Gavin sighed, and he could sigh away for all she cared. “I appreciate that you worry about my safety.” He placed his hand on her knee and swiped his thumb across her patella, the motion working like a soothing balm. “How do you think I feel when you’re several states away and you talk about working at the lab late at night? Or going into your apartment complex at one a.m.? There’s a reason I make you stay on the phone with me. I need to hear that you’re safe and sound before I can go to sleep.”
Warmth rushed through her in a comforting wave. “We both need to be careful. Deal?”
A half smile spread across his face, and the next swipe of his thumb did funny things to her insides. “Deal.”
One sharp nod, and she decided to move on. Together, they skimmed more of his messages. The middle ground messages landed closer to the fangirl side of the scale, where there was a hint of flirtation but also admiration and questions about fame.
Finally, Gavin pulled up the messages he’d deemed a success.
“You look like my future sex buddy?” Incredulity dripped from the question, and still it fell short of releasing the tightness in her lungs. “You already fed me this line.”
Gavin shrugged. “It was a good one.”
“You responded, too.” Julie snatched the phone from his hand, and he dove for her, cursing at his sling for getting in the way. With her curiosity soaring out of control, she twisted away from him and sped-read the entire exchange.
Heat pooled low and deep, and jealousy spiked, leaving her annoyed and turned on. Funny enough, it was something she’d experienced a lot with Brad. She’d get all hot and bothered, and right as she almost reached God, yes territory with the help of her fingers, he’d be done.
Maybe I wouldn’t have been so boring if he’d managed to take care of at least one of my needs. He had closed his eyes, though, so what if he’d had to picture someone else to get there? Her heart splatted, and she pivoted back to Gavin and handed over his phone.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have read those. You allowed me a peek, and I crossed the line.”
“It’s okay, Jules. You think I didn’t know you might see it? For the record, she and I just…flirted a bit.”
“I saw. I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘a bit,’ either.”
“She’s a sports reporter. I met her at a press conference, so she wasn’t a total stranger.”
“By that logic, neither is that guy who sat next to me on the airplane ride here. I guess I should’ve checked off joining the mile-high club with him.” Green had never been her color, and she worried he’d see right through her. Not that she fully understood her yo-yo emotions. Why did she care that Gavin had come damn close to sexting a beautiful reporter?
Julie wound a strand of hair around her finger and demanded her mouth not open and ask the other question whirring through her mind. “She also suggested doing more than flirting. She wanted to… At the same time. On camera. Is that…?”
The overheating of her face served her right. Call it karma after playing off his earlier self-consciousness and teasing him about it. “So, phone sex is an option? Not sure why I haven’t considered going that route. It would certainly widen my pool.”
“I’m not gonna lie, flirting with her online was fun. Ego-boosting even. I could rewrite and delete things before I hit send. There wasn’t the usual pressure of where to go for a date and finding topics to discuss…”
The scrape of chair legs sounded loud among the din of the other diners. Gavin cupped Julie’s chin and tipped her face to his. “But the not-sexy fact of the matter is, that woman”—he canted his head toward the upturned phone on his thigh—“could have ulterior motives. If we’d added video as she’d suggested, she could record it and release it. For all I know, she’s just out for a story.
“You worry about my physical safety, but ending up with a sex tape or some shit like that would be far more dangerous for my career than some stalker who can’t get that close to me anyway. I’m not telling you what to do, but you also need to consider that. There are a lot of assholes out there who could take advantage of you.”
“I hear you.”
He nodded. “Admittedly, that night, I got caught up in the moment. We’d had a great conversation in person the week before; she has a similar traveling schedule, so she’s well aware of the hectic lifestyle; and as you saw, we talked about how hard it is to connect with people when you’re rarely in one place. It’s the first time in a long time I was tempted to even consider the possibility of a casual relationship as opposed to pouring every ounce of myself into my first season with the Mustangs. Considering the various complications even that message could cause, I probably shouldn’t have engaged in the first place.”
Julie placed her hand over his. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”
“Yet I feel like I should.”
Going through the messages women sent Gavin was supposed to be a learning experience. And it had been, just not in the way she’d expected. The main thing she’d learned was that Gavin excelled at straddling the line between sexy and crass, to the point she’d had to cross her legs tighter as she’d read his portions of the exchange.
For a foolish second last night, in her hazy, half asleep state, Julie had wondered what it’d be like if Gavin had pressed his lips to hers. Now that she’d seen how witty, passionate—and okay—a hint naughty he could be, a tiny part of her longed for him to use a few of his killer pickup lines on her.
Chapter Ten
“Why’d you even bring a swimsuit, then?” Gavin asked Julie, since she was hovering her hand over the dangling keys but not turning off the engine. She’d insisted on driving tonight for the sake of his shoulder, and he’d relented to her request only after she pinky swore she’d actually head to the hot springs.
“For daytime soaks if and only if it was warm enough. Which it wasn’t earlier today, so it’s sure as hell not gonna be warm enough for me now.” Her gaze drifted toward the bubbling pools illuminated by the vehicle’s headlights. Snow-covered rocks segmented the springs into dozens of natural hot tubs, and steam rose from the eerily blue water.
This place was often packed to the point people had to take turns. Even in the dead of winter, plenty of townsfolk and tourists soaked in the springs. With it close to the holidays, everyone must be occupied with other festivities.
To him, it didn’t get better than this. Just him and Jules, relaxing in the therapeutic water with no interruptions. “It’ll be plenty warm once we get into the water. Are you saying you can’t handle thirty little seconds of cold?”