Fisting his shirt, I buried my nose into his chest andinhaled my favorite aroma: freshly-showered Cage. I couldn’t even pinpoint what I was smelling. All I knew was it was the headiest aphrodisiac ever. “And you can?”
His mouth wasted no time devouring my neck. “Yes…” His teeth came next and my whole body shivered. “I just play catch for a living.” His hands slid down and palmed my ass, pulling me as close as possible to his body. “You’re changing the world. You’re inspiring. You’re a fucking hero to every disabled person out there.”
“I’m not…” My words came out as nothing more than little puffs of air.
“Well you sure as fuck rock my world.”
I laughed. “Say we just do it. We both quit. Then what do we do? It would have to be something so cool like…” I shook my head. “I’ve got nothing.”
He chuckled, lifting me up, spinning around, and plopping down on the bed with me hugged to his chest. “You could probably get a job in PR, getting professional athletes’ faces on boxes of generic crispy rice cereal.”
“Smart ass.” I bit his lower lip and gave it a firm tug then sat up, straddling him.
“Well, I know what I’d do.” He laced his hands behind his head.
“Teach?” That was his degree from Nebraska.
His lips twisted. “Hmm… that would seem like the obvious choice, but no. I’d get my Master’s in Lake Jones.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Lake Jones?”
“Yes. Through close observation, experimentation…” he wiggled his brows “…and thorough research, I’d completely figure you out. It might take years, a lifetime even, but I think it’s what I’m best suited to do.”
“Fine, I’ll bite. Tell me what you’ve already discovered.”
“I’ve discovered tons of peculiar habits of yours. I just need to figure out why you do what you do, like… the way you draw random designs on the glass door when you shower, or the way you chew one and a half pieces of cinnamon gum like one is not enough but two is too much, or why you put chocolate hazelnut butter on your waffles then spoon out every single indentation with your finger before eating the waffle. Why don’t you just eat a spoonful of the spread then eat the waffle on its own?”
I started to speak.
“Shh…” He shook his head. “Those were rhetorical questions. I don’t want you to tell me. That would take away the fun of figuring it out on my own. Some things I think I’ve already figured out, but I’m not one hundred percent.”
“Such as?”
“The way you touch me.”
I wiggled my hips over his, attempting to accompany it with a sexy smirk.
Cage chuckled. “That’s not the touch I’m talking about, but don’t stop.”
Frowning, I stopped.
He took my right hand and pressed it to his chest. “You touch me like this.” Moving my hand to his shoulder he smiled. “And like this… and everywhere else—all the time. When we’re in my truck you play with my hair and I fucking love it. When we eat you always sit next to me, even when we get a booth you sit next to me and rest your hand on my leg. At night some part of your body is always in contact with mine, and you do so instinctively. Originally, I thought it was just an intimate gesture, but it’s not that. Sometimes I don’t even think you realize your body is searching for mine.” He shrugged. “I think I ground you.”
Could he read my blank stare too? “Maybe I’m just claiming you in front of the women waiting for you to ditch me.”
“Are there people, these women you speak of, in our bedroom watching us sleep at night?”
Did he hear his own words?Ourbedroom? Without a doubt Cage grounded me, and maybe that’s why I did it. Honestly? I didn’t realize I did it. Maybe I subconsciously needed the constant reminder that he was a real, tangible part of my life.
“Is this reallyourbedroom?”
“Trzy thinks so.”
I looked over at my feline slut licking herself at the top of her cat tower in the corner. “I feel guilty paying for my apartment when I’m not there.”
“Then let it go when your lease is up.”
“Just like that?”
