by Natalie Wrye
Well, maybe not many.
I do admit: A few tears leave my right eye. Especially after that last pitch.
I drop my batting helmet to the ground as I stumble out of the cage. My arms hurt from all the swinging, and I hand over my bat to Sevin, vision blinded as our fingers touch one another’s in the exchange.
The gorgeous player smiles. “Too much wood for you, Miss Armand? I’m surprised.”
I huff. “I told you: I don’t like balls flying at my face. And the only time I’ll make an exception is on a special night.” I plant my hands on my hips. “After a lot of tequila. So, don’t get any ideas.”
Sevin leans forward, kissing my forehead, and I grin. The expression widens when Charlie steps forward, and, passing a nearby helmet, sends Sevin on his way to the gauntlet.
“It’s your turn!” She shouts. “Good luck! But you won’t be as good as me.”
He winks before walking away.
The line of his body is perfect, poised as he heads inside the batting cage. I imagine it looked similarly when he walked away from Kimmy yesterday, leaving her tongue hanging, shock settling into her perfectly made-up face.
She deserved it.
Especially when she came to pick Charlie up at the apartment building.
The rain let up and the lines of press were back, bombarding her over every inch. Every Chicago paparazzo couldn’t wait to rake the socialite over the coals about her crumbling marriage, and if it weren’t for Sevin calling off the dogs, she would have never made it into Millennium Gardens.
Seems me calling the cops on Sevin so many times did him good.
He’d built a bond with Chicago’s Finest, calling them in to shoo away the cameras.
The trade-off? One entire day more with Charlie at one of her favorite places on earth.
The batting cages.
In the offices of The Firm, we’re all prepared for the inevitable onslaught of media attention that will come once Kimmy releases the news of Sevin’s paternity to take the heat off her own “press mess.”
But for the next twenty-four hours, we keep our focus on the tiny burgeoning softball star, and with my job surprisingly still intact despite breaking the rules, Stephan offers me the day off for my “hard work.”
And I feel guilty. Because there’s not a single thing “hard” about having fun with Charlie on her last day in the city.
Her eyes are glowing, bright as Sevin saunters up to the makeshift batting-cage base. The pitching machine kicks into gear, and with the city’s most successful shortstop at bat, helmet on, the baseballs don’t stand a chance.
The crack of his bat during his swing is loud—deafening. He sends the first pitch soaring, and Charlie cheers, her whoops almost as loud as my own.
We high-five, feeling the fever. The fever of watching one of the greats doing what he does best.
Playing the sport he loves.
I feel honored to be one of those who knows that’s not all the Chicago superstar does best. And after he sends the tenth baseball flying into oblivion, he removes his helmet from his dark hair, sweat sticking the errant strands to his face as he flashes us a huge smile.
And we can’t help but love him. Especially after he offers us his “best girls” a round of peanuts.
We head to the nearby concession stand, filling our arms and hands with the salty treats. Charlie dumps a whole set of them into her mouth, walking ahead, and outside of Chicago Cougar Park, in the shadow of the infamous Windy City stadium, the sun breaks through for the first time all day, slowly setting on the horizon.
It’s hard not to watch it.
Chicago shows off, giving us its best hues of purple, pink and gold, and I know I’ve never felt more content than in this moment. Never knew love and trust and flying balls could make me feel the way I feel with these two people in my life.
I watch Charlie as she skips ahead, her mood light, despite her flight in the morning. I can feel the sadness on Sevin’s skin as we amble the area.
“She’ll be back before you know it. Kimmy can’t keep her away.”
“I know.” He nods, not meeting my eye.
“Besides, her second dad is so much cooler than the first. I bet he can’t even lift a pitch off the ground after all these years.”
Sevin grins. “The only thing Finley’s picked up in the past nine years is fifty pounds. Sad to say.” His gait slows. “You know I don’t hate the guy. I really don’t. He saw what he wanted and went after it. And at the time, I thought that’s what I wanted to, and now I realize all I wanted to do was win. And my ego couldn’t take it.”
