“I promised Chris I’d meet him after,” she had said when I tried to get her to stay. “Besides, what do you need a wing-woman for? Nathan is easy.” She had given me a wink and a hug. “Call me tomorrow, OK?”
I heard footsteps and whirled around to find Nathan walking towards me. He looked amazing, his hair damp against the collar of his button-up shirt, which was tucked into a pair of gray slacks. In his hand he had a red rose, which he held out to me. Suddenly I felt quite underdressed. I preferred, of course, to be undressed with him, but I could be patient. For now.
“I should be the one bringing you things,” I said, taking the rose and bringing it to my nose. It smelled wonderful, but not as good as Nathan did as he stepped closer and put his arm around me.
“I want to show you something.” He led me out to the center of the field, to the pitcher’s mound. He put his hands on my shoulders and turned me so I was facing the stands. He pointed to a spot behind where the catcher would be. “You see that seat?”
“Uh-huh.” I wasn’t really focusing since I was so distracted by how great he smelled. Yep, I was smelling him again, and this time I wasn’t even the least bit embarrassed. If he came in cologne-form I would douse myself in this scent every fricking day. And all night long.
“That’s what I was watching each time I came up here. Do you know who was sitting there?” He came around to face me. I was speechless, since I already had an idea of what he was going to say. “You. That’s where you were sitting. And every time I felt nervous, I would just look over and see you there and I would feel better.”
“Glad I could be of service,” I said like a total idiot, but Nathan just smiled.
“So what do you think?” he asked.
“What do I think of what?”
“Would I make your fantasy draft?” he wanted to know, his eyes twinkling.
“Oh yes,” I responded immediately, thinking, of course, of an entirely different kind of fantasy.
He laughed and I could feel my pulse pounding in the silence of the stadium.
“Sophie Hall.” Nathan took my face in his hands. “I like you.”
“I like you too.” I felt like my heart was about to explode out of my chest. All the doubts I had been entertaining the past few days disappeared in a flash. This felt right and I wasn’t going to fight it.
“Good.” He leaned down and gave me the softest kiss. “So what are we going to do about it?”
I licked my lips and watched his eyes go hot. Volcanic hot. “I have a couple of ideas.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
When we got to the hotel, instead of pulling the car around to the front, Nathan steered it towards a back section of the hotel I had never noticed before.
“I’ve got a surprise for you,” he told me, helping me out of the car.
“You seem to be fond of surprises,” I answered, hoping he’d like the surprise I had planned for him, namely the black lace lingerie I was wearing under my jeans and jersey. Lingerie I had hoped most fervently I’d be showing him tonight.
“Come with me.” He pulled me towards a door marked employees only.
“Are you sure we should be here?” I asked as I followed him up a flight of stairs.
“A friend of mine works here,” he told me. “How do you think I got in and out to see you without drawing suspicion?”
He opened the door to a small service hallway with an elevator at one end and pulled out a keycard, swiped it, and pushed the button. The doors dinged open.
“Going up?” he asked with a wicked grin.
I couldn’t help it; the minute the elevator doors closed, I was on him. It had been too long since we had touched and that soft, gentle kiss on the pitcher’s mound had only ignited my need for him. Pressing my body against his, I tilted my head up to meet his lips, my tongue twisting with his as he gathered my hair in his fingers. He spun me so my back was against the elevator door, one hand dipping down to the small of my back and then lower, cupping my ass so I was pressed firmly against him. Against the hard, hot length of him. I wasn’t sure I could make it to my room. I wasn’t sure I could make it to the next floor. Then again, beds were totally overrated. What was wrong with an elevator wall?
“I want you so fucking much.” My voice was husky and I could feel Nathan groan deep in his chest. The elevator dinged again and the door slid open.
Nathan pulled away from me and took my hand. “We have all night,” he said, leading me into the hallway.
It took a moment for me to realize we weren’t on my floor, but before I could say anything, he flashed me another grin.
“I told you. I have a surprise.”
The surprise was a suite on the top floor of the hotel. It was the most beautiful room I had ever seen. We were surrounded by windows, the entire city of Austin glittering below us. In the bedroom, I could see the enormous bed, and there was a bottle of champagne chilling next to two crystal glasses.
I felt a lump in my throat. No one had ever done anything like this for me. No one. I looked back at Nathan who was watching me with an intensity I had never seen before. He had said he liked me. Well, I was officially a goner. Hook, line, and sinker. I was his.
“You jump, I jump,” he said.
“For a moment I just stared at him, my voice totally escaping me.
He gave me a sheepish grin. “Three sisters, remember?”
“You are so fucked,” I growled, as I pulled him into the bedroom.
***
I had planned to take my time. I had wanted to explore every inch of him, to really do my due diligence and pay homage to the body that had given so much to so many. But after the room and the jersey and the fucking speech, I was saying the hell with patience. I was going to have him and I was going to have him now.
But before we were halfway across the room, he had hauled me up into his arms, his mouth against mine, my legs locking around his waist. God bless baseball, I thought, the muscles of his waist and stomach rock hard against my thighs. I fisted my fingers in his thick, beautiful hair as his tongue met mine. Every part of me ached for his touch, my fingers now dragging down the length of his neck, down across his chest to tug at the buttons of his shirt.
But the buttons refused to participate, my hands too eager and too clumsy. I gripped both sides of his shirt and pulled, satisfied when it tore open, showering now-useless buttons across the suite floor.
I tore my lips from Nathan’s to grin wickedly down at him. “I hope you didn’t like that shirt.”
His eyes were filled with fire and need. “I hated it,” he rasped, a hand sliding through my hair and across my neck to pull my mouth down to his.
Somehow he maneuvered us to the bed, my fingers shoving his ruined shirt off his shoulders. Dropping kisses down the side of his neck, my mouth found its way to his bare skin, to the muscle tensing and flexing. I couldn’t help myself. I took a bite.
Nathan moaned, his legs buckling, and suddenly we hit the bed, his back against the sheets, me sprawled across him, my knees on either side of his hips. We were perfectly aligned, the hardness of him against the softness of me and before I could stop myself, I rocked forward.
Nathan let out a hiss of air through clenched teeth as his fingers gripped me. I rocked again, feeling the long, hard ridge of him against the seam of my jeans. We were wearing too many clothes.
As if he had read my mind, Nathan strained up against the bed, his fingers grabbing at the bottom of my jersey, yanking it up and over my head. I leaned back, expecting to feel his hands, his mouth against my breasts, but when I looked down at him, I found that he was leaning back on his elbows staring up at me.