Sterling (Carolina Reapers 6)

“You weren’t a goddamned bet.” It came out as a growl.

“I know,” she said softly. “Maxim told me.”

Of course, she fucking believes him.

“Which apparently was not the right thing to say,” she bit her lower lip and looked left, then tugged me through a door and into…the coat closet. We were in a coat closet.

“Can you give us a second?” London asked the attendant.

The guy took one look between the two of us and walked out.

London locked the door, then leaned back against it, like she needed to block my exit.

“We’re in a coat closet.” A very small, very confined coat closet.

“I’m okay,” she assured me, keeping her eyes locked on mine. “As long as you’re in here with me, I’m okay. Jansen, I knew,” she rushed. “Before Maxim told me, I knew. The more I thought about it, I knew there was no way you’d do something like that. That’s not who you are.”

I leaned back against the attendant’s counter. “You stole my line.” She knew. She knew. I didn’t know if I wanted to sag in relief or fuck her against the door. “I had a whole speech planned about how I fell for you in that elevator, and now it seems pretty pointless.”

Her eyes flared. “Not pointless! I want to hear your speech!” The plea in her eyes was my undoing.

I arched a brow at her as my heart thudded to a steady beat and gravity shifted back to where it belonged. My steps were slow as I closed the distance between us. “I fell for you in the elevator, and no, it wasn’t just because you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. I fell for you when we were on the floor, when I saw just how hard you fought to keep calm.”

Her hands rose to my chest as I caged her in on one side, flattening my palm against the door next to her head.

“I fell for you on the roller coaster and again when I kissed you for the first time. The fact that Maxim appeared between the elevator and the roller coaster never changed how I felt about you. Was I jealous that he said he was going to date you? Yeah. I’d be jealous of any guy who said he wanted to date you. I’d work my ass off to prove that I’m the right choice.” I leaned down and brushed my lips over the shell of her ear, breathing her in. “I will always prove that I’m the right choice.”

“Jansen.” She gripped the lapels of my tux.

“I love you, London.” I rested my forehead against hers. “There is so much about life I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll always get to play for the Reapers. I don’t know if I’ll get injured in the next game or play until I’m too slow to keep up. I have no clue if Maxim is suddenly becoming more relatable or I’m losing my mind, and I have no clue what to do with the voicemail my sister left me this morning. My sister.” I palmed her waist. “The only thing I’m certain of is that I love you with every bone in my body, London Foster.”

“Oh, Jansen, I love you, too.” She brought her mouth to mine and licked her tongue along the seam of my lips.

I groaned and kissed her, tangling our tongues. She tasted like champagne and home, and while I’d gone hard at the damned sight of her, this was a whole new level of need.

My hand slipped through the slit in her dress to find her bare thigh, and she gasped, breaking the kiss.

“Wait.”

I froze.

“I’m not hiding us anymore…if there’s an us. If that’s what your speech was saying.” Her eyes searched mine, worry creasing her brow. “That there’s an us.”

“There’s an us,” I assured her.

A smile flitted across her face. “Good, because I realized that yeah, I really love this job, and I want the position at the end of the year, but not if it comes at the cost of losing you. I don’t want to sneak around or hide what you mean to me.”

Her words were breathing life back into my soul, but— “I’m not going to be the reason you don’t get the job.” I refused to be the one standing in her way.

“You won’t. That’s what I’m saying. I asked Silas, and he’s fine with players and staff fraternizing as long as the job gets done.” She grinned.

“You…” I smiled slowly, letting this feeling fill me to the brim until it overflowed. “You talked to Silas.”

She nodded.

“Because you want us to be public.” I needed the words. Too much had gone wrong between us because we hadn’t said them in the past.

“So public.” She kissed my chin. “So, so, so public.” Her hands slid down my chest, my stomach, and then she grasped my dick through my pants. “Like. Right. Now. Public.”