Page 107 of Cross Checked
“I earned some of it.”
Her mouth fell open, and holy fuck, I wanted to bite that lower lip until she forgot whatever insult she was about to throw at me.
“You did not just say that.”
“Oh, I did.”
“You’re lucky I’m in a moving vehicle and legally discouraged from violence.”
“You hit like you’re five-two.”
“I am emotionally six-five, how many times I gotta tell you that.”
I cracked and laughed because she was a lunatic. “A million won’t make it true, Pip.”
Pip cleared her throat and looked back out the window, but her fingers stayed threaded with mine. That was the part that had me. She could deflect all she wanted, could makethe jokes, could pretend she was annoyed by me breathing too confidently in her direction, but she didn’t pull away.
She kept looking back.
“You know,” she said softly after a while, fingers eventually sliding more fully into mine where my hand rested over hers on the center console, “I think that’s what confuses me about you.”
I looked over briefly before focusing back on the road. “Only one thing? Impressive.”
Her lips twitched slightly, but the smile faded slowly after that. “You don’t feel the way I expected.”
Something tightened low in my chest hearing that. “What’d you expect?”
Pip looked down at our joined hands for a second before answering honestly. “Honestly? I expected you to feel dangerous. And you are.” Her eyes cut to me. “Dominant. Commanding.” She gave me a side-eye sharp enough to make my mouth twitch. “Bossy in bed, apparently.”
My grip flexed once around hers.
“Pip, you have no clue how indulgently bossy I get.”
She laughed, and fuck, I felt lighter after this morning. I had been all nerves earlier because I didn’t know what version of her I was going to get after the call last night. I didn’t expect the friends-with-benefits line she wanted to feed me, but whatever. I’d bite if it gave me more access to making her mine.
She didn’t even realize how badly she craved me. She was too busy trying to keep control over liking me to understand she was playing directly into my hands the minute she agreed sex was on the table. Because I knew she liked me. I knew our chemistry was off the charts. And so far, it was no different kissing her. It sure as hell was no different with my mouth on her.
She might need to feel in control of this thing, but the truth was neither of us had it.
It controlled us.
The difference was I wasn’t interested in pretending otherwise.
Pip was tripping over the idea that she might actually be happy with the thing she feared most, while I was already calculating how much patience it would take to make her admit this was never going to stay casual.
I stayed quiet because I knew her. She couldn’t let anything sit too long without poking at it until it either bled or turned into a joke.
Most people only saw the version of me built for public consumption. The cocky hockey captain. The arrogant athlete. The emotionally detached guy who never took anything seriously unless it involved hockey, competition, or winning.
Pip had started seeing too much.
And I wanted her to.
That was the fucked-up part.
“I guess I thought you would be arrogant and untouchable,” she said quietly, maybe lost in thought like me.
“And?”
