Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“Oh, that’s terrible. Who would want to be the pot calling the kettle black?” Jess teases.
“That’s like the worst thing anybody could ever say to you.”
I sigh. “It’s not that. It’s just . . . I don’t know how to bring this out in the open and have it go well. All my work with him is predicated on this stuff not happening. Flings not happening. Risqué trysts not occurring. And he doesn’t exactly have a track record with relationships. Who’s going to believe him?”
Katie shrugs and says softly, “I don’t know the answer to that.”
“That’s the issue. The answer is that it likely wouldn’t fly. We’re trying to craft a more wholesome image, an image that helps him keep deals, not lose them.”
Katie lifts her glass and nods thoughtfully. “Right, but you’re only focused on work, Jillian. Not on the fact that you might have actual feelings for someone.”
Jess nods. “She’s kind of right, Jillian.”
I give them both a sharp stare. “But isn’t that how forbidden relationships are always justified once you try to bring them out in the open? But I care about him. Like that exonerates people from responsibility. We couldn't hide it anymore.” I take another drink, trying to settle this tempest of emotions inside me.
“No, but maybe there are rules worth bending,” Jess says.
I shake my head. If I bend, I’ll lose. If I bend even more, he could break my heart. I take a fortifying breath. I need to stay strong. “Even if we have actual feelings, it’s too risky for both our careers to be involved. Too often we think emotions give us carte blanche to excuse ourselves from right or wrong. Have an affair? It’s totally fine if you love the person you cheated with.”
Katie arches a well-groomed eyebrow, her blue eyes zeroing in on me. “So you love him?”
I roll my eyes. “You know what I mean.”
Jess rolls her eyes back at me. “I saw that eye roll. I felt that eye roll. And we all know what you mean. You’re kind of wild for him.”
“Friends are the worst,” I moan.
“Especially when they know you so well,” Jess says.
“Yes, my twin,” I tease.
Jess pats my shoulder. “That’s what I’m saying, twin.”
But later, after they leave, I have to ask myself what do I mean.
Do my feelings for him run that deep? When we started working on the calendar, he was a pretty face, a delicious body, a flirt.
That was all.
He’s so much more now.
So much deeper.
Maybe it’s the two glasses of wine, or maybe it’s the J he made on the field.
I take out my phone and send him a text.
Jillian: Hey.
Jones: Hey.
Jillian: I feel bad about something.
Jones: Don’t feel bad about trying to distract me with your hotness after the game, wearing that blouse I wanted to rip off with my teeth.
A stupidly big grin forms, but I stick to my plan.
Jillian: I would like to know how strong your teeth are. But in all seriousness, I feel bad because I know we said we were going to keep everything that happened in Miami a secret, but I told my best friend, Katie, and Jess, too.
Jillian: I’m so sorry, Jones. I feel terrible.
Jones: So terrible you’d let me spank the terrible right out of you?
I cross my ankles, laughing at his response. He’s always made me laugh. His sense of humor is one of the things I adore about him.
Jillian: I guess I’m in very big trouble, then.
Jones: So big that if you were here, I would bend you over my lap and swat that gorgeous heart-shaped ass of yours.
I turn to my side, clutching the phone as if it’s the source of all the happiness in the world—or maybe just in my world.
Jillian: I deserve it.
Jones: I would smack you on one cheek, then the other, and you’d probably tremble all over because I’m pretty sure you like to be spanked.
Jillian: Pretty sure? Don’t you know? You already spanked me. Also, you’re not annoyed?
Jones: Woman, if you didn’t tell your best friends about me, I’d have been devastated. The fact that you told them makes me weirdly, stupidly happy.
Jillian: Why?
Jones: Because it means you like me enough to tell your girlfriends. Now, please don’t interrupt my spanking fantasy again. Because I’d like to put you on all fours, bite your ass, and nibble my way down your legs. I’d nip your right ankle, then your left, then I’d lick my way up your other leg to that absolutely delicious spot between your thighs where I know you’re already wet and aching for me.
More like on fire. I wriggle around on the bed, murmuring his name.
Jillian: How did you know the top two adjectives to describe how I feel right now? Wet and aching are shockingly accurate.
Jones: Because I’ve touched you enough to know what turns you on.