Page 22 of Worth the Risk

I take a deep breath and remind myself that I’m a confident person who might as well be straightforward. “I guess I’ll be blunt.”

“Please. Your candor struck me from the very beginning,” he presses.

“I want to figure out if you’re the man who is the perfect fuck or the man who has the potential to be more.”

If a man ever had a winning grin, then Hudson Arrows just displayed it.

He leans in, his lips brushing along my cheek up toward my ear where I feel the tingle of his stubbled chin.

“Baby, I know I can be both, and I have every intention of showing you.”

7

HUDSON

The sound of the knife chopping zucchini against the cutting board fills the room, and I should be paying a little more attention to what I’m doing, but I enjoy looking at Piper watch me. Her eyes almost twinkle from where she’s sitting at the kitchen island, sipping from her glass of wine.

“How’s the view?” I ask then push the vegetables to the side.

She looks into her wine as she twists the base of the glass. “Can’t complain. The apron was a nice surprise.” The corners of her mouth hitch up as she says that.

Looking down, I admire my choice of apron too.This butt deserves a good rubis displayed on the apron, along with an outline of a cow.

“Thanks. I have a collection, and I’m not even sure how that happened. Matches some of your pajama lines, I guess, or at least your quirky lobster umbrella.”

“Your aprons say a lot about you. You have an uplifting personality, you enjoy humor, and life for that matter. At least from what I can tell. You’re laid back is my impression, considering the life you live.”

“A fair assessment. Speaking of which, I will probably be up early in the morning. I like to work out, then I have a video meeting with team management first thing.” I check on the meat that I seasoned earlier and will throw it on the grill for a few minutes.

“You stay in shape, that I can tell, and no, don’t take it as an ego boost, I’m just stating the obvious.”

“It’s the Arrows gene. We reach adulthood then time freezes for about forty years.” Amusement floods her face. “But seriously, I don’t want to be like other coaches who bulk up in a bad way, I want to stay in shape. I’ll be right back, just going to grill the steaks.”

“I can set the table,” she mentions, as if she knows where everything can be found.

“Okay. The remote for the fireplace is by the coffee table.”

A few minutes later, we have food on the dining table and there is an orange ember across the sky to the west. I’m lucky my house sits on the south side of the lake, which means I get both sunsets and sunrises. But in this moment, the sunset with a crackling fire to the side sets the mood perfectly.

We both sit down, and she seems pleased with the steak that I place in front of her.

“Looks delicious,” she compliments.

I top up her wine glass, then it dawns on me that I haven’t had dinner here with a woman since I bought the place a few years ago. There is a first and last time for everything, and I can’t shake the idea that Piper could be both.

She holds out her glass of now red wine to me. “A toast to your meat-marinating skills.”

“Cheers.”

We clink and then drink before both attacking our plates of food.

Piper clears her throat. “You know, my grandmother would point out the obvious about what I’m doing. I’m basically going back to what my ancestors did, which was to get acquainted with one another to see if they were a match before their parents would barter out the details of how many donkeys to exchange.” She’s only half serious.

“I’m sure you’re worth at least three donkeys,” I joke. “I’m positive she would be proud that you got to know my body first, to see if my cock is up to standard. Get to the important stuff first, you know.”

She nearly sputters her drink out, then waves a finger at me. “Your humor somehow, unbeknownst to me, I get it.”

“Hey, I’m doing my damnedest to be a gentleman here and not have you laid on the dining table so I can make you the entrée,” I mention before taking in a decent sip of wine.

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