Page 115 of Only Between Us

“My what?”

She throws out her arms. “Your shirts! The ones you put in my bag when we were out with the Tigers. I wear them to sleep.”

Fucking hell.

I’d put those in there in a blind, jealous rage that morning, never once imagining that she’d actually wear them.

I tug my T-shirt over my head. “Here. Plenty more where they came from.”

“Thank you,” she sighs. Then she melts my heart by bringing theshirt up to her face and inhaling deeply. That simple action pummels the voice in my head forever trying to plant seeds of doubt and insecurity.

My girl. My light at the end of a dark, hard tunnel. Just as in this as I am, whether she wants to admit it or not.

In her adjoining bathroom, I run the shower, holding my hand under the water until it’s hot. I lay out a fluffy towel on the counter for her. When I turn, she’s leaning in the doorway just watching me with a smile in her eyes.

“Checking out my ass again?”

“Checking it all out. You’re the total package, Brooks.” She reaches behind her. Her bra falls to the ground, followed quickly by that minuscule thong. “Will you shower with me again?”

“Just a shower. No fucking tonight.”

“Just a shower.” She nods meekly. “I don’t want to say goodnight yet.”

I tip my head toward the steaming shower, then drop my jeans and follow her in. I pull her into the overhead stream and run my fingers through her hair until it’s soaked, then reach for the shampoo I’d packed from her old apartment and massage it into her scalp. She makes soft, satisfied sounds as I work it into her hair. By the time I move to conditioner and rinse it all out, her body has melted completely into mine.

I’m hard; her hips are squirming. But when she turns to look at me, her eyes have a dreamy quality to them.

“Brooks, can you tell me something honestly?”

“Anything.”

“If you close your eyes and picture your dream future, what does it look like?”

“I don’t need to close my eyes. It’s standing right in front of me.” Surprise widens her eyes. “I want you, Siena. I want you and yourchaos. I want all your laughter and the tears you refuse to cry. I want you and all those walls you live behind.”

“Youwantmy walls?”

“I want you to make me part of them. Your walls are there for a reason, and God knows you can handle yourself. But I want to protect you whenever you can’t. I want to have your back whenever you need me to. I loved doing that for you today.”

“Why?”

That single word just eviscerates me. It feels like I’m meeting thirteen-year-old Siena. Scared, starved, stealing food to survive. Unwanted by the people who should have stood by her, and questioning whether she’s worthy of the strangers who saw something in her worth keeping.

“Do you know how I knew I was wrong about you?”

She stares up at me, water running down her face. “I told you my mom introduced me to my ex. That I didn’t go looking for him.”

I shake my head. “Before that. I knew the day I met Aidan and realized you’d actually gone through with breaking things off with him, even though you couldn’t stand me. I knew the day I realized you’d been turning down thousands of dollars so it wouldn’t derail my career. When you looked at me with your heart in your throat on that Tigers sideline after I injured my knee. You showed me your character without even trying, without even knowing those were things I needed, and you never even noticed the trail of fairy dust you left behind.”

“Fairy dust?”

“It’s how I feel when I’m around you. Like I’m hovering a few inches off the ground.” I lean forward, just for the sake of being closer to her. “You’ve drenched me in your fairy dust, Siena. I find it everywhere. On my pillow. In my clothes. Embedded in my skin.”

Siena tunnels her fingers through my hair in that way I love. “Youmake me feel so good, you know that? Are you allowed to kiss me in Pete’s collar?”

I do, slow and full, pouring every bit of want into it. Leaving none of it close to the vest as the water runs over us. Making sure that she knows, without a doubt, that I’m hers. And she’s it for me.

My tough-as-nails girl. My beautiful captain. My chaotic mess.