back of his skull. There were other feelings as well. A warm female body pressed against him, the scent of lemon and sex, and a sweet languor that he hadn’t felt in a long time. But it was the shoulder that bothered him, and probably that pain which pushed him to consciousness at barely after dawn.
He tried to shift positions, but the pain sharpened enough that his eyes shot fully open. And then facts started to pile up in his brain.
Tori was sleeping on his shoulder. She was tucked tight against him to the point that his morning wood was already shifting happily against her bottom. As they were both naked, this could have been a very nice way to wake.
But the shoulder pain was growing exponentially now that he was alert enough to process it. Worse, his arm and fingers as they extended beneath her were numb.
Bad. Bad. Bad.
His hands were his life and he’d just cut off blood flow to them for God only knew how many hours.
His reaction was immediate. He didn’t think about it, he just did it and then apologized afterward.
He jerked his arm out from under her and sat up, waiting through the tingling and weakness as life returned painfully to his hand.
And he cursed the whole time.
“Well that’s a new way to wake up.”
He looked over at Tori, seeing her rosy cheeks, soft sleepy eyes, and bedhead. She was adorable and part of him wanted to try out his returning dexterity on her. But that was the lust-filled part, not the panicking part which dominated right now.
So he turned away and forced himself to mutter a half-surly, “I didn’t mean to wake you.” He shoved out of bed. “I’ll let myself out. You can sleep in.”
“No need,” she said as she pushed herself up to a slouching sit. She matched him perfectly, except she wasn’t rubbing her shoulder. “It’s summer break. I can sleep or not however I want.” Then she gave him a coy smile. “If I want to stay in bed all day—”
He cut her off before she could finish. “I’ve got PT and stuff. Sorry.”
Her gaze cut to where he was massaging his shoulder. “Can I help?”
“No,” he snapped. His hurt arm twitched as he mentally tried to put a leash on his temper. But it was too early in the fucking morning, and she was the reason he was in this position. His shoulder was screwed up because he caught her out of the air. It ached like hot coals because she’d slept on it all night. Who knew what other disaster she might perpetrate in his life?
It wasn’t rational, but he wasn’t in a thinking place right then. So he pulled on his pants one-handed. It was hard, which only made him more pissed off.
Meanwhile, Tori shifted to her knees, completely unconscious about her nudity. He didn’t want to look, but even his angry brain couldn’t resist the sight of the dawn light softening as it stroked her breasts with pale color.
“You’re really upset,” she said softly. Her head tilted to one side and her blond hair slipped down to curtain her shoulder. God, she was beautiful. And in that moment, a choice crystallized before him as stark and clear as if God had put two things in front of him and said, “Pick one.”
On the one hand, he had Tori. She was smart, funny, infinitely interesting and hot enough to boil his brain to mush.
On the other hand, he had his career. The demands of pro basketball were increasing and his body required more maintenance. It was a losing game. He was aging. Injuries came more quickly and healing took longer. There were always younger, faster, stronger men ready to step into his place. Which meant stuff that he could ignore ten years ago were now big deals. And Tori was the biggest deal of all.
He could lose a lot of hours with her. He could take risks with his shoulder, shave off training time, and even blow off a practice or two just to be with her. Hell, he already had in some ways. It’s not like roofing her house was on his list of recommended activities.
Which meant even a summer fling idea was toast. He couldn’t do it and rehab his shoulder.
So there it was: Tori or basketball?
“I’m sorry, Tori. I’ve got to go.”
She nodded, accepting it with calm. “Okay. Want to come over tonight? We still have lots of beer to try.”
He shook his