“You be my wingman, and I’ll be yours, all right? We’ll hook each other up,” he suggested.

  But what if all I want is for you to kiss me again? “Deal. Now I’ve got to get back to work. Thanks for letting me know what’s up. And Fox? Congratulations. You deserve this.”

  “Thanks, Sash. I’ll see you tonight.”

  I hung up the phone and turned my attention back to the story I was working on, the list of psychologists still on top of the pile of studies. A flicker of guilt sprang up in my chest. I tried smothering it with the fact that Fox had gotten his shot, after all. That he could and would succeed. He’s only the inspiration. It’ll be fine. But still, guilt ate at me.

  And Fox hadn’t proven himself yet, plus his fear of choking was not just real but reasonable. I knew he could do it, but if he couldn’t get out of his own head he might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I started thumbing through the stack of studies to see if any of them dealt with cases like Fox’s where the athletes were finally granted the all-important opportunity after years of choking. Locating one that looked promising, I pulled it free, uncapped my highlighter, and sat back to read. Maybe I could find a way to help him.

  It turned out that Tuesday nights weren’t particularly popular at the clubs in Pacific Beach. The atmosphere at the places we chose felt distinctly hollow, so after a few dances with each other on nearly empty dance floors, we had gone to a smaller, local place and taken up seats at the bar.

  “What about one of those two guys?” Fox said with a nod to the other end of the bar where two Dude Bros watched me with obvious interest.

  “I have the distinct impression that if I approached either of them, they’d mention something about a threesome,” I snorted. “If they don’t already think you and I are together, I doubt they’d object to sharing me. Which, shudder.”

  He winced. “So…no?”

  “No,” I answered more firmly, popping a peanut from the little dish on the bartop into my mouth. “What about her, over there?” I made a suggestion, pointing with an elbow to a woman whose gaze refused to settle on anyone in particular but had passed over us several times. “You should go see if she’s waiting for someone. Oh, offer to let her come sit with us if she wants to avoid getting unwanted attention from those assholes over there,” I pressed.

  “Won’t she think you and I are together?”

  “Maybe, but if you tactfully get up to go to the bathroom or make a call or something, I’ll tell her the wingman deal. I’ll let her know how sweet you are or some crap like that. Or you can tell her you’ll sit with her while she waits for her boyfriend, or friends, or whoever she’s waiting for. Be innocuous and don’t press. Be a nice guy.”

  Fox rolled his eyes but rose from his seat and left to chat with the other woman. “I have done this before, you know.” A few short minutes after he walked away, the two guys who’d been watching me strolled over and took up seats on either side of me.

  “Let us buy you a drink,” Thing One said to start, signaling the bartender to come over.

  “I’ll drink if you want to pay, but I’m telling you now that I’m not interested in anything beyond that.” At least, not with either of you, I wanted to tack onto the end.

  “That’s fine,” Thing Two said with a tone that made my skin crawl. “We know you came in with someone else. He your boyfriend? Did you two have a fight?”

  “What’ll it be?” the bartender asked, his eyes watching the two men who cradled me.

  “Long Island iced tea,” I ordered. “On one of these guy’s tabs.”

  The men didn’t press me until after the bartender had gotten me the drink and moved farther along the bar.

  “Still haven’t answered about whether that guy you came in with is your boyfriend or not,” one of them pointed out.

  “Nope.” I left it at that.

  “Looking for one? Pretty girl like you should have a boyfriend,” the man on my left inquired.

  I smiled beatifically. “Sorry, dude. You’re not in the running.” Because you’re not Fox.

  Fox

  * * *

  Fuck, I was rusty when it came to normal girls. For the last year, I’d just hooked up with the girls that hung around the rink. Those girls didn’t require much conversation. Easy and available.

  I quickly put the woman Sasha had singled out for me at ease by assuring her I was only there to give my friend some space.

