Blindsided (45 page)

“What?” I get up, holding in my laugh, and retrieve my boxers from the floor. I shove them on and pull Leah to her feet.

She sighs as I run my hands down her body and lift her against me. Her legs wrap around my waist, her arms around my neck, and she rests her head on my shoulder.

“It’s better without the underwear,” she murmurs, each stair bouncing her against me.

“I agree, but if I don’t have them on, I’m likely to fuck you again.” I set her on the edge of my bed and kiss her slowly. “And we still have to talk and shit.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you put talking over sex.”

I smirk and throw a shirt at her. “That’s because I haven’t. You forced me in to it once, but that’s it.” I open the drawer she put her things in when she promised she’d stay with me for a week.

“What are you doing?” She comes up next to me. “You… You kept my stuff?”

“Yep.” I pull out a pair of panties and swing them around on my finger.

She purses her lips and snatches them from me. “Why?”

“I didn’t do anythin’ wrong, did I?” I shrug and lean against the dresser. “It’s not like I was never gonna see you again. I figured that, when you found out it was the hacker and not me, you could take your stuff if you weren’t interested anymore. I knew it was pretty fuckin’ unlikely, but you’d need your panties back either way.”

“So arrogant.” She rolls her eyes, but the smile playing on her lips contradicts it. “You seem pretty damn sure I was always gonna come back.”

“You did, didn’t you?” I raise my eyebrows.

Leah puts her hands on her hips. Her eyes rove over my body before she brings them up to meet my gaze. “I came to apologize. I didn’t intend to fuck you.”

“But you did.”

“Obviously.” She looks away for a second. “I thought you might…hate me…for not believing you.”

I stare at her.
What?
“You thought I’d fucking hate you?”

She nods.

I close the distance between us and cup her face. Our gazes collide, and I shake my head.

“Never. Never could I hate you. I love you, Leah.”

Her eyes widen, and she takes a deep breath, those pretty lips parting. “You—you what?”

“I love you,” I repeat, quieter this time. “And I should have told you before, when I followed you to the hotel, when I came to your house… I should have just said it. Why are you starin’ at me like that?”

She blinks.

“You can say something, you know?”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“I just told you I’m in love with you and you’re just standing there. My ego’s really takin’ a hit here, darlin’.”

She smiles. Then she laughs. She wraps her fingers around my arms and pulls them from her face, and just as I think she’s about to step back, she launches herself at me.

“I love you, you pigheaded idiot.” Her words are muffled, our lips connected, but I hear them clear enough.

I cup her ass and hold her to me. Her body fits perfectly against mine, and our kiss is a perfect coming together of our emotions.

Her words echo through my mind with every second our lips are connected.

This girl loves me.

My girl fucking loves me.

“So, what are you doing about the hacker?” Lottie drops onto the sofa. “Both of you.”

Leah shrugs. “Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything I can do. It sounds like he’s crossed so many lines he’ll be impossible to find, and I don’t know that it’s worth suing the cloud provider. I mean, how many people have been exposed and will be doing the same thing?”

“Loads,” I tell her. “Neil’s been turning away cases because he’s got so many for this hacking thing. I’m probably going to pull mine.”

“Yeah. That was the vilest thing ever, by the way.” Lottie wrinkles her face. “My friends practically orgasmed over your pictures. I vomited, like, ten times.”

“Remind me never to meet your friends,” I mutter. “Or let Leah.”

Leah laughs. “I haven’t seen the pictures, but they were probably more flattering than he deserves.”

“Hey!” I grab her leg from my lap and pull her along the sofa. She slides toward me easily. “You sayin’ I’m not hot?”

“No. I would never do that.”

“Hmm.”

Lottie rolls her eyes. “Don’t worry. I don’t particularly ‘like’ my friends either. I’m actually looking forward to moving back here after I graduate next summer.”

“You’re moving back here?”

She shrugs. “New York is nice, but I much prefer the weather here.” She grins. “Plus I probably have a better chance of getting a job in L.A. I’m minoring in graphic design, remember?”

“Sis, I can barely remember your fuckin’ major.”

“Figures. Well, I gotta go. Dad’s driving me to the airport.” She grabs her purse from the floor by her feet and looks at us with a half smile. “I’m glad you two could figure things out. And, Leah, if he pisses you off too much, just hide the pancake mix. He gets seriously freaking annoying when he can’t find it.”

“Noted.” Leah grins.

“Tell her all my secrets, why don’t you?” I grumble, getting up.

“We’ll go for drinks next time I’m back and I’ll tell her all your sordid stories.” Lottie laughs.