I gaze at him, committing the lines of his face into my mind. He’s so damn beautiful. I lean closer. “And now?”
“Now, I have what I want. And that’s you and Charlie.”
Without his usual baseball cap on, I can see the real Sevin. No longer hiding behind baseball or his buried emotions, today he’s let me get a glimpse into something greater than his green eyes.
He’s letting me into his soul.
Throwing an arm around me while gazing down, I know what he’s going to say. But I press a finger to his lips instead.
“You don’t have to tell me how much I mean to you. I no longer have to wonder. I know I do.” I wrap an arm around his waist while walking, loving the feel of him. “But after this case, if you ever interfere with another job of mine, I can promise you won’t be receiving any more ‘jobs’ from me.” I glance up, my grin growing wide as I face him. “Got it?”
“I got it… Loud and unbelievably clear, Miss Armand. With only one condition.”
“And what’s that?”
“You wear those pair of Felix the Cat underwear hiding somewhere in your drawers.” He stares. “And I know you have one. Once the regular season starts, we’re going to be responsible for the little despot, and I don’t want that black fur ball to be the only pussy I’m allowed to scratch. Those are my rules.”
“Rules were made for breaking,” I comment.
“But not this one.”
“I’ll tell you what: I’ll wear the Garfield the Cat ones next time. How about that? That way, when we’re alone, you can have access to more than just one ‘fat cat.’” I wink. “Deal?”
He stares, sealing our bond with a quick kiss. A promise of things to come. And I can’t wait.
“You’re on.”
Epilogue
EMILY
Two weeks later
Sevin was right.
I think my neighbors wait for me to arrive to the building elevator from my apartment floor so they can stack like Legos™.
Like a game of Tetris™, I squeeze my briefcase and a cup of the world’s hottest coffee into my apartment building’s elevator right before the heavy, silver-plated doors close.
Briefcase strap over my shoulder, phone in hand, caramel macchiato in the other, I try to swipe away from the trusty MyNeighbor app on my screen, where I’ve spent the last ten minutes complaining about the faulty stairs, and five floors later, after people have already started to pile on, a voice behind me in the elevator hisses over my shoulder.
I nearly give myself third degree burns as I jump.
“Ems!”
I somehow manage to not roll my eyes as I turn. “Nina.” I squeeze out a stifled smile to the only other woman with me in the elevator. “Hi. Good morning.”
“It is, isn’t it?” The overly peppy neighbor living a few floors below inhales loudly as I attempt to juggle my entire life in my hands. “Sun is shining. Birds are singing. Or they will be once we get past this spring storm that’s sweeping in tomorrow.” She peers at me over a set of brown sunglasses that match the silky bob brushing her shoulders. “And I finally met that new neighbor of ours…”
I frown. “What new neighbor?”
Her small shoulders slump as she crosses her arms. “You know what new neighbor… The guy above you. Mr. Hotshot. That newly hot single dad. Or as you once called him ‘the devil incarnate.’”
“Ah.�
�� I nod. “That one.”
The one I’m now living with.
Slipping my phone into my briefcase, I take a premature sip of the macchiato that is still too hot. Swallowing the familiar burn, I try to hide the secret of being Sevin Smith’s girlfriend on my face, rotating towards the elevator’s buttons, my skin tingling at just the thought of him.
Just the thought of my sexy-as-hell boyfriend.
Until the elevator stops.
Mrs. Headley, our neighbor from downstairs, enters.
A customary scowl on her wizened face, she grunts—her usual greeting as she steps onto the small lift, her gray hair curled around her elf-like ears.
Even after our exchange that helped find Charlie, we’re no closer than we were. But I do my neighborly duty, smiling sweetly as the older woman approaches.
I’m met with an even deeper scowl in return.
“Hi, Mrs. Headley.” Clearly, Nina never learns.
The old woman grunts in response.
