Chapter 139
-ROMAN-
I was losing it.
Volleyball was supposed to be simple. See ball. Hit ball. Do not stare at Ethan’s sister.
I could not do the last part.
The serve went up and I tracked Olivia instead.
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She was so fucking desirable I had already choked on air once and lied to Tessa about why I started coughing.
Now I had to play a sport in front of her family while my brain ran a highlight reel of her body.
She jumped.
Her breasts moved in that tiny black top and my mind went blank. Soft. Full. The same ones I had put my hands on in her bedroom, now barely held by two triangles and a string. She landed. They settled. I missed the first serve because I was watching the landing like it was the only play that mattered.
Tessa shouted my name.
I set the next one into the net.
“What is wrong with you?” Tessa hissed. “You are usually good at this. We never had problems winning in the past. It’s why I chose you. You are currently trash.”
“Sun in my eyes. I forgot my shades.”
“You are a professional athlete. Act like it! You’re not trying to win this Roman.”
If it’s one thing I knew, Tessa got very competitive at these games.
Across the net, Ethan laughed and spiked one I should have had. Blair was in the water, watching me fail with an amused look on her face.
Olivia jumped for a ball again and I forgot the score existed.
Sweat had started at her throat. It ran down. I watched it disappear between her breasts and almost walked into the net. A thin shining line into that little valley the bikini did not cover.
I wanted my mouth there. I wanted to follow it with my tongue until she made the sound she had made against her bedroom door.
I wanted her team to win. Not for the game. For the celebration. If she jumped again, arms up, I would get the full view and I would die on this beach as a grateful man.
I was disgusting.
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
I was also not moving my feet.
Another point walked past my shoulder. Tessa threw her hands up.
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“Roman. I invited you to be an advantage. You are a liability. Look at the ball. The white thing. Not-” She followed my eyes and frowned. “Are you even in this game?”
“I’m in the game.”
I was in Olivia’s bikini.
She bent to pick up the ball and the bottoms pulled tight across her ass and I had to turn toward the water and count waves.
One. Two. Three. It did not help. I still saw her. The curve. The ties at her hips I wanted to pull with my teeth. Sand stuck to the backs of her thighs. I still wanted my hands where they had been in her bedroom, and lower, and I still had her brother on the other side of the net thanking me for being here and giving them some entertainment and an easy win.
We rotated. She ended up closer.
That was worse.
Up close the top was a crime. I could see the shape of her, the bounce when she moved, the little catch of her breath when she stretched.
Sweat again. Between her breasts. A bead I tracked like it was the game clock. Panic fluttered under the heat. If I got hard on this sand I was going to have to walk into the ocean and never come out.
If Ethan followed my eyes he would stop calling me a great friend and start throwing hands.
I wanted her to win so badly I almost let a ball drop on purpose on our side so her team would take the point and she would jump.
Tessa caught me watching the landing.
“Oh my goodness,” she muttered. “You are useless. Stand there. I will do this myself.”
Ethan called over, grinning. “You tired from the drive, Vale?”
Tired from wanting to fuck your little sister.
“Something like that.”
Something like driving here because she threatened to put Luca in my room and then discovering she had packed a bikini designed to end me.
Something like kissing her and thinking I could survive a weekend if she kept the jacket on. The jacket was gone. I was not surviving.
Olivia glanced at me then. Just once. Sun in her hair. Mouth I had kissed. She looked like she knew. Or like
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
she hoped. I stared at the net like it had answers.
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The next rally lasted four hits. I contributed nothing useful. I got a hand on one ball and sent it somewhere Tessa did not want. Olivia tipped one over. Her team scored. She did jump.
Arms up.
The top strained.
Sweat flashed between her breasts again and I looked.
I should not have looked.
My stomach dropped. Heat slammed south. I clenched my jaw hard. Funny, in a horrible way.
A professional athlete, rendered stupid by two pieces of fabric and a drop of water. Tessa could have benched me for unsportsmanlike staring.
Tessa slapped my arm with both hands. “I am never picking you again. You play like you have never seen a ball at the beach.”
I had never seen Olivia Monroe in a black bikini playing volleyball two feet from the line I was already failing to hold.
I had never had to bump a ball while imagining peeling those ties off with my mouth. I had never been this close to losing a family-friendly game because I wanted to put her on her back in the sand.
“Last point,” someone called.
I forced my eyes onto the ball. White. Round. Not her. I even hit it. It went out.
Tessa screamed at the sky.
Olivia laughed, bright and breathless, and I wanted that sound under me. I wanted it against my mouth. I wanted it with my hand between her legs and that bikini on the floor of the room I had driven here to keep empty of Luca.
I was so screwed it was not even funny.
Tessa pointed at me, sand on her knees, betrayed. “You are buying me ice cream. You cost us dignity.”
“I cost us one point.”
“You cost us the game.” She glanced at Olivia, then back at me, squinting.
“It’s heat.”
“It is something.”
Ethan tossed the ball up, still grinning, still clueless. “One more game? Vale looks like he needs redemption.”
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
I did not need redemption. I needed a cold shower and for Olivia to put the jacket back on.
AGB
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She stood at the net, hands on her hips, black strings and sun and that little shine of sweat I was going to see when I tried to sleep. She raised an eyebrow at me, just slightly, like the deal was still live and removing the bikini was the next term.
The game was not over.
Neither was I.
I stepped back to serve because Tessa was watching me hard and Ethan was watching as well and Blair was sipping water like this was better than television.
I looked at the ball.
I served.
And I still saw her. Only her.
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15:00 Thu, Sep 17
The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.