Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 66200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
I'd absolutely fallen in love with Hendrix Malone.
I'd fallen in love with the man who had made it a rule not to fall in love.
A rule that I agreed to.
A rule that I’d damn near demanded.
And I’d broken that rule. I’d broken all the rules because right now, standing in his entryway with his away bag at the doorstep, and my necklace, my favorite necklace in the entire universe wrapped around his neck and him vowing not to take it off…
Fuck me.
I was hopelessly, foolishly in love with him.
I swallowed down the emotions clogging my throat—the disappointment and regret and shame at not being able to tell him the truth. And I cursed my heart because it had let me fall for a man that was completely unattainable. There was no way I could hold on to him. Right now, I was merely an anomaly. A chemical reaction of skin on skin, despite his continued extension of our little deal. That was it. Forbidden fruit. A delicious secret that upped the intensity surrounding every second we stole and weren’t caught. That's what made this game so exciting, and we’d always been so good at playing.
Before I could say anything that would either ruin the moment or ruin my life, I reached up on my tiptoes and spanned the small distance between us. I crushed my lips on his, devouring his mouth with a kiss I hoped would last the days separating us because of the away game. Normally I'd be attending, my father booking me a ticket as usual, all that experience for my sports management position coming to a head. But like Hendrix said, it was graduation week, and I had to be there to snag my diploma.
I broke the kiss a little bit too soon for either of our liking, but we both had places to be, no matter how hard we wanted to ignore those responsibilities and get lost in each other. "You're going to miss your flight," I said and backed out of his embrace. Needing the space between us to ground my senses.
"I know," he said, his eyes raking the length of my body, and I could see behind those flickering blue flames everything he wanted to do to me. Everything he could do to me and everything he would do to me when he got home.
Home.
To me. Hopefully. Not that I'd be waiting impatiently in his house or anything, but we kept amending our timeline one week, one month, and now one season. What would come next? Would anything come next? Or would this away game finally be the true test to get ourselves out of each other's systems.
I knew for me it wouldn’t be true.
There wouldn’t be enough time or distance to ever scrape my skin raw of Hendrix Malone.
"I'm so damn proud of you," he said as he scooped up his away-game bag and opened the front door.
I swallowed another ball of emotion and smiled at him. "You better be," I said, hiding my true emotions but needing that teasing banter we'd always been so comfortable with. "Once I walk across the stage and get that degree, I'm only one step away from being contract manager for the Raptors. You better treat me right, Hendrix Malone, or else you might end up with a ridiculous clause in your next contract."
Hendrix growled and gave me a chiding look. "You wouldn't dare, Butterfly."
"That sounds an awful lot like a challenge."
"And you never back down from that," he teased, and then flashed me a wink. "Have London take a picture of you in your cap and gown for me, okay?"
With that simple question—the normality of it and the genuine pride in his eyes—threatened to bring tears from my own. I swallowed them down, steeled my spine, and gave him the shakiest nod that I could. And something about the way he looked me over made it seem like he wanted to say more, but he ended up pressing his lips together, shaping them into that wolfish smirk I knew and loved, and then headed out the door.
And I stood in his entryway for far longer than I should've, despite him telling me I could sleep over when he was gone.
I stood there and looked at that closed door, lingered in his scent that remained, and laid my hand over my chest. It felt empty, half because I'd taken off the necklace I hadn’t taken off in years, but mainly because I'd given him something else too, and he didn't even have a clue.
I'd given him something I’d never given anyone else before. Something he absolutely did not want.
My heart.
"Does anyone else feel like they're going to puke?" London asked as she fanned herself with her traditional cap, her gown billowing over her petite frame.
Paul and I laughed behind her from our places in line.