I was alone with Virginia.

Normally, with any other girl in this situation I wouldn't have been so absolutely terrified, but after that encounter in the courtyard in the rain?

Her adorable brown eyes as they stared up at me in question just before I pulled her body close to mine and soaked in her delicious perfume that was probably drugging me sent me careening through drills, up and down the court, but my heart never pounded as hard as it did in that moment with her just a few hours before.

Muscles aching and laden down with the force of practice, I rubbed an arm across my sweat slicked forehead and caught the eye of the girl I couldn't get off my mind ever since meeting her.

Shuffling papers at her desk while simultaneously eyeing me considering I was the last one left in the gym shooting threes, Virginia was definitely eye fucking me. I'd taken my shirt off after Wilt left me to continue practicing long after the team had gone back to their dorms, and the second I'd plopped it onto the floor, she had been very distracted with her work.

She'd given up with whatever she'd been doing milling around the courts and had planted herself firmly in the desk that directly faced our court that we'd been using, and not only was it a boost to my ego, but it was the courage and reassurance that I needed that this wasn't just one sided.

I'd felt her breath hitch while holding her close, the staccato of her racing heart that matched the pace of my own, had noticed her stuttering her words when we were a little too close, but she was right.

We hardly knew each other.

Well, I was going to fix that.

"Like what you see, V?"

Her head popped up from where she'd dropped it when I caught her looking, again.

"I- what? I think you've been practicing for too long, you're getting sweat in your eyes, seeing things..." she trailed off, but I could sense her growing nervous, even from halfway across the court.

"Yeah, that's definitely it," I teased, throwing my ball back into the rolling cart filled with the rest of them.

"I'm going to hit the showers, you're free to join me and stare at me in there, too."

"I was not staring!"

I laughed and the sound bounced off the walls, echoing around us.

She crossed her arms in almost defiance, and it was way too adorable for her own good.

"Whatever you say..."

The entire shower, I spent thinking about her, and what would happen if she really did have the idea to lose her mind for thirty minutes and join me in the shower. That would make me the absolute luckiest man in the world, then. One minute with her was precious, but having her all to myself, in all the ways I wanted? Forget it. I'd be a goner.

Hell, I probably already was one, but I wasn't complaining. Not when it came to her.

I emerged from the showers dressed and smelling ten times better than I had been going in, and found her counting the basketballs in the metal rolling rack, trying to seem like she was keeping herself busy, but I could tell that she was nervous.

"So, this is what you do for your job? Count balls?"

She jumped and squeaked out a little in surprise since she clearly hadn't heard me approaching, but she turned with a fire in her gaze that hadn't been there earlier.

"No, I don't just count balls," she said, emphasizing the word 'balls', and suddenly her gaze travelled down the length of my body to the apex of my thighs and I just couldn't help myself. She walked right into it, after all...

"Well, you can put me down for two very large balls. I can pull them out if you need to have visual confirmation of their existence?"

Her mouth twitched up in the corners on a beautiful smirk and I couldn't imagine a more stunning sight if I tried.

"I'm good, but thank you for the offer," she countered and suddenly I felt...awkward? It wasn't like I'd never talked to girls before, but the majority of the time it was them talking and trying to take me home, not the other way around. In all honesty, I hadn't had to make the first move on a girl in a very long time.

My friends told me it was the height, that it attracted the girls who knew what they wanted and went for it, so that seriously affected my 'game'.

"You done for the night with everything you need to do?"

"Yeah pretty much, I usually just goof off until it's time to clock out because no one is here this late and everything is finished."

"Well in that case...do you want to see if you can out shoot me?"

There was a twinkle in her eyes that accompanied the glorious smile that question brought to her face.

"You want to shoot more hoops after spending the last four and a half hours doing that already?"

"What can I say, I just want to see what Mike Bruin's daughter is worth on the court," I said cockily, like there was no way she could out shoot me on threes.

"Okay, give me the ball."

I was wrong. I was so totally wrong.

The girl's aim, form, technique, all of it was spot on absolutely perfect.

She sent the ball sailing over and over again into the net, the swish of the ropes caressing the ball as it dropped in each time, and I was immediately floored at the different talents this girl possessed that I'd yet to discover.

"Wow. Can you read minds too? What about magic, can you grant me three wishes?"

Her laughter reached my ears as she dribbled the ball a few times before lining up her shot.

"What?"

"You know, since you have all this talent. I was just wondering what else it is that you can do."

That time, her grip on the ball faltered, her pinkie finger dropping down lower on the ball as she haphazardly flung the ball towards the net, no form, no preparation, and it was the first time she'd missed all night.

