Page 73 of Offside

"Come inside me," he said.

I thrust twice, once more, and came inside him with my face against his back and his hand gripping my hip. For a while, neither of us moved.

He turned carefully after I withdrew and disposed of the condom. We lay facing each other with the right arm still supported between us.

I kissed him.

"I love you," I said.

He kissed me back. "Love you too."

The shoulder began to ache more as his body cooled. I saw the moment he noticed. He didn't hide it from me. Bishop got out of bed, retrieved the ice sleeve, and fastened it around his right shoulder using the wall to hold one end. He set the ten-minute timer Zoe had given him and returned to bed with the strap secured.

I moved close enough that our feet touched beneath the blanket while my hands stayed away from the sleeve.

"Sexy." I laughed.

His left hand found mine beneath the blanket. "Stay."

By the time the alarm went off, we were laughing about who was responsible for the lost wrapper.

Epilogue

Bishop

The cold reached the roof before the sun went down. Hayes had four heaters set along the rail and enough food inside the stairwell to feed the group twice. It was the first week of March. Chicago had given us one clear afternoon, then dropped the temperature as soon as everybody arrived. Nobody left.

Theo argued with Volkov near the closest heater. Luca stood behind Theo with one hand at his waist. Nico wore a coat too light for the wind. Kieran had already zipped it to his chin once and was watching him work the zipper down again.

Declan stood beside me at the rail, close enough to share the nearest heater.

The team had known about us for six weeks. The welcome had become sustained chirping, which was how the room turned private news into ordinary life. Volkov had produced a card after I'd prohibited both a letter and an edible arrangement. Hayes still joked whether he and Abbott should clap whenever Declan and I entered the same room.

We weren't public. Reporters knew nothing beyond the shoulder and contract facts the club had released. But inside the room, Declan could lean his shoulder against me. That was enough.

Park arrived while the sky was turning dark. A man I hadn't met came through the roof door beside him with a phone in one hand and a folder tucked beneath his arm. He was tall and dark-haired, with his coat buttoned. He listened while Park pointed out the heaters, the stairs, and the players most likely to say something a camera shouldn't keep.

The new PR manager had arrived. He was already working, already treating the gathering as part of the job.

Park's access review was still open, with the source of the routing phrase unconfirmed. The unanswered leak belonged to the club now.

It wasn't my concern.

Garrett was halfway through a comment to Theo when he saw him. He went quiet; the beer in his hand stopped short of his mouth for a beat. Then he drank and looked over the rail at the city. I saw it and gave him the same space he'd given me.

Reeves came up later with his son Ryan. The door swung shut behind them. He paused there, looking around the room with his hands in his coat pockets.

My shoulder locked just before eleven. I'd been holding a plate in my left hand and a cup in my right. The ache had been building for an hour. When the wind shifted across the roof, the joint tightened until the right arm stopped moving away from my side and I had to put the cup down.

Zoe saw my face from across the table and came over without touching me.

"Cold flare?" she asked. "Tell me when it started."

"Yeah," I said. "It built for about an hour."

"Any contact today?" she asked.

"No," I said. "Nothing since practice."