Defender (Seattle Sharks 9)

“Noble!” Lukas shouted.

My head jerked back toward our group as I blinked. “What?”

“Porter was asking if you’d ever thought of moving to Charleston,” Lukas answered with a wry grin.

“Don’t bother the guy when he’s obviously distracted,” Porter chastised with a smirk. “See something you like over there?”

Fuckers.

“No, I was just—”

“Distracted,” Porter finished.

“Distracted by what?” Faith asked as she reached us with Harper at her side.

Holy shit, could this get any more awkward?

“Nothing, I’m not distracted. I just got lost in my thoughts for a second.” I sent Porter a look that silently threatened to slice off his dick if he made one more comment.

“Happens to me all the time,” Harper answered, dropping her bag on the empty lounge chair next to Lukas’s.

“Yes, I know. At least I’m not standing in traffic.”’ I laughed at the memory of how often I’d had to yank her out of danger because she’d stopped to admire something while we were in Sweden and lost all track of time and space—and her place in it.

“Ha,” Harper replied, sticking her tongue out at me.

“So mature,” I joked.

“Hey, I’ve been in college since I was fourteen. Not exactly the best place for role models in the maturity department.” She flipped her head over, gathered her thick brown hair between her hands, then stood back up and wrapped it, pulled it, and folded it somehow until it formed the knot on her head she was overly fond of.

It was all sorcery to me.

“Hot tub sound good?” Faith asked Harper.

“God, yes. I’ve been hunched over my lab table all day, and if I don’t soak the tension out of these muscles, I’ll regret it,” Harper answered as a group of kids ran by us.

“Don’t run on the deck! You’ll fall and bust your head open!” Porter yelled at his daughter.

She answered the hulking brute with a wave and a smile before jumping into the water.

Harper tugged her shorts down her legs and then pulled off her shirt. She tossed both items of clothing into her pool bag, leaving her clad only in a black bikini that had drool pooling in my mouth.

Holy fucking shit, yes. All the yes. So much fucking yes.

My brain regressed to high school as Harper stood there, oblivious to anything but Faith as they got ready for the hot tub.

Her skin was flawless. Her legs long and supple. Her hips perfectly curved for my hands to grip, and her waist tucked in so neatly above her soft but toned belly. And her breasts...Fuck me, they rose in perfect globes in her bikini top, and I had the urgent, immediate need to tug the fabric down to see what color her nipples were. I bet they were fucking perfect, just like the rest of her.

“Nathan?” Harper asked in a tone that implied she’d asked more than once.

“Yes?” I yanked my eyes to hers.

“Did you want to come with us? Lukas was asking…” Her eyebrows rose in concern and her gaze darted between Lukas and me.

Lukas, who was grinning at me like I was the funniest thing he’d ever seen.

So much for not allowing myself to think about Harper sexually.

How was it that we’d spent weeks together in Sweden and I’d never seen what she was working with under that lab coat? Maybe it was a good thing because now I couldn’t unsee all that perfection.

“We’ll go,” one of the rookies answered with a cocky little grin as the other one ogled Harper in a way that made me want to punch him in the face.

Probably the same way I had just been.

“Let’s go,” I said as I rose from my chair. I peeled off my t-shirt, leaving me in just my trunks.

The girls walked ahead of us, lost in conversation, towels clutched to their chests.

When I heard the rookies’ voices, I realized they were still following us.

I stopped and turned around to block them. “Nope,” I snapped into their incredulous faces.

“What? Man, come on, look at that—”

“Don’t finish that sentence. Don’t look. Don’t think. Don’t even try. Turn around and walk away.”

They bitched, but seniority had its privileges, and they both knew better than to fuck with me.

“What are you laughing at?” I asked Lukas with more than a touch of annoyance as we followed the girls.

“You,” he answered without skipping a beat. “It’s funny to see you get territorial.”

“I’m not territorial,” I argued. “They were being way inappropriate. They were staring at Faith’s ass, too, you know.”

“Yep,” Lukas agreed.

“And you don’t care? Because I want to smack some sense into those two morons.” I shook my head as the girls sank into the hot tub.

“Of course I care.” He tilted his head. “But if I smacked some sense into every guy who stared at my fiancée’s ass, I’d spend my entire salary bailing myself out of jail. As for those two assholes, I’ll handle them at practice tomorrow. For now, I’m going to relax with Faith, and you, if you’ll remove whatever stick got shoved up your ass.” He walked down the steps into the hot tub.