Carter certainly isn’t going easy on us. It’s only the first practice and I’m exhausted. Cardio and tumbling and beginning to fit people into positions for choreography. We covered a lot of ground and it was grueling, so this stretching I’m doing feels good. This uniform is a bit tight though. I’ll need to tailor it a little so the skirt doesn’t dig into my skin as much.

I press my head to the mat, reaching out from my straddle to stretch my legs and back. When I look up, there are shoes in front of me. Carter’s shoes. “Coach,” I say, a tiny shiver of nervousness running down my spine. I tilt my head back to look at him, and from this angle, he looks impossibly tall. “You need something?”

I tried to ignore him as much as I could during practice, though I could feel him watching me.

“You did well today,” he says, “and you look great in the school colors.”

Heat rises to my face knowing he was looking at my body in the uniform, thinking about my body. “I’m sure the short skirt helps,” I say sarcastically.

“Yes, it does.” Carter’s eyes go dark, and I see his jaw clench like he’s holding himself back from doing something.

I stand, brushing off that same skirt—sitting down was starting to feel weird with him looming over me like that. He’s so tall that he still towers over me, but at least now I feel like I have some leverage.

“I’ve been thinking about you,” he says softly.

“Why?”

I catch his eyes again, and I feel that same heat. “You know why.”

“I didn’t know who you were. That night. At the party.”

Carter shrugs. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter,” I hiss at him, trying to make my point but also not drawing attention from the other people in the gym. “You’re university staff. In every rulebook that is so not okay. If I had known—”

“I’m not your professor. You’re not my student. There’s no rule against it.”

I snort. “Sure. You say that, but you know what people will think. What they’ll say.”

“Are you worried that they’ll judge you for sleeping with the coach or for losing your virginity to him?” That sexy little smile is back. “You saving it for someone special?”

Looking down, I feel that tell-tale blush come to my cheeks and I wish for the millionth time that I wasn’t so prone to it. It makes me far too easy to read. “Maybe.”

“Am I special enough?” He’s still smiling, but suddenly I can’t tell if he’s serious.

I start walking towards the bleachers where I left my bag and Carter keeps step with me, totally casual. If anyone were to look at us, no one would think that we were having this kind of conversation. “You shouldn’t make jokes like that. Some people take it seriously.”

His smile completely disappears. “I’m not joking.”

“What?” Looking quickly around us, Carter grabs my elbow, pulling me into an alcove near the bleachers. We can’t be seen, but someone could come close enough to see at any second. “What are you doing?”

“I wasn’t joking. I’m actually asking. Am I special enough? Can I prove that to you somehow?”

I can’t find the words to answer him because now that he’s this close to me, I feel overwhelmed. This corner is dark and it reminds me all too much of that night. He’s staring at me like I’m the most precious thing, and with his eyes on my lips, I know he’s going to kiss me. “We shouldn’t,” I say. “Not here.”

“Maybe not,” his voice his soft, “but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about your mouth.”

Carter presses his lips onto mine, and every worry I had about being seen flies right out of my head. My body melts. It remembers this, being pressed against him, and that same arousal rushes to the surface like fire. If this is such a bad idea why does it feel so good? He presses me against the wall and I can feel that he’s just as aroused as I am. His hands are on my legs and they travel up, dragging across my skin all the way under my skirt. I suppose I should care. I don’t. I want more. Carter’s lips move to my neck, and I stifle a moan as his tongue teases me. Every place he’s touching me leaves tingles, and I know that if I don’t say something, we won’t be able to stop where this is going right here in the gym.

“This is—this is a bad idea.”

His chuckle rumbles across me like thunder. “You don’t actually believe that.”

“I don’t understand.”

Pulling back to look at me, he searches my face. There’s no trace of a joke or sarcasm. “I want you. I don’t care about the rest of it—what other people will think.”

He goes back to kissing me, and it’s impossible to think when his lips tease mine open and he slides down to press his mouth to where my breasts are almost spilling out of my uniform. There’s heat under my skin, energy and anxiety that has nowhere to go, and even though I just finished one of the hardest workouts of my life, I want to run on a treadmill for an hour. I grasp for something, anything, because I still don’t think this can be real. “Don’t you—” I clear my throat. “Don’t guys want someone who knows what they’re doing? Not someone who doesn’t have a clue.”

“Not me.”

“Why?” My mouth is dry. “Why would you want that? Want me?”

“In case you haven’t noticed,” Carter says, “I like you. And the thought of being the first man to touch you, the first man to be inside you, the first man to make you come…” His voice drops to barely a whisper. “Thinking about that makes me harder than you can even imagine.”

My face is in a full blown flush and I don’t know what to do with myself. Half of me wants to run away, and the other half of me wants to pull him into the locker room and let him take me right now. I try to lighten what seems to have gotten so serious. “Buy a girl dinner first. You barely know me.”

“I’d like to,” he says without hesitation. “Buy you dinner and get to know you. I’ll take you out tonight if you’ll let me.”

Butterflies dance in my stomach. I thought that might throw him off—having to work for something he so clearly wants, but he didn’t even flinch. I mean…it’s just dinner, right? People have dinner with professors sometimes, and since he correctly pointed out that he isn’t a professor, I figure it’ll be fine. Maybe. Though I don’t know what’s going to stop us from just doing this when we’re even more alone, tangling with each other until we’re both breathless. Do I want something to stop us?

“Okay, I’ll go,” I say, just as I hear Kara calling me and asking if I’m ready to go.

“Perfect. Meet me at the South Gate at seven.”

I slip out of the alcove and grab my bag right before Kara comes around the corner. My heart pounds in my chest with the sudden surge of adrenaline. That was close. Way too close. What the hell am I doing?