Emme
Today’s Learning Objective:
Students will get their game-faces on.
I woke up naked—andwith Ryan’s hand between my legs.
His touch was light, as if he was simply holding me…by the vagina. Which was to be expected because we’d had sex last night. Lots of sex. And we’d also gotten married.
All kinds of adventures for us.
He was asleep, if the slow, steady breathing on the back of my neck was any indication, though he was stunningly hard against my ass. Individually, I had no problem with any of this. The hand between my legs was strangely pleasant. Much better than the usual middle of the night boob grab. And there wasn’t much that dick couldn’t do.
But I needed to get the hell out of this bed because my brain required seven to ten business days to process all of yesterday and figure out who we were to each other now that we had naked sleepovers. Now that I knew the feel of him hitting the back of my throat and bottoming out inside me. Now that we’d jumped from old friends to a fake engagement to a thoroughlyconsummated marriage. Now that we could never again say we were just friends.
Most of the time, I could roll with whatever happened. I didn’t need a roadmap of everything up ahead. But right now, with my body straining to rock against that hand or lean into that hard shaft, and my head a jumble of hope and dread and affection, I needed to find my way through. This mattered—probably more than anything had ever mattered to me—and I had to get it right. Even if that meant I was weird as hell about it for days.
I had no doubt it would be fun to stay here and let him fuck me right through the mattress a few more times but I really needed to get up and turn into the kind of gangly, embarrassing creature who overthought so hard she set her own hair on fire. Also, I desperately needed to blow my nose.
“I’m goingto need your media face today,” I said, fussing with my own face in the car’s visor mirror. My eyes were bloodshot from everything that’d happened last night plus the blanket of pollen that’d fallen over the city. My nose too. Not cute. Not the look I wanted for this wonky new relationship of ours. Or seeing Teddy again.
“Which one?” Ryan grumbled from the driver’s seat.
I’d teased him about driving us to Ben and Grace’s house outside the city this evening and I’d succeeded in fully exasperating him within the first five minutes of this journey. It gave me something to do other than worrying about last night or having to see Teddy or—god help me—speak to my ex.
“If you’re giving me a choice, let’s skip the post-game press conference face. No one needs you sitting there with your armscrossed, a mean scowl, and a beanie pulled down halfway over your eyes.”
“That’s only when we lose.”
I stared at him. I could tell from the smile that pulled at the corner of his lips that he knew I was looking at him but he kept his gaze on the road. I also knew he wasn’t upset with me. A little disgruntled this morning, sure, but we’d settled into a workable rhythm of pretending everything was fine and never once referencing yesterday’s events. Avoidance was so fun. “Are you sure about that?”
He jerked a shoulder. “Mostly.”
“Right. Let’s have the media face where you dig deep inside to find the strength to tolerate spending time with loads of people desperate to tell you how great you are. Just like all those Derby parties.”
“Just like the Derby?” He glanced over at me with a meaningful arch of his brow.
I could almost hear him growlDon’t you fucking stopwith that eyebrow. I had to press my thighs together.
“Close enough,” I managed.
He reached for my hand and his thumb traced the band of my ring, his attention back on the road. “I’ll be good. Anything you want, I’ll do it.”
“I just need you to chat up the guys for a bit. You can go back to being dark and broody?—”
“I am notdark.”
“—once they agree you really are the god of football and my ex realizes he’s as useful as a severed head.”
“If anyone’s dark here, it’s you,” he muttered.
“I am a ball of goddamn sunshine and don’t you forget it,” I yelled. Then I followed it up with an ugly sniffle.
He shook with laughter as he exited the highway. “I fuckin’ love you, Muggsy.”
“Don’t forget that either.” I dug in my bag for another allergy tablet and some tissues before going back to touching up my face. It was a warm day, and even without the allergies I had a tendency to look like a sun-dried tomato when left outside too long. That never stopped me from buying new products on the off chance one of them would keep my rosy cheeks in check. “Love you too…Wildcat.”
I stopped myself from calling himhusband. I didn’t want to overthink this but I didn’t want it to come out the wrong way. Especially after last night. And the way I’d crept out of his bed. And how I still felt the echoes of him between my legs.
