by C. Morgan
“No. Seriously. It’s been great. He took the entire staff out to a really nice dinner on Friday night. We leave Monday.”
“You said that,” she said with a smile playing on her lips.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.
“Because when you talk about him, you get this kind of floating look.”
I took a drink of the orange juice I’d ordered. “Floating? Have I suddenly started levitating?”
“You know what I mean. You are happy.”
“I am. I like my job. I’m excited for our first away trip.”
“You do know this guy travels a lot, right?”
“I do.”
“You’ve always wanted to travel, I guess,” she said.
I slowly nodded. “I am looking forward to that part of the job. But I’m also a little worried. The other staff at the clinic told me his other assistants all quit because of his demanding schedule. I’m almost afraid to say it, but it’s been easy for me. Either I’m doing it wrong or they were just really clueless about the job.”
“Are you crushing on him?” she asked bluntly.
“No!”
“Okay, okay,” she said and held up her hands. “Has he hit on you?”
I thought about that because technically we’d both been flirty. “No.”
“You hesitated.”
“We flirt and joke around, but it isn’t just him. It’s just fun. I’ve very much been a part of the flirting. I’ve been the instigator more than once.”
She slowly nodded like she was Sherlock Holmes evaluating a clue. “I see.”
“What do you see?”
“You like him.”
“Oh no, no, no. It isn’t like that.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Okay.”
“You’re saying that, but I see something else.”
“You see stuff because you know what happened between us. If you didn’t know about that, you wouldn’t be so suspicious.”
“For the record, I’m cool with it. I don’t mind you guys hooking up. I just hope you guys can have a happy ending. If he does anything to hurt you, I will send Ryan after him.”
“I will definitely keep you updated.”
“All right, good. Let’s order. I’m starving.”
While we ate, I listened to her regale me with tales of married life. She was probably the happiest person I had ever met. She was practically gushing with love and happiness.
When I went home to my empty apartment with boxes still not unpacked, I felt just a twinge of jealousy. She had it all and I had nothing. I wasn’t unhappy, but when compared to her, I felt like I was seriously missing out on something big.
I took care of all of my last-minute tasks and finally went to bed early. As usual, Ryker was there to greet me when I closed my eyes. Honestly, I had been thinking about him for the last few hours, about that night and all the things I wished I could have done.
I was going to be spending time with him the next couple of days. It would be us away from the office and witnesses. It was going to be difficult to keep my mind out of the gutter. Especially with the thoughts that had been plaguing me the last few nights.
I was horny. All the flirting had led me to this hyper-aroused state. I couldn’t spend time alone with him when I was in this condition. In my mind, there was only one cure. Technically, two cures, but the first cure wasn’t an option.
I was on my own. I wiggled out of my panties and opened my legs for my touch. I rubbed my fingers between legs. A shiver went down my spine. I stroked again and then again until I couldn’t deny myself the pleasure I was so desperate to have. My fingertip slid over my clit. I sucked in a breath through my clenched teeth.
I opened my legs wider and rubbed harder over my clit before slipping my finger inside my own body. I felt my own excitement. I felt my desire. It heightened my need for an orgasm. I slid a second finger inside myself. With my fingers slick with my own juices, I rubbed over my clit. I started slow, relishing in every little shiver of delight that raced through my body. When need forced me to move faster, I gave in. I rubbed faster and faster. Ryker’s face was front and center in my mind. I squeezed my eyes shut and conjured up the memory of him whispering in my ear and telling me how much he liked being inside me. I bit my lower lip and imagined it was his fingers rubbing over me. It was the image of him that triggered the release of warm liquid from my very core. My toes curled and my body was nearly paralyzed as the release rolled over me.
I cried out, squeezing my legs together with my hand pinned between my thighs. I moaned and groaned in my bed all alone. When my muscles began to unclench, I let out a long sigh. I felt moderately better, but it wasn’t the release I was truly craving. I wanted the real thing. I couldn’t have the real thing. For now, it was just me and my fingers.
I couldn’t cross the line with him. I like my job, and dirtying the waters was a risk I refused to take. Sins prior to my employment did not count. At least that was what I was telling myself.
Chapter 16
Ryker
She was right on time. I expected nothing less. When I texted her, she answered almost immediately. I was impressed. Always. She always impressed me. I insisted on picking her up at her apartment. It made no sense for her to drive to work and leave her car there. I wasn’t technically driving. It was my driver doing the driving.
She was waiting outside her building when the car pulled in. I climbed out of the back. “Hi,” I greeted her in the cool morning air.
“Hi.”
“You’re all ready?”
She looked at her suitcase. “As ready as I can be.”
I picked it up and put it in the trunk before gesturing for her to climb in the back of the comfortable car. She settled in behind the driver while I sat behind the front passenger seat. “We’ll be there in about two hours,” I told her. “Normally, I would fly, but we are not going that far.”
“I don’t mind the drive.”
