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Chapter Four

Banks

We all stand beneath the tramway watching Elise go, oblivious to the sudden pandemonium at the tram station. While we’ve been stuck above the river, news stations have arrived, concerned loved ones have gathered and…apparently I’ve been dropped into an alternate universe where I become starved for a woman at first fucking glance.

I’m not sure about Tobias and Gabe, but I’ve certainly never had the impulse to run after a member of the opposite sex before. I’ve got more discipline than to follow through on the urge. So apparently do the other two men, though it’s obvious we’re all considering it.

I’ve made my living in rugby. It’s in my nature to adapt fast, to strategize and make the most advantageous choices, but at this very moment, I’m at a loss.

What happened on that tram?

Tobias is the first one to speak. Obviously.

“What in the bloody hell was that?” says the Brit in wonder, ten fingers buried in his hair. An adult film star. I’ve just shared a woman with an adult film star—granted, we didn’t get any further than making out. Still, this was definitely not on my bingo card. I should be on the phone with Vankman’s replacement, scheduling extra training sessions to get him ready for the match on Tuesday. I should be on the phone with my mother’s landlord, trying to convince them to take a payment from me, despite my mother expressly forbidding it.

Instead, I am obsessing over the way Elise’s tongue moved with mine. Like we’ve kissed before. Or like we’d been dreaming about it and finally got the chance.

Her mountain air scent is on my palms and I can’t stop myself from pressing both hands to my face and inhaling, the fly of my slacks still snug even though she’s long gone. Growing tighter at the renewed tease of her smell in my nose.

Again, what happened up there?

I feel almost drunk, but my senses are somehow sharper than ever.

Awake.

“I can’t believe she asked me out,” Gabe says, staring after the cab. A forlorn giant. “That beautiful girl asked me out.”

“That’s not a girl, that’s a woman,” Tobias says, wiping the back of his wrist across his mouth. Trying to hoard the taste of her, like me? The possibility irritates me, even as I understand it. Elise was—is—nothing short of extraordinary. Long limbs, that wild tumble of dark hair, eyes that could snap between vulnerable and skeptical in a matter of seconds. Sharp wit that was on display the moment she stepped onto the tram.

Of course all three of us were attracted to her.

But I can’t pretend that’s all it was.

“Dammit,” Gabe says, shoving his hands into the pocket of his sweatshirt. “I should have just said yes.”

Tobias claps a hand down on the construction foreman’s shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up over it, erection boy. She still would have chosen me eventually.”