Page 53 of Only Between Us

Yes. Yes yes yes.

Brooks’s thumb drags over my lower lip. He hums with approval when my mouth parts reflexively, then dips his finger inside.

“Suck.”

My sound is halfway between a whimper and moan. I won’t survive the night.

I close my lips around his thumb and do what he says. Swirl my tongue around his fingertip, hollow my cheeks, graze my teeth along his skin. Keep my eyes on his impassive expression, searching for any little hint that I’m doing this right.

The way he likes it.

But he gives me nothing. Just stares back, utterly calm. Amused more than anything.

And then Brooks plucks his fingers from my mouth so fast the wet sound fills the room. He reaches around me, presses something cold against my chest, and waits until I have a hand on it before releasing me. It’s a shiny, rose gold tube.

“Fix your lipstick.” I huff a breath. Turn around, lift the tube to my puffy lips with trembling fingers, dabbing on more lipstick. He stands behind me, watching my reflection work in the mirror.

“A little warning might’ve been nice,” I say quietly.

“What for?”

“You’re out there getting fawned over by women my mom’s age. Dancing with kids. If only they could see their good little boy behind closed doors.”

“Siena, I used to fuck in back alleys. What part of that saysgood boyto you?” He raises an eyebrow. “You call this a dress, by the way?”

“Are you going to order me into a different one? Can’t stand the thought of other men looking at your pretend girlfriend?”

“No point. I could take you out in a paper bag and still have fuckers tripping over themselves to get at you.” He takes me in, head to toe, and shakes his head. “Asking you to cover up would be like shoving a championship ring under the mattress. You better believe I’m showing that off front and center, spotlights and all.”

“Consider me impressed, Attwood. That’s a very mature perspective—”

“Obviously the ring stays in a glass cabinet, under lock and key. This is strictly alook don’t touch, under threat of immediate strangulationkind of thing.”

“Andthere’sthe ego I know and love.”

The act of dragging his gaze off my body looks like it takes a whole lot of effort. Brooks offers me his arm. “Come on, Pippen. Let’s get this over with.”

It’s not until the steel elevator doors slide shut that I remember the little pink vibrator, still tucked inside me.

Chapter18Siena

I haven’t had this much trouble escaping to the bathroom since high school, when my history teacher finally realized that when I asked for the hall pass it was less about relieving myself, and more about making out with Dan Trenton in the back of his beat-up Impala during second period.

The hotel ballroom is packed with a few hundred people I don’t know. Brooks and I have constantly been pulled in different directions by members of the Tigers organization—the entire night has been a perfectly executed rotation of players, coaches, and alumni selling Brooks on the team. It’s made it impossible to slip away.

Brooks leans back onto the bar as Shawn and Bonnie Hartley—the Tigers quarterback and his wife, who are currently charged with our entertainment—order a beer and cocktail each.

He and I have been sipping on water. Brooks because he lays off the booze during training. Me because I’m sharing a bed with the most gorgeous man I’ve ever laid eyes on, and I need all my inhibitions firmly in place.

Which is a fucking chore right now, considering I’ve currentlygot a vibrator sitting snugly inside me. It’s not running, but still pushing against my clit in the most tantalizing way.

The shit I get myself into sometimes. I swear.

“Thanks,” I tell Brooks as he slides a fresh water toward me on the bar. He shifts his weight and I quietly add, “How’s the knee?”

Brooks gives a half nod, half shrug in response. Beyond him, I notice a blond woman in a shimmering silver dress eyeing us curiously before lifting her champagne glass off the bar and heading for the dining tables.Shit.

“Hey, who is that?” I ask Brooks. I’d been whispering, but there’s something funny in the way she was staring at us.