Epilogue
MILLER
Post-Championship Party
Las Vegas Aria Penthouse
3:00 a.m.
I woke up to a pounding between my eyes that felt like someone had taken a jackhammer to my nose and pounded for hours. Wincing, I tried to move and felt so nauseous that I froze.
I never partied during the season.
Which meant, since we’d won the championship, the guys and I along with all of our friends had decided we needed to go big.
Party in Vegas!
We took flights down the night after the win and had been drinking ever since.
Emerson warned us.
Kinsey warned us.
Hey, guys, they’d said in those irritating voices. Remember, you haven’t been drinking, so you can’t drink as much and not get hungover.
Yeah, that hadn’t gone over well.
We drank more to prove them wrong.
Though, Sanchez had stopped because he wanted to be able to perform sexually. But when he said sexually, I could have sworn he’d added in a few extra x’s and nearly stumbled into the wall.
The room finally stopped spinning. I reached for the bottle of water on my nightstand and made the slow progression of getting up to go get some Advil. Our penthouse had three bedrooms, but poor Kinsey got the couch, since Jax was paying for her, and he’d taken one of the rooms for himself.
I quietly walked out to the living room so I wouldn’t wake her, dug around for some ibuprofen, popped five, then tripped over a trash can.
I winced; now my head and my foot hurt.
But no movement from the couch.
The hell?
She wasn’t even on the couch.
Oh hell, Jax wasn’t going to like that. I should at least text her to get her ass back to the room so she didn’t get locked somewhere again.
I walked back to my nightstand and grabbed my phone, only to see movement in the bed.
What.
The.
Hell.
A feminine arm poked out from underneath the duvet, and then the woman turned on her side.
I couldn’t make out her features.
Who the hell had I slept with?
Panicked, I switched on the flashlight on my phone.
And locked eyes with Kinsey.
“Are you seriously pointing a flashlight at me right now?” She hissed, “Turn that shit off, Miller! I’m trying to—” She clutched the sheet and jerked to attention, grabbing her head and then the sheet before it fell down. “No. Nope. No. No. NO!”
I slammed a hand over her mouth. “Do you want to wake up Jax?”
She shook her head.
I looked down.
Yup. Naked.
I licked my lips while she ducked her head under the sheet, cursing so loudly I almost shushed her again, and then she took a deep breath. “What happened?”
“Seriously?” I threw my hands in the air. “Don’t you think I’d look a little less panicked if I knew?”
Her eyes fell to my cock.
“That . . .” I pointed. “Is because—Stop staring, Kins, seriously.”
“Did that thing—”
“And don’t call it a thing! Shit, you don’t do that to a guy!”
“But—”
I slammed a pillow over her face. “Better?”
She nodded.
“Ready to talk with your inside voice?”
Another nod.
“Let’s just . . . go back to sleep and deal with it in the morning.”
“Okay.” She breathed a sigh of relief and slid back under the covers.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She flopped on her side. “You said to sleep on it!”
“You sleep on the couch. I sleep here.”
“Oh hell no.” She smacked my arm. “The couch hurts my back!”
“I’m literally four times your size!” I snapped.
“Guys!” Emerson made her way into my room. “Why is there so much yell—”
Her grin was so wide I wanted to suffocate her with a pillow.
“So . . .” She put her hands on her hips. “This is fun.”
“Swear on your life, Em—”
“Baby, where’s the Advil—Oh hello.” Sanchez leaned against the wall while Kinsey covered her head with a sheet. “A little midnight rendezvous?”
“I hate football players,” Kinsey said underneath the sheet.
“And yet, it seems you let one touch your special place,” Sanchez just had to say, the ass. “Imagine that. Should I get Jax?”
“Don’t you dare!” Emerson smacked him in the stomach. “He’d kill Miller! We need him next season!’
“Thanks, Em.” I nodded. “Glad that’s your only reason. See if I ever get you a Christmas present again.”
“What?” She shrugged.
Sanchez let out a moan. “Oh, by the way, since I was too drunk to perform, I have a bet that you didn’t either, my man, so I wouldn’t worry about it, but I am curious how little Kinsey ended up making her way into your room after we all got back.”
Kinsey didn’t say anything.
“Alright then.” Em grabbed Sanchez. “Water, go. Leave them to argue it out . . .”
“I’m tired,” I said once they were gone and the light was off again.
“Me too.” I could hear her yawn.
“Just . . .” I stacked pillows between us. “Stay on your side.”
“Okay, middle school.” She snorted. “Wouldn’t want to get cooties.”
“God, you’re annoying right now.” I tossed the pillows to the ground and smacked the one under my arm, fluffing it.
“That’s not how you fluff.” She turned around so fast her face smacked into my chest, and then she was fluffing my pillow and lying back down, only this time she was facing me.
“It would have been a mistake, you know,” I whispered.
“Yeah.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Huge mistake.”
“Giant.”
“Enormous,” I agreed.
And then I was kissing her, my friend’s little sister. I knew what might happen next, but once I had a taste . . .
There was no going back.
One choice . . .
That I had no idea would affect my life forever.
One girl.
Let that be a lesson. Where one door closes, a freaking garage door opens.
“Our secret,” she whispered between kisses.
“Our secret,” I agreed.
I lied.
Her eyes said the same.