Page 15 of False Start
His finger inches inside and moves over my clit. The moan that leaves me isn’t of my own volition, and it has him cursing under his breath. I couldn’t care less about anything other than him moving his hand.
“Would you date me if I wasn’t a football player?” He didn’t waste any time.
“I don’t have time to date.”
“And if you did?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because…”
He moves his hand and nearly has me convulsing within ten seconds. Oh, he’s good.Too good. And it’s exactly why I can’t date him. He’s the type of guy a girl falls in love with. I don’t have time to fall in love. And I sure as shit don’t want to hitch myself to a man who’ll be pissed off more than he’ll be happy.
Just when I think I’m going over the edge, he stops. “I bet you’d like to come. Now, tell me, why won’t you date me?”
“You’re a football player.”
“I’ll quit.”
“No, you won’t.”
“You’re right, I won’t. But I think you’d be happy if you gave me a damn chance.”
“Fine,” I say, desperate for a release. “One date.”
“Two weeks of dates.”
“One date,” I counter. He flicks my center. My traitorous eyes roll back in my head. “Okay. Two weeks.”
“There are fourteen days in two weeks. I get fourteen dates.”
I pull at his arm to remove it from the promised land. It’s time I take care of business, but it’s like trying to move a brick wall.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. I’m in control of when you come.”
I hate that his words turn me on even more. “Fucking fine! Fourteen dates. You got it, buddy.”
His deft fingers move up and down the center of me until I’m writhing beneath him. I forget he’s naked beside me and could be doing this in an entirely different, more fulfilling way. I also forget my own name and basic identifying details as he pushes me closer and closer to the precipice of bliss. I can’t control the moans or the pleas that roll out of my mouth.
Bryant swallows my cries in a kiss as I reach for him to anchor me here to earth as my world shatters into a gazillion pieces. His name crosses my lips as I fall apart around him, and there’s not a thing I can do to stop it. He’s perfect in every way, except one.
— 6 —
Now
AFTER WE HAVE A quiet dinner at Bourdon’s, where we don’t accomplish much, I stare out of Bryant’s window onto Dauphine Street, and watch the tourists and locals pass by on their merry ways. From the frame of this window, their lives seem so much easier than mine. They have a destination and a purpose in mind. It feels as though I’ve been floating around waiting for my purpose since our divorce. I’m both aimless and restless. As thirty looms closer each year, I feel the pressure of time to start a family. I can’t start a family until I can find a way to rid my life of my ex-husband.
When the doorbell rings, I turn from my place in the empty dining room to answer it and find Bryant standing in the arched door frame staring at me with the most beautiful green eyes I’ve ever seen. And the look in them reminds me of the first night I almost slept with him. I now know the look is one of love. For all his faults, I can’t deny the man loves me. Looking back, I see maybe he already loved me that night.
“What were you thinking about just now?” he asks.
I answer him honestly. “The hunting cabin.”
“It’s where I realized I first loved you.” The doorbell rings again, but the expression on his face and the tenderness in his eyes holds me in place.
“When did you know?”
