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“To the unexpected.”
She offers a little smile as she taps her glass to mine, and we each take a healthy sip before she asks, “What affected you today?”
My brows pinch together as I try to figure that out. “You. Just having you there. I was nervous going into it, speaking in front of that huge crowd…but seeing you somehow centered me. And I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. I mean, I’ve been conditioned to hate you for longer than I was able to love you.”
Her fingertips move to my arm and trail down until she links her fingers through mine, her glass in her other hand. She takes a sip. “So how do we overcome that? Because I’m in the same boat, Linc. It’s not like we’d ever be able to have a normal relationship.”
I blow out a breath. “Fuck normal. We do whatever works for us.”
“But what would that look like? It’s not like you can take me to the next charity event. It’s not like I can sit in the owner’s box and watch you from up there. It’s not like—”
I hold up my glass to stop her. “I know what it is and isn’t like, okay? I know you’re right. And I don’t know how we navigate that. Maybe we’re doomed from the start. Maybe we’re only ever supposed to feel animosity toward each other. Maybe hate sex is all we can ever have.” I shrug, and I drain the rest of the liquid and set the glass on the nightstand beside me.
“But maybe not. Maybe somewhere in the midst of all that, we could have it all.”
I press my lips together, and that thought floats between us for a few beats. “Maybe,” I eventually agree. “So, for now, we figure this out together in secret. We make a pact today that nobody knows.”
“Nobody?” she asks.
“Nobody,” I confirm, and then I pause a beat. “Wait. Your friend already knows, doesn’t she?”
She guiltily sips her whiskey before she answers, and she sets her glass on the nightstand, too. “I may have called her earlier when you were out and told her about the chemistry between us, and I might have texted her when you were in the bathroom to let her know I sealed the deal.”
I roll my eyes. “Jolene,” I groan.
“That sounds a lot like how you said my name when you were inside me,” she says, and then she slaps a hand over her mouth like she can’t believe she just said that.
My jaw drops as I turn to look at her, and I can’t help the gleam in my eye as I take the pillow I’m leaning on and hit her with it right in the stomach.
Her eyes widen. “Did you just…hit me with a pillow?”
I raise a shoulder as I arch a brow.
“Oh, it’s on, Nash,” she says, and quick as a flash, she grabs the pillow she’s leaning on and she perches on her knees as she smacks me right in the chest with her pillow.
I make some sort of oof sound that makes her giggle, and I laugh, too, as I get her back near her hip.
Somehow it erupts into an epic pillow fight—not our first, naturally, but one where we’re laughing as we let go of some of the aggression that spans between us. It ends as I wrestle her down, and I hover over her with my lips just inches from hers.
“I haven’t had a pillow fight in twenty years,” I murmur close to her mouth.
Her eyes are merry as they fall onto mine, and she leans up to catch my lips with hers for just a quick peck. “Neither have I.”
I lower my mouth back to hers for a longer kiss, but it’s interrupted by a knock at the door before it gets too far.
“Pizza must be here,” I mutter. I’m hungry, but I think I’m hungrier to be back inside her than I am to eat actual food.
I can only hope that time comes again.
Sooner than later.
CHAPTER 18: JOLENE
He answers the door while I stay in bed and finish my whiskey, and when he returns, he tosses the pizza box in the middle of the bed. I’ve never actually eaten in a hotel bed before, but I go with it.
We each grab a slice, and after he takes his first bite, he says, “Do you have any confessions?”
I can’t help a little chuckle as I think back to the first time he asked the same question.
