Page 37 of Cheap Shot

“Need some help with that?” Crawford asked with another of those low, rumbling laughs.

The jersey nodded vigorously and stuck its arms up.

Everyone chuckled.

Those big, rough hands of Crawford’s were surprisingly gentle as they maneuvered the neck hole over Harper’s face and ponytail.She was beaming when her head popped through. “Thanks! I was stuck!”

“I see that,” Luke said.

And Jesus fuck, this was bad. This was bad. Sebastian didn’t want to like this man at all, beyond the ridiculously hot sex they’d had but this was …

He hadn’t expected this.

Despite Sebastian’s generally dim opinion of the man, he hadn’t thought Crawford would beunkindto Harper. He’d gone out of his way to give her a stick and pose for a picture with her a few weeks ago. But Sebastian had expected Crawford to be sort of gruff and awkward. Bad with kids.

Maybe these guys had really good training in how to deal with the public or something?

But as Luke held out a hand for Harper and told her they were going to go meet the other guys now, Sebastian struggled to reconcile the way Luke was acting now with the guy he’d screwed around with last week.

How could the man in front of him nowpossiblybe the same one who’d stalked into his apartment, growled at him about the shop being open, then shoved him down into a chair, stripped off his pants, and worked him over with his hand until Sebastian was too weak to stand?

He was ashamed to say that the blowjob he’d given Crawford after probablywasn’this best work either. Although ithadended up with Crawford’s hand on his jaw, holding him in place as he came all over his face, so … he was pretty sure they’d both enjoyed themselves.

But it was still impossible to reconcile that memory with the man who had slowed his walk to practically a crawl when he saw that Harper was struggling to keep up with his long strides.

“Is it hot in here or is it just him?” Brie muttered, looping her arm into Sebastian’s and leaning in to speak in his ear.

“Brie!” Sebastian said, surprised. His sister had sounded like she never wanted tothinkabout a man again after her last conversation with her divorce lawyer.

He said as much to her now and she shrugged. “I’m not saying I want todatehim. I’m just saying it’s pretty damn hot to see Mr. Big Bad Growly Man be all soft with my kid.”

“He’s a totalasshole, you get that right?” Sebastian pointed out.

“Bet he’s still a great lay though.”

Sebastian choked on air. “What iswrongwith you?”

She scowled at him. “What’s wrong withyou? You’ve never had an issue with me talking about a guy like that before.”

“Yeah, but that was … it’s different. We’re at hiswork.”

She snorted. “Says the guy who shows up at his job to yell all kinds of rude shit to his face.”

“But I’m notsexualizinghim,” Sebastian hissed.

Not at the arena or aloud, anyway. What happened in their private time or in his head was a totally different matter.

“Okay, fine. You have a point. I’ll begood. I’m just saying, I can see theappeal.”

Unfortunately, so could Sebastian. Which was exactly the opposite of what he wanted.

Fucking Crawford. He made everything difficult, didn’t he?

CHAPTER NINE

That asshole,Luke fumed.That fucking asshole.Of course he’d showed up here. He wasconstantlypushing shit. Just like he had with the shop being open when they’d hooked up last week.

There was nothing Luke liked less than mixing his personal life and his private one and Sebastian had just torn through all that.