Chapter Eleven #3
His skin was warm and sun-browned, the kind of tan that only came from long days outside — practice fields, training camps, summer workouts. Against the crisp white of the uniform it made him look even more dangerous somehow.
When he heard me, his eyes snapped up.
Golden brown and sharp as hell, those eyes trailed a long, slow assault down my body and back up again before they locked onto mine.
The corner of his mouth lifted slowly, that knowing smirk settling in place like he already understood every filthy, reckless thought that had just crossed my mind as I checked him out in return.
And I mean… I wasn’t going to deny it.
I’d had dirty thoughts about this man since the first day we met, and seeing him in uniform like this only doubled the intensity with which I thought them.
I slowed my gait even more as I approached him, especially when he straightened off the wall and shook his head as his eyes raked over me again.
“Something the matter, Boss?” I asked.
“Yeah. I don’t have any pockets to shove my hands into at the moment.”
“And that’s a problem?”
“It is with you looking like that.”
I bit my lip on a smile, clasping my hands behind my back with an innocent sway of my shoulders. “Can’t imagine what you mean.”
“Mm-hmm.” Braden smirked, his eyes flicking between mine. “You look…” He swallowed, like he didn’t trust himself to finish the sentence. “I’m glad they didn’t make you cover your tattoos.”
I laughed. “Like I’d ever let them.”
That had him chuckling with me, and then a silence set in, the two of us looking at each other like we didn’t know whether to fuck or flee.
Was that another version of the fight-or-flight instinct?
“You texted me,” I finally said.
Braden sighed, moving just an inch in my direction. “So I did.”
“What happened to we can’t fraternize, it’s against the rules?” I teased.
“Still the case.”
“And yet here you are.”
“Here I am.”
“What happened? Decided to take a walk on the wild side today?”
“Worse.”
I arched a brow, and Braden scrubbed a hand over his jaw as he looked away from me and then back again.
“I just can’t seem to get you out of my head.”
The words landed like a soft sweep of wind against my skin, warm and delicious.
And those fucking butterflies threw a party.
I looked at the ground, taking a tentative step closer to him until we were toe-to-toe.
“That sounds like a terrible problem to have.”
“The worst,” he confirmed, his Adam’s apple bobbing hard in his throat as his eyes slid down my body and back up again. “Any advice on how to cure this ailment?”
“I can think of a few things.”
“Do tell.”
We were so close now, his breath tickling my nose — minty and sweet.
“Well, you could quit the team.”
“Mm,” he mused, his nostrils flaring when I dared to lean in another inch. “Not an option, I’m afraid.”
“You could go to a hypnotist.”
“Not really into trusting a stranger to fuck with my head like that.”
I smirked. “Well, there’s only one thing left to do, then.”
His breath hitched a bit when I reached out and pressed a single nail into his chest. “And what’s that?” he asked.
I dragged my nail down, savoring the way his jaw ticced as I trailed from his chest all the way to the band of his pants. I ran a line from hip to hip then, snaking under his jersey to feel the goosebumps I was earning on his skin.
Pressing up onto my toes, I licked up the side of his neck, the muffled groan he rewarded me with sending a jolt of electricity straight between my thighs.
“Take me somewhere and fuck me out of your system,” I said low in his ear, and then I took the lobe of it between my teeth with a teasing bite.
His next breath was a stiff inhale, his next exhale another long groan, and his hands moved to my hips, fastening around me like he had to hold me in place so I wouldn’t tackle him to the ground right here and now.
Or maybe it was to restrain himself from acting rather than me.
“Fuck, Em…” he cursed, his voice just above a whisper, brows pinched together as if he was in pain.
“I’m just giving doctor’s orders,” I teased, and because I couldn’t help myself, I ran my hand lower, palming him through his pants. This time we both groaned together, him at the sensation, and me at the thick cock I felt beneath the fabric separating us.
Suddenly, there was a laugh from around the corner, followed by two loud baritone voices.
Braden and I broke away instantly, our eyes locking for a brief, panicked, and wanting moment.
And then wordlessly, we separated.
He jogged down the hallway in the opposite direction the voices were coming from and I turned and walked right toward them, humming to myself like nothing had happened.
The voices belonged to two players, who rounded the corner and promptly stopped laughing when they saw me, their eyebrows cresting up.
“Hello,” I sang as I passed them.
One of them was slack-jawed as he watched me pass, and the other sang right back to me. “Hello to you, beautiful.”
They laughed to each other once I’d passed, saying who knew what, but I didn’t care to try to decipher it.
My heart was hammering in my chest.
We’d almost been caught — because he’d been so infatuated with me, he was almost ready to risk it.
And fuck if that desperation didn’t make me want him more.