by Stella Rhys
“Emmett and I are cool,” Drew said, measuring his words. “He knew I was at risk of being traded as far back as last year and told just Iain instead of me, but aside from that, we’re cool.”
“Oh. So what, now you don’t trust him either?”
“I never trusted him or anyone in the first place, so nothing has changed. We’re good.”
Jesus. I blinked with surprise as I watched Drew’s hard eyes study the menu.
“Well… his brother owns the team you play for so I’m sure he wanted to tell you, but there was just a conflict of interest,” I offered.
“Of course. Family first,” Drew said in a sardonic tone that reminded me of the fact that ‘family first’ didn’t ring true with him. After all, he’d mentioned that his family treated him like an ATM.
Damn. I chewed my lip through the silence that followed, hoping that Drew had at least someone in this world that he trusted fully. I mean I didn’t trust my own family, and I obviously didn’t trust Mike anymore, but at least I had Aly. She would stick by me through anything. I knew that, and I quietly cherished her as I studied Drew.
“Oh, wait, this is the food menu,” I finally said to break the silence.
“Perfect. Let’s exchange.”
“Didn’t you just eat dinner?” I laughed as he eagerly swapped menus with me.
“Yeah, but that was over an hour ago.”
“Oh my God. You and your food.”
“Yeah, me and my need to nourish my body to stay alive. So crazy,” he muttered though he peered up with amusement when I giggled. “What?”
“Nothing. I’m more so laughing at myself.”
“Why?”
“Just remembering something from when I was a kid.”
“What is it?”
I looked up from my menu to find Drew’s undivided attention on me.
“You really want to hear a story from my childhood?” I asked dubiously.
“I thought that was implied when I said ‘what is it.’”
“Okay, relax, smart ass, and it’s not a good story, it’s just that when I was younger…” I trailed off, chewing my lip when I realized I didn’t actually want to say this aloud. It was probably only funny in my head. “Actually, I forget what I was saying. I’m all drunk.”
“You didn’t drink yet.”
“Maybe I drank at home.”
Drew caught my jaw and pulled my face to his. My heart stopped in my chest as he tilted my mouth up, holding my lips an inch from his.
“No.” His thumb stroked my jaw as he breathed me in. “You didn’t.” He lifted his gaze from my lips to my eyes and held it there for one painfully hot second. But in a flash, he released me and returned to being blunt. “Now tell me the story.”
Just like that, his attention returned to the menu – as if he hadn’t just done something ridiculously freakin’ intimate that required time for me to catch my breath.
Or maybe that wasn’t super intimate and you’re just overthinking things? I thought before promptly catching myself. Okay, stop. It’s way too early in the night to get this deep in your head.
“Um… yeah, anyway. Where was I again?” I mumbled to myself, pretending to casually scan my menu though I was honestly too flustered to read shit. “Oh right. Long story short, when my sister Kaylie and I were kids, we thought that once you were an adult and you stopped growing, that meant you didn’t have to eat anymore. We literally thought that eating just ceased to be a necessity once you turned like, twenty-five.”
Drew looked up again, eyeing me with feigned seriousness.
“So you guys were held back a few grades, huh.”
“Shut up!” He grinned big when I burst out laughing. “Asshole. If you must know, we were like four and eight when we thought this and it was only because my mom would make us grilled cheeses every day and just wait around to eat our crusts. And when we asked why she didn’t make one for herself, she said she only wanted a snack and adults don’t need to eat like little kids do,” I said, my smile slowly faltering as I finished the story. Okay, yeah. Definitely less funny said aloud, I nodded awkwardly as I peered up at Drew. I could see the humor in his eye flickering away as he looked at me and put two and two together.
Yep.
I grew up dirt poor and my mom was definitely hungry. She just couldn’t afford to eat and feed her kids too.
Well, hello, buzzkill, I scolded myself as I blurted, “Anyway,” and tried to think of a topic change. Come on, come on, hurry up, I desperately begged myself while coming up painfully empty.
