Chapter 19
Hourglass
Angie’s body heat warmed Sam’s lap as she straddled him.
But it wasn’t only her very fine ass doing things to his body.
Her blue eyes overflowing with something akin to admiration was doing things to his heart, and her soft words wrapped around the organ, binding it in silky threads.
In that moment, it struck him how much he craved those words, that look in her eyes.
Her.
“I want to take you to dinner.” His declaration came out choked with more emotion than he cared to admit.
“When?”
“Tonight? There are some nice places we can walk to.”
She peeped at him. “Are you asking me out on a date?”
“Yeah, I guess I am. I’d like to take you someplace nice. You got a problem with that?”
The frown on her face told him she did have a problem with that, which bewildered him. “I thought we talked about this already. What if someone sees us?”
He smoothed over a jab of irritation. “What if? Just because we’re sharing a meal at a restaurant doesn’t mean we’ve got something going on.
I go to dinner with people from my team, including coaches, trainers, equipment guys.
Doesn’t mean I’m sleeping with them. And you probably go out with co-workers.
” His protest was met by her deepening glower.
“You’re my therapist,” he rattled on, “and I’m your patient. Why can’t we be seen eating together?”
“And there’s the big flaw in your reasoning. I’m your therapist, and you’re my patient. Totally different relationship from the ones you use as examples, and one that should never be crossed.”
“Except we’ve already crossed it. Like four times.” He leaned down and took her mouth in a scorching kiss, gratified when she writhed and made those little throaty noises that drove him nuts. “About to be five times,” he rasped.
When he drew back, she was breathless, her lids at half mast, her fingers digging into his scalp as if she needed to anchor herself. He couldn’t hold back a smug smile. He loved that he could kiss uptight, rule-following Angie into moaning, supple-bodied Angie.
She executed a little headshake, as if trying to get back the senses he’d stolen from her. “Sam, we shouldn’t. We can’t. Getting caught might not affect you, but I could lose my job.”
True, which made him a selfish asshole. Did it, though?
He let out a defeated sight. “Okay. So no eating out tonight. And unless we drive somewhere beyond Denver city limits, no eating out at all.” An errant thought bypassed his restraint filter. “Maybe you should find a job at a different clinic.”
Shit! Did I really just say that?
She bolted upright.
Yep, I did.
“I can’t believe you just said that! You know how important this opportunity is to me.” She seemed to realize her bare ass still rested on his thighs because she scrambled and stood upright.
Damn! Talk about killing the moment. Way to go, jerk face.
He reached for the hem of her T-shirt—his T-shirt—pulling her to him. “Hey, come back,” he coaxed. “My lap’s getting cold.”
Obviously unamused, she broke free from his grip. Crap, he needed to keep his lips zipped—unless he was going to kiss her again, but something told him that would be the wrong move too.
She cinched her arms over her chest, huffing, “We’re on the verge of a serious discussion here, and I’m learning how easy you are to distract—especially when there are exposed body parts around.”
“Your body parts. I’m particular to those. But I’m not helping my case here, am I?”
She inched up her little nose “No, you’re not.”
Leaning forward, elbows on his knees, he tilted his head up.
“Let me say this as plainly as I know how: I don’t want you to be a dirty secret, and I don’t want to be yours.
I want to be more than fuck buddies. I want you at my games, have you wear my jersey, come to team dinners as my plus-one.
I want to have you visit my dad and brother with me.
” Her scowl smoothed out. He took it as a good sign, galloping ahead, unsure if he was headed off a cliff.
“I want to show you off to my teammates. I want everyone to know you’re my girlfriend. ”
Her eyes went puck-wide, and he adjusted his course—assuming he even had one. “If you didn’t work for that particular clinic, if I wasn’t your patient, none of that would be an issue.”
She blinked, and the creases between her brows deepened once more as his speech seemed to percolate.
“But I want to work at this particular clinic.”
“I’m not suggesting you quit.” God, he was bad at this romantic adulting thing—probably due to lack of practice.
“Sure sounds like it.”
“Okay, I get where you might think that.” He smoothed his bedhead, giving himself a beat. “How do we solve this with the constant threat of your job hanging over our heads?”
