Filled it full of love—all for her.
He fell against her in an exhausted heap. No way did he want to leave now. Fuck practice. He could spend the rest of the day in bed with Sheridan and roll out onto that field the next morning beyond ready.
Just being with her made him feel like a superhero.
“You should go take a shower.” She ran her fingers through his hair. “Big game tomorrow. What time do you have to be there?”
It sort of hurt that she didn’t acknowledge what just happened between them. He felt like such a chick. “I don’t know. Eight? Nine? I figure I’ll get a call if I’m late.”
She glanced at the bedside table. “Where’s your phone?”
Jared looked in the same spot, frowning. “I don’t know.”
Reluctantly withdrawing from her, he slid out of bed and padded around the room naked, on the search for his phone. He found it in his jeans and tried to turn it on, but it was completely dead. He brought it back to the bedside table, where he plugged it into the small charging dock he kept there before he climbed back into bed.
“Jared, you need to get ready,” she murmured as he pulled her in for a sweetly sexy kiss, full of tangling tongues.
“Come with me. I need you to soap me up,” he encouraged when he came up for air.
She caressed his chest. “I don’t think so.”
“You’re turning me down?”
“I bet that doesn’t happen very often, huh?” she teased.
“Rarely. You’re about the only person who tells me no on a regular basis.”
“That’s a wife’s prerogative,” she teased.
“Well, wife. I don’t like it. I thought wives were supposed to obey their husbands.” He kissed her again, cupping her breasts with his wide, rough palms, his thumbs teasing her nipples.
She murmured a little sound of pleasure at his touch. “Not when their husbands are all bossy and mean.”
“Like I’m mean.” He treated her with the utmost care. She was the fucking queen of his world, though she didn’t even know it. “You like the way I treat you, wife.”
“I love the way you treat me, husband,” she whispered.
His hands stilled, his gaze locking with hers. They stared at each other, the moment fraught with unnamed tension and he parted his lips, sucked in a harsh breath. “Sheridan, I…”
A successive sound of beeps rang from Jared’s phone—apparently he had a bunch of text messages waiting for him. Frowning, disappointment crashed through him that he didn’t get a chance to tell her how he felt. He leaned over and grabbed the phone, saw the time, and moaned. “Shit, it’s after nine. How the hell did we sleep in that late?”
He sat on the edge of the bed and scanned through his text messages. “Holy. Shit.” He hit a button on his phone and as it rang, he kept his back to her, his voice low when Harvey answered. “Tell me what I just read isn’t true.”
“It’s true.” Harvey sounded grim, pissed off, and ready to explode.
Jared could relate. He kept his voice as low as he could, not wanting Sheridan to hear. Damn his near dead phone keeping him there since it was charging. And how was he going to tell her what happened? “When did this leak? And how?”
“I don’t know. We’ve been working on it all morning. Walsh also wants to know where your ass is at. You’re missing practice.”
“I’ll be there in thirty. Call and let him know.”
“You call. I’m too busy trying to figure out who did this.”
“Too fucking late, I’m sure,” Jared muttered, disbelief mixed with anger bubbling inside him. He couldn’t freaking believe it happened. Three months in and the shit had hit the fan. He was surprised there weren’t more texts, voicemails, and emails on his phone.
“Listen, this all started because Sheridan didn’t have her ring on last night. They speculated, they put the photo of her on that TMZ site, and then they started investigating.”
Shit. He forgot to tell her about that. Too distracted with getting inside her, the incident had slipped his mind. “So who squealed?” He refused to let it be Sheridan’s fault. She didn’t wear her ring when she painted, she’d told him that before. And he couldn’t blame her.