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“I don’t mind.” She returns with a bottle of cola for me and fizzy water for herself. “I have a personal question.”
“Okay.” I pull back on the lever and send the ball flying. “Shoot.”
“Do you ever drink alcohol?”
“Not really. I don’t have anything against it. I just personally think it’s a waste of calories. And my dad has drunk beer forever and has the gut that goes with it. No thanks. Not to mention, I need a clear head for my job.”
She watches quietly as I play the game, and I do quite well until the ball falls through a hole that sends it out of the game.
“What about you?” I ask her as I send the next ball into play.
“Not often. Like you, it’s calories that I’d rather eat than drink. But, about once a month or so, we have a cousins’ night get-together at the compound, and I’ll have a drink or two there.”
“Compound?”
“Yeah.” I hear her take a swig of her drink. “It’s two houses side by side that my family owns, and a bunch of the cousins live in them together. It’s the Montgomery compound, or that’s what we call it. It’s totally extra, but it’s safe, and all the uncles are big proponents of safety.”
“Did you live there?”
“No.” She sips again. “They didn’t turn it into what it is now until this past year when they bought the second house. I never lived in the first one. But I visit often. That’s where I was earlier today.”
“So, your brother lives there.”
She doesn’t answer right away, and I risk taking my eyes off the ball to look at her.
“You paid attention.”
“Hell yes. I notice everything about you.”
She’s quiet again as I finish out the game, and when it’s all said and done, I’m surprised to find that I lost.
I lost.
That doesn’t usually happen.
“Holy shit,” she says in surprise. “I won. I WON!”
She starts to do the victory dance, and I can’t help but grin as I watch her shake her ass in celebration.
“Okay, pay up, Harrison. Where’s my jersey?”
“You stay here, and I’ll get it.”
She smiles and bites her lower lip, and it takes everything in me to walk away from her.
Jesus, I haven’t wanted a woman like this in a long time.
I choose a jersey out of my closet and then return to the game room to find Sophie exactly where I left her, waiting.
“Here you go. One football jersey.” I pass it to her, and without missing a beat, she whips the sweater she’s wearing over her head and tosses it onto a chair.
She’s not naked beneath the sweater.
She’s wearing a little pink tank that hugs her like a second skin. Instinctively, I take a step toward her.
Sophie smiles and tugs my jersey over her head. The neck is so wide on her, it falls off one shoulder, showing me a pink strap and lots of smooth skin that I’d like to sink my teeth into.
“Fits like a glove,” she declares.
Without thinking, I advance on her, boost her onto the pinball machine, and with her face cupped in my hands, I kiss the hell out of her.
Her full lips are soft and hungry as she gives as good as she takes. She nibbles on my bottom lip, then surrenders as I sink into her and explore her mouth.
One hand journeys under the jersey to cup her breast, and she moans. When I tug on her nipple with my thumb and forefinger, she gasps and raises her legs up high on my hips in invitation.
“I want you so badly that I ache with it,” I groan against her neck.
And when she doesn’t answer, I pull back to look into her eyes.
The lust is there, but it’s the hint of uncertainty that has me stepping completely away from her.
“I won’t do anything you’re not okay with.”
“You didn’t,” she rushes to assure me, shaking her head as she swallows hard. “Trust me, I was on the same page.”
“But you’re not ready for anything else right now.”
She looks like she wants to say something, but then she just offers me a forced smile. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“Well, if you think I was teasing you or something—”
“Whoa.” I hold up my hands, stopping her. “Honey, I’m fine. You don’t need to apologize for anything. I’m just happy to be here with you. I’m not a jerk who thinks that a woman can’t set boundaries. Please, set them. And be clear about them so I don’t have to read your mind. I’m all for that. I’m a shitty mind reader.”
Her smile turns genuine now, and she reaches out to tug me back to her.
“Let me clarify. I think you’re sexy.” Her voice doesn’t tremble in the least, and I feel like we’re back on sure footing. “And funny. And super nice, which I wasn’t expecting, although I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting it. I just wasn’t.”
