Page 165 of Out of Bounds

Not ball dribbler, not Mr. Intense, not one of the other nicknames that she lobbed my way with a teasing smirk. Baby.Baby.

I hesitated for exactly two seconds. "If it doesn’t work out, we’re moving."

"Okay." She drew her hand up my arm and there went my resolve.

I slipped into bed with her and Kassie pulled me to her chest—to hertits—wrapping her arms around me. This must’ve beenthe kind of thing that people saw when the good hospital drugs kicked in. God, she was so soft. And smelled so good.

I thought I would’ve been cuddling her but Kassie was cuddlingme.

"This is…okay?" I asked cautiously.

Kassie hummed in agreement and then her fingers went to my hair. It wasn’t the first time she’d ever touched my hair before but nothing like this. Slowly, achingly slowly, she ran her fingertips across my scalp and my whole body stiffened. Cock included.

"Oh, fuck." I grunted.

"You okay?"

She didn’t stop, even when she asked the question. But I just one-upped her during sex for being able to hold my own. I had to tell her it was fine. I could handle it. But I couldn’t. A groan was threatening to appear and I burrowed down against her skin. My breathing labored.

Every time she touched me again, goosebumps rose on the back of my neck. I drew in a shaky breath, trying to think of something else.

Anything else, goddammit.

"Are you sure you’re okay?" she whispered.

"Fine," I rasped.

"Are you sure?"

"All good." I took an uneven breath. "Five minutes."

"Five minutes." She kissed my hair.

I pressed my forehead against her chest and closed my eyes while Kassie brought me to heel without even realizing it. I tried to breathe in through my nose but that was just the sweet scent of her lotion. It didn’t help me concentrate on…what the hell were we going to do after this? I wracked my brain. It was something important. Something I signed up for.

"Ryan?" Kassie hummed. "I think one of your big things is words of affirmation."

She might as well have been speaking another language. I had no idea what she was talking about and it was hard to figure out what the hell words of affirmations were when I was tasting sweet fucking bliss.

"What?" I croaked.

"The papers you keep in your locker…" Kassie trailed off, still touching me. "I—I can’t tell you how much that means to me. No one’s ever…treated my art like that."

She took a moment to kiss my hair again. I felt…I couldn’t have described it. My heart beat slowed and I knew without a doubt that I would go to insane lengths for her. I would do some crazy shit for Kassie.Mywoman.Myart girl.

Mine.

"I like how you draw," I mumbled. "It makes you happy. I like…holding that happiness."

Her fingers stilled before they started stroking me again. The tension in my muscles ebbed away. Tension I didn’t know I had, buried deep in my body.

"I don’t know how to talk like you do," she admitted. "You’re so forward. You show me up with this. I can be blunt with every other thingbutthis."

“It’s okay.” I closed my eyes for a long moment. “Just takes practice.”

“You’ve been practicing?” she teased, her voice light.

“i wanted to ask you out in December. I’ve been trying to figure out what to say for a while.”

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