Page 44

“Don’t answer it,” he murmurs, his words like a kiss against my skin. “Rest.”

“If it’s going off it’s because it’s someone important.”

The vibration stops for a moment and then another before picking up again.

Charlie groans as I slide out from under his arm and he buries his head more completely into the pillow. Though, when I stand to walk away, he lets out a chuckle. “Never mind, stay just like that. I like this view very much.”

I’m already too far away from the bed to throw a pillow at him, so instead I just wiggle my hips, shaking my ass back at him and grinning at his bark of laughter.

This is how it’s going to be and I love it.

I’ll take the job with the Yankees. He’ll manage the Eagles. We’ll live here in this house and we’ll build a life. It’ll be different than what we originally planned, but at least we’ll be together. And no one will bat an eyelash at our relationship.

Because that’s what it is now, a relationship.

I love that man. More than I even thought I’d let myself love anyone ever again. I had my career and for a long time and I thought that was enough. And it would have been, if he hadn’t come back into my life. And now I can’t imagine a day without him in it.

My phone has stopped vibrating by the time I find it, bending over just right while I dig through my bag to give him a view that elicits a tortured groan.

There are two missed calls, but from different numbers.

The first was Stew.

The second was that Japanese number that I saved into my contacts as KN .

And while my phone is in my head, a text pops up from KN .

I am told you are not with the Eagles. Please update?

Here we go.

I call Stew back first as Charlie slides from my bed into the bathroom to dispose of the condom and, before I can really appreciate that view, Stew picks up and skips the pleasantries. “You are a royal pain in my ass, you know that? Did you take the job with the pinstripes?”

“Not yet.”

“Yet. So you’re going to take it.”

“It’s not like I have another option.”

“You do,” he insists. “Or you will in about an hour. Someone leaked to Nakamura that Vinch let you go. His new agent called today to start negotiations on some of the finer points of our offer and, when you weren’t around to take his call, they freaked out.

Ownership is in an emergency meeting. If you get down here now, I think we can spin this into something special. ”

Charlie’s pulling his clothes back on, but he looks entirely like he just rolled out of bed after fucking someone within an inch of her life. Accurate, but not the best look for work, and when I catch a glance at my reflection in the mirror in the corner of my bedroom, I’m not much better.

“I’ll hear them out,” I say, finally. “I’ll be there in a half hour. Charlie’s on his way too.”

“And how exactly do you know that, young lady?”

“I’m hanging up now,” I say, and end the call, cutting off his laughter.

“What’s up?” Charlie says, handing me a robe he found hanging on the back of my bedroom door. I slip it on as he turns to find his shirt, now a crumpled lump of cotton lying across the other side of the room.

“Nakamura found out they let me go. It’s a mess. Stew wants me to come back to the office. I think they’re going to offer me my job back.”

“Oh,” he says simply, and I can practically see the wheels turning in his head, like he used to look when his pitcher was struggling and he needed to figure out a solution to get him through the rest of his start.

“I’ll hear them out,” I say, with a shrug that sends one side of the robe slipping down my arm.

Charlie reaches out to right it, his fingers lingering against my neck for a moment and then another. “What do you need from me?”

“Go there and stall? I can’t show up looking like this.”

“You look great.”

“I look . . . ravished.”

He snorts and then nods in agreement. “Exactly.”

“I need to shower, at least.”

“Okay,” he says, and then leans down to press a soft kiss to my cheek and then to my lips. “I got you.”

“I know you do.”

One more kiss, this one a little more lingering and bit more handsy, and he’s out the door.

I forgot how good it feels to be wanted like this. To be needed.

But now I’ve got to focus.

Clothes.

My closet is full of options. Most of my clothes are for work, but when I catch a glimpse of a navy-blue pinstriped skirt, the choice is made for me. If I’m going in there, they’re going to be reminded of exactly what they’re up against the entire time.

A shower, cold to really make sure I’m fully awake, and a quick blow-dry to my hair, twisting it up into a bun and then, after staring at myself in the mirror for longer than I normally do, letting it down again.

A different look because they need to know they’re dealing with a different woman today than they were yesterday.

My heels that were left carelessly by the door when we crashed through it slide into place, nude patent leather, with the white and navy pinstriped skirt, a stark white camisole and the matching suit jacket and I’m good to go.

Walking down the stairs of my building, I glance at the door to the apartment beneath mine, the apartment that no longer houses my ex and his family, and I wonder if the co-op board will let us make the house into one single unit. If not, maybe we move until we find something big enough for two.

But that’s a problem for another day.

There’s a car waiting for me when I step outside and I grin at Vladimir, who smiles back, wide and toothy. I haven’t seen him since that day at the airport.

“It’s only a couple of blocks,” I protest, while he holds the door open.

“Mr Avery insisted,” he says, after I slide into the backseat, before closing the car door behind me and jogging around to the driver’s side so we can get going.

Of course he did.

Is this what it’s like to be loved by a man like him? Not coddled or managed, but taken care of, just because he can.

I can’t even try to pretend like it doesn’t feel amazing.

I love him. He loves me.

And now, whatever lies ahead, we’ll face it together.