Satisfied 2X

“What do I do?” She turned to me.

I shook my head. I wasn’t going to hide in a closet in her room or in the bushes outside. I was a bigger man than that. “Just tell him to come up.”

She pushed her finger to the screen. “Thanks, George. Have him come on up to the house.”

“I swear I didn’t know he was on his way here.” She looked frantic.

I grabbed her shoulders. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Vanessa, or to him.”

“But I feel like I do. Like that kiss today. The one we just had … like it means something.”

“And what about Dylan? Did you kiss him?”

I saw the pink creep along her cheeks. “I did.”

My chest rumbled with jealousy. He’d had his hands on her too. His lips. His tongue. Soon, she’d be in his bed.

I fisted my hands in the back of her hair and pulled her to me. My lips crashed against hers. It might be the last time I ever kissed this woman. And like hell, I wanted her to remember every last breath of it.

Fifteen

Vanessa

I was dizzy. Drunk. Off my axis. By the time Isaac let me go, I was lost.

“He’s at the door.” He pointed to the foyer.

“Right. Right.” I straightened my shirt. I had been so wrapped up in the kiss I hadn’t heard Dylan knock.

I pulled the lever and he strolled in. “Hey, darlin’.” He leaned to kiss me on the cheek.

I inhaled his cologne and sighed. My instincts were torn. My body was reacting to both of them. This was terrible and wonderful at the same time.

Isaac met him in the kitchen. “Good to see you, brother.”

“What are you doing over here?” Dylan prodded. I didn’t know what his tone meant.

“I wanted to see Vanessa.”

I hung back in the doorway. I was afraid to walk too far into the pit of their conversation. I could feel the testosterone dripping off them.

Dylan nodded. “I thought you said, you’d respect the code.”

“I am. Nothing’s official yet. I haven’t gotten a team alert on my phone. It hasn’t made the news. There’s no fake engagement. She’s free.”

Dylan crossed his arms as his stance widened. “You’re my best friend, you know that?”

“I know it.”

“And when you came back from wherever the hell you were in the Middle East, I was there for you, right? I had your back.”

Isaac closed his eyes. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

“You never want to talk about it. You never want to talk about anything that isn’t football.”

I crouched closer to the wall. They acted as if I weren’t here. I wasn’t going to interrupt them with a big announcement.

“What’s your point?” Isaac’s eyes flared.