PRESTON
No need to feel dumb.
TAYLOR
How about some strawberries to celebrate?
IVORY
OMG!
“Strawberries?” Chase looks up at me from the phone screen wedged between us.
“I’ll tell you later.” Recalling Ivory’s description of her and Preston celebrating their engagement with chocolate covered strawberries, I wonder how Chase would feel about it. Who am I kidding? The guy tied me to the stairs—he’d probably make it better than my imagination.
“Wanna go celebrate in other ways now?”
“You bet, Princess.” Standing from the couch with me in his arms, he runs up the stairs and dumps me on the bed, where I take my time showing him exactly how grateful I am for him and howmuch I love him.
Headlights flash in the driveway as Chase pulls in after the game. Instead of waiting for him, I rushed home to get ready for my surprise. We may have celebrated yesterday after the call that my results were negative, but there was something else I wanted to do before the season officially ended.
“Bree, I’m home,” he calls as he comes in the front door and closes and locks it behind him. “Where are you?” The lights are all dimmed downstairs except the light over the dining room table where I’m currently standing in the spotlight.
“Holyyyyyy shit.” Stopping dead in his tracks at the edge of the kitchen, Chase’s mouth drops open as he drops his bag on the floor.
“I thought we could celebrate.” I’m wearing his favorite librarian glasses with my hair pulled high in a ponytail and a new lingerie set in team colors—dark blue with red accents.
“Not that I’m complaining, but I thought we celebrated already. What are we celebrating tonight?” Never taking his eyes off me, he slowly walks across the room. He’s not even touching me and I’m already on fire for him.
“How does ‘us’ sound?” I hold up the paperwork we need to sign as official acknowledgement of our relationship within the organization. He has no idea I've been working on this. He knew Grant and Coach knew already. We talked about our relationship being the worst-kept secret, but after everything that’s been happening, this part fell to the wayside. I don’t want to wait any longer.
“What’s this?” He takes the paper from me, reading it slowly.
“How would you like to go public?”
“You’re ready for that?”
This man. How did I get so lucky? Taking the paper from him, I place it back down on the table so I can feel his arms around me.
“Yeah, baby, I’m ready. Sorry I made you wait so long. It wasn’t fair, but you knew what I needed and let me keep us asecret. I don’t want to be a secret anymore. I’m all in. Let’s tell the world.”
“Princess, I’d wait eternity if it meant having you in the end. I love you so much.” He picks me up, my legs automatically wrapping around his waist.
“I love you too. I had another surprise, but it didn’t get here in time.”
“I think this new lacy number is surprise enough.” He fingers the garter belt at my lower back. “Is there something on here?” His fingers rub over the stitching on the back, a custom request I made at the last minute when I placed the order.
“Just an embellishment.”
“Do I get to see?” Sliding down his body, I whine at the friction on my most sensitive parts. It won’t take much for me to get off and I’m hoping I won’t have to wait much longer. When my feet hit the floor, Chase uses the belt to turn me away from him and stares at me with his mouth agape.
I brace my hands on the table and hinge at the hips, so the light hits the embroidered number stitched into the white number three on the back of the red lace belt.
“You got my jersey number stitched on your lingerie?” He fingers the fabric again when I bite my lip and nod.
“Yes.” My voice trembles with need.
“Why?” He spins me around and pushes me back on the table.
