I slide my palm across his. “Only one way to be sure.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Brayden
Savand I go back to our room for our luggage: our suitcases, our toiletries, the vibrator that’s sitting on the dresser in its slim charging case.
“If you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to,” I tell Sav as we’re wheeling our stuff toward the elevator, hoping not to run into my teammates so we don’t have to explain…any of this.
She fixes me with a glance, like she can see something I can’t. “Are you sureyouwant to do this?”
No.I’m not sure. There are a thousand reasons for not doing this, beginning with the fact that even though my teammates currently aren’t in the hallway, some of them might be spying on us through the peepholes in their hotel room doors. Ending with…I don’t know how this ends. I’m not even sure where it starts, really.
I was raised to believe that anything outside the confines of aone man, one womanGodly marriagewas surely a path to sin.
But I want to.
Maybe it starts with that.
I punch the elevator button again as if that’ll make it come faster. Not an answer to Sav’s question but answer enough.
Of course, when the elevator arrives, it’s carrying McDonald. He steps out, holding the door as we wheel in our suitcases. “Changing rooms?” he asks.
Shit. I should have thought of an excuse. Blake liked to say he and I had roles. It was my role to get us into trouble and his role to talk us out of it. Now I wish that I had paid attention to what he was saying all those times instead of just being happy not to face consequences.
“The noise,” Sav says after a second. “Bad for my migraines.”
“Ah.” McDonald nods as if that explains everything, though one of his eyebrows lifts slightly. “Well, get some good peace and quiet.”
“Thank you.” Savannah’s tone is calm, cool, collected, and she smiles sweetly as McDonald wishes us a good night and the door slides shut.
After a second, we both collapse against the elevator walls. “That was—” Savannah lets out a dramatic breath.
“You’re a good liar.”
Sav’s eyes go wide.
Fuck, she thinks I’m talking about her and Asher sneaking around. “I just mean you’re good under pressure.”
“I didn’t think I was. Before we got married. Before this year, really. Turns out I just hadn’t been under pressure.” She smiles; she has a dimple in her cheek that only comes out once in a while. For weeks, I’ve wanted to be the person to make her smile like that. I push the elevator button to the floor Asher’s room is on. We’re about to share a bed. Maybe more than a bed. I thought I’d be too jealous to share any part of her. But she smiles at Asher like that too sometimes.
When we get to Asher’s room, Sav swipes the room key Asher lent us and opens the door. Inside, the room is dim. Asher’s inbed, already passed out. Sav and I get ready quietly. We brush our teeth side by side at the sink, change into sleep clothes in the bathroom. I’m naked in front of two dozen or so guys in the clubhouse all the time. Still, I somehow feel a little shy around her as I pull off my shirt.
She reaches out, hand aimed for my chest before she withdraws her arm. “You have a?—”
I glance down at myself. There’s a bruise on my shoulder I don’t remember getting. By this point in the season, we’re all playing a little banged up. “Yeah.”
“Does it hurt?” she asks.
It doesn’t or it doesn’t any worse than any of the other bruises I have. “What if I told you it did?”
Her lips edge up at the corners. “As a former almost-nurse I’d prescribe a nice…long…hot….” She grins then finishes with, “…shower.”
I wind my arm around her waist, pulling her closer to me. Even in fresh clothes with her face scrubbed clean of makeup, I can catch the rose scent of her perfume. She presses her body against mine. We fit together. Before yesterday morning, I wasn’t totally sure we would. But we do like my hands were made to hold her.
“You’re still wearing your ring,” she says.
“Yeah.” Because I still have the black silicone band on my left ring finger. Lately, my hand has felt weird without it. “Does it bother you?”
