“Your place or mine?”
She directed her gaze to the back seat. “Holden?”
The glow of the screen lit up his face. “You can sleep in longer if you stay in the suite tonight.”
I made the decision before she could. “Suite it is.”
“You don’t have any clothes there.”
“I’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.”
She nodded sleepily, resting her head against my shoulder.
“What time does she have to be up tomorrow?”
Holden checked his tablet. “Five.” He looked down again. “Six-thirty.”
“Okay.”
When we got to the hotel, a group of fans were camped out at the front. Eric directed the driver to the parking garage. This added more time on the trip up to the suite, but Bay sleepwalked the whole way. I didn’t offer to carry her, but only because I knew she’d fight it.
Inside the suite, I led her to her bedroom, the one we’d spent a few hours in a couple weeks ago before she’d had to leave again. Undressing us both, I got her into the shower.
Her head rested against the tile, eyes barely opened, and she occasionally let out incoherent mumblings. If I hadn’t been there, would she have passed out in there or lay down on the floor and gone to sleep?
More efficiently than the insistent erection between my legs would have liked, I ran the soapy loofah over her skin and down her curves.
“Thanks for spending the day with me,” she mumbled.
Keeping one hand on her, I took a towel off the stack and dried her off, kissing the back of her neck and holding her against me. I wrapped the soft, fluffy fabric around her. She leaned back against the wall.
Not wanting to let her go, I wrapped my towel around my waist one-handed with the help of my teeth. By the time I looked up, she was asleep in the corner, lips parted, legs barely holding her up.
Even after the games I did get to play in, I’d never been that tired.
Lifting her into my arms, I looked down at the woman who’d held my heart in the palm of her hand even when I didn’t believe I had one. Maybe that was why—it had always been hers.
I set her down on the pillow-soft bed and grabbed a t-shirt from one of the drawers. Sliding it over her body, I climbed into bed beside her.
She sighed and curled into me.
Buried in blankets, I rested my head on hers, and the gentle wisps of her breath skirted across my neck. Leaving her would only get harder for me, and it would be so much worse when she left.
26
Keyton
I sat on the edge of the bed, Bay wrapped around my pillow after reaching for me in her sleep. Apparently, my heated pillow was a suitable stop-gap substitute.
Being with her was like finding someone singing your name after a lifetime of silence. When I’d found her before it had been like clinging to a buoy in a hurricane. I’d been clinging onto her to keep my head above water, and it would’ve only been a matter of time before I’d dragged us both down.
Things were different now. We were different.
All those dreams we’d wished and hoped for had come true. So why was this the happiest I’d been in a long time? There had been moments of joy before, the kind that came from a big win or an impossible catch or checking my bank account and knowing I couldn’t spend it all in a hundred lifetimes.
This contentment I felt around her was almost indescribable. It made me feel invincible. And it scared the shit out of me. Because living without this—having her ripped away again—after all the work I’d put in to be a man she could be proud of and the man she deserved, I wasn’t sure what would happen if it all fell apart again.
Instead of focusing on those feelings, I recentered myself to right now, this moment with her. She was still here. I was still here.
I lay back down and brushed her hair off her shoulders.
She was the only woman I’d ever loved, the only woman who knew most of my story and secrets, and the only woman I’d risk everything I’d built for, not because I needed her to survive, but because that’s all living would be without her—survival. Breaths taken, but not a life lived.
A gentle snore rattled in the back of her throat and she turned over.
Cracking a smile, I brushed her hair back from her face.
She rubbed her nose and snuggled in deeper to the pillow.
Sliding into the space behind her, I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her close.
Contentment settled over me like a blanket and I closed my eyes, breathing in her scent. Losing her wasn’t an option this time, and I’d do whatever it took to make sure we didn’t mess this up again.
“Are you sure we need to go?” I grabbed my cufflinks off her dresser.
Her laughter played on my heartstrings. “You don’t have to come. It’s a radio contest winner promo session. We’ll be in and out in a couple hours. I’m sure you have better things to do.” With her heels on, we were almost eye to eye. She draped her arms over my shoulders and ran her fingers through the hair at the back of my head. “Then I can come back to you.”
“What could be better than spending time with you?” I kissed the tip of her nose and wrapped my arms around her. My hands brushed against her bare skin. “Is there something missing from your dress?”
The orange-and-navy dress was gathered in the high neckline, and hit just above her knee. With long sleeves, it wasn’t exactly revealing, but I wasn’t a fashion kind of guy.
“I need a little help.” She turned, glancing over her shoulder, knowing exactly what seeing her unzipped would do to me. “Can you zip me up?”
Crouching, I decided to give as good as I got. If we were both waiting through the two hours until our night alone, I’d make sure she was just as antsy to get back to our room as I was.
I kissed her at the small of her back, holding onto her with my fingers spanning her waist.
She rocked forward, her breath hitching.
With one hand, I skimmed up her back, brushing away imaginary obstructions, only to plaster the area with whisper-soft, get-right-under–her-skin kisses.
She shivered and gasped.
I smiled against her skin and tugged on the zipper, slowly closing the metal teeth until I made it to the top. Once there, I wrapped one arm around her, pressing her tighter against me and kissed along the back of her neck before finishing the zip and closing the hook-and-eye closure.
My dick screamed at me for teasing all three of us.
Stepping in front of her, I met her glassy-eyed stare. Lips parted, a little wobbly and flushed, she leaned into me and attacked my mouth.
I grabbed her ass, kneading and squeezing her tight.
A knock at the door was all that stopped us from ripping each other right out of our clothes.
“It’s time to go.” Holden’s voice became my most hated sound in the world. “They just announced where we’re meeting. The paparazzi are already on the move, which means fans will be next. We need to get there quickly before things become unmanageable. "
I brushed my thumb along her bottom lip. “You’re going to need a touch up.”
“You’re going to be on Emily’s shit list.”
“It’ll be worth it.” Emily was a mini-Gwen in the making, but I’d bear her ire for a kiss from Bay any day. Taking her hand, we walked out of her bedroom. The whole team was there, coats already buttoned and ready to go.