Playing for Keeps (Heartbreaker Bay #7)(74)

“And you want someone to share this life with.”

Ivy nodded. “I do. Have you never wished for that, not once? If Caleb went away right now and your life went back to it just being you, would that work for you?”

She’d never thought about it, but for the rest of the day she thought about little else.

Because she couldn’t imagine her life going back to how it had been without Caleb in it.



The next morning, Sadie woke up to Caleb’s alarm sometime before the butt crack of dawn. While her mind struggled to awareness, a long arm reached past her to silence the alarm, and then the hand that belonged to that arm slid down her back to cup her ass, reminding her she was naked.

Caleb slept in the nude and he liked skin-to-skin. She had to admit she was quickly getting addicted to the feeling of being held in his warm embrace all night up against that lean hard body.

And he was right. He wasn’t perfect. No perfect man got up this early every morning by choice to go to the gym and meet up with friends and pulverize the shit out of each other.

For fun.

Sometimes he’d come home between the gym and work, and if she was still in his bed, he’d go for yet another round of cardio, where, let’s face it, she was more willing receiver than active participant because she didn’t do mornings.

But she was slowly starting to come around to his way of thinking.

Today he came back. She heard him let himself in and she lay still, feigning sleep as he planted a hand on either side of her and leaned over her.

“Rise and shine, Tough Girl,” he said.

They’d spent the long, dark hours of the night ruining each other for other people and she was still deliciously sated and limp as a rag doll. She needed another hour of sleep.

Or eight. “Hmph” was all she could manage.

“Last night you said I should come back this morning because you’d decided starting your day with multiple orgasms is the only way to go.”

This was true, but she still didn’t move or open her eyes. Maybe if she played dead, he’d let her sleep a little longer.

She should’ve known better. He grabbed a fistful of the covers and tugged them off of her.

“It’s like you want to die,” she said into his pillow.

With a soft laugh, he gave her bare ass a playful swat. “You’d have to get up for that.”

She’d rolled over to find him in his usual workout gear, a painted-on long-sleeve athletic shirt and shorts, his body still shiny with sweat.

Her good parts sat up and danced because good god, he was gorgeous. Suddenly she wasn’t tired. Sitting up, she gave him a crook of her finger, and with a wide grin, he lifted her off the bed. She pushed his shorts off while he rid himself of his shirt. Before she could so much as take a nibble, he scooped her up, tossed her over his shoulder, and headed toward his shower.

“Hey!”

Turning his head, he took a bite of her ass, making her squeal. Then he dumped her into the shower. The only thing that saved his life was that the water was steamy hot.

Then he proceeded to give her the best shower of her life.

Thirty minutes later, he was dressing for work as she lay facedown, spread-eagled on his bed, thinking of never moving again. “I want to marry your shower and have its babies,” she said, making him laugh.

“Dinner later?” he asked.

“Can’t,” she muttered into the sheets. She managed to turn her head and stare at him through the hair in her face. “I’ve got a family thing. I’m supposed to bring a date.” She’d been dreading this for a while because he’d be the perfect date. He represented the exact kind of man her parents dreamed about her ending up with: smart, successful, wealthy. And how ironic was that? She’d spent her entire life bucking the system and yet here she was, not only sleeping with a guy they’d love, but secretly yearning for a lot more.

If she brought him tonight, her mom and dad would take one look at him and back off bugging her about finding someone. And then after dinner they’d all get into her parents’ recently upgraded and remodeled hot tub that they were so proud of, which meant Caleb would take off his shirt. Everyone would see his tattoos and swallow their tongues. They’d change their opinions about him based solely on his appearance, and she’d be able to throw that in their faces, that they were judgy judgersons.

It’d be awesome.

Caleb pulled on a tie, but left it loose as he tucked his shirttails into his pants and adjusted himself. This gave her a body quiver, which was ridiculous. Since when was she a sex fiend? And then she realized he hadn’t spoken, so she sat up. “You didn’t answer.”

“I didn’t hear a question,” he said.

She just stared at him, fighting pride. Why was it so hard to ask this beautiful, incredibly smart, and incredibly out-of-her-league man out?

With a small smile, he came to the bed and sat at her hip, pushing her still damp hair back from her face. “You like me,” he said, sounding quite pleased with himself.

“I do.”

“A lot.”

She rolled her eyes. “Maybe.”

“I like you too, Sadie. A lot.”

The question escaped her before she could stop it. “Why?”

“Why do I like you?”

She grimaced. “Scratch that. I didn’t mean to ask that again.”