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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

RACHEL

I followed Silas through the garage into his building lobby on shaky legs. I hadn’t cared in the moment, but as I smoothed down my hair and dress, I avoided eye contact with anyone passing by on the chance they’d recognize me.

Silas swiveled his head toward me as we walked, sneaking me a grin as he took my hand.

“Don’t tell me you’re all shy now,” he whispered into my hair before kissing my temple.

I glowered at him as we headed toward the elevators.

“Penthouse?” I asked before he pressed the button for the fourteenth floor.

“Not quite. Sorry to disappoint you,” he said, leaning on the back wall of the elevator, still holding my hand. Two other passengers had stepped in after us, so backing me up against the wall and crushing his mouth to mine wasn’t on the table unless we wanted to get really brazen.

It felt like a weird full-circle moment. The first time Silas and I had been in an elevator, we’d both been so consumed with need, not really knowing each other beyond an instant connection that I’d tried to attribute to all the crazy lust between us.

That lust was still there, as even in my younger days, I’d never climbed into a guy’s lap in a garage in broad daylight. While I was very up for another night in Silas’s bed and repeating everything that had been playing in my head since the first time, more than anything, I just wanted to be with him.

“This is me,” Silas said, pulling my hand when the elevator dinged on his floor. His smile was easier than I’d ever seen it, and I felt every bit of the relief I spied in his beautiful features.

Being together would be tricky. My agency was based in Manhattan, and other than our partnership with the Brooklyn Bats, none of my coworkers or bosses ever had a reason to come to Brooklyn. But this big city was small, so running into someone I knew if Silas and I were on a date was very possible.

I didn’t want to sneak around and hide something amazing, but until we figured out how to approach this, I couldn’t see another way.

Silas unlocked his door and held it open.

“Wow, you really meant it when you said that you had just the essentials.” I mused as I strode past him. “You have a couch, a TV, and a table.”

Silas had big windows from floor to ceiling in his living room but nothing on his walls. I’d been in hotel rooms that seemed more lived-in than his apartment.

The high ceilings in the hallways and large rooms with what looked like layers of paint on the walls gave it an older feel, but the Village always made older seem trendy.

“I really don’t need anything. I’m back and forth to the field and on the road. Decorating isn’t a big priority.”

I laughed when he shrugged.

“But maybe unpacking should be,” I joked.

“I am unpacked. Mostly,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ve been focused on other things.”

“Are the Bats working you that hard?” I threw him a smirk as I set my purse down on his table. “You’re almost in first place, so you’re obviously doing something right. They should leave you alone so you can make this place not look so…sad.”

Silas’s mouth split into a grin, almost making me forget my downward spiral of panic.

“They aren’t working me that hard. I come home tired, and the last thing I want to do is hang up a picture. I mostly read and pass out.”

He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled my back to his front.

“Instead of getting after me for my bare walls, how about some dinner? Celebrate stop one of the tour,” he said, peppering kisses down my neck.

“It’s not a tour. And you don’t have to do that.”

“I’d suggest you eat something. It’s going to be a long night.”

I slumped against him as he smoothed my hair to the side and dragged openmouthed kisses across the nape of my neck. He slid his hands down my hips before dropping his head against my shoulder with a groan.

“I’ll bet this is Kent. Hold on,” he said as he dug his hand into his back pocket for his phone. “Sorry, just give me a minute.” He kissed my cheek and turned around to press the phone to his ear.

I ambled past his kitchen, the sink and stove shining as if they’d never been used, and padded down the hallway. His bedroom door was open, his jersey hanging on the top of the door. I spotted a king-sized bed, a dresser, and a small closet with sliding doors.

Even if the bedroom was as plain as the rest of his apartment, the bed looked cozy and comfortable. My gaze snagged on his jersey as an idea came to me.

I stepped out of my shoes and slipped my dress over my head. Peeking behind me to make sure I wasn’t in front of an open window, I peeled off my bra and underwear and grabbed the jersey off the hanger.

I’d never dated any jocks in school, but I’d always found it stupidly romantic when a football or baseball player’s girlfriend would wear their jersey. When Silas told me I could only wear his jersey to the field, my teenage heart did a major flip-flop in my chest, even though we’d been trying to keep each other at a distance at the time.

But this was his real jersey. I could smell his spicy cologne along the collar as I wrapped it around my naked body, my nipples tingling when the material grazed them. I’d just come in his car not twenty minutes ago, and my body was already aching for more.

“Hey, sorry.” Silas’s voice echoed down the short hallway. “Kent likes to check in after road trips?—”

Silas stilled, his scruffy jaw going slack as he raked his gaze up and down my body.

“Holy shit,” he breathed out.

“I had an idea and an opportunity,” I said, lifting a shoulder. I wasn’t tiny, but the jersey managed to dwarf me, the hem hitting my knees.

“Did you now?” Silas whispered, his voice dark and dangerous as he pulled me to him by the loose collar.

“I mean, I already have a Jones jersey,” I said, darting out my tongue to wet my parched lips.

