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“Okay,” I say. “But I’m keeping an eye on them.”

She laughs. “Of course you are. You’re a Reyes. You can’t help it.”

I grin. “Damn right I can’t. Family is everything.”

She kisses me again, deeper this time, and I feel her hands on my body. She’s naked, wet, and warm, and I want her so much.

I want to feel her skin on mine, her lips on my neck, her fingers inside me. I want to make her moan and scream and beg. I want to lose myself in her and find myself in her.

“Make love to me, Valentina,” she whispers in my ear, and I shiver.

I don’t need to be told twice.

We’re so caught up in each other that we don’t hear the alarm on my phone until it’s been ringing for a while. We ignore it at first, but then it becomes annoying. I reach for it and see that it’s time to get ready for the match.

“Fuck,” I say. “We have to go.”

“I know,” she says, pulling me down for another kiss. “But I don’t want to. I want to stay here with you. All day. All night. Forever.”

“Lexa Delvaux,” I say, feigning shock. “Who are you and what have you done with the Golden Girl?”

She laughs. “You. You did this to me. You make me soft and cheesy. But I like it. I love it. I love you.”

“I love you too,” I say, and I mean it. “Now let’s go kick some ass.”

She grins. “Hell yeah. Let’s go.”

***

Lexa’s wearing the Tide colors and I’m in my Gator kit. The scene is familiar, and yet, completely different.

She has the ball. She’s running away from me. She’s on the opposite team.

I hear my team shouting at me to follow her, so I do. I pick up the speed, knowing that needing to control the ball slows her ever so slightly. I catch up, but she’s already positioned herself to shoot.

She’ll score. I know she will. She’s in her ideal spot and she won’t let anything stop her.

But I can.

I sprint as fast as I can, but I’m late. I know I’m late. I go in anyway, low and from behind her left side, the way I did it the first time. I don’t touch the ball. I touch her. She falls.

“Fuck!” she exclaims, landing on the ground.

I jump to my feet. The referee’s already reaching for her pocket. Yellow, like last time. As if a yellow card was ever the price.

The match stops while the medics check on Lexa. She’s already sitting up, holding her left knee. I go to her and she looks at me with hate in her eyes.

“How could you?”

“Lo siento, cariño,” I say. “It’s nothing personal.” They’re the same words I said the first time, and they’re out of my mouth before I can stop them. I already know it’s bad. I can feel it in my bones. “How bad is it?”

“You’ve ruined my career,” she cries out, tears streaming down her cheeks.

I shake my head, my own tears threatening to spill. “I didn’t mean to.”

My only saving grace is that I wake up.

“You okay?” Lexa looks at me with concern in her eyes.