Page 19 of Dirty As Puck
We’re really doing this. We’re actually going to—
A sharp knock at the door makes us both freeze.
“Kai, you awake?” Jake’s voice carries through the wood. “We’ve got a situation. Coach needs everyone downstairs in five minutes.”
Kai pulls back, and we stare at each other in the dim light, both breathing hard, both looking like we’ve been thoroughlyravaged. My pajama top is unbuttoned and hanging off my shoulders. Kai’s hair is a mess from my fingers. We look exactly like two people who were about thirty seconds away from tearing each other’s clothes off.
Saved by team emergency. I don’t know if I should be grateful or frustrated.
“Shit,” Kai mutters, running a hand through his hair. “I have to go.”
He grabs a shirt and pulls it on, then looks back at me still pressed against the wall in my partially undressed state. Something flickers across his face––regret, maybe, or frustration that matches my own.
“We’ll… we should talk about this later,” he says.
Talk about what? How we almost had sex against a hotel room wall? How I completely lost my professional objectivity? How I still want him even though this is the worst possible decision I could make?
“There’s nothing to talk about,” I lie, pulling my pajama top closed. “This was just... heat of the moment.”
Morrison stares at me for a long moment, like he’s trying to read something in my expression. Then he nods and heads for the door.
“Get some sleep, Winters.”
The door closes behind him, and I sink down onto the fold-out bed, my legs too shaky to hold me up. My lips are swollen from his kisses, my skin is still burning where he touched me, and I can smell his soap on my clothes.
What the hell just happened?
I know what happened. I let my attraction to Kai override every professional instinct I have. I kissed him back like I wanted him, which I do. I let him touch me like I was his, which I’m definitely not.
This is a disaster. This is career suicide. Is this why Marcus Webb hired me?
Marcus wanted me to use my femininity to manipulate Kai into revealing secrets. He didn’t actually say this, but it’s obvious. I mean…me? It’s not because I’m good at my job. I huff and run a hand through my damp hair. Marcus didn’t actually want me to actually lose control and nearly have sex with the guy I’m supposed to be investigating.
You’re not losing control. This is just physical attraction. Pure lust. Nothing more.
But as I plop onto the converted sofa bed, staring at the ceiling and replaying every moment of Kai’s hands on my skin, I know this level of sexual tension is dangerous territory.
This is much more complicated than simple physical attraction.
And I have no idea what I’m going to do about it.
6
I wake up with my heart pounding and my sheets twisted around my legs like I’ve been fighting invisible demons all night. Which, in a way, I have been.
The hotel room is dark except for the red glow of the digital clock, but I can hear Rochelle breathing softly from the fold-out bed fifteen feet away. Steady, peaceful breaths that tell me she’s actually asleep, unlike me.
She’s been asleep for hours while I’ve been lying here replaying every second of what happened against that wall.
The memory comes before I can ignore it––Rochelle’s hands fisted in my hair, the soft sound she made when I kissed her neck, the way she arched into my touch like she couldn’t get close enough. The taste of her mouth, the heat of her skin, the way she looked at me when Jake interrupted us.
I’m doomed.
I’m hard again, just from remembering the way she felt pressed against me, and I know there’s only one solution that’s going to let me function today.
I slip out of bed as quietly as possible, grab clothes from my bag, and head for the bathroom. The shower takes forever to heat up, and when it finally does, I turn the temperature control all the way to cold.
The shock of freezing water hits my skin, but it’s exactly what I need. I brace my hands against the shower wall and let the cold water pound against my shoulders, trying to wash away the memory of Rochelle’s mouth on mine.
