Reese as they were when Kona had returned to New Orleans and hooked back up with his college sweetheart, Keira.
“I gotcha,” he said, grin still wide. He offered Reese his hand again and she shook it, nodding to Gia.
“Get in touch with me when you get back home. Gia has my number. I’d love to come in, talk with your team…and the coaching staff. I’m sure we can convince them the advantages of opening up his roster.”
“Look forward to it,” Kona said, leading Puk and Gia toward the door. Reese caught her manager’s eye, shooting her a look that questioned if she was okay, but the woman waved her off, shrugging.
“Breakfast,” she explained and then left the hallway with Kona gesturing ahead of him and Pukui at her back, still looking a little confused and a lot worried.
“Well, shit,” Reese said, making a lot of stupid internal assumptions about what was going to happen to her team once Pukui heard the truth about Gia and Luka Hale.
It was bad enough Cat had threatened to quit when Wilson decided he was in love with her and spent the better part of the past two months sending her flowers and plane tickets to exotic locations and generally making a nuisance of himself. Then there was Pérez deciding Pukui shouldn’t be the only one with a family and had set his sights on the Steamers’ new Physical Therapist who wasn’t remotely interested in him. All this drama in just two short months. Cat and Wilson, Pérez and whoever was next on his “must have” list and Gia and Pukui, and whatever was happening between them. That look Pukui had on his face as he and Gia left with Kona worried Reese. Mainly, she wondered why Gia’s reaction to seeing Kona would make any difference at all to Kai. But she had her theories.
THE ROOM WAS DARK, but not quiet. Ryder, it turned out, hadn’t crashed and given up the fight against his jet lag. Reese entered the room, instantly spotting the empty but unmade bed and heard the low, seductive refrain of Frank Ocean in the background.
“Ry?” she called, getting no response as she slipped out of her heels and started to take off her jewelry. The earrings and bracelet got discarded next to her bag on the entryway table and her skirt and jacket landed on the floor near the bed and bathroom doorway as she walked through the room.
There was steam from the shower fogging the mirrors and heat pulsing like a heartbeat as she pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it on the counter top. Then, Reese froze when someone stood behind her. Someone tall and wide and very, very naked.
“You. Winked.” Ryder’s voice was deep, made her a little dizzy, like good bourbon going down and sticking to her inside.
“I might have,” she teased, stilling when Ryder slipped his hands around her waist, lowering to rest his chin on her shoulder while he watched her in the fogged mirror.
Their shapes were muted, unclear but lent something seductive to the way they moved. Ryder watched her, demanding with his focused gaze that she watch, too, as he slipped his fingers over her ribs, thumb flirting against her hardening nipple as he inched his fingers up.
“You know what it does to me when you play the tease.”
She nodded, sucking on her bottom lip when Ryder lowered the strap to her bra, nibbling at her shoulder, then the back of her neck as he unfastened the hooks.
“You want me to do things to you?” he asked, smile lethal when she only nodded again. “Good. I wanna do so many things to you.”
“Then do them, papi,” she said, her voice sounding low, desperate and it would be. Ryder answered her with a groan that sounded like a plea, something he did when Reese had turned him on so completely he became nothing more than ache and need and endless desire.
He slipped his hands further down, behind her silk thong to cup her, his eyes slamming shut when he felt her there, wet and warm and ready for him to do a little teasing of his own. But Ryder didn’t seem eager for that.
“Turn around. Now,” he said, pushing Reese onto the counter as he lowered over her, grabbing his hard dick, stroking it like he was ready and couldn’t stand not being inside her for another second.
They went at each other in the quick flash of movement, mouths claiming, touching, taking