My ball is in the second cut of the rough grass… on the fairway of the fifth hole that is way off to the side. My mind is on one thing, and for the hundredth time since almost two weeks ago, I check my phone, making sure I haven’t missed a call or a message.
Nothing. Fucking nothing.
“The front nine didn’t like me too much either,” I mumble, hopping out of the cart when we stop.
After grabbing a club, I walk over to my poor golf ball that has been treated like shit all day. Golf is supposed to be relaxing, but I’m tense from head to toe. Should I just call her? I should at least text and see how she’s doing. No. That would seem less casual than what we agreed on.
“For Christ’s sake, are you going to hit the ball or not?” Corbin yells from the putting green—on the correct hole.
Bastard has a pro game going today. Why did I agree to come golfing?
After flipping him off, I hit the ball, and watch it… land in the first cut of the rough grass. At least I’m back in the right fairway now.
“Dude, at this rate, we’re going to have to let people play around us,” Maverick says as Dale chuckles, sinking his ball in the hole effortlessly.
Jackasses.
It takes me a few more swings, but I finally get the resistant ball into the fucking hole, and we head on to the twelfth hole. Corbin steps out, preparing his masterful shot, but I become distracted when my phone buzzes in my pocket.
I juggle it out, hoping it’s her as I walk toward them with my driver in my hand. As soon as I swipe the screen, I’m stumbling, falling, and landing in a heap on the ground, with my driver thudding harshly to the ground. But my phone sure as hell doesn’t drop, and that’s because I have a death-grip on it.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Tria… naked… bed… mirror selfie… I have to get the hell out of here.
“Dude! What the hell?” Corbin growls.
I don’t acknowledge the fact that I just royally fucked up his shot.
“Gotta go,” I call over my shoulder, leaving behind the fallen club while jogging over to one of the carts.
They yell at me and curse me a little, but I don’t bother looking back as I drive away and head toward the clubhouse. It takes me less than two minutes to run to my car after parking the golf cart, and even less time to ditch my clubs in the trunk and get on the road.
It’s about damn time.
***
TRIA
I’m so stupid. Why oh why did I listen to Brin? How will I ever look at him again?
He could have said anything. But he ignored my message. I sent it over twenty minutes ago. There’s no way he hasn’t read it, because he always has his phone on him.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. Great. Now I’ll have to miss my own sister’s wedding, because I’m a coward like that. I’ll never be able to face Kode Sterling again.
A pounding on my door has me jumping and squealing, but I race toward it, tightening my robe as I reach it and swing it open.
In a blur of motion, lips are suddenly bruising mine with a hungry kiss, and I barely gauge who it is before my legs are wrapping around his waist. When did he pick me up?
The door shuts behind him, which means he most likely kicked it, but I’m too wrapped up in kissing the hell out of him to notice anything else going on. His hands are just as greedy as his lips, squeezing me tightly to him as he makes up for lost time.
The kiss only breaks off when Kode stops it, looking around the inside of my new home for the first time. I moved to escape Pete Mercer after I found out he was out of prison and looking for me.
Fortunately, it’s been a while, and he doesn’t seem at all interested in stalking me down anymore.
My thoughts of Pete are vanquished when Kode pushes me against the wall, jerking my robe open.
“Fuck the bedroom,” he says randomly.
Ah. He couldn’t find my bedroom.
I start to tell him where it is, when the sound of a foil wrapper crinkling catches my ears, and I realize he’s about to screw me against the wall. The wall. Yes. Definitely the wall. It sounds so much better than the bed right now.
“I missed you, too,” I say just before his lips reattach themselves to mine.
He pulls back, his eyes narrowing on me. “Then you should have called sooner.”
A small fluttering happens in my chest, and I suck in a coarse breath. He wasn’t avoiding me. He was waiting on me to call.
I really am stupid.
Before that thought can fully take root, he’s pushing into me, letting my robe hang open and baring my body to him fully. My breath catches in my throat as my back continuously thuds against the wall.
Kode out of control because he wants me this much… well, it’s hot as hell. And it just makes me kiss him that much harder, that much wilder, and with that much more excitement.