Page 6 of Offside Possession

“You mentioned that.”

“Right.” My cheeks heated, and I shook my head. Play it safe, Stells! “Houston is very different from where I came from.” I was being vague, but a girl could never be too safe. “Being new here, I’m not really looking for… strings. If you know what I mean?” For a quick moment, I could have sworn disappointment flashed in his eyes.

“No strings, huh?”

“String can get a little… complicated.” I winced.

Complicated had sounded like the worst thing in the world before. But now, as we sat side by side, our thighs and shoulders touching, his body heat radiating over mine, complicated didn’t seem so bad. An image of the two of us so tangled up, tied together that we didn’t know where one started and the other ended, popped into my head.

“I can understand that,” he agreed. It sparked a question inside of me, something he saw and didn’t shy away from. “What’s that look about?” he asked.

“I’m just wondering if… if you have someone waiting for you? Wife. Girlfriend or boyfriend. No judgment.”

“No one is waiting for me, Troublemaker. I have a lot of faults, but being a cheating bastard isn’t one of them.”

“Has it ever been?” I asked, unable to stop the question before it slipped past my lips, but he didn’t seem insulted in the least. He simply shook his head.

“No. Never. Everyone in my life, in my past, has known exactly where they stood.”

“So… does that mean you like uncomplicated, too?”

“Yeah.” He nodded, but something flashed in his gaze that I couldn’t read. “I used to at least,” he muttered under his breath so low I wasn’t sure if I had imagined it or if he’d actually said it. “But being new, don’t you want to get to know people? Get to see the city?”

“I do and yeah, but…” I licked my lips and loved the way his attention moved to them. “But I think I’m a one day, one night at a time kind of girl.”

“That right? Not the forever kind?” I swallowed hard.

“Hmm… forever sounds like a long time.” I sighed, still enjoying his rough, calloused touch on my knee. The way the pad or his thumb soothingly stroked my flesh back and forth. Back and forth. He nodded.

“Forever does sound like a long time. Yet not long enough.” I opened my mouth to ask what he meant, but he kept speaking. “So, no bike ride?” I chewed on my bottom lip, knowing exactly what I was going to say because if there was one thing in life I had learned in my twenty-seven years, it was that you were never going to get what you wanted if you didn’t at least ask.

“No bike ride tonight… but I mean… I’m open to any other kind of ride you might be offering?” I flirted. Mr. Handsome’s gaze darkened before he leaned forward so close, I could feel the heat radiating off his forehead.

“Another kind of ride, huh?”

“Hmm,” I half-whispered, half-stifled a moan. The grip he had on my knee tightened, not in a painful way but in a possessive one, and the itty-bitty panties I’d changed into practically melted off.

“How do you feel about rough and bumpy rides?”

“Better than smooth ones,” I retorted. He gave me a wolfish smile before he nodded. His hand came up between us, and when I didn’t flinch or pull away, he gripped my chin and tilted my head up so our gazes locked.

“Now the question is, your place or mine?” The challenge was clear in his voice as he dropped his hand from my chin.

I leaned closer just enough to run my nose along his. “Mine is full of moving boxes, so how about yours?” My heart was beating furiously inside my chest as adrenaline rushed through me.

When he pulled back, I wondered if I had been too pushy. Too easy. But he simply got the bartender’s attention and asked for both our checks. He took care of them before I could pull my wallet out and hopped off his bar stool. My eyes widened as I took in his very tall, very powerful body.

He was a giant compared to me.

And, man, I had a feeling I was about to be a very lucky girl who was about to take an amazing ride!

CHAPTER 4

SCOTT

The moment we stepped through the front door of my place, my troublemaker didn’t give me a chance to turn the lights on before she pounced.

And fuck me, I was there for it.