Drew surprised me with a reassuring hand on my knee.
“So tell me about the Empire State Building. What’s up with your weird little obsession?” he said, returning his casual gaze back to the menu.
I blinked for a second of confusion, but then a little smile wiggled onto my lips. I knew Drew couldn’t care less about this story – he was just giving me an out from the last subject we’d touched on, since it clearly had me so flushed and embarrassed. It was a tiny gesture, but still a lot more than I’d ever expected from him.
“It’s also a boring story,” I warned.
“Tell me.”
“Well, this was just the number one stop on our first ever visit to New York. We got off an Amtrak at Penn Station, walked to the Empire State and took about a dozen Polaroids from different angles – which was a huge deal because Polaroid film was not cheap.”
“And by ‘we’ you mean you and Matt.”
“Mike.”
“Sure. Where are you from originally?”
“Belfield, Massachusetts. Don’t Google it.”
“Why not?” Drew snorted.
“Because it sucks. We called it Hellfield.”
“That’s just how every kid feels about their hometown.”
“No, trust me. My hometown is depressing enough to be featured in like, two different documentaries on Netflix.”
Drew looked up with genuine interest. “Really. About what?”
“Uhh.” My voice was higher pitched than usual as I paused and realized I’d wound up on another topic I liked to avoid. “Opioids,” I finally said.
Drew’s eyebrows went up and stayed there.
“Oh.”
Another silence. God. I let it stay quiet for all of two-and-a-half seconds before clapping my hands together.
“Anyway! My turn to ask a question,” I declared, grinning at the instant wariness on Drew’s face. “I want to know why the heck the Empires are even looking to trade the best pitcher in baseball.”
“It’s complicated.”
“That’s not a real answer.”
“Well, it’s the only answer you’re getting.”
“Fine. I’ll just Google you.”
Drew looked up with surprise. “You haven’t done that yet?”
“No. I said yes to this whole thing so quickly that I didn’t get a chance to, and after, I was kind of too scared to do it and see exactly what the heck I’d gotten myself into,” I admitted, making Drew’s eyes crinkle as he laughed. Ugh. So cute.
“Good choice. There are things that are true, but there’s also a ton of bullshit out there,” he said just as the waitress came to take our orders.
I ordered a cocktail before I realized Drew was ordering an entire bottle of champagne, but oh well. Not the worst problem to have. If anything, the bigger dilemma was how to deal with the fact that as he started ordering and chatting with the waitress, his hand began unconsciously rubbing my knee.
And considering I had no panties on under this dress, I was pretty much dying.
Thank God my skirt, albeit tight as hell, stretched down to just above my knee. Also, once the drinks arrived, I was able to calm my nerves. Conversation flowed for a good twenty minutes after but then we reached a point where Drew’s eyes drifted off as I was talking about something, and suddenly he said, “Hey. No Googling me. Alright?”
I blinked. “Why?”
“Because it’s not fair. I can’
t Google you back. It’s not a level playing field.”
“I wouldn’t care if you Googled me.”
“Because none of your personal information is out there. It’s all work-related.”
“Fine. Then you can ask me three personal questions right now and I promise that I’ll Google you as seldom as possible,” I said. Drew smirked.
“Five questions and you Google me once while I’m present.”
I thought about it for a second.
“Okay. Deal.” I knocked back the rest of my cocktail. “And there’s your insurance that I’ll be completely truthful.”
“Great, then I’ll start with a hardball. How the hell did Mike end up with a girl who looks like you?”
I blinked, surprised by the question and actually, kind of insulted.
“I realize you’re somewhat complimenting me here, and I promise I feel no need to defend Mike right now, but considering I was dating him for nine years, digs at him are also digs at my taste and life choices,” I pointed out.
“Yes. I’m aware of that.”
Dick.
