I stutter the words as his shirt comes off. “I can wait outside.”
He laughs and chuckles at me. “Oh no, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
I don’t know what he means by that. It’s like he can’t stand to let me go. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part.
He gets down to his underwear, and even though I’ve done everything to avoid looking at him, there’s no way I can take my eyes off him now. It looks as if he’s got muscles on top of muscles. He’s big and brawny, 6’5, and I know his stats say he’s three hundred pounds. He’s a whole lot of man, and I know that my eyes get as big as my face when I see the bulge between his legs.
I avert my eyes, and when I do, I scan his face, and he’s looking at me with a smug smile. My whole body is heated, so I turn around, facing the other direction. Only a few minutes pass and he grabs my hand again. This time when I look at him, he’s fully clothed in jogging pants and a T-shirt.
We walk back the way we came and exit the stadium. He takes me outside, and I point to the far lot where my car is parked.
“I’m over that way. Where do you want to meet?” I ask him. I tug on my hand, but he doesn’t let it go.
“You can ride with me. I’ll bring you back to your car later.”
I speed up my steps because I’m taking two steps for every one of his. When we get over to the gated lot, he puts in a code and walks me over to his black Escalade. He helps me into the passenger seat and then quickly darts around to the other side of the car and gets in.
Once we’re out of the lot and onto the highway, he floors it, and I stare at him with my mouth hanging open. “So do you still like chicken fettuccine Alfredo?”
I’m surprised that he even remembers that. I used to bring it for lunch every Friday way back in high school.
“Yes,” I mutter to him.
He gets on his phone and places an order for food delivery.
He drives us through Knoxville into the other side of town, and it’s then I recognize that we are driving toward his house.
When he pulls onto his road, I ask him, “What are we doing at your house?”
He looks surprised. “How did you know it was my house?” he asks.
Shoot. I think I messed that up for sure.
I try to seem convincing when I answer him. “Who else’s house would we be going to? Plus, I mean, you are having food delivered...”
Yes, it’s crazy to think that I’ve driven by his house before. I’ve seen it from the gated road a couple of times before. I’ve never stopped or anything, and it’s not like I’ve driven by because I’ve been enamored with his money or anything else. I was enamored with JD Ryan long before he became what he is today. But I can’t tell him any of that. He’ll think I’m a stalker for sure.
As he puts in his passcode and the gates open, he pulls into the driveway. I try to seem surprised and tell him what a beautiful house he has. I don’t know if he’s looking at me skeptically or if it’s just my imagination or not, but he says, “Thank you.”
We walk side by side up to his house, and he lets me in the front door. He shows me the living room and says, “Hey, I’m sorry to get you here and leave you right away, but I really need to shower and get the stink off me.”
“Sure, no problem. I need to type my notes for the game up real quick and send them to Jamieson anyway.”
He points to a room off from the living room. “My office is in there. If you’d like to use that, I’ll be right back, okay?”
He looks as if he doesn’t want to walk away, but finally, when he sees me settle behind his desk, he leaves.
I look around the big room, filled with books and trophies, and I pull my laptop out. I type up all of my notes and send them to Jamieson quickly. When I’m done, I pack everything back up and sit on the couch and wait for JD to come back down. My thoughts are all over the place as I try to figure out what I’m doing in JD Ryan’s home and what in world he’s going to want from me.
Chapter 7
JD
I’m walking down the steps from showering and changing when I get the ding on my phone from the security app. I look at the car and driver from the video on my phone and hit the open gate button in the app.