turns before finding a semi-secluded area for us to talk.
I pull her in front of me and wrap one arm around her lower back and use the other to brush a stray hair off her face. I can’t seem to stop touching her tonight—she feels too good in my arms to even attempt to stop. “What’s going on in that gorgeous head of yours?”
Her eyes get sad before she blinks the look away and shakes her head, pasting on that fake smile I’m starting to hate. “Nothing. Just tired. It’s been a big day.”
“You’ve always been a shit liar, Laney. I don’t know why you think you could possibly get away with it now.”
She won’t meet my eyes. “Doesn’t it bother you, lying to them?” Her voice is quiet, less confident than it normally is.
“I’m not lying,” I say, my voice soft, but not timid like hers.
She pushes out of my arms and glares at me. “Stop, Dom. No one is here but me. You don’t have to lay it on so thick.”
She really thinks I’m still pretending. Did that kiss not fuck her up the way it’s fucked me up? Every look, every touch, the kiss earlier. None of that was fake for me.
But she thinks it was.
Fuck. I need to get us on the same page here. I open my mouth to speak, only for a voice to carry into our little hideout and a bunch of press to round the corner.
Shit.
They break out into smiles and rush forward. “Dom! Great game tonight, man.”
“How’re you feeling about next season?”
“How long have you and Alayna been seeing each other? Do you attribute your success tonight to her?”
“How does she feel about your scandal with Jen Summers?”
The questions rush at us, each of the reporters talking over each other. I need to get us out of here.
I hold up my hands, putting on my most affable smile. “Hey, hey, hey. Guys, come on. I already answered a bunch of your questions earlier. If it’s not about the game, I’ve got nothing to say. My relationship is private.”
“Ah, come on, man. Give us something!” one of the guys in the back says.
I open my mouth to double down on my initial response when I see Shawna behind the crowd. She glances at Alayna and then gives me a very pointed look. After a moment of us just staring at each other, she rolls her eyes and looks at the crowd of reporters to make sure no one is looking at her and then makes a kissy face before pointedly looking back at Alayna.
I swallow thickly. I know what she wants me to do. I just don’t know how Laney will take it if I kiss her for the cameras right now. She already thinks I’ve been faking it when I haven’t.
Maybe if I make the kiss different from our other kisses, she’ll realize what’s real and what’s not.
I turn to Laney and gently cup her cheek with one of my hands. Then I bend down and brush my lips against hers, softly, tenderly. I can’t quite keep all my burgeoning feelings for her back, but I still manage not to deepen the kiss like I want to. The clicking of cameras echoes around us, but I ignore it all to focus on her. When I pull away, her deep cerulean blues pull me in, wishing I could tell her what I was feeling.
But the look in her eyes stops me. There’s a hint of sadness, but what’s most prominent is resignation.
And it hits me like I’ve just been tackled by a 300-pound linebacker. My words will never be enough. I’ve told her she mattered for years and then took her for granted. I knew this, but somehow looking into her eyes drives it home.
No, this time my actions have to do all the work for me, and it’s clear to me I’ve got a long way to go before she’ll realize the truth.
When I look back at the reporters, determination sizzling in my veins, they all seem pleased, but none more than Shawna who’s got a bright smile on her face and gives me a quick thumbs-up before she swoops around and tells the reporters they need to return to the press room.
“We should get back to the party,” Laney says, her voice quiet but determined. She wants to keep me in the friend box because she doesn’t think I love her the way she confessed to loving me.
But she’s wrong.
And I’m going to prove it to her.
Twenty-One
