Qualified: A Sports Romance (5 page)

The dorm’s recreation room was
packed when they got there. They were running a little late—despite the fact
that they were just going down the hall, Violet had insisted that they both get
dolled up. The lack of seating seemed to suit Violet just fine. Without enough
chairs, Violet simply had to sit in Ivan’s lap. Allie perched more demurely on
the arm of the recliner that Blake had managed to claim.

After the first round of questions there was a
break so that people could make a last run to the dining hall. Violet suggested
that the four of them use Allie’s car to make an off-site run instead of
joining everyone in the line on campus.

“We might miss the next game,” Allie pointed out.

“We’ll make the third one.” Violet shrugged,
careless. “Come on, let’s go up to our room to get your keys.”

As she trailed the other three up the stairs to
their floor, Allie could see Violet whispering in Ivan’s ear. It made it even
less of a surprise once the plans changed as soon as they got to their room.

“Allie, you know, I don’t actually feel very
hungry.” Violet took a seat on her bed and flicked a glance towards Ivan.
Hungry was actually exactly how she looked. “I think I’ll stay here.”

“Yeah, me too,” said Ivan neatly on cue.

“Oh. Okay.” Allie felt like an idiot as she fought
her arms awkwardly into the sleeves of her jacket, her car keys jingling in its
pocket. She could sense Blake’s blue eyes on her but tried desperately to avoid
them. “I’ll just … We’ll just meet you back at the trivia room.”

If Blake and Ivan needed to come to some
understanding, they must have done it entirely through a silent bro code
because Allie didn’t hear a word more from either of them. She wasn’t exactly
sticking around, though. Allie snagged her purse off the desk and beat a hasty
retreat out the door.

Panic welled up in her stomach as she listened to
Blake’s steps following her down the stairs. Allie couldn’t imagine going into
town with him all by herself. She was still groping for something to say when
he caught up with her, his arm reaching past her shoulder to hold the door
closed.

“You know, we could just go back to my room. It’ll
be empty.”

Allie turned to the side, putting her back to the
wall so she could tilt a look up at Blake. She blinked in startled stupidity.
“W—what would we do there?”

That won a dimpled smile from Blake. He was
ridiculously handsome. He knew it. He prowled closer and corralled her in the
prop of his arms against the wall. “I’m sure we could figure something out.”
Something that started with him leaning down to kiss her.

Gasping, Allie pitched forward with a ducking
aversion of her face. Her forehead collided with his shoulder. Maybe it wasn’t
the nuzzling Blake was going for, but she burrowed against his chest and fisted
her hands in his shirt and groaned into the heat of his solidity. She supposed
she should be flattered by his attention, but it felt like even more of an
accident than when she found herself in a similar situation with Marc. “Oh my
gosh, what is happening.”

“You’re fucking up my shirt.” At least bemusement
was winning out over irritation. For now. It was a fine line in the low of
Blake’s voice. “Allie?” He reached for her shoulder to try and coax her back
where he could reach her.

Allie shook her head violently, stretching out his
shirt in her fists as she resisted. “I’m not … I can’t … Blake, it’s
against the rules.”

“Is that what’s worrying you?” Blake tilted in to
murmur closer to her ear. “We won’t get caught. And if we do, I’ll take care of
it. You don’t have to worry.” He was so confident.

She was worried about getting caught. But if she
were
going to take such a risk, he wasn’t the player that most tempted her. “I
don’t … I don’t date athletes.”

“Who said anything about dating?”

Allie snapped her gaze up and pushed him away hard.
“I’m not like that.”

“You mean like your friend?” Blake continued on
placidly as he found new balance a step away. “There’s something to be said for
someone who can drive directly to the goal. Don’t you think?”

Like Marc
, is what Allie thought. Dominating
in the pool. How he held her that first night in his room after the airport. “I
have to go.”

