Page 83 of The Baller

I don’t know if I screamed his name, or if I was too gone to comprehend anything but Lux burying his face in my chest as his own orgasm shot through him.

Our bodies stayed glued together as we fell back, and all I could focus on was the sensation of his fingertips gliding up and down my spine, and we lay there listening to our harsh breathing subsiding.

“How are you feeling?” he whispered.

It sounded so cheesy to say I felt completely different. Changed.

I pushed myself up on his chest, almost rendered speechless with the beauty of his flushed face, the way his eyes lit up as he searched mine. I grinned down at him. “How long until we can go again?”

Not too long, it turned out.

He answered me with a kiss.

SIXTEEN

LUX

Mama: When were you going to tell me you had a girlfriend?

Lux: And I thought Sienna was the big mouth of the family

Mama: Lux, why am I finding out from your sister that you have a girlfriend?

Lux: I was going to tell you when I knew for sure.

Mama: Don’t take too long.

Lux: Yes, Mama.

“Hello, Special Agent.”

His head turned to the side. Not a sliver of surprise passed overhis face. Not a glimmer, not an iota. Nothing. Gotta say, I was kinda disappointed. I’d walked extra slowly.

“I knew when you’d parked,” he informed me, his eyes narrowed, though there was no animosity behind them. “You want to sneak up on me, get eleven years of training down first, then we’ll see how you do.”

I held my hands up. “Hey, Radley already said she’d give me good references for when I retire.”

He looked at me exactly the way a guy who could kill me with his little finger would look at someone who had absolutely zero killing experience… unless you counted my killer swing, or when I dealt with Tanner’s spiders. But they usually got thrown out the window.

“What are you doing here?”

Wow. Ithinkwe were having a conversation.

It was definitely the longest we’d ever spoken, if you didn’t include the quick rush through my apartment when he asked where the fire exits were. But after this weekend, Special Agent America and I had come to an unspoken agreement, in that he begrudgingly needed to accept I wasn’t going anywhere, and I would no longer be pissed that he’d thrown me and my friends to the ground and nearly broke Ace’s nose.

And as an extra thank you for not being the total dick I knew he could be, I’d set them up in the apartment below ours for whenever Radley stayed at my place, and sent them a batch of Tanner’s brownies.

That didn’t mean I couldn’t yank his chain.

“You know, you’re very brusque for someone undercover as a student. You should take some tips from that guy.” I pointed over the courtyard to where a dude was happily skating along the path, a pair of giant headphones pushing back his dyed green hair while he sang and bobbed his head. The deep-set eye roll told me Special Agent America didn’t agree.

“Does Radley know you’re here?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Nope, and I’m not staying. I just came to give her something. And if you smile, I have something for you too.”

One thick eyebrow raised, and the gum chewing ceased. “What?”

I held up the smaller of the paper bags I had in my hand. “I heard you liked those brownies. I made some more.”

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