they’ve worked with you. But if it came out that you and I were sleeping together…”
“…Everyone would look at me differently,” I finished. “I’ve had the same thought myself, but was afraid to admit it.”
“I don’t want you to risk your career. This is your first job at this level. Selfishly, I would love to do it again.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice intimately. “The way you smothered my face with your pussy… I’m getting hard just thinking about it.”
I desperately desired him in that moment. I wanted to take Rafael’s hand and find an empty room in this huge mansion and let him fuck me until neither of us could breathe. And I didn’t care who saw.
But then Rafael said, “I can’t do that to you. A star player sleeping with his coach? I would survive the scandal, but you probably wouldn’t. You’d never get to work in this business again.”
“You’re right,” I said. “This is for the best.”
He stuck out his hand. “I’d love to be your friend and colleague, Natalie.”
I shook it. “Me too, Rafa.” I glanced at the clock on the outdoor wall. “Well, I came here to make an appearance and I’ve done that. I think I’m going to head home.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
We went back inside and then out the front door to the valet stand. I handed the valet my ticket and he went running off to retrieve my car.
Rafael and I stood together in the night. Neither of us needed to fill the silence with words. We were content and comfortable around each other. Like we had been friends for years.
The valet returned with my blue Hyundai. “The odometer better be the same as it was when I gave you the keys,” I warned in a fake rich-person accent. “If my baby has been joy-ridden around town like a hussy you’ll hear from my attorneys. Plural.”
Once again, the valet gawked at me without getting the joke. “Ma’am, I swear to you…”
But Rafael was grinning widely and struggling not to burst out laughing. That made the joke worth it.
I handed the valet a tip, gave Rafael one final wave, and drove back to my apartment.
9
Joel
I loved parties. Always had. Put enough people together with some loud music—and alcohol—and I could charm a stone statue. Drop me in Florence with a fifth of Jack Daniels and I’d put a smile on David’s marble face. That’s not a boast, either. It’s a fact.
Darryl always hosted a party before the season kicked off. A way to welcome the new members of the team and blow off some steam after the stress of spring training. And of course, it was a chance to meet some ladies. I didn’t know where Darryl found them, but he had a way of attracting the best of the best from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Girls who were built to marry a superstar athlete.
But as we drank, and danced, and played in the pool… None of them jumped out at me. It was like I was desensitized to them. Yeah, a big pair of tits on a skinny frame was nice to look at. But when every single girl looked like that, it got old.
If the fourteen-year-old version of myself heard me say that, he would definitely call me a dumbass. But it was true.
The party went until four in the morning. I smiled and made conversation with a few girls who threw themselves at me, but politely rejected them in the end. Then it was just Darryl and me sitting by the pool.
“Still alone?” he asked me.
I shrugged. “Wasn’t feeling it tonight.”
“Same.”
Darryl and I had known each other a long time. We were on the same page about this sort of thing.
Rafael came walking out a few minutes later with a mug in his hand.
“You’re still up?” Darryl asked. “I thought you went to bed hours ago.”
“I did,” he replied. “I’m waking up. This is coffee.”
“Over-achiever,” I teased.
He lowered himself into a chair next to the two of us. “Opening day is tomorrow. I don’t want to fuck up my sleep cycle.”
“Like I said. Over-achiever.”
“When you’re the ace of the pitching staff, you’ll understand.”
“Fat chance of that,” I muttered. “I can’t even make the rotation, let alone become an ace.”
Rafael shrugged. “Find any good candidates?”
“Nope,” Darryl said simply.
“I saw you talking to that Japanese woman.” Rafael took a sip of his coffee. “Nothing there?”
“Not really.”
“She seemed like she knew a lot about baseball.”
“She knew a lot about baseball players,”