I held back a laugh. There was no way Leo Harrison wanted to hang out with me if we weren’t naked. Yet the look on his face made me think my doubt truly hurt him.
I guess hehasmade several comments about wanting to be my friend.
The idea that a guy like him—so effortlessly confident, gorgeous, funny, and sweet—would want to hang out with a nerdy, rule-followingwoman like me for my company alone seemed unlikely. We weren’t exactly compatible on paper.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I guess I just have a hard time understanding why you’d want to spend three hours on a bus with your bookish fuck buddy.”
“Pay attention, Sophia, because I’m only going to say this one more time before your doubts start to piss me off. Ilikeyou. Ilikespending time with you. I don’t just want to be your fuck buddy; I want to be your friend. Spending three hours next to you when I can’t rip your clothes off seems like a great way to focus on our friendship.”
Shit, he’s serious. Now I’m definitely the asshole.
I sighed. “You have said that, haven’t you?” I pursed my lips to the side and took a sip of the latte he’d made a special effort to get me.
Oh my God, I’m awful. I let my own lack of confidence overshadow his actual words.
“Once or twice,” he said.
“I’m not used to guys like you wanting to be my friend,” I said sheepishly. “I’m sorry for doubting you. I won’t do it again, I promise. Is it super cliché to sayit’s not you, it’s me?”
He chuckled and tossed an arm over my shoulders. “Yep, but I’m glad you said it because it clearly needed to be said.”
I leaned my head on his shoulder and smiled. It was weird that it had taken me until this very moment to believe that Leo wanted to be friends and not just two people who had casual sex so I could write a better book. And yet, these little touches between us felt completely natural after only two weeks of sleeping together.
I assumed it was a side effect of finally having good sex with someone. We’d been intimate enough that I thought nothing of his armaround me or leaning into him. Especially since it was clear to me that Leo Harrison, of all people, was a post-sex cuddler.
The thought made me smile and I bit my lip to avoid grinning like an idiot. The other night, Leo had almost fallen asleep with his chin tucked into my neck and his arms around me. If I hadn’t shifted away to get dressed, I’m pretty sure he would have just passed out. I’d told Alyssa about it yesterday and she’d given me quite a smirk before telling me that she knew enough about his reputation to promise me that he was not, under any circumstances, a cuddler. I didn’t argue with her because it had seemed pointless. I knew the way he drew my body against his after sex, and I was confident he liked cuddling with me.
“And you’re okay with your team seeing us like this?” I asked.
“Like what?” He smirked.
I blushed again. “Like two people who are clearly comfortable with each other.”
“You mean two people who have seen each other naked?” he teased.
“Keep your voice down,” I whispered. “We don’t need to bethatobvious.”
He chuckled and lowered his voice. “Yes, I’m okay with whatever they deduce as long as it means I get the next three hours with you.”
I pressed my lips together to suppress the grin threatening to escape.
“Nice article, by the way,” Leo said, changing the topic before my face flushed even more. “I especially liked how massively turned on you are by our groin stretches.”
I pushed against his chest and laughed as I sat back up. “Okay, it was not that obvious.”
“It certainly wasn’t written in code, Soph.” He smirked at me.
“Fine,” I scoffed. “I like when you do those stretches. I can’t help it.”
“Just me?” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“Yeah,” I said, sounding surprised even to my own ears. I never watched anyone else during practice or games.
Come to think of it, it’s a wonder I’m even able to adequately cover the games since I’ve spent the first three lusting after Leo.
They say the more sex you have the more you want it, so apparently, I was now a woman who craved sex regularly.
“Well, the point is to get people interested in hockey and going to your games, right?” I asked.