I couldn’t help but notice her outfit. Once again, she managed to make something as simple as a pair of black slacks and a feminine T-shirt-style top look sophisticated and sexy as hell. The shirt hugged her breasts, showing just how perfectly round they were. I had a feeling I was not going to be the only man to notice how fabulous her rack was. It was fantastic.
“We’ll just be meeting with some of the support staff. The full team is usually not in attendance.”
“What will I need to do?”
“Stick with me and I will give you a tour of my office there and introduce you to some of the people we’ll be coordinating with. As you can imagine, the team behind the team is large and it is important we all coordinate care.”
She was nodding as I spoke. When she listened, she really listened. That was something I really liked. It was what made her so easy to talk to. Everyone could see the understanding in her eyes, along with compassion and genuine interest.
“I’m anxious to learn,” she said with a smile.
Both of us settled in and worked on our tablets. Occasionally, she would ask me something or we would make small talk. It was all comfortable. We weren’t chatting up a storm, but just having her quiet presence there made me feel calmer. It was easy to be with her.
When we got to the office where myself and the other team doctors and support staff spent a lot of our time, she was looking all around. I opened the door to my office which was small. All of the offices were small. It was more of a place to fill out paperwork than actually see patients.
“They let you come back?” I heard someone say from the door.
I looked up and grinned. “I heard they fired you and shipped you to Dallas,” I said and shook the hand of the team’s physical therapist, Ben.
“Curse you for even suggesting it.”
“Ben, this is Trinity. Trinity, this guy has the office down the hall. He’s the physical therapist for the team. We’ll be working together with him quite a bit. There is also an orthopedist, a doctor, and a bunch of assistan
ts to those guys roaming about as well.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Ben,” she said with a bright smile and shook his hand.
“You’re new?” Ben asked.
“I am.”
Ben raised an eyebrow at me but said nothing about my new assistant. “I’ll let you guys settle in. I am in search of my own assistant. Seems he got lost on the way.”
“We’ll see you around,” I told him.
“I never realized how many people worked behind the scenes,” Trinity said.
I laughed. “The guys and gals behind the scenes outnumber the team themselves. That’s not even counting the personal assistants and managers for each of the guys. It can get awful crowded.”
After spending a couple of hours meeting other staff members and going over the plan of attack for tomorrow, we headed for the hotel. “This is nice,” she whispered while I turned over my credit card at the check-in desk.
I smiled and nodded. I was glad I could impress her. She was looking around the hotel lobby with the same wonderment one would expect to see in a child’s eyes. I loved that she wasn’t used to this kind of thing. It made me see it through her eyes. It was like seeing it all for the first time.
“Your room is next door to mine,” I told her and handed her the key.
“Thank you.”
“Would you like to get dinner in an hour?”
At first, I thought she was going to say no, but then she nodded. “Yes, that would be nice. I know you hate when I ask, but is this just a casual dinner or do I need to change?”
“Wear what you have. We can just eat in the hotel restaurant if that works for you.”
“Perfect.”
When I knocked on her door to take her dinner, I had to admit, I was glad to see she had changed. She was wearing a pretty dress with her hair pulled up in a loose ponytail. She’d put on more makeup and looked like she was ready for a night out.
“You look beautiful,” I told her.
“Thank you. I decided to change.”
I smiled. “I see that.”
When we walked into the hotel restaurant, I saw the looks. I saw the men staring. She looked hot in the sundress that showed off her tanned arms and pretty shoulders. She had the girl next door thing with an added touch of sexy. I was a lucky man to get to share a dinner with her.
“This is a really nice place,” she commented.
“I like staying here when I’m in town.”
I was struggling to keep my mind out of the gutter. I wanted her. I couldn’t want her. My mother’s words were bouncing around in my head and disrupting my thoughts.
“Will we be meeting any of the players tomorrow?”
“Do you want to?”
She shrugged. “It isn’t something I’ve had on my bucket list,” she said with a laugh.
“You’ve never watched football?”
“I’ve seen it, but I haven’t watched it if that makes any sense.”
I nodded. “I get it. Do you know any of the players? By name, I mean.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Isn’t there a Manning or something?”
I didn’t want to laugh at her, but it really was sweet. “There is. Was. He is not going to be on this team.”
“I’m not a fan but I will of course be totally professional.”
“I have no doubt in my mind that you will be professional. I’m sure you are going to be a breath of fresh air for the guys. They are not used to being nobodies.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are groupies that hang all over them. You are not going to know who they are and I’m going to assume you don’t care.”
She giggled. “It isn’t that I don’t care, but what they do doesn’t really impact my life. I don’t have feelings one way or another.”
“You won’t be fangirling.”
“No, I don’t think I will. Did you when you first started working with them?”
“I was impressed by a few of them. I’m not a huge football fan but I do watch and keep up on who is doing what.”
“Do you watch the games from the stands? Do you stay in the locker room?”
