Page 96 of The Thing About My Rival

“Um. Okay.”

Off come her shoes, her pants, her top and finally her sports bra.

My eyes rake over every inch of her glorious nakedness. “You are fucking beautiful.”

Then I scoop her up, cradling her in my arms, and carry her out of the room.

“Where are we going?” she asks, wrapping an arm around my neck.

“Here,” I say as we enter my bedroom.

I kick the duvet back with my foot and drop onto the bed with her on top of me. Then I pull it back over us and roll onto my side, pulling her against me so I can fully spoon her.

“Oh, this is much warmer already.” She snuggles back against me.

“See, I have good ideas sometimes. My next one is lying like this all night.”

Right now I can’t think of a better way to spend my time than with my naked body pressed against Wilcox’s under the thick warm covers.

I dot a line of kisses across the creamy smoothness of her shoulder. “Even if owning up about that ref’s call was a bad idea.”

Her body rocks against me with a little giggle as she reaches around and gives my bare arse a light slap.

CHAPTER THIRTY

TWO WEEKS LATER

DREW

“Why do you always do this?” I’ve stayed over at Hugo’s gorgeous apartment about half a dozen times now, and every morning after it’s the same thing.

Here I am scrabbling around on the floor by his bed, bare butt in the air.

I look up to see his sleepy face appear over the edge.

His hair’s all over the place after everything we did last night, and my favorite affectionate smirk is on his lips. “If I didn’t toss your underwear somewhere you couldn’t find it, what fun would it be?”

It’s a super-cute running joke. And adorable that we even have our own jokes after such a short time. Being with him is so easy, so relaxed, like it’s just the way things are meant to be.

If it were up to Hugo, I’d have spent every night hereafter that evening eating hot dogs and watching the kids on the Common. I’ve wanted to—Lord, I have. But I’ve had to find the willpower to say no sometimes.

Because every time he touches me, every time he kisses me, every time I snuggle up between the sheets with him, I fall for him a bit more. It’s the most euphoric feeling I’ve ever had. And also the most terrifying. I mean, how long can this possibly last?

But right now, here in the cold, hard reality of this Wednesday morning, my priority is locating my underwear.

“I’m not after fun right now. I’m after getting dressed and going home to get showered and changed in time for my meeting.” My stomach churns with the guilt at not telling him who that meeting is with.

Hugo lets out a loud yawn. “Am I supposed to be at it?”

“Nope.” Thank God he can’t see my reddening face.

I might now be thoroughly immersed in the thoughtful, considerate depths that he hides from the rest of the world, but I’m not ready to talk to him about this. There’s a good chance nothing will come of it anyway, so there’s no point rocking the boat for possibly no reason.

With only just over a week to the end of the regular season now, we’re ever closer to finding out which one of us will be shown the door. And nothing’s happened over the last couple of weeks to give me any reason to think there’s any less chance of it being me.

“Something with the budget?” he asks.

“Hmm, maybe.” Okay, that’s verging on lying, and now I’m completely uncomfortable and need to get out of here before I dig myself any deeper.

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