Page 48 of Stroked by (Stroked)
“Yeah, I will hang up on you. I love you, man, but I don’t want to see your dick. It’s not something I’m particularly interested in.”
He exhales and says, “And what would you be particularly interested in these days? That little assistant of yours? She’s hella fine, I can’t blame you.”
“She’s cool,” I answer, evasively.
But apparently not evasively enough because on the other end of the phone call, Hollis busts out in laughter. “Fuck, man. You’re going with ‘she’s cool?’ Have you fucked her?”
“No,” I say quickly. Hollis is quite aware of my fake relationship with Bellini. He’s not a fan of the setup. To be honest, neither am I, but I’m already signed on, not much I can do about it now. “She’s my assistant, that’s it.”
“You’re such a shitty liar. I saw the way you looked at her, you were two seconds away from plowing your dick inside her at the photo shoot.”
Fuck. Was it really that obvious? I hope to God not. If Bellini caught any whiff of my attraction to Paisley, she not only would have her fired within seconds, but she would be up my ass before I could put my Speedo back on.
“There might be a little attraction there,” I admit. Hollis is trustworthy. As my best friend, he would never say anything.
“Yeah, a little is a boldfaced lie. You like her a lot. What’s her story?”
I relax on my sofa, a towel as my only garment of clothing. “I’m not quite sure.” I sigh and run my fingers through my hair leaning against the couch. “She hasn’t really opened herself up to me. She has a master’s in film production. I don’t believe this is her choice job, but from the looks of it, it’s something related to what she’s interested in. Her tattoos are meaningful to her.”
“They’re hot as shit. I bet she has some under her clothing as well.”
Having seen Paisley in a bikini, Hollis is absolutely right about that.
“They’re all quotes from her favorite movies.” I rub my eye with the palm of my hand. “Fuck, she even has the Rocky quote I carry around with me tattooed on her bicep.”
“For real? Dude, you totally popped a chub over that, didn’t you?”
Pretty much.
“She wants nothing to do with me, though. She’s so adamant about keeping a professional relationship, she won’t give in to the attraction between us. I saw her on the beach the other day, invited her to my place for lunch, hoping it would relax her, maybe have a little make-out session.” Hollis laughs. “I thought that maybe I was going to get somewhere with her, even just a fucking kiss would have been awesome. The sexual tension between us is fucking heavy, but she didn’t give in, instead she headbutted me.”
“What?” Hollis laughs into the phone some more. “She straight-up headbutted you? Like some kind of sexy ninja?”
“If you want to call it that. She didn’t even do it right, she hit my forehead with hers. I guess I have to be grateful she didn’t go for my nose. That wouldn’t have been pretty today.”
“Fuck, if she gave you a black eye from headbutting you, I would have asked for her autograph.”
“Thanks for the support dickhead.”
“Anytime.” He laughs. “So what are you going to do about it?”
“I have no clue.” I feel a headache coming on and try to rub it out with my fingers. “I asked her to dinner the other day after I took her to breakfast, kind of had to trick her into that, but she denied me. I don’t know, man, I’ve been off my game lately. My strokes are choppy, my mind isn’t in it, and all I can think about is why this girl won’t give in to the feelings I know she has.”
Hollis grows serious. “Reese, you leave for trials in two days. You can’t be fucking with your swimming right now.”
“You don’t think I don’t know that? I’m well aware of when trials are, as well as this being my last chance at gold. But fuck if I can’t get her out of my mind. It’s never been like this before. I feel like a foreigner in my body when I’m in the pool. I can’t get my cadence down, and my main sets have been shit.”
“Shit,” Hollis breathes out. “Have you talked to Coach Fern?”
“Hell, no,” I say quickly. “Hollis, we both know that would be a huge mistake. The man would rip me a new asshole for letting a girl affect my swimming. I’ve been with him since the beginning of my career, from the very start of our first practice together, when I was standing in front of him, knobby knees, barely able to fill out my Speedo. He told me if I wanted to be an Olympic swimmer, I had to take it seriously, and that meant girls were not to get in the way of my goals. Back then, it was no big deal, I was the scrawny kid no one wanted to talk to.”
“And what are you now, some dreamboat every girl wants to get their hands on?” Hollis laughs.
“Not every girl,” I mumble, just as my doorbell rings. “Hey, someone is at the door. I’ve got to go.”
“Okay, but text me later, we’re not done with this conversation.”
“Later, Mom.”
