Page 42 of The Player's Club

It didn’t help that she was wearing only a tank top and boy shorts either, her nipples hard against the thin fabric of her shirt. My stomach rumbling was the only thing that kept me from tumbling her back into bed a third time. How the hell had I gotten so lucky?

Elodie settled onto the bed next to me, the tray in front of both of us. She’d cooked us eggs and bacon, even going so far as to put a flower in a vase. But I was mostly interested in the folded papers under my plate.

I slipped them out to discover the signed contract. There was what looked like a red wine stain on the corner. Had she been pondering it while buzzed?

“You’d already signed them when you came over?” I asked.

Elodie smiled. “Maybe. Does it matter?” Her smile was infectious.

I pulled her into a hard kiss. “You won’t regret this,” I vowed.

ELODIE

A week later, I couldn’t help but notice that Mac seemed distracted. I’d stayed over, but when I’d woken up in the middle of the night to pee, Mac had been awake downstairs.

“Can’t sleep?” I wrapped my arms around him from behind.

He jumped a little. “Shit, Elodie. What are you doing awake?”

“I could ask you the same thing. It’s the middle of the night.”

He hadn’t turned on the TV, and he’d left his phone in the bedroom. Had he just been down here alone in silence?

“Go back to bed,” he said, turning to kiss me.

“Only if you come with me.”

“I will. Just give me a few minutes.”

I wanted to protest, but a yawn stopped me. I was too sleepy, and it was cold downstairs. I tried to wait for Mac to come back to bed, but sleep claimed me soon after.

When I awoke in the morning, Mac was in bed, his back turned to me. I cuddled against him, enjoying how warm he was.

He swore under his breath when my cold feet touched his calves. “Jesus! Baby, your feet are frozen. How are they so cold?”

I grinned. “Sorry. I must’ve stuck them out from under the covers without realizing it. You’ll just have to warm them up for me.” I tucked my feet between his thighs, which just made him swear again.

He turned over to face me. “Sleep okay?” He kissed my forehead.

“Yeah. You? When did you come back to bed?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “Not sure. Three o’clock?”

“Why were you downstairs?”

He seemed to want to talk about anything else, but he also didn’t know how stubborn I could be.

“I have an away game tomorrow,” he finally admitted.

I raised an eyebrow. “Okay. Are you going to North Korea, or . . .?”

He chuckled. “Not that intense. I’m going back to Coeur d’Alene. It’s in Idaho. It’s not my hometown, exactly, but close enough. I haven’t been back there in a long time.” He rubbed his chin.

I froze for a moment and realized I had to act like I’d had no idea where he was from, that I hadn’t intensely researched him and his family just a few weeks prior.

“And you don’t want to go?” I asked, curious now.

He rolled onto his back. “I don’t know. It’s complicated.”