Page 51 of Irresistibly Risky

I’m trying to take everything one are you fucking kidding me at a time, but some moments prove harder to do that than others. Like right now.

“I make you laugh.”

“You do,” I concede. “Like I said, you’re very charming.”

“Maybe,” he whispers. Another step, and his chest is against my back. His hand snakes around my waist, his fingers splaying out on my abdomen. “But with you it’s real. It’s not an act.” His gaze burns into mine, intense and unrelenting, forcing me to believe him. Thankfully he allows the topic to die there. “How was the shower?”

“Great.” I force a smile.

“And your room? Do you like it?” His voice is a soft purr. A seductive whisper in the humid bathroom. What is it about this man that catches me and then reels me in?

“It’s beautiful. I love it.” And I love all the things he did for Mason. It took everything in me not to turn into an ugly-crying mess last night. He’s wrecking every part of me, finding every soft spot I wish was calloused over.

I don’t want him to. I don’t want to get attached.

“I came in here to tell you Mason is awake. He’s hanging out with Cal and Grey in the playroom.”

“Okay. I’ll come get him. He needs a diaper change and some breakfast.”

“Are you staying home with me today?”

I swallow. The way he’s staring at me is making my heart race. “Yes. We both will. How’s your shoulder? How are you feeling?”

“My shoulder is more sore today, and no, before you ask, I won’t take more painkillers. I don’t react well to them. It’s Ibuprofen for me only.”

“Fine. I won’t push it, as long as you promise to take the antibiotics I’m going to go and pick up at the pharmacy for you and take it easy today.”

His mouth dips to the side of my neck. “Promise. Did you see the bath bombs? They smell really good.” He takes a deep inhale, and I do everything I can not to tremble, but it’s hopeless, and when he feels it, he smiles against my skin. “You smell really good too. You used the stuff in the shower I had Freddy buy for you. But the bath stuff… I didn’t know if you were a bath person or not.”

Damn him. “I saw them. They look nice. I haven’t taken a bath in a long time, but maybe I will.” I roll my shoulder, pushing his mouth away from my neck. “You’re playing with that line again, player.”

“I might be, but it’s a line I love to play with.” He pulls away and spins me around to face him, tilting my chin until our eyes meet without the buffer of glass. “You seem tense, my queen. What’s up?”

My queen? That’s new. And I freaking love it way more than I should.

“This past week has felt like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. I’m having trouble adjusting to it.”

“I will do my best not to comment on the trouble adjusting to a wild ride thing, because my mind just went all kinds of dirty. But what can I do to help?”

Stop being perfect. Stop acting like you want this thing between us to be real. To last forever.

“Nothing,” I tell him, swallowing it all down the way I always have. “I’ll work it out. I always do.” Only this time I’m not so sure I believe it.

14

In theory, I’m supposed to hate everything about my situation. I am in pain—better today than yesterday, but still in pain. I have a low-grade infection and am now taking antibiotics. I’m not on the field, and I’m not throwing a ball, and I’m not leaving with my team for Houston tomorrow.

So yes, I’m supposed to hate everything right now.

Only Wynter is in the pool wearing a small black bikini and making tiny splashes and ridiculous faces at my son, who is tucked into a baby ducky floaty thing, giggling his head off at his mother.

I’m trying not to stare at her tits and hard nipples encased in the thin, wet triangles. I promise you, I’m not. But let’s be real, she looks damn fine in that bikini. Delicious curves and sexy pale skin I can’t get enough of. Wynter hasn’t slept in my bed again. In fact, since our conversation in the bathroom yesterday morning, she’s pulled back from me. Again.

And while that’s not what I want, her distance mixed with intermittent moments of forgetting why she’s determined to hate me is certainly what I’ve come to count on.

She’s the challenge I never expected, the desire I never wanted, and the woman I was never looking for.

“Asher?”

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