It was a near thing, but Allie broke away from the
half-hearted catch Blake made at her arm. She rushed through the door and
didn’t look back when she made it outside where the chill of the night air
stung her face. Her breath panted out in plumes as she fumbled her keys into
her car door’s lock. She kept imagining that Blake would appear behind her,
would grab her, but it didn’t happen.

Once she was inside with the car warming up, she
took a minute to hide her face in her hands. “You’re losing your focus, Allie,”
she berated herself. She didn’t know what she was doing. She didn’t know where
she was going. She just knew she needed to get away from that building. Putting
her car into gear, she left the grounds and headed for downtown. At least there
she could kill time in the comfortable solitude of a corner at Starbucks.

There was comfort in the familiar
sameness of the coffee shop that was a clone to the one she had spent so many hours
in during her more innocent years in community college. Allie almost didn’t
want to leave once she got there, no matter how tired she was. But Violet had
mentioned trying for the third round of the trivia game, so after finishing her
tea Allie shrugged back into her coat and started to steel herself for seeing
everyone she’d run out on. It was miserably cold for the walk back down the
block towards the parking garage. Burrowing her face into her scarf, Allie
walked with her eyes cast down at her booted feet and wondered if her life was
going in the right direction.

The noise of drunks spilling out from the Irish pub
made Allie vaguely aware of people in the way on the sidewalk. She curved away
from the raucous conversation, giving them plenty of room. She was completely
oblivious to the silent presence looming until she walked right into a living
wall. “Pardon,” she gasped breathless and looked up … and up.

“Allie?”

It was Marc. He had seen her coming, but hadn’t
done anything to prevent the collision. He just stood with planted feet. His
hand had gone out to steady over her shoulder.

She felt the heavy weight of his grip crushing
through the down of her parka. All that strength. It held her up as Allie swayed
on her feet. She nodded her head dumbly.

“What are you doing here?” Marc asked. “I thought
staff had that party tonight.”

“I was … the trivia night.” Allie stammered.
“I kind of lost my team.” She looked down at her shoes. Her shoulders jerked
into a shrug. “We were supposed to get something to eat,” she recalled with a
deepening frown. “Except everyone else kind of … so, it’s just me.” Allie
shook off her moping and fixed a smile she didn’t feel up at Marc. “Anyway.
What are you doing? I bet no one kicked you out and made you come out here.”
Her mouth slanted rueful.

The smallest curl of a smile peeked at the edge of
Marc’s lips. “You think I do anything I don’t want?”

Maybe it was that glimpse, that suggestion that he
might be joking with her. Allie snorted with her own unthinking humor. “You’re
telling me you want to give blood samples.”

Maybe Allie shouldn’t have said it. That hint of a
more easy-going disposition disappeared from Marc’s expression. Something was a
little narrower about the dark of his eyes as he studied her.

“I’m sorry,” Allie murmured into the fluff of her
scarf, hiding her wince inside its folds.

After a moment more, Marc turned his glance out to
the street. “I was going to get a taxi back.” He shifted his weight. “We could
share.”

“Oh, it’s okay, I drove,” Allie answered
reflexively. Only after did she look up to meet Marc’s gaze and realize the
rudeness of her hasty reply. Allie felt her developing trainer’s eye evaluating
him. He shouldn’t be out in the cold like this.

“I mean. Do you need … would you like a ride?”

Marc still seemed unsatisfied as he considered her.
“It’s fine.” He took another step towards the curb. “I can make my own way.”

Allie shifted forward an indecisive step before
turning full to face him. “Marc?” Her gloved hands were curved tight around her
purse strap. “It’s really no trouble.” She gestured down the street towards the
garage.

“Don’t do me any favors.” There was something stiff
and dismissive through his shoulders as Marc towered over her. But he was still
paying attention to her. “What do you want, Allie?”

Allie opened her mouth. Closed it. She pulled on a
helpless smile. “I want to get out of the street?” She loosened the nervous
grip of her fingers to swing her arms out in a shrug. “Come on.” She dared to
bat her hand at his elbow. “I’m going back anyway. Ride with me.”