“Let’s back up a sec.” She uttered the words as she was, in fact, backing up. “Aren’t you moving at Millenium Falcon speed?”
“Possibly, though you do realize its engines don’t work half the time, right?” He let slip an errant snicker, amused by his own joke, confident she’d get it.
“What does that even mean?” Her voice pitched high, her agitation clear.
Okay, so she didn’t get it. Or it completely missed the mark.
“I was trying to lighten the mood, but I guess it was a fail.” Dread slogged through his veins.
He was fucking this up royally. He dragged his hand over his face.
“I wouldn’t call six years fast. This has been building up for a while.
At least it has for me.” A disturbing thought he hadn’t considered before struck him, and his heart thudded like a stone in his chest. “Unless you’re looking at this like a one-time thing, and you don’t want to take it any farther after this weekend. ”
“Like you did to me?”
Ouch! Exasperation had him hoisting himself upright to meet her glare with a piercing stare of his own.
“Last night and today have nothing to do with six years ago.” Couldn’t she let it go already? “The way I look at it, this is a fresh page, a clean slate. We’ve made the leap into a whole new galaxy here.”
Never taking her eyes off his, she bit the inside of her cheek, thoughts streaming through her eyes.
“Talk to me, Angie. Did I misread the situation so badly? No matter what you might think, this isn’t something I do on the regular.
” His breathing kicked into a higher gear.
“I don’t tomcat around, I don’t bring women home with me—you’re the first to set foot in this place—and I certainly don’t tell them I want them to become part of my life. ”
“A life that’s kind of topsy-turvy at the moment.” Her speech was quiet, nearly a whisper, but she may as well have slapped him across the face with a wet towel.
“Thanks for the reminder.” He pivoted on his heel to turn from her, hiding his wince when the movement jarred his bad ankle. “Yeah, my timing sucks.”
Her hand circled his wrist and tugged. “Sam, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Arching a brow, he glanced at her over his shoulder. “But you meant it, didn’t you? You were being honest.”
“Both our lives are a bit jumbled right now, and this is coming at me so fast.”
There was a plea in her eyes, something that said she couldn’t trust him not to break her heart again.
He had lost his chance, and she was going to put walls around their connection so it stayed in the realm of the physical—a circumstance he might have welcomed weeks ago.
Except he wasn’t interested in a friends-with-benefits arrangement. Not with her.
Where he might have welcomed her warm fingers on his wrist, her hold itched now, and he wanted to pull away.
“So what are you really saying, Ange?”
A heavy silence hung between them.
Seeming to sense his twitchiness, she released him. “I’m saying I don’t have the answers,” she finally admitted. The look in her eyes told him she truly was lost.
“Then here’s a simpler question. Do you want to be with me or not?”
After a breath-stealing eternity, she gave him a slow bob of her head.
Muscles he didn’t realize were knotted softened. “I want to be with you too.” He turned, facing her, and stroked her cheek. “We can’t be the first ones to deal with something like this. We’re grown-ass adults, and as long as we’re in it together, we’ll figure out a way to make it work.”
Her head drooped, and he tilted her chin up with a knuckle. “Okay?”
“Okay,” she sniffed. Pooling tears gave her beautiful blues a glossy sheen.
He pulled her to him. “Hey now.” She came willingly, and he wrapped her up in his arms, pressing her cheek to his chest. “No tears. We’ll figure this out.”
She looped her arms around his waist. “I don’t see how.”
“Sounds like you’re going to need some more convincing, but we can’t do that on empty stomachs.” He held her from him, relieved no tears had spilled. “If we can’t go out for a fancy dinner, we’ll bring the fancy dinner to us.” He freed one arm to reach for his phone.
She grasped his forearm, stopping him. “No, you’re right. Let’s not hide. Let’s go out.”
They did go out for dinner that night. And breakfast the next morning.
They even stopped at Cheesman Park and sat on a sun-drenched bench, taking in the foliage bursting with spring buds, before swinging by Angie’s place for a change of clothes.
Sam nearly asked her to pack a bag—the clinic was closer to his place than hers, so it made sense for her to stay with him for a while, didn’t it?
—but he held back. She’d been like a nervous cat ever since their impromptu “big talk,” and he needed to tread carefully.
Baby steps. He didn’t want to give her any more excuses to bolt.