“Both. Honestly, what I do isn’t really emergency medicine. The team doctor, orthopedic guy, and a host of other people all assess the player first. I’m more of the long-term guy.”
She nodded as if she understood. We enjoyed our dinner before retiring to our rooms. It was difficult to go to sleep that night knowing she was just across the hall. She was so close but so far. Considering this was our first away trip, I was absolutely dedicated to keeping it strictly professional. I gathered she had the same opinion. There was none of the normal flirting.
The following morning, my self-control was strained. When I knocked on her door, she answered it wearing a pair of skinny jeans, knee-high boots, and a polo that hugged her body. It gave her the perfect hourglass shape. Seeing her in the polo and observing how nicely it shaped her figure reminded me I needed to get her the office polos.
We headed for the field where some of the players were running drills. Her hair was pulled back in another ponytail and she wore dark sunglasses. We stood side by side on the sidelines with a lot of the other support staff. It was a rather boring day with not a lot happening. I introduced her to a few people but we didn’t meet any of the players.
I could tell she was bored. “You know, I probably could have taken this trip on my own,” I told her.
“Why?”
“You’re bored out of your mind.”
She smiled. “I wasn’t bored. I liked watching them smash into each other. Is this what you always do?”
“No, not really. It’s just starting to heat up. Tomorrow, there is a scrimmage game. We’ll sit in the stands if you’d like.”
“Where would you normally sit?”
“The stands. Sometimes, I stay in the office and work. If they need me, they’ll call. Again, when someone gets their lights knocked out, they don’t call the chiropractor.”
She laughed as we climbed into the waiting car. “Makes sense. No offense, but you’re not the first call I’d make if I broke my leg or smashed my head.”
“No offense taken. I suppose it’s more of a fluff job, but I like it, and it pays well. I get to travel and watch football.” I left out the part about the groupies that followed the team. Football players attracted women like moths to a flame. Just being in their general vicinity created a lot of opportunity.
“What more could a man want?” she teased.
“Exactly. I have some stuff to do tonight. Are you okay with ordering room service?”
She actually looked relieved. “Yes. I know we didn’t really do anything today, but I would love to veg and watch the free cable with a good burger and fries.”
“That sounds like a nice evening.”
“Do you need me to help with anything? I feel like I’m not really earning my keep this trip. I’ve done nothing.”
“This is part of the job.”
“Those other assistants were crazy to let this job go,” she said with a sigh.
“That means you plan on staying a while?”
“I do.”
“I have to warn you,” I told her. “This is an easy day. Sometimes, I’ll get called to a hotel room at ten o’clock at night to give a player an adjustment. Once the others see me, I might end up working all night to get them ready for a game or to help them endure the aches and pains after a game.”
“Am I supposed to be with you on those calls?”
“Yes. I’ll dictate what I’m finding and what I recommend for follow-up. I can’t remember it all and it is more efficient if I can just say what I need versus writing it down.”
She was nodding in her usual way that told me she was soaking it all in. “Okay. You just say the word and I’ll be there.”
I left her at her door and went inside my own room. I needed to put some distance between us. I was fighting the temptation to kiss her. I couldn’t get through another dinne
r with her and not want to kiss her goodnight. Hell, I wanted to do a lot more than kiss her goodnight. I wanted to pull her into my room and show her just how damn good she looked when she wasn’t trying. It was sexy as hell and I needed a cold shower.
Tomorrow was another day. I would keep my hands off. I could do it. I would think of an excuse to avoid dinner again tomorrow night.
Chapter 17
Trinity
“Do you want to get some dinner?” I asked him as we rode up in the elevator.
Last night, he’d kind of ditched me. I didn’t expect him to entertain me every night, but I also didn’t want to sit in my room alone again. It was our last night away from home and I felt like doing something fun. At least more fun than sitting in the room and watching old reruns.
He hesitated. “Sure. What are you up for?”
“I could order Chinese if you want to stay in,” I offered. “We can keep it simple.”
“That sounds good.”
“Go change and then come to my room,” I told him. “I’ll order food and wine? Or would you prefer beer?”
“You know, after watching football, I think beer sounds better.”
“Perfect. I’ll get it ordered.”
“I’m going to take a quick shower,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at me while we both slipped the card keys in the locks of our room.
“Okay. It will probably take thirty minutes anyway.”
“Use the company credit card,” he murmured.
“No, it’s fine. I got it.”
“Just use the company card,” he said again. “It’s all a write-off.”
“Okay, thank you, but just so you know, this was going to be my treat.”
He nodded and said nothing more. He looked like he was upset about something. Without a word, he walked into his room and closed the door. I wondered if I’d screwed up his plans for the night.
Truthfully, I didn’t know if he stayed in his room when I went into mine. Maybe he had company come over or maybe he snuck down to the bar to pick up a woman. I thought about texting him and telling him to forget the whole thing. I would tell him I was tired and we could get dinner another time.