  “Oh,” she said. “Too bad. You’re cute. I’m just waiting for some of my friends anyway, but I had the time we were supposed to meet wrong,” she confessed. “I’m actually seeing someone.”

  Fanfuckingtastic.

  “Congratulations,” I muttered, turning my attention back to Sasha as the two men who’d been watching her settled in on either side of her. Her shoulders went tense. I had to keep reminding myself that Sasha could take care of herself. And that I could move quickly if either of those goons did something she didn’t want or like.

  “You like her,” my companion remarked after a few moments. “Don’t you?”

  I cleared my throat and flushed. “I, uh— What makes you say so?”

  “Thought so,” she said with a laugh. “Why don’t you just tell her?”

  I sighed. “She’s my best friend. Not gonna fuck that up. Let’s just sit here for a minute and pretend we’re having a good time and then later I’ll make something up about why things didn’t work out,” I suggested.

  The bartender approached a few minutes later with a Long Island iced tea and a message.

  “Sir, your friend from over there requested that I only give her the first drink those guys bought, and after that to send the rest down here for the two of you to enjoy,” he said discreetly, glancing over his shoulder at Sasha and her two admirers.

  “What are you giving her now?” I asked while watching Sasha as she continued to sip from her glass, while the men around her looked pleased with themselves.

  “Arnold Palmer. She also wanted me to pass this to you.” The bartender handed me a folded napkin. Inside, Sasha had scrawled, “Enjoy the free drinks.”

  I rolled my eyes in amusement. “Would you care for the first one?” I offered to the woman beside me, who was thoroughly entertained.

  “I’ve already got my drink,” she said, raising her margarita. “That one’s for you.”

  I grinned as I tapped the edge of my glass against hers. “Cheers.”

  Sasha

  * * *

  “Okay, you know what? We’ll play a game. You beat me and I’ll give you my number, my real number. I beat you, you hit the skids and leave me to my drink. What do you say?” I could tell by the look they exchanged that they thought they had this in the bag, had me in the bag. It would certainly be fun to dissuade them of that notion.

  What they didn’t know was that I had been perfecting my darts game in college dive bars for years. It was usually how I got my going-out money.

  I’m a hustler, so what? They don’t need to know that.

  In my peripheral vision, I watched Fox and the pretty girl, trying to ignore the twinge of jealousy. He’s not yours. I never should have agreed to helping each other get laid. It was dumb, but I’d wanted to celebrate with him. He’d worked so hard, and to be honest, Ryan was right about a few things. I worked too much, almost to the detriment of everything else. I was driven, but outside of work I had no life. It was time to change that.

  “C’mon, sweetheart. Are we going to play or what?”

  Thing One, the guy on the left, took his turn. He wasn’t half bad, so I had to be careful. No way in hell was I actually giving either of these guys my number.

  The other guy was worse, far worse. He couldn’t play for shit. When I took my turn, I gave them both a sickly-sweet smile. One by one, I tossed my darts. I jumped with a squeal of delight when they all landed in the inner two rings.

  “Sorry boys, better luck next time.”

  Thing One grabbed my arm with so much force that I winced. “You fucking hustling us?”

  “If I were you, I’d let her go.” Fox’s voice was calm but icy.

  Was it bad that I felt a tinge of thrill when Fox went off the rails for me? It was sad, because I always stood for feminism and fought for equality. This was the second time I had gotten hot over him fighting for me. It was almost ridiculous.

  Although I did have eyes. With all that lean muscle, those tattoos and his movie star face, added to the fact that he was ready to fight? It was hot, speaking to some primal instinct that had been buried deep inside of me. It was an instinct that couldn’t be reasoned with by logic. It was my libido.

  I twisted my arm from his grip. “It’s okay. These assholes were just leaving.”

  Thing Two looked as if he wanted to argue, but then tapped his friend’s chest while heading for the door.

  Fox turned his attention back to me. “I swear, I can’t leave you alone for a damn minute. Why is that?”