Marc looked at her for a second longer before
nodding. His stride was long when he joined her and she had to be quick to keep
up. She found herself fighting to prevent her steps from wandering into
collision with his side. It was cold, the wind blustering through the spaces
between buildings, and the solid bulk of his frame offered shelter.

For long strides Marc walked in silence. Allie
worried she had made him angry. She peeked at him around the corona of her hair
where it had been worked to frizz around the edge of her knit cap. His gaze was
distant, taking in the city street around them and the faint gleam of snow in
the moonlight that made the rising mountains visible in the distance.

Allie felt an odd flutter of anxiety as they walked
into the dark of the parking garage. She wasn’t used to going anywhere at night
with men. She told herself she was being silly. She had been working with Marc
and his team for the better part of the week now. She’d jabbed him with needles
and scraped him with sampling brushes. She tried to tell herself that he wasn’t
any different from one of the resident gymnasts that she’d gotten to know well,
nor any other of the many athletes that came through the training center. None
of them made her nervous like this.

But all that she could think of when she unlocked
the doors so they could get into her car was how good he had smelled that first
evening when he’d tried to kiss her. It was ridiculous. It wasn’t even like
they were on a date. She was just giving him a lift back from downtown.

Allie tried to ignore him in her periphery as she
got the car started and headed out onto the route back to the training center.
The way he braced his forearm across the window made it difficult not to notice
Marc when she glanced to her sideview mirror. She could see his fingertips
pensively pressing along the window’s edging as he watched the streets slide
past in the night.

They were halfway back when he finally spoke. “It’s
not like I have some weird … thing. About being your research rat.” Marc
seemed annoyed with himself for saying it. He frowned out the window.

“I was just joking.” She regretted it now. Allie
could only flick her glance towards him briefly since she was watching the
road. “I didn’t really think you did.”

Maybe that eased him somewhat, but it was hard for
Allie to tell in the ever-changing shift of light and shadow that washed over
the strong angles of his features while she drove.

“I want,” Marc said with steadier emphasis, “to be
on this team.”

Allie blinked. It sounded like honesty. It was like
she was compelled to ruin the moment. “You know, our human subject review
committee … there can’t be coercion.”

“I told you,” Marc angled a look at her. That
annoyed tension was definitely wound tight along his jaw. “I don’t do things I
don’t want to.” Sniffing against the cold, he looked forward again and rolled
his shoulders into a deeper slouch within his seat.  “Everett gave me a list,
and I chose this.”

“A list?”

The corner of his mouth twitched, but it was only
technically a smile. “Yeah. The list of unselfish things. The coach is
concerned that I’m not a team player.”

Allie still didn’t really understand and she didn’t
know what to say. Certainly, from what she’d witnessed in her days working with
the team, Marc was hardly a poster boy for camaraderie and team spirit. He was
good enough that it wasn’t really obvious from their scrimmages in the water,
at least to her eye, but Allie had come to appreciate how athletes who were
competing at the international level measured their success and losses in
fractions of seconds and millimeters. She stayed silent with the excuse of
guiding her car into its parking spot.

“I like Everett,” was a positive truth that Allie
dug up as quiet seeped in over the shutdown engine.

Marc shifted his chin in a fractional nod. “He’s
the reason I got onto a university team. My high school coach used to play with
him back in the eighties. Everett was really top notch.”

Allie could finally indulge in a curious search of
his face. “I didn’t know that. You two must be close?” Not that she had seen
any evidence of it.

Marc shrugged. “He’s less of an asshole than …”

Her phone buzzed, interrupting them when the lock
screen lit up. For a moment neither of them looked away from each other’s eyes.
Allie blinked first, towards where the screen peeked out from where she’d
instinctively dropped it in her cup holder. Marc reached for it before she
could.

