Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
~DANNY~
Iwake up and she’s still lying beside me, but I’m no longer holding her. This isn’t how I thought last night was going to end. I didn’t think that simply asking her to come home with me would lead to this.
She stirs and her eyelids flutter. She looks so peaceful.
It’s a Thursday, and I’m not sure what she has going on with the team.
I don’t know what time her practice is or if she’s missing anything.
It’s not even nine yet, and I hate to wake her considering it was so late until we finally climbed into bed for sleep.
I roll onto my back and smile, replaying last night.
Being inside her, taking her from behind, and getting the chance to lick her pussy.
I hadn’t imagined that she would actually let me.
I wonder what allowed her to drop her guard enough for all of that.
And if I’ll be able to do it again. I smile thinking about all the naughty ways I could wake her up.
When I feel someone staring at me, I look over and her beautiful blue eyes are looking back at me.
“Good morning, beautiful girl,” I tell her.
She flushes. “What were you just thinking about that made you smile so big?”
“Would you believe me if I said you?” I ask her.
“I’d say that’s a good line.” She chuckles and scoots a little closer to me.
I help her out and roll onto my side so that we’re closer.
“It can’t be a line if it’s the truth,” I tell her. “What time do you need to be somewhere this morning? It’s almost nine. I didn’t want you to miss training or something.”
“Thanks.” She stretches for a second and looks up at the ceiling, her forehead wrinkling while I think she’s trying to figure out what her morning looks like. “I know I have training, but that’s not until eleven.”
“You’re on a bye this week, right?”
“Yep, then it’s off to Utah.”
“That’s kind of near where you’re from. Do you think any of your family will make the trek out to see you?
” I ask her, trying to glean some information about her family.
She hasn’t said much in the press, and I’ve never seen anyone at the game who she gets particularly excited to have there. She waves at the fans all the same.
“My hometown is still six hours away from where the game will be held. Or at least, that’s what I was told when I called home the other day.”
I nod. I feel bad that I even brought it up, because there’s a sadness in her eyes now. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it would be a sore subject.”
She shakes her head. “It’s fine. You didn’t know.”
“I get it, though,” I say, propping up on my elbow. “My dad’s not the best at being supportive of my career either.”
She nods, watching me. “Oh, I don’t know. I think it might be a bit worse than your dad not enjoying the fact that you didn’t play football.”
I smirk at her. “It’s cute that you think that could be all there is between my dad and I.”
“Tougher than that?” she asks.
“A bit. Now tell me what’s going on with you and your parents. Why aren’t they happy to come see your game?”
“Are you going to print this?” she asks, eyeing me cautiously.
“Yeah, I’m going to print this, and I’m also going to print how your eyes look when you’re coming. What do you think?” I tease her, reaching over and tapping her nose.
“You wouldn’t!” she squeals.
“No, you’re right, I wouldn’t. I won’t print anything that you tell me when we’re together like this.
It has to be in an official interview for me to print it.
And even then, you get to read it first,” I remind her.
I hope it eases her fears, but there’s a funny look on her face right now, like she’s trying to smile but it’s not coming out naturally.
She looks like she might not be at ease lying here with me anymore.
“I didn’t mean to remind you that I’m interviewing you. Sorry, that was insensitive of me.”
“No, I reminded you about it and you just added on. I’m sorry. I don’t know, it just feels weird that the team hired you to interview me and to help with press things or whatever and I slept with you.” She rolls over and stares up at the ceiling.
“If it helps, they’re not paying me.” I laugh as she looks over at me in shock. “What I thought you were implying was that it’s a bit like prostitution.”
“No, that’s not what I was implying, but thank you for cheapening it.”
“Sorry,” I say, smirking at her remark. I know it shouldn’t be, but it sounded a bit funny coming out of her mouth.
“What is this, though? What are we doing here?” she asks me.
I’m honestly kind of glad she’s lying so she can’t see my face right now, because I’m not sure.
“You’re so quiet over there. Did I really ask that hard of a question?” She rolls onto her side so that she can see my face.
“No, you didn’t. I’m just not sure how to answer that question. Typically, you don’t like me,” I remind her.
“But you’re not always a fan of me. Unless some handsome rich man is hitting on me. Then you have a lot of feelings toward me.”
“I hate that you had to add the handsome part. I could deal with the rich, but not the handsome.”
“Oh, that’s good to know.”
