Page 120 of The Third Baseman

Or maybe it wasjustmy heart.

Jupiter jumped up from my desk as soon as I walked through the door. If I’d been a little quieter on entry, I knew I’d have caught him with his feet up.

“Hey!”

In descending order, my eyes lit up from seeing him, then the bagel he was holding out for me; not so much the coffee. I snatched the bagel, and took a huge bite.

“Thank you!” I moaned.

He wiped the smear of cream cheese from my lips, and then leaned it to get the spot he’d missed with a delicate swipe of his tongue that had my toes curling. However, it was hard to sink into a kiss with a mouthful of dough, no matter how much I wanted to.

Jupiter moved back, but only enough so I could take another bite of bagel. His arms were still wrapped firmly around my waist, which was fine with me.

“Where’ve you just come from? What’s this?” he asked, taking the box from under my arm.

“The shirts,” I mumbled through my mouthful.

“The German space ones?” He pulled one out and looked over it in almost as much detail as Penn had.

I nodded. “Yep, the German space shirts. I showed Penn a sample.”

He stood there staring as I finished my bagel. “Well, what did he say?”

“He said yes!” I grinned, and received another smack of his lips on mine. “But it wasn’t like he was going to say anything else. He wants the edge, and he doesn’t want the Yankees or the Mets to have it.”

“Oh, babe,” he squeezed me tighter, “that’s amazing. I’m so proud of you. You’re doing an awesome job.”

I grinned up at him. Two months ago I had no clue what I was going to do, or how I was going to do it. I planned to stay a year and then leave. But now, I could honestly say I was enjoying myself, in no small part due to the enormous man wrapped around me.

I watched his smile soften, and he pulled me in another fraction, enough so the flats of his palms could run up and down my back. “Where were you? I missed you this morning.”

I tried not to stare but his eyes were so blue, so hypnotizing, and when he smiled, the little golden flecks sparkled like sunbeams hitting the ocean.

“I’m sorry; I thought you deserved to sleep.” I curled my fingers around the strands of hair at the base of his neck. The sun had been lightening it so much they were turning the color of melted toffee. “We got in late last night.”

“We both got in late,” he countered as he rubbed his nose against mine, “and you look tired. You should have stayed in bed. You’ve been working so hard.”

“And we’d have got so much sleep?” I pinned him with a look.

“I am capable of cuddling you know!” he protested, but as if to prove himself wrong, his hands inched downward and under the band of elastic on my yoga pants. Then under my panties, and we both felt my body melt; I had no control.

I’d lost that badge weeks ago.

Somehow his lips found my neck, something I was making easier for him with the way my head automatically lolled to the side. “I missed this when I woke up.”

“Next time I’ll make sure that I wake you up.” My voice had turned raspy, and my legs were struggling to hold themselves up against the strength of the deep, primal throbbing between them.

Because this is what happened; Jupiter only had to touch me and my body lit up like the Empire State building. My vagina, though, she could detect him the second he was within a hundred yards, like a silent alarm. I know we’d been kids back then, but the sex was better than I remembered; explosive, mind-blowing, and I couldn’t get enough of him, just like he couldn’t get enough of me.

Just like I hadn’t got enough last night, and we’d finally collapsed, exhausted, before falling into the deepest sleep.

Or he had.

His comment about me being tired was right on the money. I’d caught sight of myself this morning and I couldn’t image that I looked any better right now, so I wasn’t going to bother checking.

Iwastired. Drained, almost. But it was more than sex, more than the fact we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. It was a lack of sleep due to not sleeping.

Or to be factually correct, not being able to sleep.

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