23
Rhett
Kip: Is everything okay? Neither of you have answered my texts about your meeting with the Ariat guys.
Rhett:Yes, Daddy. Everything is fine. Some of us sleep at night.
Kip:I was worried she might have killed you. Just looking out for you, son.
Rhett:She almost did.
* * *
Isleep more comfortably than I have in, well, ever. Summer fits against me like she was made for me. I don’t even mind her cold-ass feet.
I wake up to pull her closer, or to thumb a piece of her silky hair, or to brush a featherlight kiss against those puffy lips. But it never really feels like waking up, just an extension of my blissful comfort. We smell like soap and minty toothpaste, because truthfully, we haven’t been asleep for that long.
It’s the sensation of being watched that finally draws my eyes open in the already light room. Summer is wedged under my arm, hair a tangled mess, lips all swollen and pink, bare face sprinkled with freckles like sugar on top of a cupcake.
When I meet her gaze, she doesn’t look away.
“Is this when you kill me in my sleep? You mentioned that at one point.” My morning voice is raspy, and so is her soft chuckle as I squeeze her tighter. “You’ve been playing the long game this entire time, haven’t you? You didn’t have a teenaged crush on me at all. You’ve been plotting my murder for over a decade.”
She nuzzles her face into my chest. “Shut up.”
Her eyelashes sweep against my skin as her fingers swirl in my chest hair.
“Are you hiding from me, Summer?” I fist her hair and give it a tug, forcing her chin up.
“I’m just working things out in my head.”
Yeah, well, I can’t say I didn’t see this coming. I knew she’d take off in the morning. All the people who I want to stay never do. It’s the ones I can’t get away from fast enough that hang around. The ones who want something from me.
I grunt noncommittally, feeling irrationally attached to Summer after getting naked for one night. Which is brand spanking new for someone who only ever wants one night.
“Don’t grunt at me, Rhett Eaton.”
I sigh and scrub at my face, wanting to fall back into the quiet, happy lull before this conversation started. “What are you working out?”
She peeks up at me. “Well, for starters, how to convince you to go again.”
My brows raise. “Yeah?”
She grins. “Yeah, but look at the time. You need to be at the arena for another interview and a meeting with a sponsor in one hour.”
I roll her on top of me, not caring at all about the fucking time. Especially not when her legs straddle my waist, and she sighs like she knows she belongs there.
“Fuck the meetings.” I grip her waist as she taps at her lip.
The sheet pools around her waist and the sun shines in brightly behind her, highlighting the beard burn across her chest, just above where her pert tits stare back at me.
“I’m also trying to figure out how I’m going to continue sleeping with a client who only has one-night stands.”
“Fuck one-night stands.” My hands glide up over her ribs, pushing her breasts together.
“It would be unprofessional for me to continue but...” She’s smiling now, looking light and sweet and totally fuckable.
“Fuck professionalism,” I growl, tweaking a nipple.