“Lovely weather we’re…not going to be having.” Nina’s effort at making conversation with our miserly neighbor falls flat.
A few more floors later, and I am silently begging to be off this elevator, but my building’s neighbors pile on and off until I’m eagerly shifting in my low high heels.
And the only topic each neighbor seems to be concerned about is Sevin.
The man whose bed I’ve been sleeping in every night.
With the regular season started, he doesn’t get to join me in it as often as we’d both like.
But with no one but me to call the cops, the noise nuisance has made Sevin popular among the other tenants.
Only this time?
I’m the screamer.
My baseball-playing boyfriend and his newfound daughter are today’s hot topic since the news broke. And inside the Lego™-like space, I’m forced to listen to the inane chatter all the way down.
Nina, of course, is first to kick off the conversation.
“I hear he’s slated to be my MVP this year.”
“I hear he’s thinking of petitioning for a trade back to the New York Fever.”
“I hear he’s hung like a horse.”
Only, the last statement comes from me…in my own head.
What could I say? The man was packing some serious size inside his boxer briefs—a fact I can’t exactly share with the MyNeighbor app.
So, I’m only too relieved when my co-worker Ben, seemingly the only sane neighbor I have at the moment, walks in on the ninth floor, the smell of his slightly floral scent filling the air.
He nudges me. “How’s my favorite new neighbor this morning?”
“Likely at risk of pissing Stephan off again. But what’s new?” I elbow him lightly. “But how are you?”
“Oh no, we’re back onto you, Miss Armand. Don’t change the subject. I know that someone is very excited about her two favorite people coming into town today. I don’t even know why you’re going to work.”
“Um, pretty much so Stephan doesn’t fire me?”
“Huh. That’s actually a good point.”
I elbow his arm. “Relax. I don’t plan on getting fired from The Firm any time soon, and Charlie’s visitation is only for the weekend. That’s only what her mother will allow.”
A lie, if I ever heard one.
Kimmy has only been too eager to give Sevin more visitation days to celebrate her newly found freedom from her marriage to Finley. But for the meantime, keeping Charlie’s life as normal as possible is priority number one.
At least, until Sevin gets joint custody.
I keep that little secret to myself and away from our little elevator audience. Along with a few others…
The Firm’s newest client, Sawyer Kennedy, deserves our undivided attention (and privacy), and talking about his teammate and his daughter doesn’t help.
The Lobby floor can’t come fast enough as everyone continues speculating about Sevin. Even Ben.
I can’t sprint out of that steel contraption fast enough. But just as I exit, I realize I’ve left my damn files for Stephan’s meeting.
Turning the elevator back around to my floor, I’m almost there.
That is, until the lift stops on the fourteenth floor and in walks a face I haven’t seen in thirteen days. A face I’ve been missing for what feels like forever.
Sevin smiles at me. And it’s like it’s the first time.
I try to hide the squeal that strangles out of my throat, but I’m too late. I’m full-on fan-girling like the rest of my building when he walks in.
He drops a brown box in his large hands, wrapping his muscular arms around me and squeezing tight. Smelling just as sexy as he did the day I last saw him, he sends my body humming from his smoky scent, every inch of my skin pulsating as his fingers linger on my skin.
He kisses my lips.
“Going down?”
There’s a glint in his green eyes when he pulls back to look at my face, his scruffed face grinning.
There’s no baseball cap on his head this time—as he’s been long done with that defense mechanism. And I gaze at him openly, admiring him as the double doors close behind him, locking us in.
I touch his chin. “Actually, I’m going up. And you?”
“Same as ever. Retrieving a package delivered to the wrong floor. You’d think they figured out which ‘S. Smith’ is the right one by now, but no. According to Hank, there are about five of us S. Smith’s in the building. I’m doomed to do this over and over again for all eternity.”
“Yeah. But getting you in the elevator all to myself isn’t so bad so excuse me for not exactly boo-hoo-ing.” I hug him closer. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you too,” he whispers. “And so has Charlie. She’s already in the apartment, probably tearing it apart, chasing Felix all over the new floors.”
