Page 60 of Well Played

I chuckled. “I think that suits you.”

He turned to his mother. “Can I have dessert?”

“Sure, honey.” Presley stood and walked over to the freezer where she took out a carton of ice cream. She scooped some into a bowl and handed it to him. Then she turned to me. “You want some?”

She blushed soon after. The way she said it sounded like she was asking me if I wanted somethingelse.

“I do.” I ran my tongue across my bottom lip. “And probably seconds.”

“Two bowls?” Alex said with his mouth full. “That’s a lot of ice cream. You’ll get an upset stomach.”

I kept my eyes on her. “There are some things you can never have too much of.”

She turned redder, and I freaking loved it. I was so damnhungryright now.

After dessert, Alex put his bowl in the sink and skipped off to his room. Presley was at the sink when I snuck up behind her. Sensing the heat of my body, she shut the water off and turned around.

“Can I help you?” she teased.

“Yes, actually, you can.” I leaned in to kiss her neck.

She arched her head toward the stairs. “We need to be careful.”

“I can do that. I can be really quiet, too, if I have to. I’d love to show you that talent tonight.”

“Not quiet enough…” Fern said as she waltzed into the room.

Shit.

Goddammit.

Presley yanked her body away from me. Earlier, I’d had to explain to her what Fern’s text meant. I’d wired the old lady the ten grand before dinner—not because I felt she deserved it, but because I’ve never been one to default on a bet. Plus, I needed to do everything in my power to make sure Fern kept her big trap shut. Needless to say, Presley wasnothappy when I told her.

Presley turned to her. “Fern, just to be clear, we need your utmost discretion about what you overheard. You can’t mention it to anyone, even people you think you can trust. You know how fast things travel around this town. We can’t risk Alex or anyone else finding out.”

Fern smirked. “You have my word. The last thing I want is to cause trouble. Thatcher would never forgive me if I did. And for the record, I’m rootin’ for y’all. It’s scandalous as hell, but it was inevitable.” She winked. “And what your brother doesn’t know won’t hurt him. He certainly ain’t gonna hear nuthin’ from me.”

Just the mention of Tanner made my stomach turn.

“Well, thank you. I really appreciate it,” Presley said.

“There’s nothing better than living vicariously through young love.” She winked again.

Love?I hadn’t thought about whether I actually loved Presley, but given that I’d never felt these feelings before, there was a damn good chance this could be developing into that.

Before I could even begin to respond to her statement, I heard footsteps and Alex entered the kitchen. He lifted something up to show us. I soon recognized it as my belt.My damn belt. The same one I’d whipped off and thrown on the floor in Presley’s room today, right before I buried myself inside her. I couldn’t even deny it was mine because it had my friggin’ initials monogrammed on the buckle.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

“I found your belt on the floor in Mom’s room, Uncle Levi. I thought maybe Mom borrowed my iPad again, so I was looking for it in there. This was on the floor.”

Presley’s face was red as a beet. She was probably ready to shit a brick.

Snapping my fingers, I said, “That’s where it is! Thank you. I was looking for it.” I took the belt from him. “I ate too much for lunch, and I took it off when I was fixing that light in your mom’s bedroom. Totally forgot I did that.”

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