Easy Charm by Kristen Proby
I lean in and lower my voice. “It was amazing. He’s just…wow.”
“This is so much better than nice. So give me details.”
I shake my head. “No, those really are just mine. But you can sleep well tonight, knowing that he took very good care of me.”
“Good.” She hugs me close, clinging more tightly than she normally does, which makes me a little sad.
“Are you okay?” I ask softly.
“Yes.”
“Something isn’t right.”
She pulls back and her eyes are sad now. “Lance called.”
“That fucker isn’t supposed to call you!” The rage is hard and instant. Van’s ex-husband abused her, emotionally, physically and sexually. “Tell me you called the police!”
“I did,” she assures me. “And I told Beau and Eli too.”
“Good.” I nod. “You wouldn’t have done that before. Did you call Ben?”
She looks down. “No.”
“Why not?”
“He’s not my brother.”
No, he’s just been in love with you forever and a day.
But I don’t say that because she won’t believe it, and she doesn’t want to hear it.
“No, but he cares about you too. You know that.”
“One of the boys will tell him, I’m sure.”
“Van.”
She shakes her head adamantly. “Drop it, Gabs.”
“Okay, what did Lance say?”
She chews the inside of her lip, then simply drops her head into her hands with a resigned sigh.
“The usual. I’m a pain in the ass. All of his troubles are my fault. Blah blah blah.”
“I’m going to kick his ass.”
Van bursts out with a laugh. “You’re half his size.”
“I don’t give a shit. I’ll kill the fucker.”
She sobers, her eyes, the same color as mine, holding my gaze. “I know you would. But he’s not worth it, Gabs.”
“Ben got to beat him up,” I reply with a pout.
“Ben could have gotten hurt,” Van says.
“Have you met Ben?” I shake my head and laugh at the lunacy of her statement. “No one hurts Ben.”
Except you, Van.
“If you have this handled, I’ll head home.”
“I have this.” I hug my sister close. “And I have your back, too, if you ever need me.”
“I know. I love you.”
“I love you more.”
Chapter Nine
~Rhys~
My shoulder is improving every day. Kate was right to suggest that I come here to recover. I don’t know if it’s the quiet, the calm of this particular place, or if it’s that there is no pressure from coaches and trainers constantly breathing down my neck, watching my every move, always asking, “How do you feel now?”
Having Sam around to ask questions and be the fun, silly kid that he is has been awesome, and I admit that I miss him.
It’s probably a combination of all of the above.
I’m in the barn, working out on Friday afternoon. There is barely a hitch in my shoulder as I execute one hundred push-ups. I’m ready for more weight. Maybe I’ll have Gabby come out and sit on my shoulders.
I know that being with Gabby has been awesome. Easy, and yet one of the most complicated relationships I’ve had, which doesn’t even make sense to me. It’s easy to be with her. To talk to her, make her smile, listen to her laugh.
Make love to her. Let’s be honest, lose myself in her. She’s pushed everything around me out of focus, even baseball, and no one has ever done that for me before.
It scares me and exhilarates me at the same time. Baseball can’t shift out of focus for me. It is my life, and it’ll continue to be my life after I leave this place.
This isn’t permanent.
I need to remember that.
I’m a sweaty mess as I brush my hands off and walk toward the house. Maybe I’ll talk Gabby into a shower with me.
Probably not. She’ll be in work mode, and she’s fierce when she’s in work mode, which just makes her all the more sexy to me. Her work ethic is incredible, and whether that’s in spite of, or because of, her privileged upbringing, I don’t know.
All I know is, I admire the fuck out of her.
As I walk in the back door and into the kitchen, I can hear her voice coming from the desk where she greets guests. The voices are just murmurs, and then she laughs, and I can’t help but smile and feel a little jealous of whoever made her laugh in the first place, because they get to see her eyes shine and the way she wrinkles her nose, just a little, when her smile is wide.
Jesus, I have it bad.
I pull a bottle of water from the fridge, twist off the cap and guzzle two-thirds of it before walking down the hall toward the sound of the voices. I stop dead in my tracks when I see my teammate, Neil Miller, leaning on the desk and smiling at Gabby as she gestures with her hands, telling him something that I can’t hear over the roaring in my ears.
Neil leans in and brushes Gabby’s hair behind her ear and that’s it. I’ll be fucking damned if another man will put his hands on her while I’m still in the picture.
Hell no.
“You might want to drop that hand before I remove it from your body,” I say, surprised to hear the words come out calmly, as I approach the desk.
“Just the man I’m looking for!” Neil says as he saunters to me, but my eyes are still pinned to Gabby, who’s now frowning at me. Her cheeks are pink with anger or embarrassment, I’m not sure, and I don’t give a fuck which it is, honestly.
“What’s up, Neil?”
He glances between me and the woman he was flirting with, then tips his head back and laughs. “Was I poaching, bro?”
“I’m not your bro,” I reply and turn my gaze to my young teammate, taking in his tired eyes and rumpled clothes. “Did you say you came here looking for me?”
The humor leaves his face and he nods as he looks at the floor. “Can you take a minute?”
I nod and gesture toward the kitchen, but before following him, I pull Gabby against me, kiss her hard and murmur against her lips, “Reserve thirty minutes for me this afternoon.”
I turn and leave before she can respond, following Neil through the kitchen where I pull more water bottles out of the fridge. Then I push ahead and lead him outside, back toward the barn where I know we can talk without any guests listening that may be milling about.
