Page 17 of Perfect Playbook

I hoist her naked body on top of mine, my dick instantly growing between her thighs. “Is that a no?”

She scrunches her nose. “Are you sure you’re ready for that?”

“I’m ready as hell. I wanted to ask you to be mygirlfriend after we got bagels before our second support session.”

She tilts her head, disbelieving. “After one week?”

“Yeah. Or you can calculate it as seven days if that sounds more appropriate.”

She slaps my chest playfully. “Shut up.”

“I did,” I laugh, but there’s nothing funny about how quickly and deeply I tumbled. It’s actually scary, but my mom did tell us all, when you know, you know. It takes but a moment.

“If you were so into me, why did you wait two whole months to ask me to be exclusive?”

I grip her hips in my palms and rub her core softly over me. Jesus, it’s going to take Herculean strength to rip my body from hers today, now that I know what it’s like to be inside her.

She circles her hips, teasing me. “Well? Why did you wait?”

I’m more serious than I’ve ever been. “I waited because a man shouldn’t enter a relationship unless they have every intention of staying.”

Chapter Seven

Why isShay at the sportsbooks? She came to this grubby bar instead of the reception?

Her eyes peel off her drink slowly, reflexes clearly a bit numb from whatever she’s been shooting. Those dark-as-night brown eyes of hers sink into me. Her lids are heavy; it’s clear to see she’s been drinking.

“Logan?”

I glance around at the empty stool behind her, just to be sure there isn’t a coat slung over it or a half-drunk glass waiting for a friend to come back from the bathroom. Nothing. An echo of concern ricochets in my belly.Shay is drinking alone in Vegas, and even though I’ve done it more than a few times myself, it’s sad to see her in that position.

She skipped the reception. There is an empty shot glass, an empty highball, and a half-drunk clear beverage on the bar in front of her, so she’s here to blow something off. One drink alone is a wind down. Three is a wish to forget.

“Hey.” I slide into the space next to her. “Fancy seeing you here.”

She pops off her stool but she’s petite so she’s still the same height as she was sitting down. Her arms wrap around me, and those luscious breasts I can still sometimes see in my mind’s eye press against my stomach. We’ve hugged before. We usually hug when we see each other in the Canyon, and every time I wonder if I should have extended a hand between us instead because it feels too damn good. She slides her hands into her back pockets, pushing those round tits out toward me. I really wish I didn’t know what they felt like.

“Why aren’t you at the reception?” she asks.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

She perches back on her stool, and I lean on the bar next to her. I wait to see if she’ll answer, even though I don’t expect her to. Shay is comfortable with silence, more at ease with it than I am. I take the moment to scan her features.

Every time I see her face there’s something new and captivating. She has a few smile lines that weren’t there when we were younger. What’s made her so happy all these years? Her son? In any case, those sweet, delicate lines aren’t filled with happiness now. They are simply a frame for two hollow eyes focused on an idea so far away from here, she’s clearly turned to the sauce to keep it there for a while. A lot of time has passed between me and Shay, butshe hasn’t changed very much from what I can tell. I read her like a book.

Apparently, she can still read me, too, and knows I’m wary.

She raises the pitch of her voice to sound cheerful, which of course only makes me more suspicious.

“Did you stay for the cake? Tell me Ethan and Natalie liked it.”

“I doubt there will be any left over.”

I pull out my cell and lean in to show her a picture of the happy couple smashing cake into each other’s mouths, as is tradition.

Our arms, both perched on the bar, collide with one another, and her touch sends a shiver right through me.

We admire the newlywed moment, but I’m hardly focused on my screen. There’s electricity in the air now. I’ll talk about the wedding if it’s what keeps us here a little longer.

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