Page 17 of Home Run

“My only clue you were an athlete was how you kept mumbling about concussions and your brain,” I teased.

He shook his head and gave me a little roll of the eyes. “You have to admit, you’re hot—ridiculously hot—and you lured me out to some sort of Roman bath fairy garden and left me with your bra. If I didn’t question my reality there’d be something wrong with me.”

I bit my lip as he stood up, looming over me as he twirled his finger, indicating he wanted me to turn. I spun my back to him. “I like that I was your first.”

The zipper went down. Then his lips brushed my bare shoulder. “You blew my fucking mind.” His large hands moved inside my dress, slipping it free of my body. “I saw your ad campaign. The white bikini?”

I froze a little, wondering if Rhett were the possessive type. “What did you think?”

“I framed it and put it on my nightstand. It helps when memories of you in that hammock don’t do it for me.”

“The hammock was your favorite huh?” It was definitely mine. I didn’t even know it was a fantasy—not to that extent anyway—until the thought hit me. Then I was a woman possessed.

“Beautiful, it was the hottest sex. The hottest of all the hottest sex. The hammock was great, but it was you that really did me in.”

I spun around so that we were face to face, my heart racing and my ego flying into the stratosphere. “This is the best Christmas present ever!”

“You don’t want the gift I brought you?” He grinned, his eyes bright.

“You brought me a gift and a compliment of that magnitude? I might pass out from all the adoration.” Seeing Rhett more regularly was sounding better and better.

“It’s Christmas, isn’t it?”

I slid my arms around his waist and craned my neck so I could look up into his eyes. “Amazing sex is a wonderful gift.”

He grew still. His eyes locked with mine. “We’re doing this backwards, aren’t we? I know your body better than I know you. I know more about your career than I know you. We haven’t been on a date and yet we’re spending a holiday together.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Yes. But only because I think I like you, Hope. I like everything I know so far and I’d like to get to know the rest. Unless this is just a fuck for you. I can turn off my feelings for tonight if that’s all you want. But I’d like to know now whether we’re fucking or this is possibly the start of something.” He huffed at the end. Like he’d been rehearsing that speech and was glad to finally have it out.

Which was adorable.

“I thought you were too grumpy for anyone to spend time around you,” I teased. “At least that’s what you said when I asked if you were married.”

“You don’t seem to mind,” he teased back.

“I do enjoy the challenge your grumpiness presents.”

His eyebrows rose in question.

“Yes. I would enjoy spending more time with you, Rhett.” I rose up on my toes and kissed him gently, but that only lasted a second before all hell broke loose and his tongue was down my throat and I had my legs around his waist. We were frantic at first. Thirsty.

And that was fine by me. Now that I knew this wasn’t the last I’d see of him, I didn’t care if we rushed to the finish.

There would be another race.

I woke up with something in my face. I blinked several times before the pretty blue box with the light blue ribbons came into focus. Then I sat up in panic. “Rhett?”

“I’m here. Got us coffee.” He sauntered into the room in loose black pants and a white shirt. His hair was a mess. But in his hands were two steaming to-go cups of coffee.

“What’s this?”

“Your present.” He handed me the coffee.

“You left it? What if I woke up while you were gone and opened it?”

He shrugged, taking a seat in the chair and removing the lid from his coffee. “Wouldn’t have mattered. It’s your gift.”

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