Page 73 of The Player's Club

I reached under her shirt and fondled her breasts, careful to keep her from being exposed. Although we were alone, I didn’t want to take any chances.

I kissed her neck as I played with her nipples. She never failed to respond to me playing with her tits. It was one of the many things about her that I enjoyed.

We kissed until I was half insane with lust. I was about to pull her shorts and panties down when she froze.

“Did you hear that?” she whispered, her eyes wide.

I stopped and listened. That was when I heard faint footsteps. I quickly pushed off her and grimaced as I tried to hide my erection. Elodie covered her mouth to keep from laughing.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying my pain,” I growled.

She looked mussed, her hair a mess, and her lips were kiss-stung. “Come on.” She grabbed my hand, and we hurried off to another dark corner.

The day ended with a hike. I had to admit, I hadn’t expected this last activity. Fortunately, Elodie had planned ahead and had packed us a picnic basket full of food. I had to steal a few things to eat before we got started on our hike, though, since I was absolutely fucking starving.

“That’s for later!” Elodie protested, laughing at me.

“Baby, you don’t want to see me hangry.” I tossed some almonds into my mouth before we headed out.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a long hike to the Hollywood sign. Well, not for the experienced hiker. Elodie had chosen the more challenging climb, which took the least amount of time.

“I didn’t know you liked hiking,” I said.

“Oh, I do it when I can, but I’m usually too busy.” She shot me a wry smile. “You good? Or do you need to take a break?”

I snorted. I’d just broken into a sweat. “Baby, I’m a professional athlete. I’m more worried about you.”

“Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself.”

I grunted. We eventually got to the section in the trail that made it difficult to keep conversation going. We passed handfuls of people going up and down, but there were sections where it was just us.

“You haven’t taken me up this trail to murder me, have you?” I joked.

Elodie looked over her shoulder at me and just smiled evilly.

By the time we reached the top, I was starving once again. I downed an entire bottle of water, my muscles feeling the burn of the climb, but overall, I’d enjoyed the hike.

This was another classic LA thing that I’d never done. Did anyone who lived in the city care much about climbing up to see the Hollywood sign?

“It’s not the sign,” Elodie explained once we found a nice spot to sit. She motioned with her arm. “It’s the view. And I just love watching sunsets.”

The view was spectacular, I had to admit. Below us was the city, alight as always. And as the sun set, the sky color transforming from orange to red to purple, the moon peeking out from behind a few stray clouds, I couldn’t disagree with Elodie.

We ate in companionable silence. Elodie had packed us sandwiches, fruit, chips, lots of water, and some homemade cookies.

I wrapped my arm around her as we watched the sunset together. “I think you might’ve won the challenge,” I said.

“I didn’t know our dates were a competition.”

“Of course they were.”

She smiled. “I don’t know. Those chicken wings were pretty damn amazing.”

We eventually packed up our picnic and made our way down the mountain. Elodie had packed flashlights, and by the time we reached her car, it was dark. Or as dark as it could get in a big city like LA.

Elodie took me back to her place. We burst inside, laughing like idiots, and began stripping each other’s clothes off. I’d been tempted to seduce her on the mountain, but too many people were around.

“You’ve been fucking teasing me all day long,” I said, unhooking her bra and tossing it into some dark corner.