Page 82 of Caught Looking

But we needed to rest.

I had to return to practice tomorrow and the day after that Seth had a game. We’d been incredibly responsible with our sex lives but not our overall health. Mentally, I was happier than ever. We used a condom every time. Neither of us could risk a pregnancy scare, especially me. So birth control plus a condom was absolutely necessary.

But sleep? Rest?

We’d been negligent and we were both paying the price.

Seth moved to stand between my legs and I automatically used my free hand to run my fingers through his growing hair. He gazed into my eyes with that way he had about him that turned my insides to mush. Or butterflies. Or a rollercoaster. It just depended on the moment. “The sex will still be here in a week. In a month. A year.” He said the last two words quietly. Carefully.

Like he was afraid they’d send me into a tailspin.

“I know.” Because I did. Somewhere along the way I’d settled into the certainty of us and lost whatever fear I had of becoming so attached so quickly. “But it’s like midnights at the diner. I’m starving and I want pancakes.”

He grinned. “Are you comparing me to pancakes?”

“Maybe.”

“I’ll allow it.”

I set the mostly finished yogurt aside so I could put both my arms around his neck. That was another thing that had fallen by the wayside: completed meals. Even when we sat down to eat, we wound up fucking before our plates were clear.

We were ravenous for the pleasure, for the fun, but mostly for each other. There was a singular satisfaction in seeing Seth come apart because of me. Hearing his quietly grunted fantasies, the words he let escape without inhibition when he was lost inside me. It was like truth serum and I was just as susceptible. I’d let Seth do more things to me than I’d let any man do before, I’d asked him for things I’d only trusted myself to do, and I’d fallen asleep in his arms every night knowing he’d be there when I woke up.

It was heaven. But it was temporary. Soon we’d return to our hectic schedules and have to cram in time together. Our seasons were long and nearly identical. But we also had a shelf life. If we could just hold on to this magic…

“What are you thinking so hard about?” His thumb brushed my cheek, my lower lip, my chin.

“That when we’re retired we can live like this all the time.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Thinking about retiring already?”

“Not really. Just…wishing we had more time.” Time to get used to each other. We were so frantic that we gave in to our need for pleasure over and over again. I wanted to get to the lazy days where I learned his annoying habits and he learned mine. Where he finally felt like he had the time and space to tell me about the woman who broke his heart.

It was starting to grate on me that he knew everything about Owen but I still knew nothing about this woman.

“Babe.” His hands cupped my face the way I liked. “We have all the time in the world. Sure we have busy lives, but that won’t come between us. We won’t let it. And those two months we get together? We’re making the most of every single moment.”

And I’d follow him south for at least part of his spring training while he would chase me around during the last month of my season. That was four solid months a year together. And the rest weren’t apart. They were just busy. As long as we both played for the Mantas and Tangerines.

I wouldn’t even think about one of us being traded. Nope. Not going there.

I let him fold me into his chest, my cheek resting against his heart. My arms wrapped around his back, my ankles locking around his waist. We just stood there holding each other, trying to anchor ourselves to this moment.

“I want to buy the house,” he confessed. “Not because I think it’s perfect or anything. It’s huge. Bigger than we need. But it’s already full of memories. When we’re sore we can soak in the hot tub and float in the pool. Roscoe loves the pool and the yard. When you’re out of town I can sleep in the guest room and stare at the mirrors remembering all the different ways we fucked.”

I laughed. I loved how he could lighten a mood with his honesty. “I want to fight you. Tell you it’s too much. That I don’t feel comfortable having a man buy the house I live in, but I can’t. I love it here. I love looking at that wall and remembering how we could barely get through the front door.” Sure the sexual memories were plastered to pretty much every surface, but there were other memories too. The day I fell asleep in the library only to wake up and find Seth asleep on the floor beside me. Or the night he turned the kitchen into the diner and made me midnight pancakes. Or the hours we spent floating in the pool, not talking, just staring up at the palm trees and the puffy white clouds while we dozed in and out of consciousness. “Are we really talking about moving in together?”

“Do you want to live apart?”

I felt him go rigid as he waited for my answer. I smoothed a hand down his spine. “No. I don’t.” Then I slid it into the waistband of his boxers. “I’ll rent my house out.”

“I’ll keep letting the guys crash at the condo.”

“I want to contribute to the down payment.” It was important to me that this wasourhouse, even if our contribution was proportional to our income.

“Both names will be on the mortgage. We should have our lawyers draw up some paperwork. I know that’s not romantic but I want to make sure you feel protected.”

I snuggled into his chest and sighed. “Agreed. There’s too much money involved. Having it laid out on paper will give us both peace of mind so we can just enjoy our lives.”

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