Page 95 of Risky Play

See, so sweet.

“This was such a good idea,” I said into his chest.

“Mmmhmm.”

I knew what he really wanted to say. That we could do this all the time if we confided in Dinah and helped her get my brother on board. But I was scared. Once we told Noah, this would be real. Like really real, and then I wouldn’t be able to ignore the way my heart was yelling at me to tell Matt how I felt. Telling him I loved him after so little time dating would make him run away.

“What else do you want to do today?” he asked.

I looked up at him, and his naughty smile made me grin back. But yeah, I was not ready for another round. He had pulled out all of my pleasure, and I needed to recharge.

I frowned. “Actually, I need to study a bit.”

“Math?” he asked.

I nodded. I hated this stupid class. I passed a similar one in Canada, but Franklin was making me retake it for their credits. It was the class that was giving me a heavier load and stressing me out. I had lied to Dinah about my workload. Working for her, Fi, doing my book blogger stuff, hockey, and taking a full course load was a lot. But I’d sleep when I was dead.

“Can I help?” he offered.

“Nah. I need to study and do the work.”

“Well…I could review game tape while you do.”

I beamed. I loved sitting beside him while we did our own thing. I liked being with him, even when we weren’t talking. Sometimes, I think he reviewed tape and studied stats because he felt bad about occupying all my time. I wanted to spend every waking hour with him, so I was more than happy to sacrifice my sleep.

I disentangled myself from his limbs and got dressed. He did the same, throwing on a pair of grey sweatpants that made me reconsider putting my clothes back on. He gave me a stern look that told me to behave.

I put the leather cuffs back into my bag and pulled out my textbook and a notebook.

I lay on my stomach on the bed, opened the textbook, and wrote out problems in my notebook. Matt sat up against the wall with a pillow behind him, watching video on his tablet.

“Is this bothering you?” he asked about the noise.

“Nope.”

We worked quietly alone. Matt had his hand on my thigh as I did my math problems, and he watched game tape. I loved these quiet moments with him.

I studied for about an hour, and then I took photos for my social media. I was behind on reviews. I brought a couple of books over to take photos, so I took some shots with my fancy camera and then loaded them into my laptop to make edits.

At one point, I looked up and saw Matt giving me a dopey smile. “What?”

“It’s cute how passionate you are about your work.”

My face cracked from a too-big smile. “I love it. I figured if you gotta study game tape, I can get things done.”

“I was letting you do your thing. I’m ready for the game tomorrow.”

“That’s good. Can I tell you a secret?”

“What’s that?”

“Dinah brought up me starting my own PR firm…for books. I don’t hate the idea.”

He gave me a supportive smile. “You’d be great at it.”

I chewed the inside of my cheek, my worries swirling around inside my head. “I’m swamped this semester, but next semester, I want to start offering PA services to authors. Now that I have two clients, it could be big for me.”

He reached out and squeezed my hand. “You’re so organized and passionate about books. It would be great.”