Chapter 15 Nolan

Chapter 15

Nolan

The moment my hands touched Lottie's face, my body released stress that I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Relief flooded through me the second I registered her words.

I'm not sure I want to be friends either.

I hadn't realized how much I liked Lottie until, for only a moment on a dance floor in a poorly lit bar surrounded by my teammates, I let myself pretend she was mine. I let myself imagine a world in which I could walk out on a dance floor and wrap my hands around her, just like I had, and send a message to every guy in that room that was looking at her with interest that she wasn't available.

I had to remind myself that it wasn't a dream the way that she had pressed her body back into mine once she realized who was behind her. Or that it wasn't a dream the way the skin of her stomach had felt so soft beneath my fingertips.

I'd watched her eyes cloud with conflict when she realized what we'd been doing in a very public scenario as she pulled away from me. The sudden emptiness that she had just occupied was enough to finally clear the fog that had lain over my mind and allow me to realize what I had done.

My eyes had followed Lottie once she had left the table with her sister and Maggie Redford. Derek and Jamil were in the middle of a lively conversation next to me about Jamil being suddenly thrust into the upper echelons of stardom this season, but I wasn't listening to what they were saying. I could only watch the blonde-haired woman on the dance floor as she swayed to the sound of the music, looking much freer than I'd ever seen her before. For once, she didn't look like the woman who was always put together or always trying to make sure she was doing the right thing—even if it may not be the best thing for her.

The table had started to disperse. Derek had wandered off to the bar where he stopped to talk with Tommy, Maggie, and Olivia. Jamil had gone to take shots with his team and had managed to drag along a disgruntled Adam with him. Hawthorn was preoccupied on a phone call with his wife, which left no one to see me staring Charlotte Thompson down on the dance floor like a man half-crazed.

Even from the moment I walked in tonight, my eyes gravitated toward her. She nearly knocked the breath right out of my lungs with her tight black leather pants that left none of her curves to the imagination and a white top that was low-cut but still tasteful for an event like this. Lottie was slowly filling every one of my waking thoughts—what workouts or drills she'd have me do that day, what her game plan ideas would be if my knee tested well, or even how she was doing with her bucket list and if she was checking any more of those items off.

"I need you to kiss me, Nolan." Lottie's voice brought me back to the present where she was looking at me with eyes filled with need. " Please ."

I wasn't going to let her ask me twice.

I closed the distance between us and invaded her space. My heart beat wildly in my chest and just before my lips touched hers, my eyes drifted closed and peace filled my body. Lottie melted into my arms as her chin tilted up, mouth searching for mine.

Every inch of my body felt more alive than I'd ever felt the moment our lips touched. Both of us were slow and curious as we explored each other's bodies for the first time. My fingers traced the edge of her jaw and the soft skin below her ear—sending a shiver through her—before burying themselves in the hair at the nape of her neck.

I pulled downwards, ripping our mouths apart and exposing her throat to me. A gasp escaped her lips as I trailed kisses from her collarbone back up to the soft skin below her ear.

My senses were in overdrive trying to register everything that was Lottie . The way she smelled so intoxicating that I wanted to bury my nose in her neck. The little gasps of breath that escaped from her lips when I kissed a sensitive area on her neck. The way her eyelashes fanned across her cheeks and made her look almost ethereal.

Part of me thought that I only needed to get Lottie out of my system—that once I kissed her, I could move on and return my focus to things that mattered. But now I realized that Lottie was never going to be someone I could have just once. Every touch, every sound, every pass of our lips together was pulling me in past the point of no return.

When I finally managed to pull away from her, I took in the flush of her cheeks that brought out the blue in her eyes. She studied me as if she was trying to find some hint of regret there—as if she was already preparing herself for a letdown.

"Do you want to get out of—"

Banging on the door cut me off.

"Lottie? Are you in there?" Olivia's voice was muffled through the door. The doorknob jiggled.

"Just a minute!" Lottie winced when her voice came out with a squeak.