“Of course you are,” I snorted as I gave myself a tall pour of champagne. “Okay, well now that we’ve established how comfortable you are with insulting me, here’s my answer: I’m from a place that’s listed as one of the most white trash towns in Massachusetts. Every woman in my family had a baby by the time she was eighteen, and when my eighteenth birthday came and went, my mom and grandma literally threw me a ‘no baby shower’ with decorations from the Dollar General. If you’re thirty years old from Belfield and you have a job at the 7-11 a few towns over, you’re considered a pretty huge success. And I’m pretty sure I would’ve been that hugely successful 7-11 clerk if it weren’t for the fact that Mike told me we were allowed to dream bigger.”
I took a break from my ramble to take a gulp of the champagne I would’ve never dreamed of even holding in my hands when I was younger.
“So he got you out of there is what you’re saying,” Drew said as he watched me knock back most of my champagne in one big slug. “Easy,” he said, taking my glass and holding it away from me. “We don’t have to talk about this if it upsets you.”
“It doesn’t. I’m over it,” I said, and with all this bubbly in my system, I actually believed it. “I’m fine talking about it. Maybe in that sense, I’m bigger and badder than you are.”
“I think you’re just drunker than I am.”
“Yeah, well. You probably don’t even get drunk. You’re like… ten feet tall and three hundred pounds of muscle,” I mumbled as Drew smirked.
“Six-three, two-twenty, but yeah. Ninety-eight percent muscle as of the last physical.”
“Jesus, really?”
“Yes.”
Ugh, of course, I thought, letting my eyes dip down his front as he leaned back in his seat. God, those huge shoulders. Those abs. What did they look like under there? I was dying to know.
“Stop.”
“What?”
I didn’t even realize I was biting my nail till Drew removed my hand from my mouth and placed it in my lap.
“You look like you want to get fucked when you do that and I’m entirely too willing, so you need to stop while I still have enough blood in my brain to think straight.”
Oh… kay.
Wow.
His words shot straight between my legs and I wound up staring speechlessly as his eyes devoured everything from my squirming thighs to the stunned look on my face. I felt enough like his prey without even hearing his next question.
“When was the last time Mike even fucked you?”
Shit.
My cheeks burned at both the question and the answer, which was four months ago. And before that one time, it had been six. He caved to my crying over his lack of affection, humped me for about ten minutes and then rolled over without either of us coming. The worst part was that he faked his orgasm and when I asked if he really came, he said, “No. Can’t we just go to sleep though?”
Oh God.
I covered my face. “Skip,” I said.
“What?”
“That question.”
“That’s not allowed.”
“Four months ago. Next.”
I avoided his stare of pure disbelief. But just because I wasn’t looking at it didn’t mean I couldn’t feel its heat on my skin.
“When was the last time you came more than once in a night?”
“Are you really asking me that right now?”
“Yes.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“We’ve established this.”
I glared for several seconds.
“If you must know, I literally can’t even think of my answer.”
“Too long ago to recall?”
“Yes! Maybe! Who cares? Why do you need to know?” I demanded.
“Because the idea of you not being properly fucked is driving me crazy right now.”
His answer had me speechless again but this time, the intensity of his stare also had me breathless like I’d just run a five-minute mile.
He’s a player, an asshole and you’ll regret it, I answered myself before I could ask why I shouldn’t just fuck him. But even knowing that, it was hard to ignore the tension heating up the air between us, making it feel almost too thick to breathe in.
“It’s been awhile,” I finally said, trying to sound unaffected as he dragged his heavy stare up my legs. “And you have two questions left.”
“I know.”
“I think you should save them for another night.”
“No thanks. Hottest unfulfilled fantasy?”
I rolled my eyes at him.
“Getting a five-figure tax return.”
He returned my eye-roll.
“Sexual,” he clarified.
