Page 126 of Plus Size Player

“Nothing! You got me in this haunted house on this cursed land.”

“Oh!” He sucked his teeth. “People are out there on the other side of the lake.”

“Mm-hmm.”

He pointed and I saw the flicker of flames. “Look!”

“I see it. I’m still not convinced though.”

His laughter filled my spirit and my lips curled into a smile. I eyed the way his T-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders as he closed the blinds and pulled the curtains.

The delicious food, the home tour, the lively conversation, and the picturesque sunset were all working together to create a perfect evening. I was apprehensive to bring up what we needed to talk about. But I knew it had to be done. As the night unfolded, everything that we weren’t saying inched its way to the forefront.

I lifted my wineglass to my lips and took a sip. I could feel his eyes on me, and my body tingled.

“We need to discuss the elephant in the room,” Russ announced in a low tone.

Caught off guard, I almost choked on my wine. “Which one?” I placed my glass on the table and turned to him. “It’s about ten elephants in the room.”

He smirked. “It’s a gahdamn zoo.”

I stifled a giggle as my lips twisted into a smile.

“Nina, I owe you an apology for…” His sentence trailed off.

“For Monday,” I offered.

“For yesterday,” he finished at the exact same time.

We looked at each other for a second.

My brows furrowed. “Yesterday?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I shouldn’t have come looking for you. But I just…” He looked like he was searching for his words. “I’ve been trying to keep my distance, but Friday just reminded me how hard it is to be around you. You’d blocked me and I needed to talk to you. I needed to figure out how we could work together. But then you were looking the way you were looking.”

He sat back in his chair and ran his hands down his face. “And you were looking at me the way you were looking at me and I lost focus,” he continued. “Then I got in there and you were standing there…” His eyes slid down my body before returning to my face. “My dick got rock hard at the sight of you and I forgot the plan.”

“What was your plan?”

“To set up a time for us to talk. You’d blocked me, and yeah, I admit, seeing you looking at me during the shoot had my head in a different space, but I really did come back there to talk to you. But when I saw you, it was like I had no fucking control.” He shook hishead. “I’m sorry I put you in that position. It was unacceptable and unprofessional for me to approach you on a shoot like that.”

That wasn’t what I was expecting at all.

“Russ…” I searched his face. “If I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t have done it. It was just as unacceptable and unprofessional for me to participate.”

“I came into a designated space where you were changing,” he reminded me, letting his eyes drop to my lips. “And you deserve better than to be fucked in a changing room.”

I clenched at the memory.

“We could’ve gotten caught,” he continued. “I put a lot of stuff in jeopardy by not being able to keep myself in check, by not being able to resist you.” He put his hand to his chest. “And I sincerely apologize.”

“Yeah, it was reckless, but…” I licked my lips. “I’m not mad it happened. You have nothing to apologize for. I wanted it, Russ. I wanted you.”

Reaching out, he caressed my cheek. “You mean a lot to me, and I would never want to put you in a position to compromise you, your money, or anything you have going on.”

I leaned into his touch. “I appreciate that. Thank you.”

As he sat back, his fingertips slid across my cheek ever so gently. I shivered.

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