“Yeah. I guess. He’s just so cocky.”
“Can you blame him? Look at the guy. He’s gorgeous.”
I laughed. “He is gorgeous.”
As the conversation turned away from Owen, I couldn’t help but mentally return to him again and again. Even though I was listening to Jessie talk about her struggles with moving back home, I couldn’t help but remember what it had felt like to touch Owen’s body.
I was a physical therapist. My whole professional life was touching people’s bodies. I had never in my entire career so far felt anything other than a professional seriousness about any person’s body while working with them.
But with Owen, I’d been instantly soaking wet the second he had let me touch him. I couldn’t believe how fast my heart had been beating, and I’d known it was so incredibly inappropriate, but I hadn’t been able to help myself. He really was gorgeous, muscular, and intense. Even the dirty things had been setting me off, making me want to do exactly what he’d been saying.
I wasn’t about to give in to an asshole like that, but still, my body was betraying me. There was some part of me that really wanted him to do whatever he wanted to me, and then some.
Owen Rack was a total asshole, but he was a total asshole that I couldn’t stop thinking about.
“Anyway,” Jessie said, wrapping up. “I have to get going. Call me tomorrow?”
“I will.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too.”
I hung up the phone and sat back. My apartment was small and hot since I didn’t have air conditioning. The window unit was humming away, but it barely kept up with Philly’s hot and humid summer nights.
As I stared at the wall, my phone buzzed. I assumed it was Jessie, remembering to tell me something. I looked down at the text and paused.
It wasn’t from Jessie.
It said, “Come out with me. Right now.”
And it was from Owen’s number.
I bit my lip, not sure what to do. I glanced at the time and it was a little bit past ten. I had to be in the office early the next morning, but I also knew that he had practice just as early. I was scheduled to work with him before they took the field.
I didn’t know what to do. I put my phone down and then picked it up again, my heart beating fast.
“I can’t,” I typed back. “It’s late and we have work tomorrow.”
He answered immediately. “We have work to do tonight. Come out with me.”
“I can’t. Another time.”
“There’s no other time. Put on a cute dress and come out with me.”
“I really can’t.”
“I’ll be nice. We’ll dance, have a drink, and then I’ll get you home. You’ll be nice and rested for tomorrow.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I know. Because you actually want me to take you back to my apartment and make you feel things you’ve never felt before.”
“No. Because I want to sleep.”
“Dress sexy. Send me your address. I’ll come get you in ten minutes.”
I bit my lip, shaking my head. Why the hell was this happening to me?
And why was I actually considering it?
Truth was, I needed Owen to like me. I didn’t want to say no and have this awkward thing between us, but I also didn’t want to say yes and put myself in a bad position. Worst of all, I wanted to say yes, and I wanted him to do exactly what he was saying.
There was no winning position for me here. I knew that if I turned him down, he’d just come at me harder. Maybe it was better to just say yes and get this over with. I could be distant and make it clear that I wasn’t interested. He’d get the hint, and then we could go back to being professional together.
The problem with that was, I actually was interested. I just didn’t want to be.
“Okay,” I typed back. “Fine. One drink. One hour at most.” I typed my address and hit send.
“See you soon,” was all he said in response.
I got up, my heart hammering, and practically ran into my closet.
I was nervous as hell and knew I had made the wrong decision, but I didn’t have time to second-guess it. He was coming in ten minutes, and I needed to get dressed.
If I wanted to look good, I needed to hurry.
4
Owen
The driver pulled up outside Taylor’s apartment and I got out. It felt weird to have a driver, but the team had insisted that if I went anywhere in the city, I had to use their official cars. That was probably just to make sure the players didn’t get themselves into trouble, which made sense.
Still, I hadn’t grown up with a damn driver. It was convenient, but I felt weird sitting in the back and letting him take me around.
I walked up to her apartment door and found her name on the list. I buzzed her and waited.
“Owen?” she answered after a second.
“It’s me,” I said.
“I’ll be down in a second.”
I leaned up against the wall, smiling to myself.
I didn’t normally go out before an early morning practice, but for some reason I couldn’t get Taylor out of my head. As I’d been sitting back at my place, I had kept seeing her in my mind, her smile and her body, and the way she pushed back at me like she didn’t want anything to do with me.
I just had to see her.
A few minutes later, she came down the stairs. She was wearing a tight little dress that accentuated her sexy, curvy body. She smiled at me as she stepped outside.
“Not bad,” I said.
She frowned. “You didn’t give me much time.”
“You don’t need it.” I nodded at the car. “Ready?”
“Where are we going?”
“Friend of mine told me about a new club in town.”
“You have friends? I thought you just got here.”
I laughed. “Okay, fine. Raylon told me about it.”
“That makes more sense.”
We headed over to the car. I opened the door for her and then climbed in beside her. The driver headed out, knowing where we were going already.
“Just to be clear,” she said, “nothing is going to happen between us.”
I looked at her and laughed. “Sure. Whatever you say.”
She made this face, adorable as fuck and defiant. “I’m serious. Nothing.”
“That dress says otherwise.”
“We’re going to a club. Was I supposed to wear a sweater?”
“I don’t know what you’re supposed to wear. I only know what that dress says.”
“It says nothing. Get it?”
“I’m pretty sure it screams, ‘fuck me until I can’t breathe.’ And I speak fluent dress.”
She sighed. “Are you always like this?”
“If you mean charming and handsome, then yes.”
She couldn’t help but smile a little bit. I liked that I was cracking that icy exterior.
The club was only a five-minute drive, and before we knew it we were pulling up outside the building. The sound of pulsing bass wafted out from the front doors softly as we climbed out. We headed to the front of the line, and the bounced nodded as he let us in.
I smiled at Taylor, and I could tell that she was impressed. The people in line weren’t too happy to see us getting in ahead of them, but that didn’t matter. Being a professional athlete had its perks.
The club was packed inside. The place was modern looking, all clean lines and wood mixed with an industrial metal vibe. The dance floor was packed, but I steered Taylor toward an empty high top table.
I got the waitress’s attention and ordered a whisky for myself and a gin and tonic for Taylor.
“Cool place,” she said loudly over the music.
“I guess.”
“Not really my scene.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. It’s loud and crowded.”
“That’s right. It’s a club.”
“Maybe I don’t like clubs.”
“Do you like dancing?”
She shrugged. “Everyone likes dancing.”
“Then you like clubs.”
“I’m not sure that’s how it works.”
“Sure it is. Trust me. Once I get you on that dance floor, you’ll like it here.”
“Who said we’re dancing?”
I moved closer to her, my lips near her ear. She didn’t pull away, just like I knew she wouldn’t.
“I said we’re dancing.”
“This was supposed to be just one drink.”
“We’re at a club. We can’t just stand here.”
The waitress returned with our drinks. I held mine up and we clinked glasses. “To dancing,” I said.
She sighed. “Okay. Fine.”
“I knew you’d give in. Can’t resist it, can you?
“I can’t resist dancing; you’re right.”
I laughed and downed my whisky. “Come on.”
She reluctantly followed me out to the dance floor. The place was packed, but that didn’t matter to me.
The only thing I could focus on was Taylor’s body as she smiled and pressed herself against me. We fell into the rhythm of the music and danced together, our bodies pressed close in the crowd. We slowly drifted into the middle of the dance floor, other moving bodies all around us.
I only had eyes for Taylor. The girl was fucking gorgeous, and she knew how to move her hips. She gave me these coy fucking looks, pretending like she was all innocent and shit, but I could tell that there was a freak underneath all of that professional talk. The way she shook her ass only proved me right.