Page 125 of Embrace

“Think about it?” I say between kisses.

She finally sighs. “Okay, all right. I just need some time before we do. I’ve never done this before, and I’m not good at it.”

“You’re good at everything.”

The delicate column of her throat moves. “I don’t want to disappoint you.”

“You can never do that. I want to take care of you.”

She scrunches her nose. “It’s a shitty job.”

“Not if it’s you.”

She mutters something under her breath, but I don’t like the look on her face right now. It’s saying too much of what I know isn’t true. So I kiss her, letting my hands drift down her waist, then lower, until I can feel her melting into my hands.

“Five bucks says I can make you come right here.”

She laughs. “You probably can. But you should go.”

“Hmm?” I kiss the sensitive part of her neck. “Where do you want me to go, sweetheart? Lower?”

Scarlett whimpers. A rush of heat floods through my system, and I take it slow with her, collecting every one of her sounds as my reward. It’s early, so I’m not worried about anyone seeing us, and clearly neither is she.

“Rosie?”

The wind carries the familiar voice toward us, making Scarlett jerk back a little.

“Did you say something?” she asks, dazed.

I shake my head, though she still looks unsettled. My hand finds her chin, guiding her lips back to mine. That citrusy scent lingers in the air, wrapping around me.

“Rosie.”

This time, it’s loud. Unmistakable. And the low timber of it—I know it instantly.

It must be the authority in the voice, so recognizable, that even Scarlett pulls back, her wide eyes locking with mine before we both turn.

Confusion knots my brows, and just as I’m about to ask Coach Kilner what he’s doing at Iona House at six in the morning, Scarlett’s voice cuts in.

“Dad?” she says, and I swear my hearing dulls to a low hum.

Dad?

Ah, fuck.

My blood freezes in my veins, my gaze ping-ponging between Coach Kilner and my girlfr—Rosie.

My arms fall away from her, my limbs going limp with shock. My gaze rests on Coach’s death glare, and I spring away from hisdaughter.

“Coach,” I croak.

“Ishida.” Not Kian.Ishida.

Kilner crushes the paper bag he’s holding in his fist, and I justknow he’s imagining it’s my head. My mouth has gone dry, and I’ve moved several paces away from Scarlett, as if I wasn’t just trying to swallow her whole.

My mind spins with so many absurd conclusions that I can barely focus on what’s happening in front of me. Maybe she accidentally called him Dad. I’ve done that plenty of times.

But why is he looking at her like that?