Erik

by Sawyer Bennett

  “You’re a player, dude,” Legend says with a laugh and slaps me on the back. “Nothing wrong with it. You’re young and in your prime. You should totally be sowing all your wild oats.”

  He’s got a point. Except the only oats I want to sow are in Blue Gardner’s fields.

  I shake my head. Wait. That doesn’t sound right at all.

  Legend makes it to the lobby door right at the same time I see the other three flight attendants walking out of the hotel. Legend opens the door and motions for them to precede him out. They’re all dressed in short, sexy dresses, with high-heeled sandals. They give flirty smiles at us as we all step out into the humid Miami evening.

  “Where are you ladies headed?” Legend asks.

  Valerie, a tall redhead with a distinctive southern accent answers. “We just thought we’d walk around until we spotted something.”

  “You can join us if you want,” Legend offers. I don’t miss the slight predatory twinkle in his eyes. He may not be a serial skirt chaser like I am, but I know he’d totally nail any one of these beauties if they were so inclined.

  “We’d love to,” the brunette named Lyla says. She’s definitely a party girl and I know this because several of the other players have carnal knowledge of what lies between pretty Lyla’s legs.

  “Then let’s go,” Legend says and suavely offers an arm to each lady so he can escort them down the sidewalk. They giggle and loop their arms through his.

  I turn to Sadie quickly. “Where’s Blue?”

  Her eyes cut to Legend, Lyla, and Valerie walking away from us before coming back to me. “Swimming.”

  “Swimming?” I repeat, because that just seems…odd.

  “Yeah. She loves to swim. Used to swim competitively in high school or something like that. She’s in the pool any chance she can get when we’re on the road.”

  “Huh,” I mutter, my head turning to look back at the lobby doors.

  “We better go or they’ll leave us behind,” Sadie remarks as she points in their direction.

  I look that way, then back to the lobby doors for just a brief moment before bringing my gaze to Sadie. “Look…I know you’re good friends with Blue. Or at least it seems that way on the plane. How much of a fool would I be if I went to go talk to her right now?”

  “Ten times the fool,” she says without missing a beat. But then she smiles sympathetically and nods to the doors. “But doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.”

  A grin breaks out on my face. “I like your pep talk, Coach. I might catch up with you guys later.”

  “Good luck,” she says.

  “Thanks,” I say with a wave as I turn away from her. “I’ll need it.”

  Inside the hotel, I hit up the front desk and get directions to the pool. There’s actually one indoors on the basement level and one outdoors on the rooftop. I’m guessing if Blue is swimming for exercise, she’s going to be in the indoor one. I imagine the rooftop pool is filled with partiers clad in bathing suits and drinking fruity cocktails.

  The smell of chlorine hits me as I turn down a hall and I come up against a long glass wall that encloses the indoor pool. There’s a handful of people in one end with some kids, and then there’s Blue. Swimming freestyle at the far side. Her suit is a one-piece and black. She’s wearing a swim cap and goggles.

  She slices through the water with ease, her strokes consistently smooth and measured. Her head tilts to the side for air about every fourth stroke.

  I walk slowly around the pool as I watch her swim. She makes it to one end, executes a perfect flip and heads back in the opposite direction. It’s not my intention to interrupt her workout, so I take up residence at a table in the corner where a gym bag and towel are sitting there—presumably hers—and I wait for her to finish.

  She seems utterly tireless and I stop counting after twenty-five laps.

  Finally, she swims back toward me and rather than flipping when she reaches the wall, her hands go to the edge and her gaze lifts up to lock with mine. She’s barely out of breath and I’m impressed.

  Blue lifts the goggles from her eyes so they’re perched on top of her head. Her lips are flattened as she asks, “What are you doing here, Erik?”

  “I’ve come to apologize,” I tell her.

  She sighs and hauls herself up out of the pool. I try really damn hard not to notice how amazing her body looks in her swimsuit and maintain eye contact with her as she walks toward the table. I reach over, nab the towel and hand it out to her.

