Page 52 of The Secret

His face dropped in horror at the mere suggestion, his hand placed over his heart. “No, no, of course not. I bet on you holding out because I had faith.” His expression turned devilish. “But clearly, I give you way too much credit.”

I sunk back into the soft cushions, picking my coffee up again. “Well, you haven’t lost any money. We didn’t have sex. We just…”

Actually, what did we do? Nothing.

And now what do I do? Fuck knows.

“There was a...” I tried to find a word that didn’t make me sound as lame as fuck. “And I nearly kissed her.”

“A what?”

“I don’t know. A look? A something? A moment?” God, I was worse than lame. I rubbed along my brow, trying to ease my swirling thoughts. “She…”

I glanced over at them to find them both staring at me, clearly on tenterhooks, waiting for the rest of the story. “Yesterday morning she went out, but she came back because she’d forgotten something and I bumped into her as I was walking out of the shower, and… I dunno…” I scraped my hands through my hair for the millionth time that morning, “the look she gave me… it was fucking hot, likeI want to fuck you right nowhot. Then when she came back, she was helping me with Bell and we were laughing, and she’s so fucking beautiful. So yeah, definitely would have kissed her if Bell hadn’t woken up and interrupted us.”

And the rest. My dick was getting hard thinking about it. I’d jerked off four times between then and now and it still didn’t seem to quench this insatiable want for her currently racing through my veins.

Penn tried hard to mask the grin he very clearly wanted to wear, the one warring with his expression of support. “What are you going to do about it?”

“What d’you mean?”

“You think she’s interested in you? And not just your body…” Rafe laughed loudly.

“Course she is, who wouldn’t be?” Penn indicated toward me, waving his hand up and down like I was some kind of weather map or visual aid for his presentation. “Finest English specimen you’ll ever find. His brain is the sexiest thing about him.”

“Thanks. And…” her face swam into my vision again, the look in her eyes as she’d slowly taken in every inch of me. No one had ever looked at me with such unadulterated passion, and if I hadn’t had Bell in my arms, who knows what would have happened.

Actually, I know exactly what would have happened… My dick would have taken exactly what he’d been fantasizing about since she’d moved in six weeks ago.

“Yeah, I’d say so. Yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.”

Rafe leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, all serious and businesslike. “As your lawyer, I can tell you it definitelyisn’ta good idea, because then you’ll be paying your nanny to have sex with you. If it goes tits-up, then that’s a costly shitstorm.” He smoothed his fingers over the whiskers above his lips. “But as your best friend, I say you’ve had a fuck-load to deal with the past few months and you deserve some fun. I suggest you talk to her and we can get her to sign a new NDA and a relationship agreement. But don’t fucking do anything until then.”

Penn snorted hard. “Wow, Raferty, a relationship agreement? I’ve never heard of anything so panty dropping. That’s going to get her wet right on the spot, my friend. No wonder the ladies throw themselves at you, if this is how you do foreplay.”

I didn’t disagree. The thought of even bringing it up made my stomach twist into knots.

Rafe responded by flipping him off. “I’m not the one who has legally required apologies issued.”

Penn winked, lying back down on the couch, arms crossed behind his head. “You know I like to keep you on your toes. Makes you feel useful.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do…”

This was unchartered territory for me, with the potential to be an absolute fucking nightmare.

Penn took in my expression of sheer panic. “Okay, while you think, let’s talk about how I was bang on the money about Ace Watson. Did you see him last night? The Yankees are wasting him on the bench as relief. They don’t need another pitcher, they should have made him starting catcher. He fucking smashed it in Spring Training. I don’t know why they’ve brought him up to sit on the fucking bench.”

“They’re holding onto him. They’re doing what they need to do; they’ve already got Donovan Philips as catcher,” Rafe argued.

“Who they should have gotten rid of already.” he said pointedly. “They need to let him go. He couldn’t catch a fucking cold. Better yet, they should have traded him to the Lions; he’s about as good as they are.”

The New York Lions was widely recognized as the worst team in baseball, except for 2012 when they were second worst. Consistently bottom of both the National League East and the entire National League, as well as bottom of the entire points table. It was commonly known as the team where players were unofficially retired before retirement. As a lifelong, die-hard Yankees fan, Penn felt that it was more than his right to point out any faults he saw, in order to improve the team - something neither the owner, nor manager, nor coaches, agreed with when he emailed them religiously after every game, pointing out what could have been done better. It was anyone’s guess why he hadn’t been blocked, or maybe he had and just didn’t realize.

“Have you told Steinbrenner? I’m sure he’d welcome your input again this season.”

“Yeah, you’d think he would,” Penn replied with utmost seriousness, because there wasn’t much Penn took more seriously than baseball. “Especially as a season ticket holder, and they lost last night.”

“Yeah. And did you see any of the Dodgers game? That homer from Jupiter Reeves was fucking epic. He’s already on fire, and this season’s only just started.”

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