Page 35 of Wicked

“We gotta stop.”

“Stop what?” He rubs his beard along my face. The hair tickles and teases, stroking my already heightened nerves. “Stop what, baby?” he repeats, the seduction and heat in his voice driving me insane with longing.

“Do my actions matter?” he asks, bringing us back to the original question, the one he’s been avoiding.

“You know it does.”

He caresses up and down my leg. I bite back my moan.

“I couldn’t care less what people think, Harper. I’m only accountable to my team. I bring my A-game every time I step onto the field. Anything less is a disservice to my teammates’ and my coach’s belief in me. I’ve also never mistreated my family or my friends.”

“Those girls you slept with, have you ever considered that maybe you broke a few hearts with your actions?”

“Don’t care too much what happened to those coeds’ hearts.”

Wow, he’s brutal, and I’m not liking this part of him. But I give him a chance to explain rather than shove him away.

“They fully understood what they were getting. A no-strings hookup. An open relationship. Nothing permanent but everything to do with temporary. I can’t help it if they’re disgruntled when they want something more. I’d want more from me too.”

Humble some?

“And us? Will you ditch me after your goodwill ofeasingmy burden is over?”

His body stills, and my insides knot for poking at him with words I know he doesn’t like.

“Or will you wait until after we have sex before you dump me? But if you don’t, will you demand I agree to an open relationship?”

I untangle from his hold and take a seat on the lounge chair, removing myself from his intoxicating heat and the bulge between his thick thighs.

“You see, here is my one condition and my one deal breaker. Lucky for you, they go hand in hand.” I’m fuming. Hurting. Skeptical even that he has a heart at all. “My one condition is exclusivity. My one deal breaker? Cheat on me and we are done.”

“I take it that’s a no for an open relationship?”

A low growl in the back of my throat. I want so badly to sock him in the arm. Seeming to read my mind, his gaze drops to my hands.

“How long you been boxing with your boyfriend?”

“Since I was eighteen.”

“How old was he back then?”

“Twenty-five.”

“Why was a grown-ass man hanging around an innocent doe-eyed eighteen-year-old girl?”

“I wasn’t innocent, and why do you think?” I sit straight and raise my chin.

Big mistake. My chest thrusts forward. My abs pull to my core. He looks my body up and down. Heat flares in his green eyes.

“I see. He has great taste.”

I cross my arms over my boobs. Chuckling, Ryker stretches out on the lounge chair. I stare. Dark hair on his legs. Black swim trunks riding up on his thick thighs. Noticeable outline of his erection. I yank the towel from under me and toss it at him.

The towel hits its mark. Ryker tosses it back to me. I resist the urge to wipe the sexy smirk off his face, and recline in the lounge chair. He pulls to a sitting position and straddles the chair.

Hunched over, he steeples his hands over his mouth and watches the children. He’s making sure they’re safe. Soft laughter from him when they start a water fight using the cannons. But his forward stare is also contemplative.

“I can’t go outside our exclusive arrangement, but am I expected to share you with him?” His voice is low, affording us a private conversation. “Is this how the three of us living in the same city will make what you and I have work?”

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