“We’ll go on Friday.”
“Really?”
“Really, but tonight I’m taking care of you. Do you want me to take you home first to pick up a few things?”
“If you don’t mind,” she says, shrugging her shoulders.
“Not at all.” I kiss her again, and she smiles. The rest of the game feels like a haze until the ball hits the batter’s bat at the wrong angle and the ball comes flying behind the net of the backstop. Jessa shrugs away and I put my right hand and catch the ball. I immediately feel the pain radiate in my hand but don’t let it show as I sit back down.
“Holy shit, are you okay?” she says, and I nod my head.
“Would have been much worse if it hit you.”
“Baseball is fucking dangerous,” she says, grabbing my hands. She doesn’t question it, just starts rubbing the muscles in my hand. There’s a kid three rows up, and I toss him the ball with my left hand.
“Here you go, kid.” He has a beaming smile on his face, and Jessa kisses my hand before kneading more of the tension out.
“Do you want to talk about your hand? We don’t have to,” she says gently, and I sigh.
“I broke it. It’s what ended my career. I was on the disabled list for a while, but the break extended to my joint, I basically have arthritis in my right hand. It doesn’t always hurt, just sometimes.”
She kisses my hand again and continues her massage. “I’m sorry, that had to have been hard.”
I shrug and look down at her. “Honestly, I think it saved my life.” Her brows furrow as we try to pay attention to the game and she massages my hand more. “I was living recklessly, angry all the time. I still was after the injury, but I think it made me figure out what’s important. Honestly, I still think I’m figuring it out,” I say to her softly.
“Me too,” she says, leaning forward and giving me a kiss. “Can we get out of here?”
“Yeah, we’re losing so fucking bad anyway,” I say, taking her hand in mine as we head to the cottage to collect her things.
* * *
When we’re at her place, she’s packing a bag, and I know it’s probably too soon, but I don’t care. “You want to pack some things to keep at my place?”
“Okay,” she says with a smile, stuffing her bag with more items. Once she’s packed, she goes to grab her phone off the charger, and it starts buzzing. “For fuck’s sake, I blocked his number, and he’s calling me from a burner or something.”
“Give me the phone,” I say, holding out my hand. She doesn’t hesitate as she hands me the phone. Her obedience and trust in me is such a massive turn on. I’m not sure if I’ve earned it, but I’ll accept it nonetheless.
“Hello,” I say slightly deeper than my natural voice.
“Who the fuck is this?” he says back in shock.
“This is Aiden-fucking-Carlson, and I’m Jessa’s new daddy. If you don’t stop calling my girl, we’re going to have fucking problems.”
“Let me talk to Jessa.”
“You will not call her again, and if I find out you do, I’ll fuck up your life.”
“Listen here, you asshole—” I hang up the phone, and Jessa blinks at me, her lips parted, and I worry that I’ve gone too far. But then she throws herself at me and I have to catch her, my hands gripping her ass as she wraps her legs around me and kisses me harder than she ever has.
“We’re changing your number,” I say, and she nods and kisses me again.
“You can have whatever you want, Daddy,” she tells me. We don’t make it back to my house, and I’m feeling a lot better about going to the office tomorrow.
19
BREAKING RULES
I feellike an even bigger freak at the office the rest of the week, besides Penny and Sharon. Honestly, that’s all I need: Aiden, Penny, Sharon. Everyone else in the office can kiss my ass. It feels so good to have this outlook. The high road? We don’t know her.
