It was 11AM by the time I made it down the stairs the next morning. I’d woken up barely ten minutes ago, which was nuts. That meant I slept like a rock.

I was nervous when I heard Drew in the kitchen because I had no idea how he’d be this morning. I mean last night was crazy. It was crazy twice. It all felt like a dream quite honestly, and the only reason I knew it wasn’t was because I woke up to find the top right corner of my fitted sheet ripped off the bed.

And I remembered being the person who did that.

“Morning, babe.”

My eyes fluttered first, and then my heart followed suit when I heard Drew’s voice ring out from the kitchen. Whoa. Babe? Really? I was instantly as relieved as I was confused by the unwavering affection in his greeting. Okay, so I guess we know exactly where his head is at? I thought to myself, my heart pitter-pattering.

But then I got downstairs and realized the truth.

We had company.

“Oh. Hello,” I smiled politely at the older man standing beside the kitchen counter, wearing a blue Empires cap and a polo with the Empires logo on the breast. He gave a big, jolly wave before extending his hand as I walked over to him.

“Lou Dickerson. I’m your fella’s pitching coach. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, so nice to meet you! I’m Evie,” I smiled bigger now that I knew who he was – or maybe it was because Drew placed his hand on the small of my back, wearing a convincingly proud smile on his face as he looked from Lou over to me.

“Lou’s just here to meet me so we can head to the stadium early and watch some tape from yesterday,” Drew said. The look of surprise I gave him was real.

“Wow. That’s super early.” Three hours earlier than usual. I had hoped to have even a minute of time alone with Drew before he left today. If anything, I just needed to see where his head was at. But apparently that wasn’t happening thanks to Lou.

I couldn’t be mad at this Lou guy though. He was just so nice and happy and he had the voice of a radio guy from the 1950’s.

“Evie, I wish I didn’t have to cut into your morning together, but when you see something that needs fixing, you gotta fix it!” he said. 

“Ohhh right, the game.” The catastrophic 17-4 loss, to be specific. I didn’t even realize that Lou was talking about that until now. “Wow. I completely forgot that was last night.”

“Well, then it must’ve been you with the good influence,” Lou marveled. “I tell you, Evie, I came here prepared to talk Drew off a ledge this morning, but when I arrived the man was whistlin’ a tune in the kitchen!”

“What can I say, Lou? She’s good at helping me forget,” Drew said with such uncharacteristic wholesomeness that I had to suppress a laugh.

But then I chewed my lip over the fact that he was being so obviously fake with that line. Does that mean I did not in fact help him forget anything? Is he just happy he got to break the no touching rule and shove something in my face? Oh God, this is it, isn’t it? This is the start of the ice-out.

And… here it was.

The paranoia.

As I carried on with the typical small talk with Lou – Drew’s hand on my back the entire time – I wondered what the hell was next. When would I get alone time with Drew next? Tonight after the game? That meant I’d have to endure a whole day of being in my head about last night, overanalyzing everything and trying not to text Drew before he finally got in. God, that sounded like torture.

Especially since I was half-convinced that this was it for us.

We’d proved last night that, new rules or not, we couldn’t control ourselves around each other, so this was it for our contract. Tonight, Drew would come home and tell me that in the end, the fauxmance wasn’t worth his blue balls. Or he would try to get me to sleep with him, I staunchly would not, and then he’d just kick my ass out, invite some girls over and deal with Iain in the morning.

That sounded like such a Drew Maddox thing to do that my stomach preemptively twisted.

“Shoot, look at that time!” Lou suddenly looked at his watch. “We gotta split. Grab those waters, will ya, Drew?”

“Got it.” Drew slid his hand off my back and went over to the fridge, taking out two water bottles and setting them on the counter. “Car’s downstairs, so we’re all set.”

“Perfect. Just gotta use that restroom again. You know me.”

“No problem,” Drew said.

And as Lou crossed the living room to get to the bathroom, I simply stood there, watching Drew close the fridge and just waiting for his attention.