  “Thanks,” she murmurs as she wraps it around her body, tucking it in at her chest.

  “Sadie told me you were here swimming,” I explain to her. “And I really just want to apologize for offending you. I know I have and it wasn’t my intent at all.”

  “You couldn’t help it,” she says tiredly as she pulls her goggles and swim cap off. Her blonde hair tumbles down her back and she reaches into her gym bag to pull out a hair tie. As she fashions her hair into a messy bun on top of her head, she adds on. “It’s just your nature.”

  “Okay,” I say with a tinge of anger to my voice. “You keep saying shit like that, implying you think you know me. But I think you’re offering pretty harsh judgment based on a few conversations on the plane.”

  “I do know you,” she retorts as she crosses her arms over her chest. “We met five years ago.”

  There’s no stopping the momentum of my jaw as it drops wide open. “Excuse me?”

  For a moment, she doesn’t answer me. Rather, her teeth bite down into her lower lip. They shine bright white against the natural cherry tint of her mouth. I’d normally find it sexy, but I’m too rattled to think much of it at all.

  “Five years ago. At a party in L.A,” she finally offers.

  “No fucking way,” I return adamantly, shaking my head for emphasis. “I’d remember you.”

  There is no way in hell I could ever forget someone like Blue.

  Just…no fucking way.

  “We did,” she says confidently. “I had dark hair then but that doesn’t lessen the sting of you not remembering.”

  “No, no, no. Not possible.”

  “We slept together,” she tells me, and my head starts spinning.

  “Now that’s a goddamn lie,” I growl as I stand up from the table.

  “It’s not,” she murmurs with her brown eyes locked to mine, and it’s her soft tone that has me really doubting myself. She doesn’t seem angry, but merely resigned to the fact we had an encounter, which for the life of me I can’t seem to remember.

  Goddamnit all to hell.

  “Look, Erik,” she says as she grabs her gym bag and slings it over her shoulder. “I think it’s best we just go our separate ways. I’ll promise to be nice to you on the plane, and you already promised me no more hitting on me. It’s all good and let’s just forget this conversation happened.”

  I’d like to readily agree to what she just said, but I’m actually reeling a bit to know that Blue and I had met.

  Had fucking slept together, and whatever happened five years ago has seriously caused her to be pissed at me. My stomach churns knowing that I did something that clearly angered her, or even worse…hurt her.

  But I can also see she’s done talking about it too and I don’t think it would be in anyone’s best interest to push her right now.

  So I merely incline my head toward her, a silent show that I acknowledge and accept what she just suggested.

  I get a relieved smile back from her. “Good. Thank you.”

  “Sure thing,” I tell her. “Have a good night.”

  She doesn’t respond and I watch her walk all the way out of the pool area. When she disappears from sight, I rub my hand over the whiskers on my jaw wondering what in the hell happened between us. It’s a goddamn mystery to me and I don’t like being in the dark.

/>   My stomach rumbles, reminding me that in addition to being slightly sick from that conversation, I’m also still hungry. I decide to go catch up to Legend and the girls, intending to have a good meal and hopefully many, many mixed drinks to help me forget about Blue.

  Chapter 4

  Erik

  My dick has never been harder, nor have I ever wanted to come so badly in my life. My hands tighten on her hips, torn between wanting to make her ride me faster and to slow her down a little to draw this out.

  Blue’s eyes are closed as she leans over me. Hands pressed down onto my chest to use as leverage as she rocks up and down on my cock. Long, lustrous locks of chocolate brown hair flows over her shoulders, partially obscuring my view of her breasts. I’d spent some time earlier biting and sucking on her pink nipples. My mouth waters for another taste.

  I let my gaze slide down her body. Flat stomach with a jeweled piercing in her belly button that most women in LA seem to favor, and yeah…it’s sexy.

  But not as sexy as her pussy, which is waxed completely bare. Her skin is the softest I’ve ever had my mouth on and I had my mouth there for quite a while.

