Page 133 of Plus Size Player

“Fuck!” Russ yelled before stuffing his phone into his pocket. When he turned around, he seemed surprised. “Hey, sorry about that.”

I eyed him quizzically as I handed him the parking pass. “Everything okay?”

“It’s work bullshit. It’s…” He shook his head, hoisting his duffle bag strap on his shoulder. “You know what? I’m off, and I’m with you. I don’t even want to think about that right now.” He unlocked his car and put the pass on the dashboard. When he made his way back to me, he smiled. “When I’m with you, all the bullshit disappears.”

I rose up on my toes and planted a kiss against his lips. “Well, I have a surprise for you when we get inside.”

He grabbed my ass and shook it. “I like the sound of that.”

I made a face as I turned around and led him inside. “Yeah, okay.”

As soon as the door closed behind him, we took off our shoes.

“How are you?” he asked, following me to the living room.

“I’m glad you asked,” I replied, patting the seat cushion next to me.

He sat his bag on the floor and then sat on the couch with me. “What’s up?”

“So last night we established how we feel about each other and that led to a really, really good night.”

He grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it. “It was so good it was hard to concentrate today.”

I bit down on my bottom lip and nodded. “Same.”

“When you did that thing with your throat…” He let out a breath and shook his head. “I had to start a meeting a couple minutes late because I had to calm down before leaving my office.”

I almost let myself get caught up as the heat spread over my body. But I shook it off.

“But before we circle back to that, we need to talk about us.”

“The fact that we’re in a relationship?” he guessed, running his thumb across my knuckles.

“No.” My cheeks felt warm, and I knew my face was flushed. “The fact that if I’m going to be in a relationship, I want to be in it.”

His brows furrowed. “What do you mean? We are in it. I’m all the way in it. It’s us.”

“How are we going to be an us if I’m technically working for you for the next eight months?”

“I’m still working on that. I’m trying to figure out a way that it doesn’t blow back on either of us.”

“In the meantime, I don’t want to feel like we’re hiding out.”

He shook his head. “That’s not the case. We’re…” He struggled to find the words to complete his sentence.

“We’re hiding,” I finished for him. “Last night, we were at your place. Tonight, we’re at mine. And since we aren’t going out because we can’t, we’re hiding.”

“We’re going to go out next week.”

“How?” I wondered.

“I’m taking care of it.”

“I don’t understand how though.” I intertwined my fingers with his. “I want you. I also want to be out and about.AndI want us to keep doing work we love. I don’t know how all of those things can happen.”

“There is a way. I just need time to make it happen.”

“As badly as I want this”—I gestured between the two of us—“all of the points you made when you sat right here three weeks ago are still valid today. I don’t want either of us to lose anything.”

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