The second I heard the bathroom door shut he lifted his eyes to me. My pulse picked up as he let them linger for a second before coming over. The look on his gorgeous face was so blank and unreadable I swore I was seconds from breaking into a sweat.

Here it comes, I told myself, even though I had no idea what was coming. My head tilted up slowly as he came closer, closer till he was standing with his toes nearly touching mine.

Then just as my heart jumped into my throat, Drew raked his fingers into my hair and crushed his lips to mine.

Despite the shock, I melted right into his body, sliding my hand up from his hard chest to his shoulders, hanging on for dear life as his tongue swept voraciously against mine. For a full ten seconds, he kissed my every question away, letting me practically climb up his chest as our tongues collided.

By the time we pulled away, I found myself perched on the edge of the counter, my arms wrapped around his neck. My lashes fluttered.

“How… did I get here?”

“I’ve been asking myself the same question all morning,” Drew smirked.

I looked at him, unsure of how to interpret that. But with one word, Drew quickly quelled my concerns.

“Morning,” he murmured, repeating his greeting from before. But this time, it was just for me.

“Morning,” I returned his crooked little smile. I was outwardly at ease, relaxed, but electricity shot all through my body as Drew casually rubbed his hands up and down my thighs. He eyed the clock over the oven then grinned at me.

“I take it you slept well?”

“Amazingly. You?”

“Yeah. You heard Lou,” Drew laughed. “Slept so good I was ‘whistlin’ a tune’ this morning.”

“Right,” I grinned, feeling actual butterflies when I realized that whole whistling in the kitchen thing was real, and that it might’ve had to do with me. Feeling fully awake now, and not completely riddled with nerves, I let myself flash back to last night.

Biting my lip, eyeing the living room couch over Drew’s shoulder and remembering everything in sordid, vivid detail.

For God’s sake, I had knelt at Drew’s feet as he took his dick out and jerked off in front of me. I had flashed him my breasts and watched him release thick jets of cum all over his abs before grabbing a towel and feeling the steel of his cock in my palms as I cleaned him off.

That was hot enough without him coming into my room at night and going down on me in the dark.

“What’s that face?” Drew asked.

“I’m just… thinking about last night.”

“Yeah, I’ve been doing a little of that too.” Drew cupped the back of my calves now as he looked at me. The look on his face was back to unreadable so I had no idea what he was about to say. But then he gave my calves a little squeeze. “Say the word and I’ll eat that pussy again on this counter.”

A shiver ran up my legs.

“Sounds like a great breakfast, but I don’t think you have the time,” I laughed as I heard a flush from the bathroom. “What, um… what time will you be home tonight?” I asked hesitantly, scared of sounding too much like an actual girlfriend.

Because technically, I still had no idea what was going on here. All I knew was that there was no radio silence. We were talking, we were touching and despite pushing limits last night, we were good. At least for now.

And I was too relieved with that to question anything.

“I think I’ll be home before midnight. Depends on whether or not Lou has more tape he wants me to watch,” Drew said as Lou came out of the bathroom. He gave a salute when Drew peered over his shoulder before looking back at me. “So, what’s your day look like, babe?”

Babe. I guess that was our equivalent to saying lights, camera, action!

“Umm, I have a meetings in the Gramercy area and uptown. And I should probably get on Facebook to do some damage control after the comment from last night,” I said with a sheepish grin.

“Uh-oh. Facebook fights. My wife gets into those,” Lou said by the door. Drew laughed.

“Yeah, she was defending my honor last night. It got a little heated,” he said, squeezing my knee. When he turned to me, the slightest frown pinched his brows. “That reminds me.”

“What?” I whispered.

“I still need to spank your ass over that couch,” Drew smirked, dropping my jaw just as Lou called out.

“Alright! Let’s boogie!”

“Coming,” Drew said before turning back to me and catching my chin to give me a peck on the lips. “See you tonight, baby?”

“Yeah. See you,” I managed when he pulled away, leaving me breathless, dizzy, and already analyzing the possible difference between the use of the words “babe” and “baby.”

Great, Evie. I shook my head at myself, still perched on that counter for a good five minutes after Drew left.

Just great.