I’d wanted a good reaction from him, and the feral gleam in his eyes was exactly what I’d been looking for.

“But this hits a little different. Watching you wearing this during all those games…” I skated my hands down his chest. “It’s like you’re all over me. I guess I wanted the fantasy.”

Silas let out a groan and backed me up against his bed until I fell back on the mattress.

“You had your fantasy,” he said as he unbuttoned the two I’d managed to fasten and spread the jersey open, smoothing it down my shoulders. “Now I get to have mine.” He smiled, cupping my breasts as he kissed me deep, but slow enough to make me squirm under him.

“Patience, Slugger,” he murmured as he dove into my neck, biting and sucking as he made his way down my chest.

I bucked my hips off the mattress when he sucked a nipple into his mouth, the wet warmth of his tongue and scratch of his stubble making me reach between my legs on instinct, already chasing release.

“Oh no, that’s mine,” Silas said, swatting my hand away and tracing his finger up and down my slit. “What a greedy girl you are. So wet already.”

“Please,” I groaned into his very fluffy and soft pillow.

“Please, what? Use your words, romance author. Tell me what you want.” He inched across my chest and took my other nipple in his mouth as he traced circles around my clit.

“Put your mouth on me. Lick my pussy and make me come in your mouth.”

“Now, that’s a good girl,” he growled out as he grabbed my hips and adjusted me on the bed, his hungry gaze eating up every inch of me.

“Shit, you really are a fantasy.”

I was about to nudge his shoulder when he dropped his head between my legs, kissing me long and deep like he’d done in front of the bookstore and in his car. I dug my heel into his back when he sucked my clit into his mouth and plunged two fingers deep inside, twisting them as he inched in and out.

I was already a little sensitive from before, and with all the different sensations—being in Silas’s bed, wearing his shirt, his head bobbing between my legs as he moaned with every swipe of his tongue—I hoped the orgasm building up wouldn’t tear me in half.

I reached down and grabbed the back of his head, trying to push up on my elbows to get a better view of the filthy sight in front of me. He hooked one leg over his shoulder, and the shift of angle and friction as he kept devouring me set me off like a grenade.

I came on a scream, legs shaking and flailing as Silas wouldn’t stop, wringing everything out of me until I melted into a puddle on his mattress.

“Good idea?” I asked, my chest still heaving as I tried to draw air back into my lungs.

“The best,” he said, pressing a kiss to the inside of my still-trembling knee before climbing onto the bed next to me. “Here I was, thinking I’d need recovery time from the car,” he said, giving me a light kiss. His mouth was still glistening with me as his lips stretched into a lazy smile.

“I’m hard as a fucking rock already,” he said, settling on top of me. “You have magical powers.”

I laughed, burying my head into his neck.

“I want you,” he whispered, his voice still full of carnal want but enough need to make my head pop up.

“You can have me.”

A slow grin spread over his mouth as he shifted to stand from the bed.

“Listen.” I grabbed his wrist. “I’m on birth control, and the last time I was with anyone has been…a while, and I’ve been tested. I trust you if you trust me.”

His hooded eyes narrowed a minute before he shook his head, peeling off his T-shirt, followed by his shorts and boxers in one swoop.

“You are really going to be the death of me,” he said, climbing back on top of me.

“Let me take this off,” I sat up, pushing the sleeves of his jersey down my arms before he grabbed my hand.

“No, I want to fuck you while you wear my number.” His eyes thinned to slits but had a playful glint as he settled on top of me and slid inside me with one long, slow thrust.

This was just as amazing as the last time but very different. Silas slid his arm under my waist, pushing deeper and harder as I wrapped my legs around him.

“You feel so good like this,” he said, grunting between thrusts. “I’m ruined. Totally fucking ruined.”

I tightened my legs around him as he went faster, the bed squeaking under us as a sheen of sweat broke out on my skin.

I’d never recover from this either.

I still hadn’t from that first time. Silas made love to me like there was no tomorrow, but I wasn’t going anywhere.

Maybe I wouldn’t be in this bed again for a while, but despite what I was risking or how I’d avoided getting too close to a man for my entire life, Silas had me.

I had no energy or intention to keep fighting the inevitable.

“Look at me,” he growled out, slipping a hand between us to draw circles on my clit. I couldn’t possibly come again. Being able to do it before had to have been a fluke.

I raised my gaze, clenching my eyes shut as he rolled his hips and smacked the side of my ass hard enough to make a loud crack.

Stars burst in front of my eyelids as I fell over the edge, Silas spilling into me until he dropped beside me on the mattress with a soft bounce.

“I think you’re the one with the magic. In fact, I think you’re going to kill me.”

I felt his chuckle as he buried his head into the pillow, reaching for me before he lifted his head.

“This means you’re mine, right?” he said, holding my gaze as he pinched the edge of his jersey, now balled up at my side.

It was kind of ridiculous. Me, in my mid-thirties, wearing the jersey of a baseball team manager—or lying on it, as the case was now—shouldn’t have felt so official or so…right.

But it did.

“Yes.” I looped my arms around his neck. “That’s exactly what it means.”