Page 66 of Body Check

“I mean, that’s cool too. Whatever floats your boat.” He waggled his eyebrows.

Dakota sighed. “You know I normally love you and your cooking, Jeff, but I really don’t like you right now.”

He laughed loudly.

Violet snorted too, padding across the kitchen to refill her glass of water and press a kiss to Dakota’s cheek. “You do know the secrecy is driving me even more crazy and making me more intrigued, right? I’ll figure this out eventually if it kills me.”

“Over my dead body,” Dakota muttered.

“Hey now,” Jeff said mildly. “No one is dying. But you really should know by now how persistent she is, Dakota. She will sniff this out.”

“Ughhh,” Dakota said, glaring at his mac and cheese. “I don’t likeeitherof you right now.”

“Too bad!” Violet said cheerfully. “We love you. That’s why we’re so nosy.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” he muttered.

The following morning as Dakota arrived at HCI for his weekly session with Gavin, he was still mulling over his sister and brother-in-law’s words.

The problem was, they were both right. Theydidlove him, and after his horrible breakup with Bryce, they’d been justifiably worried.

The fact he was seeing someone—even if itwasjust for sex—was making them feel a little protective, and well, nosy. They weren’t trying to pry because they wanted the dirty details, only to be sure Dakota wasn’t getting himself into a bad place.

Again.

But even if Gavin was his boss, it didn’t feel like a bad place, not when Dakota’s skin tingled as he prepped for his session with Gavin, turning on the salt lamps and queuing up the playlist he’d made on the train ride in this morning.

It didn’t feel like a bad place when a few moments later, there was a soft pad of footsteps behind him and Gavin’s familiar cologne teased his nostrils.

“Morning,” Dakota said, not even looking up from phone as he fiddled with the playlist, trying to get the device to sync to the speakers.

“Hey.” Gavin’s voice was a low rumble in his ear, his hand warm as he pressed it to Dakota’s hip.

It had only been a few weeks since they’d started this, and they’d had sex less than twelve hours ago. Way less than twelve hours, Dakota thought ruefully, as he thought about how little sleep he’d gotten last night. But his body still thrilled at Gavin’s touch and he let himself sink back against Gavin’s chest, his lips warm against the spot behind Dakota’s ear.

“Hey,” he said breathlessly, a beat too late. “You ready to do this?”

“I’m always ready for you,” Gavin said, his breath a tickling puff of air against Dakota’s nape.

They were playing with fire right now, but when he could feel Gavin’s smile against his skin, right now, that felt like all that mattered.

“Fuck!” Gavin muttered a few nights later, his fingers clenching on his water bottle as the Harriers defense let another puck slip through, leaving Jesse windmilling in the net, too late to stop it from going in.

Gavin tried to school his face into one of calm, steady neutrality, because he was sitting in the owners’ box tonight and cameras would absolutely be trained on him, but all he wanted to do was chuck the bottle against the floor and watch it splatter everywhere.

He’d done that once, and the press had had a field day.

“We’re bleeding points,” Ned Merrit said quietly.

No shit. That’s the understatement of the century.No matter how well Jesse was playing, he wasn’t enough to make up for their defensive shortcomings.

Wins had been further and further apart lately, and more and more likely to happen in overtime.

It wasn’t what they needed, especially against divisional rivals like Washington.

This was when they needed to begainingground, picking up points instead of ceding them to teams who were also jockeying for a desperately coveted wild card spot.

The team simply needed better defense.

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