Page 33 of Pitcher Perfect (Big Shots #4)

Skylar had been shaken up like a martini at the Gilded Garden and dumped into a transparent glass, her feelings on full display.

No hiding. No stiff upper lip. Was it residual fear or the immensity of her relief—or possibly a combination of the two—causing

the giddy desperation that coursed through her body while Robbie worked the faucets of the shower, holding out his hand to

test the water temperature?

She didn’t know, but the need to touch him was so fierce, she put her hands behind her back. When had he become this...

this rock? Her rock?

Over the course of the week, she’d started to depend on him. Of course she had. This was her teammate in the Page Stakes,

not to mention her partner in a romantic deception in which they no longer seemed to be participating. Right? And Skylar had

always been her own rock and in a lot of ways that would never, ever change, but God... Robbie’s every action since he’d

shown up this morning had been heroic. Decisive. Mature.

Scary.

This Robbie was scary .

In the sense that she was now experiencing a deep need to be touched by him.

To feel his presence as closely as possible.

His heat, his strength, his Robbie-ness that seemed to correspond to her emotional highs and lows intuitively.

Was it possible she was romanticizing him because he’d quite possibly saved her from a watery death?

Did she love Robbie and not Madden?

Or was she just shaken up? Confused?

Was she letting her attraction to this man increasingly cloud her judgment?

Finally, Robbie nodded with satisfaction over the water temperature and made a no-nonsense gesture. “In you go, Rocket. Please.”

She nodded and dropped the towel, immediately wrapping her arms around herself to combat the lack of warmth. Robbie made a

gruff sound and ushered her into the steamy shower stall, releasing an exhale of clear relief when she stepped beneath the

spray and moaned. After taking a few seconds to revel in the heat permeating her bones, she looked toward the still-open glass

door to find Robbie watching her with his forearms propped high on the top of the shower frame, his chest dipping and rising

slowly.

“You warm yet, Skylar? You feeling better?”

“Yes. I promise.”

His eyes closed briefly and he let out a slow breath, relief softening his gaze when he looked at her again. “That bathing

suit is so you.”

“It’s scientifically proven to add speed,” she murmured into the shower spray.

His lips jumped. “Thanks for making my point for me.”

Skylar turned a little in a shameless attempt to draw his attention to her butt—and it worked, his eyes going smoky, a muscle

leaping in his jaw. “I have a cuter one I wear when I’m not trying to crush my competition and accidentally drowning instead.”

He winced, paled slightly. “Could you stop bringing that up?”

“Sorry.”

Robbie clenched his eyes closed and shook his head hard, as if trying to banish the last half hour from his mind. “What does

this other bathing suit look like... and did you pack it?”

“I did pack it, actually. It’s turquoise with white hibiscus flowers on it.”

Robbie hummed in his throat. “I can’t picture it. Going to need to see it in person, I’m afraid.”

His gravelly tone caused a tautness in Skylar’s lower body. A pull. “Maybe.”

He simply made eye contact. The kind that made her sound breathless when she said, “I thought we decided you needed to warm

up, too.”

“I can’t get in there with you.”

“Why not?”

“It’d be a tight squeeze, for one.” The muscles of his abdomen flexed and held, his gaze tracking up and down her thighs.

“Two, I don’t know what’s going to happen if I touch you, but I doubt I’d be able to stop. And as bad as I want to get my

hands on you, I’ve got an inconvenient need to know where we stand. Let’s label this relationship, girl—”

“Get in, Redbeard.”

“Fine. Coming.”

He was right. It was very close quarters. The moment Robbie ducked into the shower, the available space in the stall shrank

to almost nothing, but that was what Skylar’s body wanted. At that moment, that was the only entity she wanted to hear from.

News from her body, not her brain or her heart, both of which were getting their signals crossed. Robbie’s bare chest crowded

her into the corner of the shower, his hands planting themselves on the slippery wall above her head, biceps popping, a rocky

exhale.

When he leaned down, when he would have kissed her— every pinprick of her nerves celebrating in response, flashing hot and wild, rushing—he stopped before their lips could meet, searching her eyes with an intensity that blocked her next inhale.

“Tell me everything you want,” he demanded, dragging their mouths together roughly. Oh my. “Tell me every fucking thing you want and need.”

