I glanced up, not knowing what that meant, and looked at Gathe to see if he knew since Forge was locked in on the game.
He shrugged.“No fucking idea.”
Forge turned his head to look at me.“What?”
“I don’t know what backdoor cover means,” I admitted, worried I was supposed to watch something else on the iPad he’d given me.
“When a team scores late unexpectedly, covering the spread,” he replied, focusing back on the screen.
“Oh, got it.”
“We need the Celtics to win this,” Forge said, running his hand through his hair.
“Eh, Spurs were favored,” Gathe said, leaning forward as the final minutes of the game ticked down.
“Yeah, but it would be a prettier spread for us if they lost,” Forge replied.
His gaze swung to the other side of the massive screen that covered most of the wall, where the Wizards and Heat were playing.The screen was in four different sections with four different games happening.It was stressful, but I had to admit, the adrenaline rush was exciting.
“Oh, damn,” Gathe said, jumping up and pointing at another corner.“The Pistons just scored!”
“Pull up the individual team totals,” Forge told me as he took four long strides until he was beside me, looking down at the iPad.“That,” he said, leaning in front of me and tapping something.
He was very close.When I inhaled, I took a deeper breath than necessary.He smelled real good.Quickly, I took another one.What was he wearing?I wanted to spray that on my sheets.Was it sandalwood maybe?But there was something else.
“Did you?”he asked.
I blinked, realizing he was talking to me, and I had no idea what he’d asked.Crap.
“Uh, I’m sorry.What did you ask?”
He paused and glanced back at me.
Please do not blush, Elsie.PLEASE.
“With all the games going at once,” I explained.“I got distracted.”
“The betting volume.Did you check it on the Suns and Bucks?”
Oh.That.Yes.
I nodded.“The action, yes.I am watching it on all the games.I haven’t seen anything that stands out so far.”
He seemed appeased, then straightened back up to watch the games, but didn’t move away from me.I could still smell him, and as nice as he smelled, I did not need that distraction.I already knew what he looked like naked.This wasn’t helping matters.
A buzzer went off, and then Forge punched a hand in the air.“Fuck yeah!”He turned to me, grinning, and grabbed my face, both his palms on my cheeks, and placed a fast, hard kiss on my forehead.“That’s what I’m talking about!”he said, letting me go.He walked over to grab the remote and punched in yet another game to take the place of the one that had just ended.
I was frozen.My forehead tingled, as well as other places on my body, from the contact.
“Next one is an even-money game,” Forge said, then picked up the iPhone he’d been tapping on all night and began quickly doing it again.“Bulls and Warriors is coming on too, Gathe.Get it up there.”
Blowing out a small breath, I tried to pull myself together and studied the screens.
“A few more upsets, and the juice is gonna be high tonight.”
I had no idea what juice was, but I figured he meant they made more money when the underdogs won.
“I’m surprised Oz hasn’t called or texted,” Gathe mused.
