“Smooth, but no. You missed today’s training, and Round 3 starts in a couple of days.” It took a lot, but I swung my leg over and landed next to him, handing his phone back. “Check it.”
“I liked when you were less bossy. Oh, wait, that was never a thing.” He snatched the phone and sighed through the message. Then he gave me a deadpan look.
“What? Is it McAvoy?”
“You just interrupted a steaming hot make-out session… for Hunter,” he said, this time leaning over to put his phone on the coffee table. “He’s just making sure I’ll be there later.”
“Van der Berg’s farewell.” I’d forgotten.
Theo settled back into the sofa, one hand stroking himself through his sweats. His eyes burned right through me. “Now that we have that out of the way…”
But I shook my head, making a grab for my shirt. “I can’t. Sorry. I—”
“You can’t? Are you kidding me?”
I wish I were. But no.
“I have to pick up the cake, and still go home to get ready…”
“There’s a cake?”
“There’s a cake.” I stood up, straightening my shirt. The sticky wetness between my legs, along with the lingering ache in my core, made it that much harder to back away from him. Now it was my turn. “Sorry.”
Theo pouted, his bottom lip sticking out, and he threw in the most dreamy puppy dog eyes to go with it. My stomach flipped over itself. I was crazy. That was the only explanation. I’d officially lost my mind, and now I was stuck making stupid decisions, like walking out on what I was sure would’ve been the best sex of my life. My gaze flicked down to his crotch, the bulge of his cock taunting me, and I bit my lip.
“I’ll let you scan any part of me if you stay,” he said, reading my inner turmoil. “Let me do… my version of an internal exam, if you get what I’m saying.”
I knew he was trying to be sexy, but that was the problem. He was trying. Cute, but missing the mark he was aiming for.
“I get it, but also, it’s not doing what you hoped it would,” I said, holding back my laughter.
He stood up with a deflated groan, his tented pants betraying his vulnerability in the moment. “Fine, but you can’t control what happens in my head after you leave.”
The suggestion sent an agonizing heat through me. Touching himself with me in his head… It got me wet just thinking about it. I felt myself about to give in, to forget the cake, the farewell, all of it, and just lose myself in him the way I wanted.
But his phone buzzed again, and common sense rushed back in. I picked up my jacket and made for the door before I got any other bright ideas.
“You’re the worst.”
“Yeah, well, you asked for it,” he called after me.
17
Reese
I was nervous walking into the bar, cake box balanced precariously on one upturned palm as I weaved my way through stale smoke and too many voices talking at once. This wasn’t my usual hang-out, but that wasn’t the reason the low ceiling and walls of people felt like they were closing in on me.
Grayson spotted me first. He lifted his beer in greeting, but it was Theo who hooked my attention like a hand to the front of my shirt. His gaze paused in all the right places as I approached—scooped neckline, mostly-bare thighs, and heels that took me far too long to pick out.
“Saved you a seat.” He casually draped his arm over the back of the empty chair beside him.
The quiet of it threaded through me with embarrassing ease, and I slid in beside him. Our thighs brushed, and every ridiculous, high-voltage memory from earlier today tried to crash the moment.
Theo angled slightly toward me, careful not to raise any eyebrows. His cologne tickled my nose and made me want to lean in. “You look good.”
Three harmless words. They still managed to find all the parts of me that hadn’t fully settled since I straddled him on his couch.
I cleared my throat, mentally scrambling to get a hold of myself. “No ketchup stains. Aren’t you proud?”