We’re both quiet for a while, though I’m not sure if we’re just that comfortable with each other or if neither one of us knows what to say.
“Is this going to happen again?” I ask.
She giggles. “Do you want it to?”
“I do,” I tell her a little too quickly. “If that’s alright with you.”
“I would like that. But we have to have some boundaries. You can’t tell anyone.” Mac’s staring at me now, so intently that I can’t tell if she’s worried because I’m writing the article or if it’s because she’s ashamed of me.
“What are you worried about?”
“How can it look like you’re writing an impartial article on me if we’re sleeping together? Doesn’t that compromise some kind of an oath that you had to take when you became a journalist or something?”
I grin. “I’m not a doctor. There was no oath. It’s just going to compromise my integrity if people find out that you and I slept together or are continuing to do so.”
She nods. “Oh, I didn’t realize that you had integrity. You know, after all those things you wrote about me.”
“Uh-huh,” I reply. “I didn’t think that article was that bad.”
She gets out of bed and begins picking up her clothes.
“Did I say something wrong?” I ask about the abrupt change in her position.
“No, not really. I mean, the article wasn’t the greatest thing that ever happened to me. You made me cry. But it’s gotta be after nine now, and I have somewhere to be at eleven, so I better get going. I need a shower and all.”
“I made you cry?” I spring out of bed and head over to her. “Wait a minute. We have to talk about this.”
She snickers. “No, we don’t. You were mean and it upset me, but I’m a big girl.”
Mac has her bra and T-shirt back on and is looking for her shorts.
“I think they might be hidden at the bottom of the bed somewhere,” I tell her as I begin looking through them. I find her little daisy dukes and hand them to her.
“Thanks,” she says, pulling them on. “So, we did this, but no one needs to know?”
There’s a question in her voice, and I can’t tell if she’s asking me or just making sure she understands.
“I hope this wasn’t the only time we’re going to do this,” I tell her, drawing her close to me.
But she abruptly takes a step back. “Yeah, it seems like it might be a possibility that this could happen again.” She looks around and grabs her sneakers before putting them on. Once she’s all ready to go, she says, “So I’ll see you later?”
“Wait a minute. I drove you here. How are you getting home?” I laugh, pulling on my own clothes.
“Oh yeah.” She stops at the entrance of my bedroom. “I guess you can take me to the bar, and I’ll walk from there.”
“What if I take you to your apartment?”
“People can’t see you dropping me off. They’ll know,” she replies, stomping her foot.
“Did you just stomp your foot at me?” I laugh.
“Just take me to the bar or a coffee shop or something. Anywhere but the team apartments. I mean, the girls can’t see you, of all people, dropping me off.”
I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. Shaking my head, I tease her, “I can’t believe you stomped your foot at me like a child.”
She’s looking over her phone at me and arches an eyebrow as she watches me. “If you ever want to see me naked again, you’ll stop referring to that moment.”
I shake my head. “I think I should be able to write about that. When she doesn’t get her way, she stomps her foot like a child.”
“Whatever.” She leads the way to my front door, looking around as she heads out.
I take it in, too, and wonder what it’s like to see this place through her eyes.
It’s nothing too special. Just a living room done in gray and blue; a kitchen that’s blocked off but has state-of-the-art appliances that she may never see.
There’s a pool in my backyard too. I wonder if she’ll ever get to swim out there or lounge beside it.
I almost make mention of the pool, but she’s waiting by the door.
“Let’s go,” I tell her, leading the way to my Tesla. When we get there, I’m impressed that she can open the door without assistance. Some people can’t figure out the handle. Mac slides into the car and buckles herself up.
We don’t talk on the way to drop her off. There’s a Starbucks near the bar, so I go there.
“Do you want me to get you a coffee?”
“Nope, I’m good. I’m going to go in and get a coffee and then walk home. You’re welcome to get a coffee. We just won’t be doing it together.”
I laugh and nod in understanding. “The shields are back up, I see.”
“Have a good day, Danny,” she says in a way of reply and hops out of the car. “Thanks for last night.”
That’s all I get before she hurries into Starbucks.
I don’t miss the way she looks around, quickly making sure no one saw her exiting my car.
I pause for a moment. My car windows are tinted, so I’m pretty sure no one can see me inside the car.
I wonder what it will be like the next time I see her.
Will we talk about it? Or will she ever want to come back and do it again?
And most importantly, why do I want her to?