Page 33

THIRTY-THREE

TRENT

Kit’s apartment, along with having terrible water pressure and barely-working air conditioning, had paper-thin walls. For the second morning in a row, the crash of bottles and gears whirring from the dump truck outside woke me up.

Kit slept soundly, body curled into a ball and her face pressed against my chest. I wrapped my arm over her bare shoulders, tucked into my side.

One week since the rally and I’d spent every night at Kit’s place. We’d fallen into a weird liminal space where Derek would announce in the morning he planned to spend another day with Gavin, and I’d suggest I stay one more night. And every night before we fell into bed, Kit would promise this was the last time.

Of course, tonight, that might actually come true. While he’d stay in his brace for a while yet, Derek’s rehab sessions had been helping, and he finally gained enough mobility to return to the apartment. Soon, I’d wake Kit up for her certification exam, and there’d really be no reason for me to stay.

My stomach churned at the realization. No more late nights watching movies. No more study sessions that I’d try to turn into strip poker-style quizzes. No more falling into bed, her skin silky and kisses desperate.

“Is it time to get up?” Kit squirmed closer. Her lips brushed my neck.

“Twenty more minutes,” I murmured, kissing her temple. “You could get a little more sleep.”

She shook her head. “No. I’m too nervous.”

“You’re going to ace this test, get the highest score ever.”

“I’ll be happy if I pass.” She ran her mouth over my stubbled jawline. “But maybe you could distract me for a bit?”

I tilted my head, my lips finding hers. She pulled the covers up over our heads, tilting her head back as my lips skated down her neck.

“I think I could provide some temporary distraction,” I murmured, skating my hand up her back.

Her fingers danced down my chest, gliding over my hip. Her leg wrapped over mine as she gripped my dick, her hands soft and cool. I groaned. “That’s not fair, Kitten. I thought I was supposed to distract you.”

“This is pretty distracting for me, actually,” she said, tightening her grip and stroking it down my length.

I dipped my head down to her breast, sucking her nipple as I rocked into her hand. I ran my hand down her waist, palming her mound and delving my middle finger into her slit.

She sucked in a breath, pressing her free hand to the back of my head, twisting her fingers in my hair. Her hips swayed as my eyes locked with hers.

“Should I get a condom?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No, just like this. This is perfect.”

Perfect. I hung on to that word, covering her lips with mine as she bucked against my palm. I put away my worries about what would happen tonight, when I’d see Kit again, and how I could tease out just a few more minutes of perfection.

Kit came with the alarm clock, a faint mewl of pleasure that pushed me over the edge.

She let go, swiping a kiss over my lips before turning onto her back. “Now I need to shower before we go, too.”

“Same,” I grinned. “It’d be quicker if we showered together.”

I dragged Kit down the plain hallways of the office complex, offended they hadn’t even sprung for a generic picture of a farm or a couple of plastic potted plants. White walls and fake laminate wood flooring as far as the eye could see.

“You sure this is the right place?” I asked, turning back to make sure we hadn’t taken a wrong turn. The place was a maze, and all the businesses sounded like fronts for money laundering. AHB Financial, Betty’s Cleaning Company, The Body Group.

She tapped the placard at the end of the hallway: Universal Exams. “Yep, this way. You could have just dropped me off out front, you know.”

Kit had only told me that about a half-dozen times, but in the week since I’d practically moved into her apartment, we’d been studying non-stop.

Okay, maybe not non-stop, but most of the time. After work, during meals, in bed. Kit’s decision that we’d go back to barely friends after the rally fell apart as soon as Derek said he didn’t plan on staying in the apartment.

And I hoped, like me, she was just making excuses to spend more time together.

“I’m really nervous,” she admitted, shaking out her hands as we reached the frosted windowpane marked “Universal Exams.” A menacing sign below read, “Please read all rules before entering to avoid ejection from the testing site.”

I ran my thumb over the words. “Wow, serious business.”

“I’m ready, right?” Kit paced, walking two feet and then turning around again.

I made room for a guy in a white polo and khakis to pass into the exam room. “You’re ready.”

“It’s just really expensive, and if I fail?—”

I grabbed her hands, preventing her from making another lap.

“Kitten, you’ve got this. You’re ready.” I sucked in a breath and she mirrored me as I blew it out. “You’re going to ace the hell out of this test and then we’re going to celebrate.”

She held back a grin, but when I pulled her closer, she ducked her head before I reached her lips.

“Trent,” she mumbled, eyes darting around the empty hallway.

I frowned. “What?”

