Block Shot (Hoops #2)(125)

“I know that.” His lashes are lowered, screening his eyes from me. His face is implacable, chiseled into tight lines and sharp angles. “I don’t want you to abandon him. That wouldn’t be who you are, but it still bothers me because I know he’s in love with you.”

I can’t deny that. It’s an odd situation I have us in, but I’m not sure how to get out and live with myself. I know there will come a time when I’m less involved, but Zo is nowhere near out of the woods. With the stem cell process looming ahead, he is actually about to enter a deeper, darker forest in some ways. This would be the worst time to leave him.

“At least we’re not living together,” I say, my attempt to soothe the frown from his handsome face. “Me and Zo, I mean.”

Our things are scattered between Jared’s apartment and my house, but most nights we end up here.

He does grin at my hasty clarification and traces my lips, my cheekbones, leaving a damp trail in the wake of his finger.

“I knew what you meant.” He kisses my nose. “My lease is up in a few months. We could discuss it, if you want.”

My stomach lurches and my breath hangs in my throat. My heart triple beats.

“Sure, we can talk about it.”

I glance down, studying the contrasting textures of our bodies in the water. My skin a little darker. His rougher, golden-hair dusted. There’s no self-consciousness about my nudity, about my body. Yes, I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been, but it’s not that. I’m still a double-digit girl in a single-digit town. I work out and eat right, but Mother Nature took her time spreading these hips and this ass. My curves are toned and firm, but they ain’t going anywhere any time soon, and I’m fine with that. I’ve grown to love that. Jared loves it, too. I used to think being with a man like him would make me more self-conscious. If anything, with his love as a constant, I’m more confident than ever.

“Hey.” He tips my chin up so I meet his eyes, which are laughing, content, blue. “It would be a very short conversation. I want to live with you. To wake up with you every day. What do you say?”

His grin is teasing and infectious. As complicated as our careers, our lives are, it’s simple when it’s just us. And I love when it’s just us.

“That’d be nice,” I reply, leaning up to kiss him, long, slow, deep. When I pull away and turn back around, even though the water is getting chilly, I settle into his chest again.

“There’s something, uh . . . else I wanted to discuss,” he says.

Now I hear something in his voice, a reservation. A hesitation that has me grabbing his hand and linking our fingers at my waist.

“Shoot,” I say. “What’s up?”

He brushes his free hand over my hair and drops a kiss onto the wet strands.

“I have an offer to make,” he says, watching my face closely. “I have a position for you at Elevation.”

If you could hear a pin drop in bathwater, we would right now. It’s not that I suspect he chased me for my clients, for what I could add to his agency. I’m clear on Jared’s single-minded love for me. It’s my brain working through the offer.

I separate myself from the woman stretched out against the man who owns her heart. That woman’s ass still aches from how hard he fucked her. That woman wears stubble burns on her breasts and the insides of her thighs from his kisses. That woman’s whole world fits inside this bathtub with the golden-haired man behind her. In an apocalypse, this would be all she needed.

But the world is not coming to an end, and I mentally take a few measured steps away from this tub and that girl and her man and examine the offer with objective distance.

“You say you have a position for me at Elevation?”

I turn and slide away until my back hits the other side and we’re facing each other. I hang my arms over the lip of the tub, caught at the elbows.

“Yes.” His lips twist, a smile suppressed because he feels the shift. The water isn’t the only thing cooling. “A very generous offer, I think.”

“You have a position for me at your agency. How would that differ from my current situation?”

“I’d beat whatever Cal pays you.”

“Cal doesn’t pay me.” I relish the surprise in his eyes. “I negotiated a contract to waive my base salary in exchange for keeping even more of my commission.”

I smile innocently and bat my lashes.

“It’s actually quite a lot.”

An amused breath passes his lips, and where I lean back, he leans forward, propping his elbows on the edge of the tub.

“So what would it take for you to come work for me?”

“I won’t come work for you.”

“You won’t?” he asks, his frown quick, heavy.

“I know exactly how many clients Elevation represents, and I can guarantee that all of mine would follow me out the door if I left Bagley. That would double your client list.” Now I lean forward, my naked breasts pushing through the water, and wait for him to raise his eyes from my nipples. “In a day.”

“Double?”

“Double,” I confirm. “I have autonomy at Bagley, by and large, and keep more of my money than I would anywhere else. Eventually, I’ll strike out on my own but haven’t wanted to take that step before. What you’re describing would be a lateral move, at best, and doesn’t interest me.”