“I guess I interrupted your plans,” Marc noted
coolly as he passed it over.

Hey where are u + Blake

Can u pick up food?

Ivan is
hungry

Allie curled her fingers to cover over the text as
soon as she’d read it. As if it weren’t already too late. She looked up and
Marc was watching her. Something was a little further away about his
expression.

“Thanks for the ride,” Marc said before she could
think of anything to say. He shoved his door open and Allie had to scramble to
get out so she wasn’t left behind.

“Marc …” Allie didn’t know what she was doing.
She rushed so fast around the front of the car that she nearly ran into him
again. He caught her, just as before, and everything went out of her head as
the huff of her breath in the cold pressed their chests together. There was so
much fabric, but all she could see was how the water sheeted off his skin when
he climbed out of the pool.

Allie shook her head and pressed her eyes closed
for a second while she tried to remember what seemed so important. “It’s not
like that.” Like whatever had made him get out of the car so fast. She wanted
him to understand, and she looked up into those fathomless dark eyes to try and
see if he did. “I’m not … seeing anyone.” Color rose in her cheeks. Now
she just sounded desperate. “I’m just here to work.”

“Right.” Marc let go of her. “You’re a
professional.”

Allie bit her lip. Her hands were still clutched
onto the puffy sleeves of his jacket.

“Do you ever do what you want, Allie?” His voice
was a low rumble that set goosebumps prickling along her spine.

Her answer should have come easily. Allie had had
the same dream for years. She wanted to go to medical school. It was everything
she had ever worked towards. In that way, she wasn’t so different from the
athletes here. It took a kind of blind devotion, a dedication of your life, to
achieve such things. And that didn’t really leave time for much else.

So why couldn’t she make her voice work?

Maybe it was because she wanted to reach for him.
Allie wanted to rock up on her toes, all that way since she wasn’t wearing
heels like Violet, and taste those lips she’d only touched through gloves. She
wanted him to wrap her in his arms and drown her in that scent of his—the
stubborn tinge of chlorine lingering beneath the clean musk of his soap. She
wanted …

Allie searched her brain for the right thing to say
to him, and then berated herself for trying to fix … what? Marc would be
gone in a few days, and on top of that, he was her patient.

“I’m doing exactly what I want.” Allie forced
herself to smile and to let go of him. She couldn’t quite walk away. “I’m glad
you didn’t choose something else.”

Marc blinked at her with incomprehension.

“From Everett’s list,” Allie explained.

Marc chuckled and started for the dormitory’s door.
“It really means a lot to you, this experiment.”

“I guess you could say it’s my qualifying game.”
Allie fell into step beside him, her gaze on their feet. “I need every boost I
can get, to get into one of the top programs. I’m just lucky that Doctor
Kaitech chose me to assist with the study. If I can get my name on a publication,
it’ll help me file my applications next fall. And besides that, it’s just
really interesting.” She reached to catch the door when Marc got it open and
held it out for her, motioning him through first so she could offer a more
genuine smile up at him. “Getting such comprehensive data on a specimen with
fine-tuned health, it’s a real opportunity.”

“I don’t know that I’m so fine a specimen.”

“You are.”

Marc clamored into the stairs ahead of her without
further comment, but he seemed to be suppressing a smile instead of simply
being unsmiling. “I’m glad to be advancing the field of medical science,” Marc
said as he paused on the landing for his floor.

Leaning on the door’s half-open edge, he looked
between his hall and the stairs that led upward to hers. “You were going to go
meet Violet,” he said more subdued.

“Yeah.” Allie ground to a halt, rocking on her
feet.

Marc’s brow shaped silent question.

In that moment, Allie wanted nothing more than to
find a reason to go through the door with him. All she found was a smile to
paste onto her face. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He nodded. “Have a good night, Allie.”

“You, too.” It was too late. “Thank you, Marc.” She
made herself turn, then, and not look back while she clomped up the stairs to
the top floor.