"Are you okay?" Olivia's voice was full of concern.

Lottie cleared her throat. "Yes! Just freshening up."

She lowered her voice when she looked back up at me. "I'll sneak out first and then you can leave next."

My brain felt like it was moving through molasses after having a kiss that just set my world on a completely different axis. Lottie slipped past me before walking toward the door. She ran a quick finger around her lips to check for any smudges, smoothed her hair down, and then threw the lock back on the door. Those blue eyes caught mine for a split second before she disappeared, and I heard her sister telling her that Derek was doing karaoke with Jamil.

I gave myself five minutes before I left the bathroom and was thankful when none of my friends questioned me when I told them I was heading home. They were all too distracted by Jamil's and Derek's rendition of "Take a Chance on Me" by ABBA.

Lottie and Olivia had rejoined Maggie on the dance floor and the three of them were acting like groupies at the edge of the stage, cheering their heads off for Jamil and Derek. I paused for only a second to have one last glimpse of the unfiltered smile on Lottie's face before heading out into the chilly Chicago night.

I had paced my penthouse this morning wondering if I should call Lottie before our run. I'd even opened and closed our text conversation at least a dozen times, always closing out of it before I could hit send on anything.

Did she think we crossed a line last night? We crossed a million of them, but I knew I didn't care.

Did she want to run this morning, or did she need space? I was dying to see her.

Relief coursed through me the minute I spotted Lottie's car in the parking lot when I pulled into the practice facility. I had run through a million different scenarios on my drive here—what I would do if she wasn't here, what I would do if she was here, but she wasn't happy to see me, what I would do if she was here, and she was happy to see me.

I was hoping for the third option when I stepped out of my car and walked over to where she was leaning against the hood of her car, bundled up against the late October early morning chill.

"Good morning!"

I kept any hint of a smile off my face at her greeting before I figured out if all my hopes were about to be crushed. "How are you today?" I cautiously asked.

"Hungover as hell, but I'm hoping this run will help clear some of it out." Lottie bent down to stretch her legs out and my eyes shamelessly raked over them. "How are you feeling?"

I was thrown off by how normal of a conversation we were having and how obviously we were ignoring the elephant in the room. Lottie took off down our usual trail before I could reply.

"I'm fine. I didn't drink much last night," I told her. Panic rose within me when my mind began to wonder if she was about to say that she was drunk and that was why she let herself be in a position like she was with me last night—between my legs behind a locked door, moaning into my mouth.

"So how is this going to work?" Lottie asked me after the first few minutes into our run.

I nearly stumbled when I realized what she was asking me.

"Are we going to go back to like it was before like the last time? Are we going to pretend nothing happened last night? Or are you going to take me on a date?"

That familiar look of determination filled Lottie's eyes. It was like the first day we met when she held my gaze, never backed down and never flinched. Confidence poured off her and I let the smile I'd been fighting to keep off my face—out of fear that I'd be putting myself in a vulnerable position—tug my lips upwards.

"Do you want to go on a date?" I'd be more than happy to follow her lead on this.

"Well, I'm not really a one-night stand kind of gal," Lottie told me as she kept her head forward, as if she might have been too nervous to see my response.

"What about after practice today?" I asked her, watching her eyebrows shoot up. It was the Saturday before our ninth game of the season and today's practice would be the lightest one of the week.

"Okay," Lottie replied, and this time she finally gave me a smile that melted my insides. "You'll pick me up, though."

A chuckle rumbled through my chest. I had never been so happy to deal with Lottie ordering me around. I would have agreed to nearly anything if it made her smile at me the way she was right then.

"Six o'clock," I told her.

She pressed her lips together as if she were thinking if that time would work for her before agreeing. "Fine."

There was an energy buzzing around us. There wasn't the normal feeling of a challenge bouncing between us, but rather a shy anticipation for this new territory that we were entering.

And for the first time in years, I was excited to not have dinner alone in an empty apartment tonight.