Page 186 of Out of Bounds

"See, I was jealous," I told her, in all honesty. It was something I’d never told her before and Kassie’s face softened, listening. "I was supposed to meet someone who liked the Romans and here comes this knockout girl who can’t stand athletes. And she wanted to see someguy. I was jealous. I acted like a dick to you. And I’m sorry."

She pressed her lips together. "I hadn’t eaten all day—”

“I didn’t know that,” I said and stopped myself. “I mean, that’s what I said.”

“And I worked like seventy hours at the time and I wasn’t my best self either," she continued, her voice soft. Her eyes flickeredback to the recording equipment. "And I…apologized in the car too."

"And I said, you’ll never have to worry about skipping a meal ever again," I told Kassie, concentrating only on her.

A grin lifted on her lips. "And then we made out? You were like—hey babe, free meals on me—and I was like,god, I need to tongue this guy."

"Well—" I burst into laughter. "It wasn’texactlylike that."

"If I’d only been wearing a bikini, maybe you would’ve remembered better," she teased.

"Instead, you were wearing my best friend’s jersey, so I had to block it from my head."

73

Kassie

Where’d That Arrogance Go?

My heart thumped away in my chest. I knew without a doubt that Ryan was being a hundred percent honest about everything and I was just—ugh—all soft and gooey on the inside for him. He was definitely getting a blowjob tonight.

"So, I do have one question for you guys." Brad shifted forward in his chair, giving us both an eager look. He raised his eyebrow, prolonging the moment. "There’s been some talk about…hand size difference?"

I grinned. Ryan was just a big dude. When we took photos together, sometimes we had to position them just right so they didn’t crop the top of Ryan’s head out of the picture. But when I glanced back at Ryan, my boyfriend wasn’t grinning too. His muscles tensed and he sat silent in the chair, watching the host with narrowed eyes.

"There’s all these jokes," Brad continued, an obvious entry point.

Noemí winced. "Uh—Brad—I don’t know if that’s a good idea—"

"I don’t think so either," Ryan said with a chilly tone.

There was some unspoken thing going on but I had no idea what they were talking about that could upset Ryan.

"I mean, there’s—what—eight inches between you?" Brad waggled his eyebrows. "Changes up the conversations you can have."

Oh. Wait. Duh. He’s talking about sex.

My eyebrows shot up to the hairline in surprise. While I was flustered when I talked with Ryan about anything intimate one-on-one, I could talk to anybody else, no problem.

But we were on a very public podcast and I was certain when Cleo told me to play nice in interviews, it wasn’t with graphic descriptions of our sex life.

I glanced at Ryan.

Oh, shit.

All his muscles were taut and he sat on the chair like he was four seconds away from pushing up from it. Anger rolled off of him in waves. Danger flashed from his eyes.

“There’s all these people asking for an OnlyFans link,” Brad quipped.

“What is that?” Ran asked me, staring directly at Brad.

“I—um—” I cleared my throat. “We can talk about it later.”

The podcast host didn’t even realize he was poking the bear. Ryan kept everything professional when this was beyond professionalism, Ryan’s fist clenched on the other side of the chair.

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