  “You’d miss me too much?” I grinned up at him.

  He shook his head while letting out a chuckle. “Maybe.”

  I planted my hands on my hips. “Well, don’t. You have a perfectly cute girl over there. I wouldn’t even mind making awkward small talk with her tomorrow morning while you showered. That’s saying a lot.”

  Fox laughed. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “Don’t ask that. Instead, ask what you are going to do with the cute brunette. She looks like a school teacher, but she might be into super kinky shit, wanting you to tie her up with complicated knots or whatever. I mean, she might let you do anything to her, which has to have some kind of appeal.”

  “I’m not sure you have any idea of what appeals to me,” Fox said quietly.

  I was teasing, but the joking suddenly stopped when Fox focused his intense blue eyes onto my lips. Just like that, we were back on the couch, his erection pressing into me just the way I needed it to. He was licking into my mouth, kissing me so deliciously that my body vibrated with need.

  I had to break the spell or else I was going to do something that I couldn’t take back. I was tempted to wrap myself around him and beg him to do it again.

  I cleared my throat. “You’d better get back to her before someone else swoops in.”

  Fox glanced at the brunette while she waved back at him. “I’m right where I belong.”

  8

  Fox

  I fumbled with the key at the door to our apartment, dropping it on the floor twice before I managed to get it into the lock successfully.

  “You should’ve let me take care of that,” Sasha told me in a loud whisper.

  “Please,” I scoffed as I finally pushed the door open and held it for her to pass me into the apartment. “You practically fell into that cab.”

  “I can’t believe I had so much to drink,” she muttered, shuffling toward the kitchen. Then she giggled as she reached up to the cabinet and pulled out the coffee tin, peeling the lid back and taking a deep sniff of the grounds. “God, I need to sober up, or I’ll be miserable in the morning.”

  “You only had three of those things,” I reminded her. “I had…four? No…I had three, and the two beers before you started sending those things over to me. And I’m supposed to have practice after they make the announcement,” I told her, as I opened the freezer and stuck my head in.

  “You can’t sleep in there, Fox.”

  “I’m going to be so hungover at the press conference tomorrow. They’re going to put me in front of a bunch of reporters with…flashing lights and…questions.” I groaned. “The last thing I need is to do that and have them all realize how hungover I am. That would become my thing then. I’d be the partier or the one who can’t handle it and gets drunk. They’ll send me back down for sure.”

  “While you’re in the freezer, grab that frozen pizza,” Sasha instructed as she filled the coffee pot with water and poured it into the reservoir on top of the machine. I set the oven to preheat and pulled out a cooking sheet and aluminum foil. After setting the coffee machine to percolate, Sasha disappeared to the bathroom for a few minutes, leaving me to get the pizza into the oven. I hadn’t had enough to eat before we started drinking—neither of us had. Getting some food and coffee down would help to sober us up.

  “Here you go,” Sasha declared, returning with the bottle of aspirin. “Head it off, and we’ll be fine in no time. We weren’t very successful, were we?” she said before swallowing her own aspirin down with a swig of water. She pulled two mugs from the cabinet and stood in front of the coffee machine as the brew trickled through the filter and into the pot below.

  “I wouldn’t say that,” I objected. “I didn’t go home with that girl, but I did have a pretty good time with you. And we were quite successful in securing free alcohol. Or should I say, you were successful,” I said, with a laugh.

  “I find it disturbing they weren’t deterred by the fact that I flat out told them I wasn’t interested. They just kept buying more drinks as though that would change my mind.”

  “Probably would work on a lot of girls. Luckily, you are all woman. They didn’t know what to do with you,” I teased.

  “Luckily, I had you there to help keep shit from getting out of hand.”

  I crossed my arms. “I don’t get it, though. Why did you even entertain them?”

