Her fingers find my cheek. A request. I lean down to find her, our noses brushing against each other until I slant my mouth over hers. Softly. Slowly. Trying to say all the things I wantedto say tonight while I can’t speak a single word. She glides her fingers through my hair, pulling back and dropping her head to the pillow.
I kiss her again because I want to, and I don’t feel like stopping quite yet.
“You have to get back out there.”
She’s kicking me out.
That feels great.
I sigh, lowering my head with a nod.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, tracing her fingers down my beard. “I’m following your rules.”
Technically, my rules say I’m not even supposed to be here.
“I know,” I murmur, pressing my mouth to hers one last time. I stand, discarding the condom and searching for my clothes, slowly pulling them back on.
She reaches for my hand before I can leave. I pause at the feeling of her fingers, turning back to the bed. She pushes herself to her knees and wraps her arms around my neck. I slide mine around her waist, kissing the side of her head. We just hold each other, like there will never be enough time to touch one another.
“I’m sorry today sucked,” she says.
I pat her butt, kissing her temple again. “It got better by the end.”
That makes her smile.
“Good morning, Boston Black,” she whispers, kissing my mouth.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” I say quietly, letting her go.
I sneak back out of her room the same way I entered it. Silently and carefully. I try not to let it get to me when I hear that small click of her lock sounding down the hall, like my invitation ended with her orgasm.
I leave before anyone wakes up, afraid that they’ll see the marks from her hands all over my skin, terrified of hazel eyesthat have been looking a little too closely at her impact on me lately.
More terrified of matching sets of blue looking my way.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
boston
I wrapthe towel around myself and walk back into the locker room. Lowesy and Forker are dressed but are shooting the shit as usual. Saltzy and Caulfield fucked off pretty quickly—Caulfield’s been a little bit off since everything happened with Eej, and that got even worse with the Morgan situation.
Oz and Took shout their goodbyes as they leave, the door closing behind them.
I let out a breath, using my spare towel to dry my hair. It’s been a couple of days since the incident. Saltzy has stayed pretty quiet about it, but we’ve all decided that we’re going to tackle this pretty directly once preseason starts. This season is going to be full of tension and issues. All of us hating a teammate’s wife, and possibly even a teammate—it’s a recipe for disaster.
None of us know what Tom actually knows. We can only guess.
I pull on my clothes, listening to the conversation. Forker mentions that Ari is starting school in September and my ears perk up. Business school. Good for her. I wonder, with a pang of disappointment, if that means she’s high-tailing out of the city,but he clarifies pretty quickly that it’s all online. She’s not going anywhere.
I smile, and I hate that I do.
When I get home, I tackle all my nightly duties on the farm. I feed the cows because they’re on a later schedule than the rest of the animals, and then bring the dogs into the house to give them their dinner, too. Wanton crashes right into his bowl because he still hasn’t figured out his brakes, and he sends his food all over the floor. I just shake my head, because he loves running around to clean it up like a vaccuum. Who am I to stop him?
I start to prepare my own dinner when my phone vibrates on the counter.
I catch one glimpse at her name and am swiping it open before I can blink.
Ariana
