Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains novel Chapter 61

Victoria’s POV

“You need to carry the three over to the next matrix, Tori. If you don’t, the entire foundation load calculation is going to be completely off.”

Nova’s voice drained through my laptop speakers, sounding just as exhausted as I felt.

I let out a massive, unchecked yawn, rubbing my eyes until spots danced behind my eyelids.

My laptop was propped up on the kitchen island, surrounded by a fortress of grid paper, loose highlighters, and three half–empty mugs of tea that had long since gone stone cold.

“I know, I know,” I mumbled, leaning my chin in my hand as I blinked sleepily at her pixelated face on the video call. “My brain is just turning to absolute mush.”

I was in the middle of scratching out the corrected equation when the faint creak of wooden floorboards echoed from the hallway.

A second later, Elijah appeared in the kitchen entryway.

He stopped dead in his tracks, blinking at the bright fluorescent lights overhead. He

was shirtless, wearing nothing but a pair of loose gray sweatpants, his dark hair messy from sleep.

When his eyes landed on me, a deep frown pulled at his brows.

“It’s past two in the morning, Zhen,” he muttered.

His voice had this thick, heavy rasp to it–rough from sleep and entirely too primal for my tired brain to successfully ignore.

I just offered him a lazy, sleepy smile, too exhausted to put up my usual defenses.

“Engineering finals don’t care about the clock, Carter.”

He let out a quiet snort, walking past the island toward the refrigerator. He grabbed a cold bottle of water, took a long swig, and then walked right over to where I was sitting.

Instead of heading back to his room, he pulled out the stool next to mine and sat down.

Before I could ask what he was doing, his large, warm hand slid across the counter, resting directly over mine. The heat of his skin instantly made a pleasant tingle shoot up my arm.

He leaned forward, squinting at my laptop screen until he noticed Nova staring back at him.

“Yo, Nova,” he said, offering a casual wave with his free hand.

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Alter Matight

Nova’s eyes went wide on screen, her gaze darting between Elijah’s bare chest and bur joined hands.

“Oh. Hey, Elijah. Didn’t mean to wake the captain.”

“You didn’t. I just came down for water,” he said easily, before turning his head to look

at me.

His expression instantly shifted, turning entirely serious as he studied my face.

“You have dark bags under your eyes, Zhen.”

His thumb detached from my hand and reached up, his rough pad gently brushing against the sensitive skin right under my eye.

I let out a soft sigh, my eyes fluttering shut as I instinctively leaned my face into his warm touch.

He felt incredibly solid, incredibly safe.

“Uh, guys? I am literally still right here on the screen,” Nova’s voice cracked through the speakers, a massive, teasing grin plastered across her face.

My eyes snapped open, and blush flooded my cheeks. I quickly pulled back from his hand, clearing my throat as I looked anywhere but the camera.

Elijah didn’t look bothered at all. He just let out a low chuckle, leaning his elbow on the

island.

“Don’t mind us, Nova. What are we studying? Break it down for me.”

For the next forty–five minutes, the kitchen turned into an impromptu study hall.

Elijah didn’t go back to bed; instead, he completely embedded himself in our review

session.

He became our solo student, sitting quietly and listening with genuine interest as Nova and I traded explanations about structural load distributions and soil mechanics.

The surprising part was just how smart he actually was. Even though it wasn’t his department, his analytical mind picked up the logic incredibly fast.

At one point, when Nova and I both hit a wall trying to recall a specific hydraulic formula from three chapters back, Elijah tapped his finger on my notepad.

“Didn’t you guys use that fluid friction coefficient earlier? The one where you had to multiply the velocity squared?” He reminded us smoothly, pointing to a previous page.

I blinked at him, my heart swelling with a strange, sweet warmth.

“Oh my god. You’re right.”

“See? The athlete is out–engineering the engineers,” Nova laughed, shaking her head on the screen.

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41 21 Midnight

She let out a massive yawn of her own, checking the time on her desktop.

“Alright, that’s it for me. My brain is officially shutting down. If I look at another matrix, I‘ m going to cry.”

“Go get some sleep, Nova,” I encouraged softly.

“Thanks for the assist, Carter,” she added, giving him a lazy salute. “Keep Victoria from passing out on the counter.”

“I got her,” Elijah murmured.

The laptop screen went completely blank as the call disconnected. The kitchen fell back into silence. Elijah turned his stool around, facing me fully as he crossed his arms

over his chest.

“It’s time for you to sleep, ma’am. No arguments.”

I smiled, my eyelids feeling heavier by the second.

“Alright, fine. I’ll just gather my stuff.”

He didn’t let me do it alone. He stood up, his large hands efficiently stacking my heavy textbooks and sliding my loose papers into my binder before I could even coordinate my clumsy fingers to do it.

Once the island was clear, we walked up the dark stairs together, our shoulders brushing in the quiet hallway.

The moment we stepped inside his bedroom, I let out a loud, long breath, the absolute exhaustion finally catching up to my muscles.

Elijah set my binder down on his desk, and we both climbed into opposite sides of the massive bed, pulling the thick duvet up over us.

“Elijah?” I called out softly into the dim space, staring at the ceiling. “Thank you. For staying down there with us.”

He shifted in the dark, turning onto his side to look at me.

“Zhen, I swear, the next time you thank me for doing basic, normal things for you, you are absolutely not going to like the action I take to shut you up.”

I swallowed hard, my eyes locked onto his silhouette in the darkness.

The words message delivered was supposed to be a threat, but heat bloomed deep in my stomach.

I didn’t feel threatened at all; if anything, the raw, possessive edge in his voice left me entirely turned on, my pulse quickening against the mattress.

“Now let’s go to bed,” he commanded softly.

We both shifted, turning our backs to each other to let the sleep take over. I stared at

3/5

Midnight

the dark wall, my chest aching with a sudden, intense longing

A part of me desperately wanted to roll back over, to slide across the empty space between us and sink completely into his strong arms.

I wanted him to hold me against his chest until morning. But the fear of crossing a line

I wasn’t entirely ready for–or a line I wasn’t sure he wanted me to cross–kept my feet glued to my side of the bed.

“Zhen,” his deep voice cut through the quiet.

“Yeah?” I hummed softly.

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