Page 84 of Player For Hire

In the end, I found myself with an armful of Colder curled around me as we tangled together, and I stroked his back. I wasn’t sure where all that had come from, and beyond that, I was eighty percent sure he’d made love to me to distract me.

There was no doubt it had been more than just sex, but I wasn’t exactly sure where we were in our relationship.

He’d been so supportive of me writing, but the future of my career was very uncertain. Did he think it was a sure thing I’d be able to make a living with my writing?

Was there a time limit on support? Was there a future between us at all?

I didn’t know how to ask him. We were so new it didn’t feel like I could ask him.

I pressed my cheek against the top of his head and forced myself to think about only the present moment. It was enough for right now.

As my stomach rumbled, his smile curved against my skin.

“I was supposed to feed you.” He levered himself up onto his elbow then he got distracted by my breast and gave it a lingering taste before he slid to the side and off me.

Immediately, I missed his weight.

Lightly, he thumbed my nipple then he stroked his way up my neck to my jaw and squeezed my lips together from the side until I laughed. Then he dropped a kiss on my mouth before he nudged me out of bed. “C’mon. Let me show you where the food trucks are.”

“You have those?” I slipped out of bed, and he gave my butt a playful swat. “Hey!”

He laughed and eased around me. “We do. We might not be as exciting as Chicago for food, but we do all right.”

“Have you been there?”

He grabbed his jeans and stepped into them. “Yeah. I spent some time working in a few cities. Chicago has a really good bar scene. I’m sure you’re aware.”

I laughed. “Not really. I’m pretty much a homebody.”

“Well, it’s kinda why I became a bartender. I used to wait tables for easy cash, but bartending was the real fit. I took some courses and then just got tossed into the deep end in a bar called Madigan’s. It was slicker than Cal’s place, and I worked my ass off.”

“So we might have overlapped there if I wasn’t such a hermit?”

He tugged his shirt on. “I definitely would have hit on you.” He leaned down and kissed me again. “I was even more shameless when I was in my early twenties.”

The idea that we could have crossed paths back then was crazy to me.

I went to my closet and pulled out a jersey dress that would be good for walking around the city. It felt weird to actually dress in front of him. He was really good at getting me out of clothes, but it felt almost more intimate to do the opposite.

He came up behind me as I was slipping on my bra and helped me. He was so tall and delicious behind me in the full-length mirror. He clasped my bra for me before he kissed my shoulder.

I was so very in trouble. How was I not going to fall in love with this man?

Was I already there? Surely not.

Not in just a few days.

That was ridiculous and far too fantastical even for my writerly self.

He pulled my hair over my shoulder to swing down my back. “Good with a walk? It’s not exactly close but it’s not more than a mile walk.”

I nodded. “I’m good with that.” I slid the teal-colored dress over my head and grabbed my sneakers. I reached for a hair tie and he covered my hand, then he wrapped his fingers around my hair.

“Leave it down for me?”

I glanced over my shoulder at the glint in his eyes. As if I could say no to him. “Okay.”

He picked up my brush off the top of my skinny dresser and situated me in front of the mirror. “Mini lesson?”

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