“Bitch.” I shake my head. “Thank you. For looking for the leak.”

“No worries. You’re not all bad, brother, and if you’re happy, you’re not such a prick to me.”

I laugh and hug her quickly, something I haven’t done for years. “Yeah, well, thanks. Maybe I’ll call you next time we play in New York.”

“Don’t bother. I’ll be busy.” She opens the front door then leans in to whisper, “I like her. Don’t fuck this up.”

“You have amazing confidence in me.”

“Just warnin’ you.” She winks and leaves, and I wave to Dad in the car before I shut the door.

I walk back into the kitchen to find Leah rifling through the cabinets. “What are you doin’?”

She glances over her shoulder. “I’m looking for the pancake mix.”

“She was lyin’.”

“Whatever.” She turns back and moves on to a new cabinet. “Are you really going to tell Neil to not file a lawsuit?”

“Probably. It’s a lot of hassle that’ll probably lead to nothing.”

“Exactly why I’m not doing it,” she agrees. “Besides, I can’t change the fact that the whole world knows Lea V. is my line. I guess my life is about to get ten times crazier.”

I come up behind her and wrap my arms around her waist. My lips skim down her neck to her shoulder. “Yep. How horrible it must be to be famous.”

She shudders. “Famous. Ugh.”

“You being famous is why we met. Are you sayin’ you’d change that?”

“Well…”

I spin her and pin her against the kitchen counter. “Answer very, very carefully, darlin’.”

A smile creeps onto her face and she slides her hands up my front. “No. I wouldn’t change it. I was getting fed up with bad sex.”

“Are you saying you’re with me for my cock?”

“And your mouth.”

“Funny. I happen to be fond of your mouth.” So much so that I lower mine to hers and take her bottom lip between my teeth. “And it has a better use than talking.”

“So does yours.” Leah fists my shirt collar and leans in toward me. Then she tilts her head back and brushes her lips across my jaw. “And I believe that use involves me on my back in your bed with my legs open.”

My cock throbs, and I grip her thighs. Lifting her up, I set her ass on the edge of the counter and push up her dress. My fingers hook in the sides of her panties and I tug.

“Mmm,” I hum low, nipping her neck. “Who needs a bed?”

I
f I’d known we’d be this infuriatingly beautiful, I’d have stopped fighting a lot sooner.

Ever since Cole walked in with that envelope full of information and proved to me that Corey was innocent two weeks ago, it’s like a switch has flipped between me and Corey. The uncertainty of our relationship before has completely gone, and in its place is a raw honesty.

For the first time since we met, there are no secrets, no games, and no lies. We’re the best kind of crazy. He pisses me off as much as he makes me laugh, but he has the best way of making it up to me—usually with his mouth.

“You don’t need to do this.”

“Too late. I already did it.” I glance at him in the mirror and put my mascara into my makeup bag.

“I’d rather you didn’t.”

“Really? What would you rather do?”

“Hmm, let me think.” Corey wraps his arms around me from behind and kisses the side of my neck. “You.”

I roll my eyes. “Lottie has flown in for the weekend because of your party. You’re not bailing on your own birthday party, cowboy.”

“I don’t like parties,” he grumbles.

I turn and my eyebrows shoot up. “We met in a bar.”

“A bar isn’t a party.”

“You went to my mom’s party.”

“That was a premiere, not a party.”

“You went to the after party.”

“Semantics, babe. Semantics.” He slides his hands down my body. “Are you wearing underwear right now?”

I laugh and smack his hands away. “Yes, I am. Now come on!”

He sighs and follows me downstairs but doesn’t complain anymore. Instead, he stares at me, and I feel his gaze roaming down my back and hovering on my ass.

I stop before I get in the waiting car and tap his cheek. “Smile, you miserable fuck.”

“I love you, too,” he laughs. “I’d be much happier if you weren’t wearing underwear, for the record. That would be the best fucking present ever.”

“You’re impossible. I need to wear underwear because this dress is so damn short I’ll flash everyone if I don’t.” I expertly climb into the car and tug my dress down my legs.

“I won’t complain if you do, for the record.” Corey reaches over the back seat and takes my hand in his. His hand is hot and rough, and I smile, linking our fingers.

“Try and behave for one night, cowboy. It’s not rocket science.”

“You’re wearing that sexy-as-fuck dress and you expect me to behave?”

“Yes! Your parents will be here, not to mention your coaches and teammates.”

“I don’t care. It’s my birthday and I’m just sayin’ we might disappear into a bathroom for a quick fuck at some point.”