I pull my coat tighter around me at the shiver I’m not entirely sure hasanything to do with the cold. “You think I’m in love with her.”
“It doesn’t matter what I think,” he says. “What doyouthink?”
I don’t answer right away. I let the idea rattle around in my head for a few seconds before I turn to him. Whatever I was going to say flies out of my head when I realize he’s not wearing a hat.
“Dude, it’s like below zero out here,” I say. “How can you stand not wearing a hat?”
He shrugs. “I grew up in Alaska.”
I fall silent, letting his question about how I feel for Gray go unanswered. We’ve got two more games before we head home, so I have some time to consider just how deep my feelings for her go. I know I like her a lot.A lot. But am I ready to use the other L word yet?
I haven’t known her that long, but does that matter? If you know, you know, right? But do I know?
The only thing I know right now is that my phone is burning a hole in my pocket as I walk. I want to see what Gray sent me.
My steps feel lighter as we head toward the hotel. I want Gray, and it’s fine if lust is the driving force behind our relationship at the moment. I’m not going to put pressure on myself or her to make it more. There’s no reason to heap expectations and questions on top of what we have. It’s okay to just…enjoy each other.
There will be time to worry about the bigger stuff later.
Much, much later.
Chapter 32
Gray
Despite my resolution to be more punctual, I’m late to meet my mother for dinner after the gym. I had a surge of energy toward the end of my workout when I thought about sex with Ash a week and a half ago on New Year’s Eve, and I stayed on the treadmill an extra twenty minutes to harness it.
Unfortunately, my larger plan to add an extra ten hours of exercise a week to my routine has already fallen by the wayside. I just don’t have the time, but I vowed to at least take advantage of these pockets of energy when they arise.
At first, I felt guilty for not becoming a gym rat. Ash is so fit, and I wanted to give him a girlfriend worthy of his physique, but I didn’t make it two days before I gave up on that.
I was reprimanding myself for being lazy until it occurred to me Ash gets paid to work out. It’s literally his job to stay that ripped, and I decided that until someone was willing to pay me to develop muscle tone, gently rounded would have to do.
Ash seems to like my body the way it is, in any case. He was kissing me all over the night we had sex, and I got self-conscious when he reached the bit of pudge at my stomach. I tried to push him away from it, but he grabbed my hands and pinned them to the couch so he could kiss me there freely. Then he flipped me over, dragged my ass into the air, and speared into me with one thrust before fucking me so hard that there was a second or two I considered yellow-lighting him before he eased up.
When we were done, he pulled me back against him and wrapped a hand gently around my throat. “Don’t try to stop me from touching youagain,” he rasped into my ear. “Your body belongs to me now, and I’ll worship it any way I want. Do you understand?”
All I could do was nod.
“Good girl,” he said, and I was once again a puddle.
The academic in me desperately wants to understand the psychology of why I let him talk to me like that when we’re naked. In any other context, I’d tell him to shove that attitude up his ass, but I can’t deny that, when it comes to sex, I’m his to command.
My cheeks are probably extra pink from the memory when I sit down across from my mother at the restaurant, but I can blame it on the biting cold outside if she asks.
“Sorry I’m late,” I say as I pull off my coat. “I lost track of time.”
“No problem,” my mother says. “I learned a long time ago you operate on GST.”
I frown at her across the table. “GST?”
She looks up from her menu. “Gray Standard Time.”
I want to be annoyed, but honestly, she’s right. I want to tell her how I was half an hour early to meet Ash that one time after my date with Barry, but I don’t want to explain why, so I keep my mouth shut.
“One of these days I’ll be early, and then you’ll be sorry,” I say casually, opening my own menu.
“Just don’t do it when your father is with me,” she says. “I think another heart attack would kill him.”
