Chapter 40
GRAYSON~
“What the fuck?”
The growl left my mouth before I could stop it.
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My phone screen was full of the same photo from three different angles-Blair across a diner booth from Chase, heads inclined, the kind of private meet-up gossip sites loved to treat as evidence.
The captions were already doing damage.
Captain’s wife spotted with rival. Monroe-Shaw marriage under strain:
Around the locker room, the noise dropped in stages. Callum glanced over, then away. Marcus winced. Theo muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like oh shit.
They had all seen it. Of course they had. Nothing traveled faster through a team than a story that could blow up a captain’s personal life.
I didn’t give them a performance.
I finished the session early, ignored the coaching staff’s look, and was in the parking structure before the anger could fully take me over.
I drove towards the diner without a second thought, jaw locked, and found exactly what I expected by then. …it was empty. They were no longer here. Did they leave to continue their date elsewhere?
Fuck. Why was I so pissed about this? I slammed my hands against the steering wheel in frustration. She wasn’t supposed to meet up with him.
Home was closer than my patience. Or maybe it was due to the fact that I’d raced here. I needed to see her. Needed to know that she was home and not out with that asshole.
Blair was in the living room when I came through the door. I felt relief but the anger was still there. She barely had time to turn before I was in front of her, phone out, the photo shoved into the space between us.
“Explain this.”
She looked at the screen, then at me. “What about it?”
The calm in her voice only made the heat under my skin climb. “What about it? We’re married, Blair. You sat in a public diner with my biggest rival and now it’s everywhere Do you have any idea what that does to the image we’ve been forced to maintain?”
“We’ve been forced to maintain?” She let out a short breath. “You’ve been maintaining something with Lily since before the ink dried. Dates in the kitchen when I’m not home. Private meet ups. Her hands on you like the marriage is a temporary inconvenience she’s waiting out. And I’m supposed to accept that without comment.”
“I keep that private,” I shot back. “I don’t put it in a booth with cameras and give the entire league a headline. There’s a difference.”
“That doesn’t make it better.” Her eyes flashed. “It just makes it quieter. You can’t be serious right now. Arguing over a public meeting with Chase. Nothing happened. We just talked. Unlike what you’ve been doing with Lily. You’re such a hypocrite!”
Maybe I was. Maybe I wasn’t. I just fucking knew that I didn’t want to see her next to him again.
“I don’t want you seeing him.”
The words came out of me before I could stop
“You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
I stepped closer. “Watch me.”
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Chapter 40
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She didn’t retreat. If anything, she lifted her chin, the same stubborn line she used every time I pushed. “Oh
eally? What are you going to do if I disobey?”
We had moved without fully noticing, argument carrying us through the open doors toward the back of the house where the pool was
“Blair.”
“Answer the question,” she said. “You want control so badly-what happens when I don’t give it to you?”
Control?
Something in me snapped. I grabbed her around the waist, took one hard step forward, and launched both of us into the pool.
Blair’s mouth fell open in pure disbelief, hair stuck to her face, before she started hitting my shoulder with
her hand.
‘You absolute-”
I caught her wrists, pushed her back until her spine met the pool edge, and pinned her there with my body, water lapping at our chests. Her breathing was sharp. Mine was worse. The anger hadn’t disappeared; it had ntensified and was fueling every decision I was currently making.
‘Stop,” I said.
She tugged against my grip once, not fully meaning it, eyes locked on mine. Up close, with the fight still ntense between both of us, the rest of the world seemed to fall apart.
‘You can’t just-”
‘I can.” My voice came out rougher than I intended. “Did you really think seeing Chase wouldn’t have consequences? You’re my wife. In public. People are watching you all the time. I’m not just a regular person. Reporters are always looking to make money using my name. Do you understand that? What you did today was not good for my reputation or yours.”
Fuck. I was using our reputation as an excuse for my behavior right now. Not the fact that I was fucking ealous she’d met up with him after bringing me the best food I’ve had in a long time.
Her lips parted on a response that didn’t immediately come. Water ran down the side of her throat. My hands were still locked around her wrists against the stone, our legs tangled under the surface, the entire ength of her pressed close enough that there was no honest way to call this only anger.
We were both breathing hard.
The argument eased between us, replaced by something more dangerous. Her eyes dropped, just briefly, to my mouth. Mine did the same before I forced them back up. Neither of us moved to create distance.
‘Grayson.”
My name in that tone nearly ruined me.
I should have let go, I should have put space between us and rebuilt the line I kept claiming I needed. Instead I stayed exactly where I was, pinning my wife to the edge of the pool, feeling things that shouldn’t even be allowed.
Neither of us looked away, and all I could think about at that moment was how badly I wanted to kiss her.
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.