Chapter Two Gavin #2
She drew in a deep breath, which I never saw her exhale.
Instead, she took a long drink, holding the liquor in her mouth, her throat bobbing as she swallowed.
“I did. I worked in labor and delivery.” She glanced at her lap.
“Things didn’t work out. It just became .
. . far too much. And when Maya mentioned they were hiring at the rehab center, I jumped at the opportunity, and I’ve been there ever since.
They’re so good to me, and I’m surrounded by patients like Bettie, who I’m obsessed with.
” Her thumb went to her mouth, and she nibbled on her nail.
“I was young when I lost my parents—my dad to cancer when I was in middle school and my mom to a heart attack my freshman year of college. So working at the rehab center, surrounded mostly by patients who would be around my parents’ age and older, gives me this weird sense of family. ”
Both parents?
Fuck.
“Damn, Emily. I’m really sorry to hear that about your mom and dad.”
“It’s okay. Maya is a sister to me, and my colleagues are more immediate family. Everyone and their mother invites me for holidays—I’m rich in love, trust me.”
“If Grandma finds that out, she’s going to invite you too.”
She laughed.
“You know, Grandma’s not an easy woman to please.
Every time I talk to her, she tells me how happy she is there, so you’re not only treating her like family, you’re giving her the best care.
” Since both of our drinks were nearly empty, I went to the bar and retrieved the bottle and brought it over to the couch, topping off her glass and mine.
“Believe it or not, this is the first time a nurse has ever had to come over here.” I was amused by the way her eyes were now lighting up. “Are you surprised to hear that?”
She unfolded her legs and crossed them, holding her glass with both hands. “A little.”
“Why?”
“Your son is fearless. You should have seen the way he was speed skating me around that rink.” She released one hand from the glass and raked her fingers through the ends of her hair.
Ends that, even though her hair was up, were teasing the top of her tits, drawing my attention there and keeping it.
“When they have that kind of determination, things like buttons up their nose and hurt limbs and gaping wounds are bound to happen.”
Ben skating with Emily. That was something I wish I’d seen.
“I don’t know if he’s like that with all sports,” she continued, “but on that ice, he was wild.”
“He’s just like his uncle was when Jordan played in the NHL. On the football field, Ben’s just like I was.”
She gave me a half smile. “Which is?”
“A fucking animal.”
“Oh God.” Her teeth skimmed across her bottom lip, and she briefly fanned her face, making me chuckle. “Tell me about it.”
“Football?”
“Yes. I want to hear all about you, considering you just heard all about me.”
I set my drink on the middle of my thigh and stretched my other arm over the back of the couch. “Where do I start . . . ?”
“The beginning.” She released her hair and started to play with one of the hoops hanging from her ear. “Where did you go to school?”
“I was recruited by quite a few and chose the University of Alabama—mostly for football, but the weather didn’t hurt either.”
“You don’t like the cold?”
“Fuck no. I hate it.”
“But you live in Boston. I’m assuming you were born and raised here. You’re not used to the temps by now?”
“Used to it, yes. Like it, no. Ben needs to be around family, and mine is here. That’s the only reason I live in the north. But during college, I enjoyed every second of warmth in the South, and spending my entire NFL career in Tampa, I got even more of it.”
“Tampa sounds dreamy.”
“You haven’t been?”
She shook her head. “Orlando and Miami—that’s it.” She shifted so she could lean her side into the back cushion. “What made you retire from football?”
“It’s a layered answer.”
“I’m sorry, you don’t have to talk about it—”
“No, no, it’s all right. You know, for a lot of the football season, I was on the road, and when you’re a single dad, that makes things hard.
I have an incredible nanny, and I wouldn’t have been able to play ball had she not been with me.
She even moved with us from Tampa to Boston, but being that Ben doesn’t have his mother in his life, he needs me.
My team also needed me. It was one hell of a mental battle. ”
She was quiet for a moment before she replied, “I can’t even imagine.”
“And then there’s the body.” I pushed up the sleeve to my long-sleeve T-shirt.
“It can only handle so much, no matter how well I treated it off the field. I was lucky—unlike some of my teammates, I never got an injury that made me miss any games. I hurt like hell, but nothing that required surgery or time off. But, again, it all came down to Ben. I needed to be my best for him, and ultimately you can only be lucky for so long. Trying to care for a young kid with a torn Achilles or rotator cuff—I couldn’t let that happen.
So I made the decision to retire, and the timing happened to be perfect.
” I smiled. “My last game, we won the Super Bowl.”
“Epic.” She took a sip.
“It was.”
She swiped her thumb over her lips like she was trying to dry them. “And what’s cool is that you’re still deeply involved with football. You’re just coming at it from a different angle.”
Worthington Enterprises was a company that began with Bettie’s financial backing many, many years ago, my parents paying off every dollar they borrowed from her and, with the help of my brother and me, building it into the empire it was today.
We owned every professional sports team in Massachusetts, and we had an extremely large portfolio of residential high-rise apartments.
We wanted to dominate Boston, and we were well on our way.
“An angle I really enjoy,” I told her.
But what I was really enjoying was this view, an almost full shot of her front, a hint of her side, how her legs were now crossed, the material pulling tight so I could see the outline of her thighs.
It was more than just her beauty that was making my dick achingly hard. There was something about this one, and fuck, I didn’t know what it was.
“Are you a go-into-the-office-every-day kind of guy? Or do you oversee things from home? And do you ever travel with the team?”
“I do it all.” I pushed up my other sleeve and drained the rest of my scotch.
“More office than home since home, sadly, doesn’t allow me to get much work done.
