He chuckled. “You don’t enjoy your own company?”
“No, I’m not saying that. I’ve taken trips alone before, and had a great time, I just… I don’t think I’m in the right space, not right now. Having you here is…”
“A good distraction?”
“I was going to say a nice change,” I corrected him. “But… I guess you could say that too.”
He shrugged, then took another long sip from his glass. “I don’t mind it, Champ. I have thoroughly enjoyed being your entertainment so far.”
“You know that’s not all you are to me, right?”
I really didn’t mean to say that out loud.
Since our initial conversation about giving our friendship room to shift, I’d tried to be careful about how I expressed myself to him – a source of frustration, honestly, since I’d never had to do that before.
But I was trying to be fair to him, trying not to set up an expectation I couldn’t really fill. Ramsey was a really, really good man – one who deserved an actual, fulfilling relationship if that’s what he wanted. As it stood right now, I was standing in someone else’s way, under the guise of being his “friend”, while I gained all the benefits of him being my man. What I didn’t want to happen was me… stringing him along, making him believe that things were going deeper than they were.
Even though… they were going deeper.
I just didn’t want to talk about it.
If I avoided thinking about it too hard, perhaps I could ignore that, especially now that we were intimate, I was maybe falling for a man at the same time I was getting over the one before him. Honestly speaking, I wasn’t sure it was fair to either of us, but that wasn’t pleasant to think about.
I preferred to focus on the joy of the moment – the teasing grin on Ramsey’s face as he raised an eyebrow in disbelief, the amusement in his eyes, the fact that he was sexy, golden-brown perfection lounging beside me with a glass of dark liquor in his hand, wearing nothing but swim trunks. I’d said he wasn’t a distraction, but I don’t know… he’d certainly done a good job keeping my mind off of everything except being here with him.
“Tell me anything,” he said, his words bringing me back to the fact that we were having a conversation. “You know you don’t have to front, right? Brought me along to use me for my body, just tell the truth girl.”
I laughed. “Oh, whatever. We haven’t even had sex since we got here.”
“That’s because you’ve had us moving around the whole time, seeing everything. Not complaining, just saying.”
“Well, you are in luck Mr. Bishop, because I am all out of “see everything” energy. I need a couple of days of just… being laid up drinking, having lazy sex.”
The way he met my gaze was damn near scary, considering the fact that I was wearing sunnies, but he still seemed to be looking me right in the eyes. “Why are we down here then, when we have a whole private pool and villa to ourselves?”
“That is a great question.”
It didn’t take us long to get back up to the resort from the beach, but we were stopped on the way by a couple of people who recognized us from the show, and were on vacation as well. Ramsey took it in stride, taking a moment to stop and chat, but it made me antsy. Nobody pulled out a smartphone, thank God, but the whole thing freaked me out – I was on vacation to get away from everything and everybody, and being recognized just felt… like a violation.
But that was silly, and I knew it, so I didn’t say anything, just thanked my lucky stars that we hadn’t felt moved to do anything inappropriate out on the beach. My anxious feeling lasted until we were back in the privacy of our villa, set apart from everything, and were out in our amazing little personal infinity pool, sharing a bottle of wine.
Ramsey leaned against the edge of the pool, and I leaned against him, trading wine-laced kisses after we’d both had several glasses, and opened a second bottle. I was buzzed, but it wasn’t just the wine, it was him. Every time I was around him now, I felt… tingly, and ready, just waiting for him to touch me, or taste me, or take me – a feeling I’d long lost with Darius.
“I see you really are feeling lusty, huh?” Ramsey asked, as he squeezed my ass under the heated water.
I nodded, grinning as he turned us the other way, so that it was my back against the wall instead of his. “I told you… this is what you bring out of me.”
I whimpered as he dropped his mouth to my neck, sucking and biting me there. Even under the water, I could feel him getting harder as his kisses grew deeper, and then started to trail down the line of my bikini top. I closed my eyes, tipping my head back as his fingers went to the back of my neck, skillfully untying the strings.
When I opened my eyes again, it was to watch him. He’d moved us to a more shallow part of the pool, and I sipped from the last glass of our second bottle of wine as he lifted and squeezed my breasts, then dipped his head to suck one of my nipples into his mouth. He sucked hard, and it was so good that I felt the pull all the way down in my toes. That, plus the wine, made me lose my balance enough to slip a bit, but Ramsey caught me around the waist, keeping me up.
“Let’s take this inside.”
We didn’t even close the doors. They were glass anyway, so what was the point? We were wet from the pool, so after he snatched apart the strings on my bikini bottom, he propped me up on the wide table nestled behind the couch, and plunged into me right there, so deep and so hard to our hips knocked together. But he felt so good that I didn’t care.
I draped my arms over his shoulder, planting my hands at the back of his neck to pull him in. As he kissed me, he swallowed my appreciative moans, and maneuvered his hands between me and the table so he could grip my ass as he stroked. I threaded my legs around his, using the leverage to meet his motions, something that seemed to prompt him to go deeper, and faster, neither of us caring that we were rocking that little table harder than we probably should.