  “Because I’m out of practice. With everything. My focus has been so single-mindedly on my career and my future that I’ve put everything else on hold. That kiss from a couple weeks ago... I mean, how had I gone a year without being kissed? And how have I gone months without an orgasm? It’s crazy because I love sex. I love the connection and feeling close to someone. I can’t sleep with a random guy, though. I need to feel connected to someone in order to sleep with them. I need to like them, or at least respect them.”

  I nodded. “I get that.”

  How? I didn’t even know the women I’d slept with, let alone like them. Lately everything had seemed so…empty. I needed to break this fucking habit. To distract myself, I pulled the pizza out of the oven, sliced it, and served us each a couple of pieces.

  “So…what was wrong with the other women in the place?” Sasha said between bites. “What made you come home with me when I struck out?”

  “You didn’t strike out,” I said, turning the focus back on her. “And striking out implies that you were hoping to get a hit, but…you didn’t seem too interested in anything like that.”

  Sasha shrugged and flushed. “There weren’t any guys there I found interesting enough to want to go home with. Or to take home. I—I don’t miss Ryan. I don’t miss being in a relationship with him, I don’t miss his need for reassurance about everything, his jealousy. But I’m a bit rusty when it comes to the dating thing,” I confessed. “I was with him for almost a year, and it was…what it was. But I haven’t had to go looking for a guy.” She avoided looking at me as she said it. “I want to be with a guy, but I’m not sure that I’m ready to just pull any guy into bed with me.” She sighed.

  “I…I get that,” I admitted. “I haven’t put a lot into my social life lately either. Been too focused on hockey to seduce women,” I said with a laugh.

  “As if the Fox Coulter would ever be too busy. We’ll just have to push each other to practice more, I guess,” Sasha said with a laugh. There was a playfulness in her eyes…and something more. What was that? Was she flirting?

  “What exactly do you mean by ‘practice’?” I asked. My skin was too hot. Clammy. I was encouraging this. What I wanted to do was touch her. Dig my hands into her hair and kiss her until she couldn’t breathe. But then I would be no better than the two assholes at the bar, hoping to get her drunk enough to give into their coaxing. I shoved more pizza into my mouth to keep me from saying more than I should.

  She cocked her head at me. “I…” she started but looked away, her face reddening. “I didn’t mean…anything by it. Just…never mind.”

  I frowned, confused. “What are you saying, Sash?”

  “I don’t know. I think I need practice. Practice dating. Practice kissing. Practice interacting with guys who aren’t douchebags. Before Ryan, there was Matt. That was another long-term relationship that I didn’t have to do much work for. They were both just there, easygoing. You know, I can’t even remember why Matt and I broke up.”

  I could. “He moved to Arizona. Wanted you to go with him.”

  She frowned, but nodded. “Oh yeah, I just sort of felt blah about him, which sounds awful. We dated during the last year of college. He was perfectly nice, lovely. I was just looking for a spark of something that we just didn’t have. When he was leaving, it seemed like the perfect time to end it. A couple of months later, I met Ryan. It was fun before his jealousy started to shine through. In so many ways, it was easier being with him than being on my own.”

  “Why do you think that is, Sash?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe because for my entire life my Dad has told me that I’m basically worthless without a guy. And I bought into it. Even though I rail against that shit every day. I usually think I’ll be happy in a relationship, but then I’m not. I want to practice dating, to see what it’s really like. I don’t need to start a relationship, you know?”

  I understood. She wanted playfulness, she wanted for things to be easy. She didn’t want to be with anyone, which was fine by me. I adored Sasha, but I was a man-whore. In no way was I looking to settle down. Not even for her.

  “I’m sober enough to know what I’m doing, but not sober enough to care,” Sasha whispered.”

  I stared into her eyes and cursed low. She moved to put her empty plate in the sink.

  I tried to shift around her to the sink, but she stood with her arms braced against the edge of the counter, blocking my access. I moved to slide past her, but there wasn’t much room to maneuver, and I unintentionally brushed against her ass, my cock twitching at the inadvertent contact.