Page 60 of The Offside Rule
I took a deep breath. “I’m out of my element with you. Thinking about hands and fingers in the context you just described has made me hard as a rock.”
“I thought you hooked up a lot,” she said.
“Sometimes on the road, but it’s been months, and I never tried to know those women. Getting to know you now…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence.
Her breathing picked up. “I feel it too, Hunter. This pull toward you.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” I countered. I put down my fork. We were both staring into each other’s eyes. I knew that look. The one where we were seconds from ripping each other’s clothes off.
“It makes perfect sense,” she corrected, shifting in her seat. I knew that move too. She was horny. She needed me to release all that pent-up sexual energy she must be feeling.
I swallowed and pinched my eyes closed. “I’m trying to be a gentleman.”
“Maybe that isn’t what I need right now,” she replied.
I was squeezing and releasing my fist under the table to calm myself down. “I like you, Catherine. You’re different from other women I’ve known. I feel comfortable around you. I’m crazy attracted to you. I love when you smile. Do you see the problem here?”
I was met with her warm smile again. “No.”
“We’re a disaster waiting to happen,” I said.
“That’s blunt,” she snickered.
“One of us needs to be thinking straight. You’re just starting out with the team. Being seen with me in an unprofessional way could reflect badly on you with management.”
“I thought you were more worried about what my parents would think,” she countered.
“I’m worried about that too, but…”
“But what?” she asked. “We’re laying things out. Don’t hold back on me now.”
“I think that if your parents knew I was serious about you, maybe they wouldn’t care,” I stated. Clearly, I had given this some thought. Late at night in bed when all I did was think of her.
“I’m not so sure. My dad is really against me being with a player. He wasn’t around a lot when I was younger, and he hates that part of his job.”
“I had the same guilt about Isla. I hated leaving her. It helped that she was with my mom and sister most of the time, but it was still hard. I still have feelings of guilt for leaving her during the season,” I explained.
“You’re a lot more like my dad than I realized,” she said softly.
“I want what’s best for Isla, just like your dad wants what’s best for you. I can’t afford a fling with you,” I said because we were laying it all out, and she needed to understand where I stood. She had to see I was a single dad first.
“That makes me like you more, and it isn’t a fling I’m after. I’ll be done medical school after this year, then I start my residency. Life will be busy, but I want something serious with someone I can trust,” she admitted.
“And you feel like you can trust me?” I asked. The words felt lodged in my chest. It was hard for me to trust, and I knew Catherine had a similar experience, which meant the world tome. She was tearing down my walls. Saying all the right things. She was trouble wrapped in a yellow lounge set that I wanted to peel off her for dessert.
She nodded. “I haven’t felt anything at all for months until my parents’ pool party on the Fourth of July. I can’t explain it, but my attraction to you was instant. I thought I was broken. When I tried getting myself off, I couldn’t come, and then in one afternoon, I was so hot for you I had to go to that shower to relieve all that pent-up sexual tension.”
“Catherine,” I said, her name like a warning. I was one breath away from snapping and taking her to bed.
“Why is it so hot when you say my name like that, Hunter?” she asked.
“You’re saying all the right things. I’m hard as a rock. I need inside you, but…”
“Take me.”
I blinked. “I didn’t hear you right.”
“Take me to bed, Hunter.”