“You feel so damn good,” I purred in his ear, dropping my hands to his ass cheeks. I dug my fingernails in at the same time I sank my teeth, just slightly, into his neck. That made him growl, and grab my ankles, raising my legs and then pushing them back. Because of the height of the table, he was plunging into me at a downward angle that left me wide open for him. I wanted to scream, but he caught my lip between his teeth, nibbling before he sucked it into his mouth as he filled me up, over, and over.
When my mouth was free – because he’d dipped his head to nibble and suck and lick my nipples into hard, sensitive peaks - I used it to scream and moan my pleasure, and beg him for… I don’t know what. There was nothing more he could possibly be doing, because this was perfection.
Or so I thought.
“You sound so fucking sexy,” he growled at me, propping my leg up over his shoulder, somehow getting even deeper as he wrapped one of his big hands around my neck. “This is good for you?” he asked, as he plunged again, but didn’t pull back, simply circling his hips instead, knowing that he was pressing right against that spot that was going to make me come unglued.
“Yes,” I breathed, swallowing hard against the light pressure of his hand.
He pressed his lips to mine for a soft kiss as he somehow pushed deeper. “Yeah?”
I nodded, half-moan/half-whimpering another “yesss” just before he pulled back, and started moving again. A few seconds later, the tingle in my core turned into full-blown tremors, and he let my leg down long enough for me to lock them around his waist, holding on, digging my fingernails into his shoulders as he stroked me until I came, with a scream that the whole resort probably heard. And Ramsey wasn’t much quieter – plunging into me a growl that probably put any nearby animals on high alert.
Afterwards, we drug ourselves to the bathroom to shower, and then tumbled into the bed, tipsy and sleepy and spent. I snuggled in close to his nude body and got comfortable, closing my eyes, and letting myself be lulled to slumber by Ramsey’s steady breaths as he fell asleep.
A
perfect end to a perfect day.
The next day, we did the cooking academy tour through the resort. Early that morning, they took us into the village, to the fish market, and then back to the resort kitchen where we were walked through a meal that we shared for lunch.
After that, we made our way to the spa, using the vouchers that came with my package to get facials and massages and pedicures and pretty much everything we could. Back in the room, we napped, and talked, and napped, and laughed, and napped a little more.
That evening, we had dinner in our room again, since we’d ended up waking up in time to catch dinner in the resort restaurant the night before.
“So who is your next interview with?” Ramsey asked, then ate a spoonful of the tiramisu we were sharing.
“Trent Bailey. They liked what I did with the rookie interview, so they’re letting me talk to one of their stars. In his home, at that,” I added, and Ramsey nodded.
“That’s what’s up. You know, this new show is a good look for you. Even though you’re the interviewer, and your subject is the focus… I don’t know. It’s like your personality shines a little more.”
I sat back, chewing at my bottom lip. “You think so?”
“Yeah, I do. And I’ve seen and heard the chatter about it, you know? You’re well received, which you know is never guaranteed.”
I laughed. “Right. I’m just glad to have something my father didn’t have to buy me into,” I quipped. “I might have to come back out here and jump off of one of these cliffs if I find out Daddy made a big donation to the Kings.”
Ramsey shook his head. “You don’t know that Jack “paid” for you to be on From the Sidelines, come on. It could have just been… a token of gratefulness, after the fact. Don’t assume the worst before you talk to him – unless you’ve already talked to him.”
“Nah,” I denied. “I haven’t, not really. I hinted at it, but he was so upset about the way all of that went down, and talking about lawyers and breach of contract and all of that, and I was just… ready to be past it. So I asked him to drop it, which means I can’t really bring it up to him.”
“Does it matter anymore anyway?”
I took a sip from my water, looking out at the darkened ocean as I considered that. We were out in the open air dining room again, and the sun had sank into the horizon a long time ago, leaving the firelight of the torches to set the ambiance. After a few moments had passed, I shrugged.
“I honestly don’t know. It’s like… I want to confront it just so that I can say – please don’t do this again. But on the other hand, I’d really like to be able to trust that he thinks enough of me now, that I’ve proven myself enough that he wouldn’t see a need to, you know?”
“That’s assuming it was about that in the first place.”
I rolled my eyes. “If you know Jack Cunningham like I know Jack Cunningham, you know that if he saw an opportunity to give his one and only baby girl a leg up… he took it. And I can’t fault him for that. But you know what sticks to me most about that conversation with Connie and Sarita? I’m not even mad about being pushed out of my job anymore – I’m mad at the implication that I’m only somebody because of who my parents are. It’s… frustrating.”
“I get it,” he nodded. The firelight reflected back at me in his eyes as he held my gaze. “But… you know that your upbringing isn’t something to reject, right? You have two good parents, who’ve afforded you a life where you haven’t gone without anything you needed. In college, you could focus just on athletics, not wondering where your next meal might come from if you missed dinner in the cafeteria. No worries about if your mother was eating. When you left the sport, you had your family to fall back on, etc, etc. Don’t be so quick to downplay it, Champ. You’re lucky.”