Although Ben is involved in things after school and my nanny is here, it’s not easy keeping a seven-year-old from bursting in, given that he always wants to be around Dad. ”
She laughed. “The most adorable work nightmare ever.”
“Exactly.” I stretched my arm over my head, lowering it to grip the back of my neck.
“As for the away games, I don’t attend all of them but I attend enough.
Same with baseball. Jordan focuses on basketball and hockey—we divided the sports between us.
For the real estate part of our business, the two of us dabble.
Decision-making, brand, concepts, acquisitions—those types of things, we’re largely a part of. The rest, our team handles.”
“Fascinating.”
“It’s just business.”
“I wasn’t talking about your job.” She finished her drink too. “I was talking about you, Gavin.” As soon as the words left her mouth, I could tell she was lured in as deep as I was.
“What about me do you find so fascinating?”
When her thumb left her lips, I couldn’t look at anything but them. I wanted to know how they tasted. I wanted to know how hard they could suck.
I wanted to know how loud they could moan.
“I get the feeling—and maybe I’m wrong—that you could have easily stopped working after retiring from the NFL. But you didn’t, and the job you have now doesn’t sound easy at all.”
“I thought you said this fascination wasn’t about my job?”
She smiled. “You’re right, I said that.”
I chuckled.
“But we’re going to keep talking about your job because that’s my comfort place.” She covered her face with her hands for a second.
Fuck, Emily. I see you and I hear you loud and clear.
When her hands dropped, the embarrassment leaving her expression, I went to give myself a refill, and she held out her glass. I added more to hers before I gave myself three fingers’ worth.
I set the bottle down and leaned back into the couch. “Do you know what I find fascinating?” I paused. “That someone like you is single.”
“Someone like me?” She let out a loud laugh. “What does that even mean?”
“You want the truth?”
She sighed. “Please.”
My foot, crossed over the opposite knee, had been pumping the air, but now it stilled. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Her eyes widened. “Ever?”
“Yes. Ever.”
“Wow.” She went quiet. “I didn’t expect that. I . . . don’t even know what to say . . . and normally I have all the words.” She glanced down at her body. “I mean, I’m not even in clothes. I’m . . . in scrubs.”
“Clothes have nothing to do with what I’m looking at, nor would they make me change my mind.” My arm had returned to the back of the couch, and I bent it, holding my cheek with my palm.
“But my hair’s in a ponytail. At this point, I’m positive I don’t have any makeup left on my face—in fact, I was seconds away from getting in the bathtub before Dr. Kaplan’s office called.”
I wish she hadn’t put that vision in my fucking head.
Emily naked, stepping into a tub was something I wanted to see.
“I would much rather see you without makeup on than with. Why? Because masks aren’t for me. I want to see what’s underneath, and I want to see what I’m going to wake up next to.”
She hid her smile as she said, “This is all me. Unmasked.”
“Which brings me back to my previous question: Why are you single?”
She let out a long, loud breath. “It’s not by choice, I can tell you that. I want to date.”
“It’s a bad-timing thing?”
“No, it’s an every-guy-is-so-wrong-for-me kinda thing. It’s frustrating, I’m not going to lie.”
“Fuck.”
She nodded. “So I’ve stopped trying. I don’t do the dating apps, like Hooked, which a bunch of my friends are on.
I don’t put myself out there in the sense that I’m trying to attract men.
I just let things happen. The same way I did tonight.
Except I did return to your condo when I found out I was able to have a drink, so maybe I just contradicted myself—I don’t know. ”
“Why did you come back?”
She laughed. “That’s a big ask.”
“Why?”
She set her glass down and wrapped her arms around her stomach. “I don’t know how to bullshit, so my answer will be beyond truthful. It won’t only be awkward to say it, but awkward for you to hear it.”
“Try me.”
Her stare intensified the longer she looked at me.
“When I saw you that night at the arena, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
I thought then—and I still do—that you’re the hottest man alive.
That was why I was a little shell-shocked when the elevator door opened and you were standing there.
That’s why I could barely look at you the whole time I was helping Ben.
And that’s why I was blown the hell away when you asked me for a drink and completely gutted when I couldn’t have one.
But when I got that text from Dr. Kaplan’s office telling me I was clocked out, there was literally no way I was going to let the opportunity pass. ”
Fucking Jordan. Not once had he mentioned that Maya’s best friend was this hot. I needed to yell at him for that.
“It was a good decision to come back, Emily.” My blinks were slow as I gazed at her through my lashes.
She glanced away as though she couldn’t handle it. “Why are you single?”
“I choose to be. Ben plays a big factor in that. I don’t want to bring a woman into his life unless she’s the one I’m going to marry. And giving a woman that much time means hours away from my son, and I’m not about that.”
She leaned forward. “Are you saying you’re . . . completely woman-free?”
“You mean celibate?” I chuckled.
“Thank you for saying that so I didn’t have to.”
I cocked my head. “If I was celibate, would you have a hard time believing it?”
“Yes.” Her face turned red again. “You’re, what, mid-thirties?
That’s prime sex age. Plus, I’ve already told you how handsome I think you are, and I promise anyone who meets you feels the same way, so I’m sure the ladies come on strong.
” She released her stomach to play with her lip.
“We all have needs, Gavin. I would have a hard time believing you don’t.
Or that you don’t take care of those needs. ”
God, this was fun.
I placed my glass on the ottoman. “I’m struggling with something, Emily. Something I need you to tell me.”
“Okay . . .”
I was mentally stripping off her scrubs and rubbing my mouth across her neck. “Are you asking me what those needs are? Or are you wanting to see just how I take care of them?”