The fire inside him stoked that much hotter, and he was afraid to stop. The vague thoughts attempting to break through might get to him then, and he hadn’t nearly gotten his fill of kissing Julie yet.
He doubted that was even a thing.
She linked her ankles behind his waist, fitting their bodies together, and he tumbled headfirst into desire.
A noise tapped at his brain, and he swatted it away.
It wasn’t until the metallic zing of the key going into the doorknob rang out that he realized he’d heard a car drive up. “Shit,” he said, yanking her off the counter and putting as much space as he could between them before the door swung open.
Both he and Julie were still breathing heavily, and the kitchen was a messy disaster. The two of them undoubtedly were as well.
The loud chatter of his parents and hers, along with Niki’s and Granny Frost’s died as they blinked at them.
“Hey,” Julie said, her voice several octaves higher than usual. “You guys are home already. We, uh…didn’t get much cookie decorating done. Gavin’s shoulder is bothering him, so I was just…icing him—er, it.”
Gavin managed to turn his snort of laughter at her play on words into a grunt as he rubbed at his shoulder. “Feels much better now. Not sure it’s good enough to decorate cookies, mind you, but—”
“You go rest up, young man,” Gran said, and Mom echoed the sentiment and shooed him toward the living room. He planned on replying he’d just head to his room and give Jules a wink to convey she should follow him up a few minutes later. But Gran grabbed Julie’s hand and patted it. “You leave me and Julie to it. I’ve hardly gotten a chance to chat with her, and I could decorate cookies all night.
“How you doin’, hon?” she asked, towing her toward the platter of stacked cookies. “I heard you recently got a promotion. Not that I’m surprised. You’ve always been so smart. Too bad getting good grades didn’t rub off on Gavin but, since he’s starting on a new team, I suppose we don’t have to worry about a backup career so much anymore.”
Jules glanced over her shoulder and shot him a grin, and he shook his head.
“Gran, I can still hear you.”
“I know. Why do you think I said it before you left the room?” she replied, and she and Julie snickered.
As they fell into conversation, Julie spoke loud and slow so Gran wouldn’t have to strain to hear her. For as feisty as his paternal grandmother was, she’d had trouble getting around as of late, and this was the most animated he’d seen her in a while.
Dad nudged him and mentioned watching the game.
“Yeah, I’ll be right there,” Gavin said, straining to hear Julie’s excuse for why there were so many marshmallows on the floor.
“Cats are complex, curious creatures. They seriously can’t pass a bowl without knocking it off the counter. Candy went everywhere, and the scaredy cat just bolted upstairs without looking back. Don’t worry, I’ll get it all cleaned before I go to bed.”
Naturally, Mom and Gran insisted it was fine and that cookie decorating was a messy business—man, they had no idea.
“Careful, your crush is showing,” Niki whispered as she paused to gloat. “You two seemed pretty flustered when we came in. It’s a good thing I’m the only one observant enough to put the clues together.” She eyed the remnants of frosting that’d dried to his fingers and then canted her head in Julie’s direction.
Sure enough, three faint stripes of green adorned the side of Julie’s neck. He opened his mouth and attempted to summon up a proper excuse, but Niki had always been a little miss know-it-all, and her gotcha expression made it clear she’d already put the tawdry puzzle together.
The tingly affection that’d been coursing through him over how easily Julie fit in with his family gave way to worry, and all those thoughts he’d attempted to evade bobbed their ugly heads at once, angry at being brushed aside so long.
Think of how everything went down with Kristin. Of how ugly it got when the fun, downtime part of our lives ended and the grueling work required to play at the level I do began.
The extra days at home that his injury afforded him cast a rosy glow over the past several days with Jules, but it wasn’t sustainable.
Seriously, what the hell had he been thinking?
Besides the obvious involving her lips and her tongue and damn, he wanted to kiss her again. But he couldn’t keep ignoring the concerns that’d arisen before devouring the treats and then her sumptuous mouth.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t going to end happily ever after. Not only did they not even reside in the same state, Julie had just been promoted and was plenty busy, and his schedule was nonstop. With playoffs mere weeks away, he couldn’t put the time and energy into a relationship now, especially one with Jules. There’d be no going slow, plus a heap of complications, like automatic expectations and added pressure from their intrusive families.
There were so many attached strings that they’d only end up tangled in a web that sliced, diced, and ruined everything they used to be.
You already destroyed your other hometown relationship by trying to take it with you. Do you really want to do that again? With Julie, of all people?
He didn’t even want to think about how awful the fallout would be. Honestly, most of his family would choose her over him if it came down to it.
He’d want it that way, too.
As much as he wished it wasn’t true, his impulsiveness had created a bigger mess than their decorating and marshmallow tossing. Unlike with football, no matter how hard he worked, this simply wasn’t a game he could win.
Which meant that, like it or not, he was gonna have to forfeit.
Chapter Fifteen
Julie combed through her wet hair and, when deciding on pjs, slipped into the silky nightie. Before she’d wondered if she could pull it off, but something amazing had happened down in the kitchen.
For the first time in a very long time, she’d felt sexy.
Having Gavin kiss her as if she were the oxygen to his hydrogen ignited a side of her she’d gotten only a peek of before. Her heart beat faster as she recalled the swipe of his thumb on her lower lip. Of his demanding lips and tongue. With him, she didn’t doubt every single movement or every tiny noise she made.
Her entire body went molten at how he’d handled her so easily, even with one arm literally tied to his chest.
At the knock on the door, she placed her palms on her flaming cheeks. If it was Darlene or Niki, she could play off the flush as being from her heated shower instead of from reliving the way Gavin’s groan had vibrated through her and jump-started her brazen side.