Briggs (Carolina Reapers 7)

And I fell over that sweet edge with him, again.

I came so hard, and so many times I couldn’t stand on my own, my knees and legs weak, trembling.

Cormac gave me a satisfied growl before scooping my body—limp with pleasure—up into his arms and carrying me to the bed across the room. And I barely felt him curl around me, naked and warm, before submitting into a delicious darkness that smelled of him.

11

Cormac

Sweat ran off me in rivulets as we walked out of the gym after what had been an exceptionally intense off-ice workout. With playoffs starting next week, Coach was on us. We were the number two seed in our division, and though none of us were willing to jinx it by talking about it—we all felt pretty good about our positioning.

Really good.

This-will-be-our-year type good.

I downed most of my bottle of water and slung a towel around my neck before heading down the hallway with my teammates for the locker room. Had to give it to Asher. The guy knew how to build a training facility. There was something to be said for everything being in one location, especially since Bristol was meeting me here in less than an hour.

A grin spread across my face. Bristol. Just thinking about her was enough to thicken my blood and tighten my chest. It had been a month since the gala where we’d sworn it would only be one time. Three weeks since we’d agreed to a no-strings, purely physical rela—don’t even think it. It wasn’t a relationship…there was zero chance something like that would work out between us. It was an…arrangement. Yeah, that was the best word for it.

“What has you smiling like a fool?” Brogan asked, giving me the side-eye like I needed a psych eval.

“Nothing,” I said as we took the stairs down to the lower level, where the locker room was.

Caspian snorted from the steps behind us.

“What?” I asked over my shoulder.

“Does that nothing have anything to do with a smokin’ hot designer I happened to see in Langley’s office before practice?” He smirked.

I blinked, nearly missing a step. Thank God for banisters. She was already here? Fuck. How long had she been waiting?

“Bristol McClaren is here?” Sterling asked, glancing back as he hit the landing.

“I never said it was McClaren.” Caz shrugged, that fucking smirk still front and center on his smug little face.

“If it’s a designer and Briggs, then it’s Bristol McClaren,” Brogan muttered.

“See? Even he sees it!” Sterling laughed and held open the door so we could walk through.

“What’s going on with you two, anyway?” Caz asked. “Fuck! Sterling!”

I turned long enough to see Sterling laugh as the door nearly smacked Caz in the face.

“Gotta move faster, brother!” Sterling chuckled.

“I can’t believe my sister is marrying you.” Caz shook his head.

“What can I say? She has impeccable taste.” Sterling’s smile was contagious. He and London had been engaged for the last week, and the guy hadn’t quit grinning.

I swallowed down the little lump of envy that had clogged my throat unexpectedly. Did I want to be engaged? Hell no. But even I could admit that I was a little jealous that things were just so…settled for him. And yeah, he deserved it. He’d worked his ass off to win London’s heart.

Maybe it was simply that I was in a sex-only arrangement that had zero chance of becoming anything…deeper. When push came to shove, she lived in New York, and I didn’t.

“Yeah, yeah,” Caz said with a snort as we turned the corner for our locker room. “Just be glad our mother likes you because you’re still on my last nerve.”

“I’m an acquired taste,” Sterling quipped. “You’ll love me eventually.”

“Right.” Caz rolled his eyes.

“And don’t think I’ve forgotten about you.” Sterling grabbed me in a headlock as we walked into the locker room.

“Get off.” I shoved him off me with a laugh.

“Seriously.” Sterling lifted his brows.

“Seriously, what?” I toed off my shoes and started to strip out of my sweaty workout clothes.

“What’s going on with you and Bristol?” He lowered his voice, and concern flashed through his eyes.

“Nothing.” I shrugged. “She has me under contract.” And I have her under me.

“Right. Because that’s why the two of you never reappeared at the gala.”

I did a quick look around to make sure none of the other guys were listening in. What Bristol and I had wasn’t fodder for gossip—not that the rest of the team didn’t apparently know that she was here—but Sterling was one of my best friends. “It’s nothing. We’re just hanging out when we both happen to be free.”

“So she’s here for a work thing?”

“Not today.”

Sterling’s brow knit. “So she happens to be free on a Wednesday afternoon?”

My mouth opened and shut a couple of times as I thought that one over. “Fine, we’re…” Fuck, what were we? “We’re making time to hang out. But like I said, it’s not serious.”