“That should keep her busy for another hour.” I giggle.
“I hope so.”
The levity from the air is gone, replaced by lust. The elevator’s still ascending, but within seconds, the light in Sevin’s deepened green eyes goes entirely dim, darkened by desire.
He steps over, pressing one finger to the “Stop” button.
The entire elevator shudders to a halt, and my skin trembles with it, my skirt-suit suddenly feeling extremely hot as Sevin’s stare skims over my body.
Down my blazer, it goes. Over my bra.
His appreciative gaze slides over my belly and against my hips, and by the time it concentrates between my thighs, I have to stop myself from shaking, steadying myself as I drop the briefcase and macchiato to the floor, preparing for the onslaught to come.
I brace myself against the metal railing behind my hands, holding on tight. I peer up into Sevin’s serious eyes.
“You wouldn’t dare, Mr. Smith.”
“If you think I wouldn’t, kitten, then you really don’t know me.” He takes a step towards me, closing the space. “But fortunately for both of us, you know me better than anyone else on this planet. And you know when I say ‘I’m going to fuck you so damn good right now’…that I mean it.” He hovers over my lips. “I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for this moment for us again. Waited for you.”
“Thirteen days. Ten hours. And six seconds,” I hiss back near his mouth. “Just to be exact.”
“Actually, it’s been thirteen days. Ten hours and three seconds. But who’s counting?” He reaches for my skirt. “The only thing I plan on counting for the next two days is how many times I make you ‘come.’”
“That’s going to be a little harder to keep count of.”
“Oh, I’m counting on that.” His lips curve upward. “I’m counting that we lose count by the time the next forty-eight hours is over.” He reaches for his belt buckle, slinging the thick strap to the floor. He unzips his zipper. “Starting right the hell now.”
Nothing is more natural than when Sevin and I come together. Not even breathing.
We’re in sy
nc in everything we do. Including sex.
And when Sevin hikes up my skirt, exposing my panties, when he lifts me in his arms, stroking one deft hand over my skirt, it’s as if we’ve done this very act a million times before.
And I’m not so sure we haven’t.
Sevin finds me wet in seconds, groaning out loud.
His fingers slip over the bits of lace covering my sex, and I can tell his shock by the way he stops. He pulls back from our frenzied kiss, gawking down at me.
“What happened to the Bugs Bunny? I liked his furry ass. I almost miss him.”
“Sorry, Mr. Smith. I replaced him with something a little more worthy of a homecoming.”
He smirks, and soon the only object in the elevator coming…is me.
Sevin releases his thick cock from his jeans, letting it jut against my hip. Slipping the black lace under my skirt to the side, he thrusts inside of me so skillfully that I almost orgasm immediately.
My ass cheeks in his hands, my nails against the railing, Sevin pumps into me at the sight of our first encounter.
Except everything is sweeter about this rendezvous. Ten times better.
Specifically when he tells me he loves me, murmuring in my ear.
My name is a prayer on his gorgeous lips. Full of worship.
Bouncing my body along his, my handsome man takes me to the brink of a naughty nirvana—some sacred heaven, and lets me tumble over it. My ecstasy in the tiny compartment is sweeter than it ever was, our stars aligning full circle, and as Sevin pushes me to my second climax, my pussy walls pulsing against his throbbing length, the stars find their destination at last.
In Sevin’s dangerous eyes.
My body milks his, taking everything he has to give, and I cling to him, my limbs spent, body splayed over his as he holds me, our bodies still connected in the most sensual way.
I lean my head onto his shoulder, struggling for breath. “That was more of a welcome than I intended.”
“Same here.”
With a minute to recover, we attempt to straighten ourselves before seeing Charlie, starting the elevator up again.
Sevin adjusts my skirt. I fasten his fly.
But when we land on the penthouse level, there’s no Charlie to greet us from the hall. In fact, she seems to be missing.