“Well, it’s... Wednesday. It’s blow job day. I thought we could—”

Robbie covered Skylar’s mouth with his hand. “I’m not talking about sex. And... wow. Wow. I can’t believe I just said that

out loud. My hand on your mouth is actually preventing you from talking about sucking my dick. So yeah, I don’t know, Skylar,

but I think I’m pretty messed up over you. I want to know what you want in life. I want to make sure you get it?” He rolled

their foreheads together. “I don’t know. I don’t know. My chest hurts, baby. Help me out.”

She’d never experienced raw honesty from another person this up close and personal and it made her feel drunk. Stoned. That’s

what Skylar wanted, too. Didn’t want to be in possession of a single faculty whatsoever. Just wanted to feel and not overthink

what touching Robbie meant. Where his confessions might lead. “What I w-want in life?”

“That’s what I said.”

There was a list in the back of her planner, but in the steam with this big man pressing her into the wall, she could only

recall a few items amid the hormonal rush. “I want to swim at the Great Barrier Reef. Pitch a no-hitter...”

“You haven’t pitched one yet?”

“I have, but I want one at the collegiate level.”

“Got it.” His right hand dropped from the wall, fingering the strap of her bathing suit, waiting for her nod before he started

slowly, slowly tugging it down her right arm. “Okay.”

“And...” She snapped her mouth closed before she could say the rest.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

A red brow arched. “Nothing?”

He yanked down the other bathing suit strap and it happened, it was happening, her breasts were uncovered. Out in the open.

She couldn’t help but look down to see what Robbie could see and wow, the view actually turned her on. Her arms were trapped

at her sides thanks to the wet straps and that position put an arch in her back, lifting her breasts, her stiff nipples quickly

growing wet with steam, her pulse accelerating at the way his eyes darkened, his huge hands coming up to cup and knead them,

thumbing her nipples. Circling them with a featherlight touch and inspiring a slow tug between her legs.

A breathless glide of moisture. There.

She trapped a moan, but couldn’t quell her shudder.

“That nice?”

“Yes. Yes.”

“What was the third thing you were going to say?”

“I don’t... I don’t remember...”

Robbie lowered his mouth to her tight breast and gave a long, thorough lap of her nipple. “You’re going to tell me what it

is.” The rosy bud disappeared into his mouth, the pad of his tongue rubbing, rubbing. Relentless. “Say it.”

“A giant erasable calendar with everyone’s sports schedules on it,” Skylar blurted.

When she expected him to laugh or cringe, he only transferred his attention to her other breast, licking the entire thing

up, down, and sideways, making her head fall back against the shower wall, her teeth making marks on her bottom lip. “Who’s

everyone?”

“Uh.”

“Kids?”

“Yes.”

“Is that a someday wish or a someday soon wish?”

“Someday.”

He hummed again. It was a new sound for him, one he’d been making a lot today, like he was absorbing information about her

or...

What.

Oh God.

She couldn’t think with him giving her breasts so much... enthusiastic... attention. At some point, he’d lifted her

off the ground with his forearm beneath her butt so he wouldn’t have to duck down so far to lick and suck and kiss her there,

breathing heavily all the while, like they were his last meal.

Where was this leading? What was going to happen?

Those unknowns led to her reaching for some control in the form of kissing. Threading her fingers into his wet hair and dragging

him into a kiss that was even more intense than before, his hips grinding her butt into the shower wall in time with the stroke,

stroke, stroke of his tongue, turning her brain into an impenetrable fogbank and more importantly, making her inhibitions

go poof. Gone.

“I want to get on my knees for you,” she gasped.

“No.”

“You... no? But...”

“You were drowning less than an hour ago, Skylar.”

“I didn’t, though.” She scrubbed a hand down between their bodies and massaged his erection through the soaked front of his

trunks, forcing him to muffle a ragged noise in her neck. “You were there.”

“I’ll be there every time if you let me,” he said, choppily. “The fact that I rescued you... is that why you want to kneel

for me?”

She tugged open the string of his shorts and slipped her hand inside, gripping.

Jacking him once, twice, three times, savoring the way his shoulder muscles tightened, the veins growing more prominent in his neck.

“Maybe the fact that I want to suck this was subconscious until now, but Robbie?” She sipped at his bottom lip.

Nipped it. “If I didn’t want to get on my knees for you, I would never have put it on the schedule. ”

Relief, tenderness, and heat, combined with a heavy swallow, made him so endearing in that moment. Vulnerable. It was an admission

that he’d needed to hear—that she’d been attracted to him all along. She kissed his cheek and lingered there, her grip staying