Page 48 of The Linebacker

She flapped her hand, still agitated. “This. Us. This.”

His face smoothed out, caution shifting to a knowing look, which ratcheted up her suspicion. She watched him with narrowed eyes as he strode toward the couch and dropped down right next to her.

He plucked her laptop from her lap and placed it on the coffee table, and then he wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips to hers. In the blink of an eye, she found herself lying on her back with his lower half snuggled between her thighs and his upper body held up by his elbows pressing into the cushions.

“That was impressive,” she said when they came up for air.

“Thank you.” He smirked.

She pushed at his chest, and he shifted his position, sitting next to her while she slid back into a seated position herself.

“Okay, well, now that we got that out of the way.” She reached for her laptop.

“Did we?” He watched her steadily. “Do you want to talk about it now that I’ve erased the most immediate doubts?”

“Not really.” She wasn’t good at talking about her feelings. Mostly because she’d never had to before.

“Fine. Did you have a good day today?”

She nodded with her gaze on the computer screen. “I did. I’m pretty sure Jeff is going to hire Emma permanently. She takes phenomenal pictures. You?”

“The post-game meeting when we win is always fun. I mean, this was my first with this team, but that seems like it would be a universal truth.”

“Probably.”

“Are you looking at game pictures?” He leaned forward, attempting to peer at her screen. She made it easy on him by flipping it around so he could see it.

“Nope. Houses.”

His face fell. “Oh.”

Damn it, she was not ready to deal with freaking emotions right now. Biting back a sigh, she touched his sleeve. “Even if this, um…”

“Lasts?” he suggested.

She closed her eyes for a moment, nodding. “You still need a place to live.” She glanced around, taking in her tiny condo. “This isn’t big enough for both of us. And anyway, whatever this is”—she flapped her hand like she always did when she was agitated—“living together right off the bat is definitely not going to work for me. I mean, you are literally the first guy I’ve ever slept with twice.”

“I’m honored,” he said solemnly.

“Stop.”

“What? I am. In case you missed the memo, I’ve been interested in being more than one-and-done since we were one-and-done.”

She opened her mouth to speak. She needed him to stop talking about it. She did not know how to manage all of this. Hell, if he asked her to put a label on it, she’d be hard- pressed.

She just wasn’t ready. And if he kept pushing, she was going to shut down.

Maybe even tell him to leave.

Which she didn’t want to do, but…

Chapter

Seventeen

She was shutting down. Amil could see it as if the words were being typed across her forehead.

Yeah, he’d been worried there for a split second. The typical, shit, this is fantastic and I’m not ready to let it go yet kind of worry that he recognized as him moving too fast and her not ready to take that leap.