the fireplace in the kitchen watching a game on TV. It had been four days since we’d hooked up the first time. Since then we’d spent every spare minute touching each other and trying to make each other come with our hands, mouths, or dicks. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
I blinked down at the little tomatoes I was chopping. “No. I pretty much know how to chop salad tomatoes,” I said with a little too much snark. I was all mixed up inside. Even though we were fucking like bunnies, we hadn’t talked about the elephant in the room.
Tiller’s eyes widened. “Okayyyy.”
“Sorry. It’s just…” I let the words trail off as I tried to gather my thoughts. I didn’t want to be that guy who made a big deal out of a hookup. But I also didn’t want him to think I was a… dick slut is not a thing… serial boss-fucker.
Also, hopefully, not a thing.
“Mikey,” he said with a concerned tone in his voice. He stood up and came over to me. I put the knife down and wiped my hands on a nearby kitchen towel.
I stood up straight and looked right at him. “I want you to know I don’t normally do this.”
The teasing glint in his eye made my heart rate tick up.
“That’s funny. I’ve seen you chop tomatoes quite a few times. When you say you don’t normally—”
I smacked his chest, grateful he no longer had a sling there. “Shut up, you know what I mean.”
He grabbed my smacking hand and pulled it to his chest, pressing it over his heart and damned near making me light-headed. “You don’t owe me any explanations. I want you. Full stop. There are no conditions involved. Whoever you are or were or will be… it’s all irrelevant to how attracted to you I am and how much I enjoy spending time with you. I know we talked about how impossible it would be to pursue something long-term, but can we just enjoy our time together here in Aster Valley while we have it? I want to be able to touch you and kiss you and stay up late talking to you the way we do at home, but this time I want to be able to hold you while we’re doing it.”
His words made me feel special which was a rare treat. Tiller always made me feel valued and appreciated, but this was different. “Me too. That sounds really nice.”
“And I feel a little giddy getting you all to myself without Sam staying over or teammates dropping by for dinner.”
I stepped closer to him, moving one of my legs between his. We’d returned from a long walk in the woods and changed back into lounge pants, so I could feel the curve of his thigh muscle and the rough texture of his leg hair through the thin fabric.
I cupped the side of Tiller’s neck with one hand and kept the other on his chest. “One night, when the guys were over watching a replay of that week’s game, I got so turned on fantasizing about you, I almost came in my pants right there in the movie room.”
Tiller’s eyes dilated, and his breathing sped up. “Liar,” he breathed. “Tell me more.”
“You were so fucking sexy on the screen in your uniform. It was a game against Arizona or someplace hot, and you were pouring sweat. Your skin was tan and slick, and your eyes were fierce through your face mask.” I ran a thumb over his eyebrows. “You were glaring at the cornerback covering you, and I kept noticing your eyebrows furrow in frustration.”
“Ty Kenner. Dirty fucker,” he muttered. “Hasn’t met a personal foul he didn’t like.”
“Anyway,” I said with a chuckle, “you were tackled after a good reception and run. When you stood back up, your uniform shirt was caught up under your pads, and I could see your abs. I’m surprised we didn’t hear a collective sigh from the stands. Surely it was caught on the Jumbotron.”
Tiller’s cocky grin was sexy as hell. He moved his hand down from his chest and pulled up his shirt. “These abs?”
I ignored him and his billion-dollar muscles as best I could. “And that’s when I remembered I was sitting right next to you on the sofa. I looked over at you in person and then at your image on the screen. I imagined those lickable abs only two feet away from me. And I started getting hard.”
His breathing shallowed.