Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains novel Chapter 4

Elijah’s POV

I sat behind the wheel for a long moment before turning the key.

Victoria was already curled up in the passenger seat, her head resting against the window as she slept peacefully.

I shook my head slowly, a dark smirk tugging at my mouth as I watched a stray lock of damp hair fall across her cheek.

I’d noticed Victoria freshman year. Hard not to when she was always at Caleb Ashfield’s side.

And while most girls had their smiles and charm perfectly rehearsed before they even looked my way, she barely seemed to notice I existed. That alone made her interesting.

After I scored the winning run earlier, I did what I always do; I scanned the stands.

Everyone else was on their feet, screaming, faces lit up with excitement. But hers stayed completely blank. No reaction at all.

I’d never personally spoken to her until tonight, but I didn’t need to. I’d felt the dislike radiating off her in waves since freshman year.

I still remember the trophy presentation at the last tailgate; she hadn’t even bothered to hide the eye-roll she threw my way when they called my name.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out her problem.

Either she’d bought into whatever garbage reputation the campus had pinned on me, or the truth was much simpler; she hated me because I was the one rival Caleb Ashfield couldn’t beat, and she couldn’t stand seeing her golden boy come in second.

Either way, I found it amusing.

I reached over and brushed a stray lock of hair off her face.

Her skin was still warm from earlier—from the way she’d climbed into my lap in the backseat, her dress shoved up around her waist, making those soft, broken sounds when my mouth was on her neck.

For a girl who spent her entire day buried in hoodies and textbooks, she wasn’t the “innocent” I’d expected. She was definitely more than I’d ever given her credit for.

I’d wanted to keep going. Badly. But then I saw that single tear slip down her cheek and the raw pain in her eyes.

Yeah, I can be a jerk. But I’m not the kind of asshole who fucks a drunk girl who’s still hung up on another guy.

I leaned back against the headrest, exhaling slowly as I stared out at the dark road ahead.

Victoria was beautiful in a way that didn’t try too hard. Most people overlooked her. Guys like me were supposed to.

But that was exactly it.

She didn’t fit the pattern. She didn’t act the same way the others did.

There was something different about her, something quiet and closed off. Almost untouchable. And I wanted to figure her out.

Victoria’s POV

My head felt like someone had spent the night hammering nails into it. The sunlight slicing through the curtains was way too bright, and it annoyed me.

I groaned and pushed myself up against the headboard, blinking slowly as the room came into focus.

This wasn’t my apartment. My place was cramped and cluttered, with secondhand furniture and a ceiling fan that rattled when it hit the third speed.

This room was magnificent, and smelled great.

I glanced down and froze. I wasn’t wearing my dress. I was swimming in a heavy black t-shirt that smelled exactly like the room.

I pressed my eyes shut and tried to drag the night back in pieces. What came was fragmented: dark colors, loud music, the leather interior of a Porsche, the sour taste of bile, and a deep voice cursing as I ruined his car.

“What have I done?”

I tried thinking hard to remember but the details refused to snap into place.

I reached for my phone on the nightstand.

The screen lit up with notifications. Twenty-six messages from Caleb.

My eyes widened. Was the world on fire or something? Caleb had never sent more than two texts in a row in his entire life.

A pathetic spark of hope flared in my chest, only to be extinguished by the first line I read:

‘Why the hell are you with Elijah Carter?’

The name unlocked new flashbacks. The stranger at the pool’s edge. His hand on the back of my neck. The way I had kissed and ground him because I was too drunk and too hurt to stop.

A muffled scream escaped my throat, and I gripped my hair until it hurt.

How did Caleb know? This was going to ruin everything.

Ruin what? my conscience bit back. Caleb was with Lexi. Why did it matter who I’d kissed or whose bed I was waking up in?

But the logic didn’t stop the guilt. I still felt like I’d cheated on a man who didn’t even want me that way.

I pressed my palms into my eyes. I had to know how he found out.

I navigated to the campus social page.

The first headline practically screamed off the screen:

Spotted: Victoria Rhodes getting cozy with Elijah Carter, the new star pitcher, at the after-party. Is this the breakout couple of the season? We definitely didn’t see this one coming.

Below it was a clear image of us. The photo was dark, but you couldn’t miss us: Elijah’s hand on my face, me looking like I was trying to climb into his skin.

My face burned with embarrassment. My quiet life had flipped upside down in a single night.

One minute I was still struggling to move on from Caleb, and the next I was kissing someone else.

The sound of heavy footsteps approaching the bedroom made my heart jump. I scrambled for the lamp on the nightstand, gripping it like a weapon even though my fingers felt unsteady.

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