“I know that,” I agreed. “And I hope I don’t come across as spoiled, or ungrateful, it’s just… I don’t want to be under a shadow, you know? I’m proud of my parents, grateful for everything they’ve provided for me, but… I’m a grown woman, with accomplishments of my own, that I worked damn hard for. But every time I’m the subject of an interview, it always goes back to Jack and Carla. There’s always this undertone that something was given to me. Even Darius did it sometimes, and it drove me nuts. It’s like… I just want to do enough, be enough, that I reach a point where people look at me and see… me. Just me. Just Wil.”
Across the table, Ramsey smiled. “When I look at you, that’s all I see.”
As soon as he said that to me, I was so glad that it was – hopefully – too dark for him to see me blush. Ramsey had always been that guy with an encouraging word, but for some reason, it felt a little different now. And I didn’t help that… I knew he wasn’t just saying it. He meant it.
This man is trying to make me fall in love.
“Thank you for that,” was the response I chose, trying to keep the emotion I felt out of my voice. But my face was hot now, and so were… other places. I needed to change the subject.
“So how are you holding up?” I asked, knowing he would know what I was talking about. “I’ve read that it never really gets easier, but… is it any easier now?”
He cleared his throat, then picked up his wine glass, draining the rest of the contents. “I… don’t know, actually. I went to the gravesite, for the first time since the funeral. Told her about signing the contract with the Kings. Managed to stay upright, so I guess that’s progress.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I would say so. How did you feel afterward?”
“Like I missed the shit out of my mother, and would give anything for her to be at my first game,” he told me, like he’d thought about it a lot. He probably had thought about it a lot – was probably trying not to think about it, which made me feel really shitty for bringing it up.
He picked up the half-finished bottle of wine and poured himself another glass. Before he could put the bottle back down on the table, I was in front of him, and then in his lap, snugging close.
For a second, he hesitated, but then he wrapped his arms around me as I buried my face in his neck. “I’m sorry for making you think about that,” I whispered. I saw, rather than felt him shake his head.
“Nothing to be sorry about, Champ. Just like you… it’s something I can’t seem to get away from. So I guess… I don’t know, maybe we just have to learn to take it in stride. Embrace it. Or hell… just start telling people to leave you the fuck alone about it,” he laughed, which I was glad to see.
“You know we can’t just tell people to leave us alone about something.”
He scoffed. “Speak for yourself. You must have forgotten what my interviews used to look like. I never give them anything but football.”
“But what if I interviewed you?” I asked. “You know you won’t be able to pull that with me.”
He smiled. “I guess I could give you the goods, Wil in the Field,” he teased. “Exclusive access.”
“Oooh, talk dirty to me why don’t you?”
Pulling me closer to him – even though I was already as close as we could get – he laughed. “That turns the reporter in you on, huh?”
I nodded. “You know it.”
After a few seconds of silence passed, I looked up, meeting his eyes. They were still full of firelight, and… full of something else too, that made me feel just as warm and tingly as his words had, a few minutes ago. I sighed as he brought his lips to mine – contentedly. Being with him like this, in his arms, in paradise, filled me with a kind of happiness I couldn’t even describe.
So I didn’t try, at least not with words.
I straddled his lap, and pulled him free from his shorts, and sank down onto him, taking full advantage of the fact that the only panties I’d packed were for outside of the resort. He tugged the straps of my dress down, freeing my breasts to the tropical warmth of the night air before he covered them with his hands, and squeezed. Lowering my lips to his, I kissed him deep, matching the swipes of my tongue with the movements of my hips as I rode him f
reely, without a single care.
For now, and for the next two days, as far I was concerned, we were the only two people in the world that mattered.
Ten
- And what do you see for yourself beyond football? Five, ten, fifteen years from now, what will you have added to the Bailey legacy?
I smiled to myself as I typed another question for my upcoming interview with Trent Bailey, the Kings’ star quarterback, then got up to fix myself a glass of water. This was only my second full day back home from Bali, and I was still rehydrating from a whole week of disconnecting from everything except relaxation - and, well, Ramsey.
Lots, and lots of Ramsey.
More of him than I probably should have indulged in, considering that I was supposedly taking time to heal, and cleanse myself of Darius. And I was thinking about Darius less and less - which was a good thing, after a break up - except instead of focusing on self-examination, I was more focused on examining… Ramsey.
He just made it so damn easy though.
As I stood in the kitchen sipping my water, memories of our time together over the past week flooded me again, heating me from head to toe. We’d gotten to know each other very, very well while being out in paradise alone, especially over those days where we’d foregone the adventure seeking, opting instead to spend our time naked, in varying stages of inebriation, talking to, touching, or tasting each other.
It was perfection.
Or the closest thing I’d experienced in a really long time.
The level of intimacy I felt with Ramsey - of all people - was mind-blowing to me. Our relationship had shifted so easily into a new normal that it made me question exactly how deep my feelings for Darius had been at all. If I could switch gears so fast, so hard… how much devotion could I have felt for him?
Hell… maybe marrying a cheater wouldn’t have been my only mistake. Maybe… it would have been marrying a man who wasn’t the one in the first place.
Determining Possession (Connecticut Kings Book 3) Page 20