“Pass, because I know what happens when I answer this,” I said, pinning my stare on him. “Whatever I say I want, you’re just going to imply that you could do that for me right here, right now because you love making me nervous, so let’s just bypass that whole self-indulgent process and say yes, I’ve been sexually frustrated before and yes, you could probably make me come very, very hard. Much harder than Mike ever did,” I said hotly, wondering when the hell Drew’s lips had made it so close to mine. His arm was draped over the back of my seat as he hovered over my body, heat smoldering in his green eyes as he stared at me.
I didn’t even know what I was feeling.
Kiss me. Or don’t. Fuck you, I thought, my brain a mess of confusion as I heard a stampede of footsteps come clamoring our way. I frowned, watching the heat in Drew’s stare become fire as he slid his eyes over my shoulder. Suddenly, he was shaking his head at something.
“The fuck, Ty,” he growled just as a voice boomed behind me.
“Found ya! Hope we didn’t interrupt anything.”
You did, but thank God for that, I thought.
And when I turned around, it was his whole damned team.
12
DREW
Thanks to Emmett’s tip that I was here with Evie, Ty had not only come but had brought half the team. It was chaos, the staff was quickly overwhelmed and it wasn’t long before Emmett suggested we take the party to some lounge at one of his new hotels.
I had zero plans of going but Evie was apparently eager to get the hell away from me. Much to my irritation, she did two shots with Ty before following the group without hesitation, and because I wasn’t leaving her alone with any one of those animals, I wound up with them on the nineteenth floor of some new, overly swanky and pretentious hotel in the Meatpacking District. The massive lounge or bar – or whatever it was we were at – had six rooms, all of which I lost Evie in at least once.
Then again, I was pretty sure she was actively ducking me.
“You’re playing the role of dedicated partner much better than I thought you would,” Emmett said when he found me scanning the crowd for her in one of the bigger rooms.
“When I picture Watt or Brewer so mu
ch as touching her shoulder, it makes me want to slam someone’s head in a wall,” I explained before my brain did a playback of his words. Playing the role of dedicated partner. I shot Emmett a weird look. “By the way, I don’t recall telling you that this whole deal was fake. And Iain said he had no plans to, either.”
“Aly told me, fucknut. She doesn’t keep secrets from me.”
“Adorable. I’m sure I’ll be hearing wedding bells soon.”
“In a year, probably. I’m proposing to her next month.”
I snapped my head over to him. He already had his phone out to show me a picture of the giant fucking ring.
“Christ. That’s nice.” I had to give it to him. “You’re serious then.”
“Yeah. Which means you’re in for a lifetime of stink-eye from my wife.”
“What? Why? Aly loves me.”
“She won’t after this shit between you and her best friend blows up in all our faces.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I had no clue but I was preemptively pissed.
“Both of you are already deeper in this than you’re supposed to be. That much was made clear by the cute little whisper fight you had after my clients checked her out.”
“Yeah, nice clients by the way. Literally saw one guy tilt his head to get a better look down her dress.”
“I’m sorry. Trust me, I’m not a huge fan of those guys either, but you don’t make money by doing business with just the people you like.”
“Sounds like something your brother would say.”
“It is. Speaking of Julian – “
“Let’s not.”
“ – I know you’re pissed because you think I heard about the trade thing from him and decided to just gossip about that shit with Iain instead of telling you. But the reality is that I spent the past year sweating my ass off for you and doing everything in my power to either buy time or change Julian’s mind.”
“I’m honored. And thanks for the visual of your swamp ass.”
“You’re welcome. Also, I didn’t tell you because I thought I could fix things before you found out and fucking killed someone over it.”
“Got it. Thanks for the vote of confidence, by the way.”
“What? I never know what’s going to make you black out and damned near put someone in a coma, so I played it safe,” Emmett said, looser-lipped than usual thanks to whatever the hell he was drinking. I knew he was making a rare reference to the Tim Lillard incident, and the fact that I never told him why it went down. The only people who knew about that shit were Iain and Tim himself. And I guess Pattie before she died.