“You can’t just kiss me in public.”

“This is hardly public.”

Her face pinched before she reluctantly stood on her toes and swiped a kiss over my cheek. “Alright, I should get inside.”

A range of disappointment gripped me, but I shoved it away. “Good luck. Let me know how you did. You sure you don’t want me to pick you up?”

She shook her head. “Gavin lives right down the street, and Derek is coming home tonight. You probably want a night to yourself, anyway.”

I didn’t. I also didn’t want to crowd Kit if she needed space. “Sure, I should probably drop my clothes off and make sure the place didn’t burn down.”

She smiled tightly. “I’ll see you.”

“Good luck.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” I asked Rob, unable to get Kit’s rejection out of my head.

She didn’t want to be seen kissing me. And it fucking stung.

“Aren’t you just fooling around anyway?” he grumbled, splitting his attention between me, the soccer game on the screen, and the baby monitor perched on the side table. Mila cooed out a song in her room that screeched over the monitor.

“Yeah.” I furrowed my brow. “I mean, sort of.”

“And you’re shocked she doesn’t want to be seen in public with you?” Rob laughed under his breath before taking a sip of his beer. “She seems smart. Maybe you should introduce us.”

“Fuck no,” I replied, relaxing my fist before I did something I’d regret. “And we’ve spent the last two weeks together.”

“She probably needs a break.” Rob shrugged. “What do you care, anyway? I didn’t think you even liked this girl.”

“That was before,” I said. “She’s a friend.”

“You don’t fuck your friends, asshole.” Rob ran a hand through his black, curly hair. “And if you like someone, you date them, you introduce them to your friends. You don’t hole up in their apartment like they’re a god damn state secret.”

My knee-jerk argument that I wasn’t hiding Kit died in my throat. Damn if Rob didn’t have a decent point. I hadn’t intentionally hit Kit away, but we’d naturally holed up the last week.

“She thinks I’m ashamed of her? That I’m not serious?”

“Of course she thinks you’re not serious. You’re not serious about anything.” He picked up the baby monitor, pressing it to his ear. “Did Mila just say she loves Hudson? That smarmy little booger-eater?”

“You’re going to be a wreck when she’s a teenager. You know that, right?” I growled. “And you’re supposed to be helping with my problems, not spying on your kid.”

Rob grumbled as he set the monitor back down. “Fine. If you want to be in an actual relationship, you need to ask that person. Not me. I don’t know if she’s embarrassed by you or thinks you’re embarrassing.”

“She doesn’t think I’m embarrassing.” I winced, thinking back to more than a few times on the rally when she was definitely embarrassed to be seen with me. “Okay, maybe she thinks I’m a little embarrassing, but more of that ‘he’s so cool I get embarrassed just being near him’ way.”

Rob shook his head, his lip curling. “That’s not a thing.”

“You wouldn’t know about it, but it is. So, the answer is I ask her out?”

I’d lost his attention as Mila squawked “Hudson,” again through the baby monitor. “Dude, I don’t know, but that’s what I’d do. Ask her to go somewhere. Do something besides fuck.”

“We did an entire car rally together.”

Rob raked a hand over his face. “So you keep telling me, and please, don’t pull up the picture of your dumb trophy again.”

I pocketed my phone with a frown. “I’m bringing it to the stadium so I can show everyone.”

“I bet you are.”

“Where should I take her?”

He shrugged. “How the fuck should I know?”

“I could take her out to Topaz.”

“That place is so damned pretentious.”

He was right. While it was the hottest restaurant in Norwalk, it was also expensive as hell, served too everything with foam, and had paparazzi sitting outside at all hours. Kit would hate it.

Rob and Kit had a surprising amount in common: they both preferred being at home, they hated anything pretentious or trendy, and they didn’t like me at first.

“Where would you take someone you liked?”

He rubbed his chin. “I don’t date.”

“If you did.”

“You’re asking the wrong guy,” Rob said gruffly. “Talk to Noa or Diego. They seem to have figured out how to get serious with somebody.”

“What about the barbecue?”

Our mandatory mini-camp was right around the corner. A precursor to the preseason starting in earnest and the first time the veterans met the rookies. Coach Simmons held a pool party at his house as a sort of mixer before the first day of the camp.

Rob shrugged. “Could work. Not exactly romantic, but it sure as hell means you’re serious. Are you serious?”

He raised an eyebrow skeptically, and I didn’t really blame him. My track record wasn’t great. But then again, I’d never wanted anyone like I wanted Kit.