"Might want to hold your breath next time," she joked.

"How about a game? Truth or dare? Except every time I make it in the basket you have to do the one I pick for you, same goes for you. You make it in, you make me choose which one I pick."

She didn't hesitate before answering.

"You're on. Be prepared to go streaking through campus."

My laughter was immediate, and her answering smile was adding fuel to the ever growing fire that pulsed in my gut, reminding me that nothing about what I felt for her was a game.

"Alright, I'll go first. Truth or dare, Virginia?"

"Truth," she said, but my ball fell through the net beautifully, so it was all in my hands.

"I'll give it to you. Truth. Okay, we'll start off easy. Favorite color?"

"Blue. My turn."

She fetched the ball from where it had been rolling down the side of the court and dribbled easily, like she'd been handling the ball since she could walk, which she probably had been knowing her dad.

"Truth or dare, Eli?"

Her voice sent shivers down my back, but if she noticed she didn't react to it, those big brown eyes locked directly onto my own in amusement and something else that I couldn't decipher.

"Dare."

Her shot arced in the air, bouncing off the backboard and rolling around on the rim until it eventually fell right in and she did a little fist bump in celebration which I couldn't help but adore.

"Hmm. Okay, I'll let you do dare. I dare you to...text all of your players in a group chat and tell them that you want to be called 'Princess' from now on."

Well...that was going to be brutal when practice rolled around the next day, but still I followed her dare to the letter, showing her the proof once the barrage of texts came flooding in all making fun of me, but I didn't mind.

She could've asked me to run naked through the entire campus like she'd joked about earlier and I still would've done it.

"Wow, that's commitment I'll give you that. Okay, I guess it's my turn then. If you don't make it I'll still probably choose truth."

I'd moved closer to her to give her the proof that I'd done the dare on my phone, and if I wasn't already jittery and nervous before, being in close proximity with her, breathing her air and watching the pulse point in her throat beating wildly to her heartbeat.

Her perfume wafted up to meet my nose and I was glad she was focusing on my hands attempting the next shot instead of my throat bobbing in nervousness from her nearness.

This wasn't me...I didn't normally freak out like that around a girl. But she wasn't just any ordinary girl, though, was she?

"Damn," she muttered as my shot sank through the net.

"Sorry V. I think I want you to do a dare after what you just had me do."

She groaned and leaned her head back on her neck like she was just dreading the dare I was about to come up with, but there was really only one thing I could think of that I was desperate to find out if she would agree to.

"Alright give it to me. What's my dare?"

My grin turned suggestive at what she'd just said, and while I so badly wanted to make a dirty joke out of that I held back, because this dare was going to make or break the direction our 'relationship' was headed in.

Noticing the intense expression in my face, Virginia dropped the ball that she'd grabbed after it had fallen back down on the court, and the dull thud of the bounces slowing and finally coming to a stop to roll to the side of the court was the only sound that could be heard in the entire gym, save for the roaring rush of blood behind my ears as I stepped closer to her.

Instead of going for the unoriginal pushing the hair behind the ear, I leaned in close and threaded my entire hand with her hair behind her ear, the silky soft strands slipping over my skin.

She stiffened immediately, her breathing erratic and skin flushing underneath her dark complexion.

"Eli, what are you...?"

One hand in her hair and the other on her hip tugging her closer like I had earlier in the rain, she was soft and supple against all of my hard lines and jagged pieces. I wondered if knowing her as deeply as I wanted would have the same effect- if her affection would drive out the shattered pieces of me and replace them with her spunk, attitude, and sarcasm that I already couldn't get enough of.

But it was in the cracks of that sarcasm and wall of humor that she'd built up against the real emotions that I noticed the real things she tried so hard to hide, like the shyness she pretended wasn't there, or the moments when I could shock her with a dirty joke and she wouldn't respond with one in turn, but would grow quiet and flush from the truth behind my jokes.

Her hand encircled the wrist that was wrapped up in her hair and leaned in close to me, forehead against mine and nose to nose, we were closer than we had ever been but still I wanted more.

I pulled back to press our lips together, but it was like the world was conspiring against us, because just as her doe eyes met mine with the promise that she wanted this, too, the gym doors slammed open and Maddie and Patrick came strolling in hand in hand.

If the Princess dare wasn't enough, I was never going to hear the end of this, but staring at Virginia's flushed and suddenly shy demeanor I realized that the guys could give me as much shit as they wanted and I wouldn't care, so long as I finally got that kiss.