Maisie adjusted herself so her legs were straddling his waist. “It saves time.”
Nick’s hands settled on her ass, dug in a little to pull her closer.
“You working this week?”
She shook her head, put her hands on his shoulders. “No. Not until the new year. I start at the university January seventh.”
“How do you feel about me staying here for the week?” He had so many thoughts and ideas swirling in his head. There were opportunities out there he hadn’t considered until now, professionally, that he wanted to explore. Mostly, he wanted to explorethiswith Maisie.
Maisie’s hands cupped his cheeks. She kissed his forehead and he closed his eyes, fighting back a wave of emotion that could have drowned him if he let it all the way in.
When he opened his eyes, Maisie was staring down at him. “I feel like that would be amazing but saying goodbye at the end of it might break me.”
Reaching up, he circled his hands around her wrists. “I don’t want to say goodbye to you, Maisie. That’s why I’m here. So we can figure it out.”
Should he tell her that he was considering retirement? It was an almost constant thought sitting in the back of his brain, weighing on him. She was the only person, outside of Ellie, he’d felt a deep enough trust with to share everything. But he wasn’t sure what his next step was and didn’t want to say the word until he was sure.
He didn’t want to make promises he couldn’t keep. “My team plays here on New Year’s Eve. I’ll do extra physio here and see a doctor to get the all clear for my knee. I don’t have to be with the team until the thirtieth.”
“Will you play?” she asked gently.
“I want to.”I need to.It might be the only way to get the answers he needed.
She didn’t push. The easy acceptance in her gaze allowed him to give her more.
“I want to spend some time with you, Maisie. I’ve never felt this way before. I don’t often have a chunk of time in the season like this, which Ellie would say is fate or some shit like that.”
She laughed. “Charming.”
He grinned. “I am. Let me stay. Show me your city.”
Maisie tipped her head to the side and Nick couldn’t stop himself from moving one hand into her hair. It was like silk sliding through his fingers.
“That sounds almost like we’re dating.”
He smiled while bringing her closer, ran the tip of his nose along the bridge of hers before kissing the corner of her mouth. “I guess we are.” Nerves buzzed like bees in his chest as he forced the next words free. “Am I supposed to formally ask you to be my girlfriend?”
The way her body melted into his and her eyes brightened was worth the price of feeling like an awkward teenager instead of an almost thirty-five-year-old man.
“Only if you want to,” she said.
“Yes, please. I’m out of practice and probably won’t bring you flowers since I’ll be waking up here.”
She laughed and he kissed the other corner of her mouth, traced his tongue along the seam. Before he could kiss her the way he needed to, she leaned back.
“What if I hadn’t let you in? Or didn’t want to see you?”
His gut cramped with the just the words. “Then I would have left and regretted not giving you a reason to give me a chance, probably for the rest of my life.”
Her mouth formed a littleO. Then she brought her mouth back to his, whispering against it, “Good answer, King.”
He sighed into their kiss, absorbed the feel of her pressed against him, her hands sifting through his hair, then down, over his shoulders, down still until she was tugging the hem of his shirt, yanking it up over his chest. He tried to slow them down, to gentle the kisses, to show her that it wasn’t just about sex. He couldn’t define it but he knew it wasn’t only that. Nick had never needed to just be near someone and he didn’t know what to do with the onslaught of feelings crowding his chest.
When he gave in and tugged his shirt the rest of the way off, she copied him, pulling hers up and off, tossing it to the floor. Nick sucked in a breath, reverently tracing one calloused fingertip slowly from the hollow of her neck, between her breasts, and all the way down to her belly button.
Lifting his gaze, the softness in hers invited his honesty. “I like you, Maisie,” he whispered, worrying about the vulnerability in his tone but loving the way her gaze flashed with happiness.
She wiggled her ass against him and gave him a sassy smile that heated his blood. “I can tell.” He laughed, stilling her with his hands on her hips. Her lips trailed over his cheek and along his neck, making it impossible to focus on anything other than the feel of her. Her teeth caught his earlobe and he gripped her hips as he stood, urged her legs around his waist. “Not sure if you can tell, but I like you too,” she whispered in his ear.
