Page 63 of Offside

Her long, blonde hair is now pulled away from her face into a sleek ponytail. I grab the machine handles to keep myself from automatically reaching out to cup her cheeks and plant a hot kiss on her lips.

Beau smiles in greeting, completely unaware of the sexual tension between Karis and me. “Good morning, Ms. Spurlock. Can I help you with something?”

His tone makes it glaringly obvious that this is the first time she’s ever come down for a visit. The thought makes me want to howlthis woman is mine.

“Hello, Beau. Good morning.” Her gaze leaves him and searches me out next to the machine. Karis locks eyes with mine and she clears her throat with a short cough. “I’m here to see Ballas.”

I raise my brows and shrug. Then I look down at my attire.

“Uh, do you mind if I clean up quick?”

Did she just lick her lips or is that wishful thinking?

My thoughts go back to this morning when I dissuaded her from cleaning up after I fucked her hard and fast. The fact that she left the apartment with a part of me still left on the inside of her thighs has me wanting to crow like the cocky bastard I am.

She considers my request and looks down at her watch. “That’s fine. Can you meet me in my office in ten minutes?”

I throw the towel over my shoulder and nod. “That works.”

When she strides out the door, Beau coughs into his fist, giving me a look that says,I hope you come back in one piece.

“Same time tomorrow?” I ask, whistling as I head toward the locker room to get showered and changed. My thoughts are already working out the reason Karis wants to see me in private in her office.

“Yeah. Good luck with that,” he replies, hooking a thumb in the direction Karis went. “Let’s hope she’s not a firing rampage this week.”

I chuckle and walk into the showers, being as quick and efficient as I can before I head up to the office floor of the practice facility.

The elevator door swings open with a softbingand I step off, turning the corner to walk down the hallway toward Karis’s office. Christine’s head pops up as she hears my approach and she smiles brightly from behind her desk.

“Hey Ballas. How’s the noggin?” She raps her knuckles on her own head as I did earlier with Beau.

“I’m still dumb but lucky as fuck,” I say with a self-deprecating laugh. “Nothing much has changed there.”

Christine giggles and stands, leading the way into Karis’s office. When the door opens, I’m gifted with the view of Karis behind her desk, staring at her laptop. When she lifts her head and smiles, those green eyes are full of appreciation and offer a kaleidoscope of intelligence and confidence.

Karis extends an arm out in front of her. “Have a seat, Ballas. There’s something I need to discuss with you.”

29

Karis

Christine shuts the door, leaving me alone with Ballas. He offers me a sexy smirk and takes a seat, his gaze never leaving mine. In it, I read what he’s thinking.

He probably believes I’ve called him up here to have a secret rendezvous and to see him again because I can’t stay away from him.

While that’s partially the truth, the business reason I’ve invited him up overrides those personal desires, the ones I should’ve left in the bedsheets when I came to work this morning.

Ballas’s eyes roam over my face. “You wanted to see me?” Now that we’re alone in my office, he drops the veneer. “Is this about Nate?”

My eyes narrow. “How do you know about that?”

“I don’t exactly.” He shrugs and the material of his T-shirt tightens noticeably around his bulging biceps. “Rumors are swirling that he was fired.”

Okay, here goes. I heave out a breath but dip into my candy dish to grab some reinforcements. It’s been a struggle all morning and I’ve vacillated a number of times on how to approach this correctly with Ballas. I just need to blurt it out and see how he reacts to my proposal.

“Right…well, they are true. Nate is no longer our team GM.”

Ballas smiles broadly and pumps a fist in the air in animated celebration. He reaches his arm forward and presents me with his fist and we bump our knuckled hands together. At least he’s happy about that. Let’s hope I don’t douse the excitement with the secondary topic of discussion.

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