Page 14 of Touchdown
She stepped into my space to set the cape back in the cabinet, and the air shifted. Her brown pools were soft as she looked up at me from under thick lashes.
Before she could speak, I leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. Her breath caught. I felt it against my mouth, a tiny startle that turned into stillness before she smiled. The reaction rippled through her body in a way you only catch if you were looking for it. Her shoulders relaxed, hand flattened against her thigh, and her eyes were warmer when she tipped her face toward mine.
“Play nice,” she urged softly, but her gaze told me she liked being claimed like that in front of other people. Even if she wasn’t so sure it was a good idea.
“I’ll be back later to drive you home.” My voice was low so it stayed just between us.
“You always are.” Her answer was light, but there was a thread running through it I hadn’t heard before—trust forming, thin and real.
I forced myself to step away because at least leaving was the part that made the next arrival matter. On my way to the door, I caught Missy’s grin and quirked an eyebrow, making her laughas I pushed into the winter air with my lips tingling and my pulse running hotter than it should in the outside temperature.
In the SUV, I sat for a beat and replayed the micro-expression she couldn’t hide when I told her I wasn’t going anywhere last night, the way her lips parted and her eyes softened. The ache low in my body answered the memory like it had been called by name. I thought about kissing her the way I wanted to tonight—slow until it wasn’t, one hand braced above her head, the other sliding under the hem of her sweater to find heat and soft skin. The little sounds she made when I filled my palm with one of her generous tits. I had to close my eyes for a second to keep from turning around and dragging the future forward by force.
Rhodes grunted and shifted in his seat, reminding me he was there, his presence helping me out by pouring a bucket of cold water over my libido.
I put the SUV in reverse and pulled out of the spot, then started the trek to Rhodes’s home.
Patience wasn’t passive; it was pressure applied with aim. I didn’t need to talk it to death or explain it to anyone. I knew what I wanted. I knew what I was building. And when the sun slid under the skyline and the salon lights turned everything inside to warm gold again, I’d be exactly where I needed to be.
7
IVY
By the end of the week, I’d stopped pretending that Saxon showing up every day was a coincidence. Even though he still tried to make it seem like it.
During the early afternoon lull, Missy leaned her elbows on the front desk and gave me a look that meant trouble. But her voice was sweet as she asked, “So, Ivy, do you want me to stop booking male clients for you?”
I blinked at her reflection in the mirror. “What?”
“You know, except for Nighthawks players,” she teased. “Your guy nearly burned a hole through one who wasn’t even in your chair.”
My comb slipped in my hand. “He’s not my guy.”
Missy grinned. “Mm-hmm. Sure.”
Before I could come up with something clever, Lorna walked in from the break room, one hand absently rubbing her rounded belly. “That won’t even help. Better make it only married players. If Saxon’s anything like Cole, he’ll still get all growly over the single guys on his team.”
Missy laughed. “Fine by me. Married athletes only for Ivy—strict policy. Gotta keep the peace.”
“You’re both ridiculous,” I muttered, turning back to my station and pretending to fuss with my scissors as I tried to hide the little thrill I felt at the idea of Saxon being jealous over me.
Lorna came up beside me, her grin widening. “I’m not sure how you can say that when you’ve seen how my husband is with me. Missy’s suggestion sounds perfectly reasonable.”
“Maybe if we were talking about Cole.” I shook my head with a sigh. “But you’re married to him and carrying his baby. Saxon has only driven me home a few times.”
Missy flashed a mischievous smile at Lorna. “What she’s not mentioning is that you missed our resident growly football player bringing Rhodes Channing in for a cut today.”
“He what?” Lorna huffed. “I knew I shouldn’t have let Cole talk me into taking half the day off.”
“You needed the rest.” I pointed at her rounded belly. “You’re cooking a baby in there, remember?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, but it sounds like I missed all the good stuff.”
“You really did,” Missy chirped. “Saxon barely said a word and didn’t crack a smile the whole time. And when Gloria’s client so much as peeked at her, his jaw did that thing where he looks like he’s plotting someone’s murder.”
“Facts,” Gloria mumbled from the station next to mine.
Lorna turned to me with a smug little tilt of her head. “See? He brought in a married guy. I rest my case.”
