I really didn’t know how she would feel about it. She didn’t seem like a woman who cared about wealth. She was annoyed every time we went to a fancy place, and she always attested tacos were just fine. When we came back to my apartment, she never teased me for how barren it was. She came back time and time again. So, would my wealth change anything? Or would the lie be the reason she lost her temper?
I did feel guilty about that.
“You’ve got to tell her at some point, right? I mean, if you want to keep seeing her.”
“I do want to keep seeing her.”
“Then just do it,” he said with a shrug. “Hey, are you going to the lingerie party tomorrow night? Brad and Joel are both down.”
“Of course they are.”
“You coming?”
I’d been doing all the typical billionaire playboy bullshit for the last year, and it felt just as empty as my broken marriage. It was inappropriate to be there when I had an exclusive relationship with someone, even if she wasn’t my girlfriend or something more. “No.”
“What? You’re joking.”
“No.”
“It’s sexy women in panties…”
“I understand that, Clint,” I said sarcastically. “I just googled the word lingerie.”
“And you aren’t going to go?”
“I’m seeing Carson.”
“You don’t have to fuck anybody. You can at least look.”
I’d rather see Carson in lingerie. I still had her pictures on my phone. “You’ll have fun without me.”
“There’s no doubt of that. I just feel bad for you.”
“Don’t.”
He drank from his glass. “What’s so interesting about this reporter? Reporters are the worst, man.”
“They’re only the worst when you have something to hide.”
“Well, I do have things to hide.”
“Oh, I know.”
“But for real?” he asked. “I’m sure she’s beautiful, but aren’t they all?”
There were beautiful women everywhere, but beauty was the least important thing to me now. Beauty wasn’t synonymous with good. I’d been seduced by my ex-wife, who was gorgeous, but it was all a ploy—and I fell for it. It was a hard lesson to learn, but it opened my eyes to the world, showed me that there were more important attributes than looks, such as heart, integrity, and honesty. When I heard Carson telling off that guy in the booth, I listened to every single word, grew more enamored of this woman with a spine harder than mine, than most suits I knew. I was attracted to her strength, her integrity, her ambition—without even seeing her face. I was sitting in a different booth, so I only heard her voice.
But that was enough for me.
I’d gotten up to see what she was drinking, and when I saw her long brown hair, those bright green eyes, those gorgeous legs from underneath her dress…I knew I’d hit the jackpot. I knew there wasn’t another woman like her, and despite my baggage, I had to make something happen. The woman I was originally meeting was a fuck buddy, and I knew Carson didn’t have the right qualities to be another notch in my bedpost. She was more than that, and I knew it before I even spoke to her.
But I went for it anyway.
I took off my shirt and left it on the bleachers before I joined the guys on the court. They passed me the ball, and I dribbled toward the hoop and made my shot.
All net.
We ran back and forth, working up a sweat, taking our warm-up as seriously as a real game. Sweat dripped down my forehead and chest and made my skin shine under the lights. When Charlie, Matt, and Carson walked in, I called time-out and walked over to them.
Charlie had become a friend quickly because he was a good guy. Instead of being jealous or uncomfortable by Carson’s close friendship with a handsome guy, I chose to accept it. Being around them showed me how platonic that relationship was, the way she took me to her apartment and was all over me with Charlie just across the hall. I hadn’t believed a straight man and woman could just be friends, but they proved me wrong.
Carson was in little gym shorts and a black tank top. Her thick hair was slicked back into a ponytail, and since she got sweaty on the court, she skipped the makeup. But her features were so distinguished that she didn’t really need makeup in the first place. Her eyes were bright entirely on their own, her lips a naturally red color. Her complexion was luminous too, like she took good care of her skin even though she didn’t seem to get a full eight hours of sleep every night.
She was gorgeous but also one of the boys.
I loved it.
I moved to Charlie first. “Hey, man.”
He closed his fist and tapped his knuckles against mine since my hands were so sweaty. “Ready for this?”
“I’m already worn out from the warm-up, so not so much.” I greeted Matt next. He’d hit it off with my friend Jeremy and they were still seeing each other, and from what Jeremy told me, it was a good match.
I turned to Carson next. “Hey, sweetheart.”
“Hey.” When she first looked at me, she had a slightly guarded look. It wasn’t the expression she used to give me, the same one she gave her friends. But it went away, and her eyes moved up and down my body, looking at my hard physique covered in sweat.
I moved closer to her, my hands cupping her waist as I bent my neck down to look at her. Without her heels, she was significantly shorter than me, so our height differences were apparent. But she was still sexy, still perfect that way.
She didn’t care if I touched her with sweaty palms since she would work up a sweat heavier than anyone else. She softened noticeably the longer I touched her, the closer we came together. She tilted her head up to look at me, her eyes always fierce, like she could say a smartass comment at any moment.
I loved that sass. It was one of the things that attracted me to her in the first place. I didn’t realize what I wanted in a woman until I met her. Someone independent, who could think for herself, who wasn’t afraid to call bullshit when she saw it. She could stand up to men twice her size without blinking.
So fucking sexy.
“I’m excited to guard you for the next hour.”
She smiled slightly, but her eyes filled with attitude. “I don’t need you to protect me, Dax.”
“I know you don’t.” She had thick skin, like rhino hide. But I wanted to keep her safe, regardless. I was protective of her around the guys, not just because she was mine, but because I’d rather die than see her get hurt. “But I want to.”
Most of the guys were faster than her as we sprinted across the court. But she made up for it with her agility, because she was better and handling the ball, passing it discreetly, and her deep connection to Charlie made them great teammates. It was practically cheating because their communication was practically telepathic.
I chose to cover her because I kept my distance and didn’t treat her as an adversary. I tried to steal the ball and box her in, but I never became aggressive like the other guys, and when I blocked her, I kept the other guys off her if they tried to steal the ball. So two birds with one stone.
At the end of the match, her team won and we lost.
Again.