Delicate footsteps sounded against the marble tiles. “Get your backsides out here.” Neva’s petite frame walked in. “What are you talking about? It looks serious.”
Genny didn’t pause. “Whether Jez would let Jesse handcuff her to a bed.”
“Oh. I’d have to include that in his diet plan.” Neva’s expression stayed serious. “Outside. Now.”
Genny rolled her eyes, because there was no way she was going to do what Neva said without some form of battle.
Amber looked at me through dark lashes as I sat down.
“Remember, I’m sober. I will remember everything.” She tapped her glass, full of a different fruit punch that Neva had made.
“But will you tell Nate?” I loved my relationship with Amber. We lived together, albeit in a really big house. She was now the mother figure to my nieces and the centre of my brother’s world. We’d become friends and I liked everything about her, including how she took exactly no shit from anyone, but I was mindful because her loyalty would always be to my brother, as it should be.
She shook her head. “Not unless I think you’re in danger of being hurt. But if you want to discuss Jesse’s tattoos, cock size or something to do with handcuffs, I’m here.”
“Please tell me you and Nate have never done anything with handcuffs?” I felt my heart rate rise as my anxiety levels grew.
Amber laughed. “I think we’d slept together on four or five occasions before I found out he’d knocked me up, so it’s safe to say we haven’t explored it yet. We’ll make time for that later, I’m sure.”
“I’m going to vomit.”
Everyone else laughed, including Leila, who was now with us, and Dee, along with a couple of Dee’s teammates.
“What were you and Genny talking about so intently?” Neva sat back in her chair, her dark hair draping down behind her. “I heard the word handcuffs, so I assume it’s something to do with Jesse.”
Amber caught my eye and raised her brows. I shrugged.
“I really don’t know anything. He’s a really nice guy. He’s funny, considerate and easy on the eye.” It was all true. All I knew was what I’d heard on the grapevine.
“He has a woman he hooks up with. I don’t know who she is, but I think she’s some high-powered businesswoman. I don’t think it’s a date type thing. I think it’s just sex,” Neva said, swirling her drink in her glass. “I know he had a girlfriend a few years ago, and I think she was a wannabe WAG. Since then, he’s been so secretive about what he gets up to.”
“I can see Jesse having complete control in the bedroom.” Amber was smiling at me now. “The question is, would you want your man to be like that all the time?”
“He might not be like that all the time,” I said, my imagination starting to go into overdrive. If nothing else, I could get a character out of this, or the basis for one. “It might be like a steak; you don’t eat one every night, but when you do, it hits the spot.”
“Or anal.” Dee reached over the table for the jug of what was definitely not alcoholic. “Although don’t tell Rowan it hits the spot.”
“What was going on with the two of you last week? He whisked you away somewhere for the night, didn’t he?”
The conversation deviated away from Jesse, as it was always going to. I listened in to Dee’s tale of tiring Rowan out as a point of revenge because he’d done the same to her a few weeks beforehand, which was both kind of cute and envy-inducing.
I hadn’t had sex for nine months. Probably more, because it had been a bit before I’d moved up north to stay with Nate. In two weeks, I was heading off to France with Jesse, driving him to a vineyard in the middle of the French countryside. I needed to get laid before then, else my road rage was going to be off the Richter Scale.
It was close to seven in the evening, our afternoon tea disintegrating into evening cocktails and a debate about whether we would manage to barbecue decently given that only Amber was sober, when Nate turned up with Libbie and Zara, plus the rest of the men who’d been hanging around Jesse’s for the day.
I didn’t need to look up to know that Jesse was with them. My body already knew. I’d developed a sixth sense where Jesse Sullivan was concerned somewhere around Christmas, when I’d watched him score a hattrick against Arsenal before running up to where I was sitting and sliding down on his knees, our eyes meeting. My little romantic heart had decided he’d scored that goal for me, even though I knew he’d had no clue about who was actually in the stands in front of him. He was high on the euphoria of scoring a hattrick. Santa Claus could’ve been sat where I was.
Amber got up to take over from Nate with the girls. While they had a nanny, he wasn’t their parent. Things like bath time and bedtime were done by Nate, and now Amber; even school runs were done by Nate unless he couldn’t because of training. I knew he’d been reluctant to have a nanny, wanting his kids to grow up like we had with parents who were there pretty much all the time, but as a single dad, that hadn’t been doable with his career. Chan’s mum had stepped in, but her illness shortly after Chan’s death had forced Nate’s hand.
Today, Leon had the day off. He had most weekends off unless there was a match. The girls had been at Jesse’s, probably terrorising whatever nature lived in his garden. They were loving the warm days and being outside, which I was glad to see. A few months ago, Libbie was becoming too quiet and shy. That had now reversed.
I tried to focus on their chatter rather than Jesse being nearby, moving to another part of the garden to stay away from his periphery. Neva was talking to Kitty about food and restaurants; involving myself in that seemed like a good way to find a distraction, only every time I looked up, I noticed Jesse.
He was wearing weathered denim shorts, his legs displaying both muscles and tattoos. My eyes crawled up his torso. A muscle top hid some of his skin, tattoos crawling out from beneath the material.
My heart beat out a rhythm that was too fast. My mouth felt dry.
When my gaze found his eyes, they were looking straight at me. I expected him to be smirking at the fact he’d caught me drinking him in, but he wasn’t. His expression was serious, his eyes dark.