  My balls start to tighten and I know I’m going to blow soon. I lift my eyes back to Blue’s face. Her forehead is furrowed as if she’s trying to focus on nothing but the pleasure. Her eyes slowly flutter open and she gives me a smile before biting down on her lower lip.

  Her teeth are even and shine bright white against the natural cherry tint of her mouth.

  “Jesus Christ,” I gasp as I come out of a deep sleep, sitting straight up in my bed as I realize I’ve had my mouth on those sweet, red lips before.

  There’s an ache in my groin and I realize I’ve got a hard-on. I slip my hand down the front of my briefs, wrap it around my cock and squeeze it hard, trying to get it to go away. Luckily, Legend is snoring in the other bed and oblivious to my predicament.

  That being I just had a very vivid dream about Blue, except it wasn’t a dream at all.

  It was a fucking memory.

  I’m sure of it.

  I release the stranglehold I have on my dick and ease back down onto my pillow. I close my eyes and try to force more of the memory to reveal itself.

  What fucking happened next? Did I explode while she rode me or did I pull a cavemanlike move and finish her off from behind?

  I get nothing but a black void and a dissatisfied emptiness in the pit of my stomach because I just cock-blocked myself by waking up.

  There’s no doubt in my mind now that Blue was telling me the truth by the swimming pool last night. We’d fucked, and while I can’t quite finish up the memory, what I can’t understand is how in the fuck I could forget a woman like her, no matter if she was a brunette then and a blonde now.

  More important, I’m not quite sure what I could have done to piss her off so badly that she’s still holding it against me five years later. With a growl of frustration, I nab my phone off the bedside table and turn it on, angling the back of it toward Legend’s bed so the glare doesn’t wake him up. It’s going on 4:00 A.M. and it’s still pitch-dark outside.

  I shoot a text off to Bishop, not really caring if the ding of an incoming message wakes him up. In fact, I sort of hope it does because I’m an impatient man. As soon as you get this message, call Brooke and find out what Blue’s hotel room number is.

  Brooke doesn’t work in team services anymore but I know she can easily get access to the information I want, and won’t question me about it. She also won’t have any reservation in handing over Blue’s room number because she knows me well enough to know I wouldn’t do anything nefarious.

  I don’t get a response from Bishop until almost 7:00 A.M. with the information I’d requested.

  * * *

  —

  There’s no hesitation. I simply rap my knuckles sharply against the door of room number 3048. It’s only 7:15 A.M. and I know Blue may still be asleep, but damn if this can wait.

  Sadie opens the door wearing one of the hotel bathrobes with a towel wrapped around her head. She doesn’t seem surprised to see me there, but then again, I’m sure she spied me through the peephole before she unlocked the door.

  “Erik,” she says brightly. “This is a surprise.”

  “Is Blue awake?” I ask her, not in the mood for return pleasantries.

  “Yeah,” she says as she steps back from the door to let me in. “Come on in.”

  She must have heard our conversation at the door, because Blue appears behind Sadie. She’s clearly an early-morning person as she’s already dressed. Her golden blonde hair is falling in waves around her shoulders, which are bare because she’s wearing a white sundress with lemons printed all over it. White, flat sandals complete the outfit and she looks young, fresh, and innocent.

  Except I know she’s not.

  I remember just enough to know she’s got a sexy, dirty side to her. I remember the look of confidence on her face when she looked at me…while riding me…

  Got to stop thinking about that or I’m going to embarrass myself with an unwanted erection.

  “What do you want?” Blue asks curiously but with a whole lot of wariness in her voice. She steps up to the door and Sadie seems to melt back into the room somewhere.

  Raising a hand, I grab onto the doorjamb, leaning into her just a bit so as not to step inside the actual room. My voice is low to give us absolute privacy in case Sadie is listening. “I remember you.”

  Blue jerks in astonishment. “You do?”

  “Not much,” I admit to her and hope that doesn’t blow my chances with her. But I want to be honest. “I remember us together…physically. You had brown hair and it was long. You were…on top of me and we were in a hotel room, I think.”

