Page 57 of Perfect Playbook

He rubs his thumb along the front of my hip bone. The movement sends sparks the rest of the way down the crease, right down into my panties.

“It means either you forgot how to kiss a man,” he wiggles my hips with his flirty grip, “or this particular one is making you sweat. I see it,pastelito. You’re nervous.”

I exhale sharply. “I’m fine. I’m sure if I can manage to forget sex with you in Vegas, I can get through an equally forgettablekiss.”

He releases a low, throaty laugh. “You’re still so savage.”

He holds me more tightly, though not too firmly. Not softly either. Just right. I should ease myself away from his hands. I should shove some personal space between us, but it will only prove his point. Then again, my heart races so fast, the dramatic pulse in my neck is all the evidence he needs. I am liquifying right on this very spot.

But I’m the kind of person who would die before backing down. “Fine. Let’s practice if you need to.”

Stepping his feet on either side of mine, he’s taken the challenge. We’re closer than ever. “Me? This practice is aboutme, is it?”

He lowers himself nearer to my face. His lips hover just over my nose and lustfully within reach. His eyes lock with mine. A rush of anticipation floods my senses. His smell is divine. His breath cascades over my mouth. His presence envelops me, and a potent cocktail of emotions swirls inside, making me feel absolutely drunk with uncertainty.

His gaze blazes into me, intense and unwavering, and whether he intends it or not, threatens to ignite a fire to consume all reason.

“Trust me, Wife,Ican handle it.”

My voice is quieter and less sure than I want it to be. “You’re the one who needs to convince your coach right now.”

His fingers lace through my hair. His thumb teases the line of my jaw. He lowers further, so close his lips arefeatherlight on mine when his minty breath tumbles all over my mouth. “Which is why I want to make sure you can do this.”

My thoughts are all over the place. He was once everything to me, then nothing, and now… I find myself relying on him all over again, and the trust I don’t give freely surrenders to him with ease when he touches me.

My mind tells me I’m strong and resolute, but my body tells another story. My body wants to hitch a leg around his middle and heave his chest against my rock-hard nipples for relief.

His thumb swipes along my lip. “Are you okay with this?” He grips the base of my skull possessively. “I’m not sure your idea of a lingering peck is the same as mine.”

Fear mingles with desire, indecision tangles with longing.

I swallow hard. The only words that escape are a meek dare. “Do it.”

When his lips press to mine, it’s a gentle caress. A soft embrace. And surprisingly, in the wild whipping storm of emotions brewing inside, Logan offers me the calm I’ve been wanting all these years.

He closes his eyes. I close mine. His palm cups my head. My senses are on fire. I almost completely lose myself in the security of his arms, the perfect pressure of his full lips and even the delicate warm draft of his breath… the tip of his nose on my cheek. Time warps, and I’m back on campus. Back in my bed. Back on that bench riverside where we used to kiss until we were too cold to sit there anymore.

I don’t even hear my son’s footsteps coming toward us and only know he’s arrived when he says, “Ew.”

I draw in a sharp breath at the very needed interruption.

Logan lifts his lips off mine, but his forehead connects with the hot, bothered skin of my certainly flushed face.

He asks quietly, “That wasn’t so bad. Was it?”

It wasn’t bad.

It was worse.

I loved it.

Nino is clueless apart from thinking kissing is yucky and pushes himself between us. The magnetic connection breaks; it’s a sharp, abrupt jerk in my chest.

“Mom, I really want to see the ice rink.”

Logan glances at his watch, his nonchalance the complete opposite of the inferno inside me.

“Are you going to stay and watch me play for a bit?” He places his hand on Antonio’s shoulder.

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