Delayed Penalty (Crossing the Line, #1)(34)

"No. It was all very informational." Shifting in the bed, I pulled the blankets up, listening to the rain outside and Evan's breathing. I could hear the bustle of his team in the background from his end of the line, but they were far enough in the distance I didn't think they could hear his conversation. "Now I'm lying here in your bed, looking through your stack of nudie magazines you kept under the mattress."

Again, dead silence. Not even breathing.

"I'm teasing…but you do have a nice collection of comic books." In the drawers of his nightstand were tons of comic books, at least fifty of them. It made me laugh that here was this professional athlete and he had comic books.

"Hey, those are in mint condition," he said, making me laugh again by the concerned pitch of his voice. "Don't you go messin' with the pages and putting fingerprints on them."

"I wouldn't think of it."

My favorite part about Evan so far, aside from his voice, was how honest he was and how conversation usually flowed freely, just like with everyone else in his family.

We were both quiet when his breathing slowed, and I knew what was coming. We could avoid it, but it was still there; the stirring attraction between the two of us that had started early on and since that kiss had been building. "Are you really in my bed?"

"Yep." But then I had to tease him, lightening the mood. "In the bed you probably learned to jerk off in." My hand flew to my mouth, surprised by my own crassness, and I snorted.

"See, that's where you're wrong." He let out a heavy breath, but there was laughter in his tone again. "I figured that out in the shower."

"Oh, damn. And here I thought I was where the magic happened."

"Nope. Didn't even lose my virginity there."

"Hmmm…let me guess. Back seat of your car?" I giggled at my suggestion. Then I immediately started thinking about the lucky girl who was with him. What did she look like? Did he love her? Had he ever loved a girl?

"Close, but no. In the back seat of her car. She was older than me by a few years."

"Cougars. They'll getcha every time."

He blew out a heavy sigh and groaned a little, the sound muffled as though he'd covered his mouth with his hand. "I can't stop thinking about you in my bed. I gotta go. The images are just too much for me to handle tonight."

"It's a shame really," I whispered. I was mastering this teasing sexual tension. "If this phone had a camera, I'd gladly send you an ass picture."

"Why you gotta be like that?" he demanded, laughter slipping into his words. "I just told you I was struggling and you go and say shit like that. I'm gonna hang up on you now."

He didn't. We ended up talking for two hours that night about his game, his parents, and his sister. I learned his middle name was Maddox, that he peed the bed until he was seven, and he hated eggs. I told him a few things about myself. My middle name was Nicole, I had a strange obsession with organizing my clothes by color, and I hated fish of any kind.

Eventually, as always, he waited for me to fall asleep after we had discussed what I was wearing. He'd asked me to take it off with him on the phone, and then finally, he had to call me back. I knew what that was about, but when he returned the call, we had a good time teasing each other a little more.

It was a good thing he got me good and sleepy because I don't think I could have slept in his bed after teasing him like that. I'd already had sex with Evan in my head, even though he didn't know that, but I wasn't about to tell him either. I'd already pictured what he looked like naked, and the thoughts had been surfacing since he helped me bath that night in the hospital.

I hoped that eventually we would. The memories I did have of anything sexual with Josh, my high school boyfriend, didn't come close to what I wanted Evan to do to me. It was like this hockey player had taken over my mind and jumbled it with dirty thoughts. I wasn't sure if Evan was attracted to me that way, but his body language told me another story. His kisses added the words and his touches added page numbers.

My heart gave me a kick, reminding me that I was in his bed. He obviously wanted me close to him.

Before I came to Chicago, I had one boyfriend growing up, Josh, and we never had sex, but we did everything else imaginable during those three years. Then one day we had decided it was time. We were on the Oregon coast at his parents' house the day my family was killed. Josh and I, having been together for years, were going to do it that weekend. It was actually a big deal, too. We'd been planning it for a few weeks, giddy first time lovers wanting to show their love.

Then I had gotten the phone call about my family the day we were at the beach, and it just never happened. After they died Josh and I grew apart. His sister was on that plane with my brother and my family. Neither one of us handled it the way we should have. Instead of something bringing us closer together so we could be there for each other, Josh pushed me away.

In the fall, he left for college in California, and I never heard from him again. I had just graduated that spring and stayed home after they died. I tried to move, but ended up leaving that November when my parents' house was foreclosed on. After paying for the funerals for three people, and various bills that came along with that, I didn't have enough money to pay what was left on their mortgage.

I had no money and no place to live. That was when I ended up in Chicago at Ballet Chicago looking for work. I had always loved to dance, ballet mostly, so it was the perfect gig for me to not only dance but earn some money and make a life for myself.