  I don’t know whether to be charmed or ashamed, but Blue’s cheeks flame red and her gaze cuts down to the carpet.

  “And then my memory goes dark,” I tell her and her eyes pop back up, slamming into mine. “I don’t understand why and I’m really sorry that I’ve offended you because of that.”

  Those soft, brown eyes go wide and a gasp of surprise escapes her lips.

  Perfect fucking lips.

  Her head tilts slightly and her eyes narrow. “You think I’m offended because you don’t remember me?”

  “Well…yeah,” I mutter but now I’m thinking that’s not right.

  Blue crosses her arms over her chest and gives me a sardonic smile. “I suppose that does sting a little, but it was what happened after that made an impression.”

  I go ice-cold as I struggle to think what I could have done. I might be a horndog and a serious damn player when it comes to women, but I would never hurt one.

  Never.

  “I don’t know what happened, Blue,” I tell her quietly. “And I need to know because I got to be honest…it’s sort of wigging me out that I did something to hurt you.”

  Blue flushes again and I’m surprised to see guilt in her eyes. “It’s nothing,” she assures me quickly. “I don’t want you to feel bad or anything. I mean, damn…my intention is not to have you feel bad about something like that.”

  “Like what?” I utter in low growl. “Tell me what I did.”

  After a quick look over her shoulder into the room, Blue puts a hand to my chest and pushes me out of the doorway. She steps out with me and pulls the door shut behind her.

  I sense her nervousness as she sighs, tucking her hair behind her ear. “After our…encounter,” she begins in a low voice. “You asked me out for the next night. I mean, it was to a party but you asked me to meet you there. It was a date, and I showed up expecting that.”

  “I’m guessing you didn’t get it,” I bite out.

  She shakes her head. “You were wrapped up with two girls, and by wrapped up, I mean literally. On one of the couches, making out with both of them. I c
onfronted you about it.”

  There’s absolutely no recollection of this moment but I don’t doubt what she’s telling me. My words come out slowly, through gritted teeth. “And what did I say?”

  She doesn’t pull any punches. “You patted your lap and invited me to join you and the other women.”

  I mutter a curse under my breath, letting my gaze drift down the hallway for a moment to collect myself. When I look back to Blue, she’s closed herself off again. Eyes flat, arms tightened over her chest, almost as if she’s hugging herself.

  “I’m sorry,” I tell her.

  She gives a shrug like it doesn’t matter.

  “Not just that I don’t remember, but that I was so callous.”

  “It’s fine,” she says in a falsely cheery voice. “I got it off my chest. I’m good.”

  “I’m not,” I reply softly, and then I touch her. Put my fingers right under her chin so she has to hold my gaze. “I can’t say that I was drunk and that was the reason, although that would be an excuse. I can’t give you any excuse because I simply don’t remember. I’d like to tell you that was the one and only time I ever did something like that, but it would be a lie. I wasn’t interested in relationships or second dates back then. I was twenty-three, had more money than I knew what to do with, and I liked to party hard. The most I can tell you is that I’m truly sorry I hurt your feelings. It wasn’t my intention but it certainly is all my fault.”

  Blue doesn’t say a word but her gaze never wavers from mine. She doesn’t try to pull away either.

  So we just stare at each other for a very long moment, letting my words sink in. I’m not sure I’ve ever said anything so purely straight from my heart to a woman before.

  I let my hand drop away from her face and I take a step backward. I attempt an apologetic smile before I pivot and head back toward the elevator.

  “Erik…wait,” she says.

  I turn back and she’s the one that moves to meet me. “Listen…I…um…I was a party girl back then too. You didn’t take advantage of me or anything. I knew what I was getting into when I went to your hotel room, and we both had been drinking a lot. I walked in there with no expectations of anything more than sex. It’s just…I thought we had a connection and when you asked me out for the next night, I thought that meant that you felt a connection too. It was a hard slap in the face to know I was wrong about it.”