Page 24 of Silver Player

“You’ve heard rumors, huh?” Billy chuckles. “And you always believe what you hear, right?”

“No, but—”

“I’m a real ladies’ man, one-hit wonder, right? You saw me, remember?” His laughter turns sardonic, his tone bitter, and I concentrate on his lips, trying to ignore the press of his firm thighs against the upper part of mine. Is he hard? I can’t even go there in my head. It’s been so long, and he’s so close to the promise land. I was dating Chad before I decided to move to Blue Ridge, and he decided he wouldn’t move with me. That was three years ago. Since then, the bookstore has been my lover, but it’s been a lonely substitute.

“I saw what I saw. And yes, that’s what I’ve heard,” I snap back as if it’s an insult. “And I won’t be pushed out of Sadie’s life when you take a woman as a partner.”

“A woman as a partner?” he repeats, the chuckle slowly dying. “I’m not square dancing, darlin’, and who do you think I’d be taking as a partner, anyway?”

I ignore the sarcasm and continue. “Sadie can’t have a revolving door of women in her life. She’ll need stability, continuity, and not some passing through, one-night stand floozy.”

Billy leans his upper half away from me as he returns our joined hands to the brick, but his lower half digs deeper against me. If he slips a little lower, the loose material of my skirt would easily give, and he’d be exposed to my current condition. Heat radiates between my thighs with an unquenchable thirst for friction. What is wrong with me? This is Billy Harrington, manwhore galore.

“Are you done yet?” he snips, narrowing his eyes on me. My chest heaves. The women. The one-nighters. The fear for Sadie.

“I won’t let another woman push me out of Sadie’s life.”

His eyes shift from narrowed to etched with something I can’t interpret, but the expression of his hardened jaw relaxes.

“You aren’t going anywhere. You’re Sadie’s aunt.”

“It’s more than that,” I offer, bracing to hand him my feelings. “She’s everything to me. I’m practically a second mother, and I won’t lose her.”

As Billy continues to stare at me, he gingerly lessens the pressure of his lower body on mine.

“You aren’t going to lose her.”

“I’m all she has,” I interject, and my voice cracks. The emphasis is a combination of me being all she has and her being everything to me. I can’t lose her. I can’t lose another person from my life.

“Sadie has me now, too.” His tone softens, lowering as his eyes watch my lips.

“But she doesn’t. You haven’t called her, and you must have the results. You must know by now that you are her dad.”

“I’ve been busy,” he mutters.

“That’s not an excuse. That’s what you say to someone like Kristy, not your daughter.”

Billy’s eyes snap up to mine.

“I’ve been looking for the right time.”

“There isn’t a right time, Billy. The time is now. Any time. That girl lost her mother. She found out she has a father who works across the street from where she lives. She needs you.”

Billy tips his head back, his eyes drifting up the building as if he can see Sadie above us in the apartment.

“You need to step up, William.” I’ve lost my steam and don’t even say his name with my typical demeaning irritation. My tone saddens as I address him. Sadie needs him. She won’t admit it, but her growing silence and dark mood prove what she isn’t saying. She thinks he’s rejecting her.

“Okay, Roxie.” I typically don’t like how he shortens my name because the nickname is reserved for those closest to me. I especially don’t like the way he emphasizes it—pausing on the rocks and exaggerating the e-sound—but he’s lost his bluster as well, and the way he exhales over my abbreviated name makes me shiver. The tremble draws his eyes back to my face. “I don’t have her number, but I’ll stop over tomorrow and sort it all out.”

“Don’t give me empty promises,” I state. “And don’t give Sadie false hope. If you really want to be her dad, you have to be more than a name on a certificate or a contact on her caller ID. Otherwise, you really are a sperm donor, and she doesn’t need anything from you.”

I’m not convinced Sadie can go on without Billy now that she knows who he is and where he lives, and I have a sneaky suspicion Billy might just need Sadie in his life as well.

“I’m not just a sperm donor,” he grits, his tone returning to the Billy I’m more familiar with. The one who irritates me whenever he speaks.

“Fine. Prove it.”

The gleam to those earthy-rich eyes returns. “Game on, Roxanne.” With my full name rolled from his throat, another shiver ripples up my spine, and my thighs clench against his.