We push inside the surprisingly cool barn, thanks to thick oak trees overhead. I straddle the weight bench that arrived the other day, drink water, and watch Neil as he paces back and forth, agitated.
Exhausted.
“What’s going on?” I finally ask. “Does Coach know you’re here?”
He shrugs, then stops, shoves his hands in his pockets, and stares at his feet. Neil is in his mid-twenties, tall and built, and a favorite among the female fans. He joined us last year, coming up from the minor leagues, and he’s a gifted player, but it’s no secret that he’s been struggling.
“I think I’m fucking this up,” he finally admits and reaches for one of the water bottles, tears the cap off and throws it across the room before drinking half of it in two gulps.
“Okay.”
“Coach doesn’t know I’m here, but he made me take the week off.”
I cock a brow, surprised. “Which means that you’re either about to get arrested, or kicked out of the League if you don’t get your shit together.”
He rubs the back of his hand over his mouth, and then just sits down on the floor, right where he was standing, and rests his elbows on his raised knees.
“Pretty much.”
“What have you been doing since I left?”
“Are you coming back?” he asks, his eyes on mine now, looking hopeful.
“That’s the plan.”
He nods. “I love baseball.”
“I know. You play it like you love it.” He blinks rapidly, clearly surprised by the co
“My knees hurt,” he admits. “I’m twenty-five fucking years old, and my knees are killing me all the time.”
“Are you hooked on pain pills?” I ask bluntly.
“No.” He shakes his head and sucks down more water. “The minors were very different,” he begins softly. “I mean, there were parties after games, and there was some stupid shit that went down, but that was nothing compared to this. There’s drugs and women and money being flung at me from every direction.”
“Are you in trouble?” I ask again.
“No. Coach told me to take a week to get my head on straight before I get arrested or kicked off the team.” He pushes his hands through his hair, scrubbing his scalp. “So I got in my car and drove straight here. You’re the one I’ve always been able to talk to.”
I miss this. Talking with the younger guys, giving them advice. I realize that when baseball is all over in a few years, this will be what I miss the most.
My teammates.
“So you’ve acquired a taste for hot women and money? Because if you tell me you’re doing drugs, I’ll take you down so fast you won’t wake up in time to go back next week.” I calmly drink my water, watching his face.
“I’m not doing drugs,” he replies fiercely. “That’s not me.”
“Good.”
“The women and money, I like.”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
He shrugs his shoulders, and won’t meet my gaze.
“I have two separate women claiming they’re pregnant with my kid,” he says softly. “And I don’t even remember fucking either of them.”
Ouch.
“Are you sure you did?”
He shakes his head. “Dude, I get so fucked up after a game, especially a win, I can’t be sure of anything.”
“Idiot.”
He winces and nods. “I know.”
“Obviously, there are lawyers for this, Neil. It happens in professional sports all the time.”
“Has it ever happened to you?”
“Hell no.”
He smirks. “Of course not. You’re fucking perfect.”
I shake my head and sigh. “Not even close. Do you think I wasn’t dazzled by tits and ass when I was young? Of course. I’m a red-blooded man, for fuck sake.”
“So you fucked around too.”
“For a minute, in the beginning. But I wanted baseball more. It’s not about the money or the women or the fame for me. It’s about the game. I’ve never been willing to give it up, and I’m not going into a relationship with anyone unless I can give it everything it deserves. And I don’t think I can do that while I’m still playing baseball.”
“If you try to tell me you’ve been a fucking monk for ten years, I call bullshit.”
“No.” I grin and shake my head. “But the women I choose are discreet and they know the score.”
“What about the honey inside?” he asks, and the way he calls Gabby a honey sets my teeth on edge.
“None of your motherfucking business.”
“Hey.” He leans back, hands up in the resigned position. “No offense.”
I shake my head again. “She’s spoken for.”
“Does she know the score?” he asks with a raised brow.
“Touch her and I’ll end you,” I reply with steel in my voice. “I’m not fucking with you over her. She’s off limits, and that’s the end of the story.”
“I get it.” Neil nods, then smiles. “I hope it works out for you guys.”
I stand, ignoring the statement, because I don’t even know what I want where Gabby is concerned.
Except, I know I want her naked and beneath me, right now.
“What do you need from me, Neil?”
“This.” He stands and holds his hand out for me to shake. “I needed to talk it through with someone I respect and trust.”
I nod, understanding. “Just call me if you need me. No need to drive for days for a conversation. Come on, let’s go in.”
“If I look at her, will you take my head off?”
“Probably. Don’t look at her.”
***
“Neil is staying in my room tonight,” I inform Gabby as I walk into the kitchen and find her arranging flowers from the garden in a large vase.
“Are you two typically snuggle buddies?” she asks with a sarcastic smile.
“Funny.” I walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her middle, just under her breasts because she’s so short, and bury my nose in her hair, breathing her in. “Do you mind?”
She smells better than the flowers.
“It makes sense,” she says as she pushes a sunflower in the vase. “You’ve been staying with me anyway, and Sam doesn’t get home until Monday.”
“Mmm,” I agree. When the flowers are done, I turn her in my arms and cage her in between me and the kitchen island. “We need to talk.”
“So talk.” She raises her chin, meets my gaze head-on, and can’t hide the little touch of fear in her amazing eyes.
And it’s the fear in her eyes that calms the fear in me, because it tells me that we’re on the same damn page.
“I don’t like seeing you flirt with other men.”
She raises a brow. “So?”
I tilt my head and lean in to press my lips to her ear. “It makes me crazy to see another man look at you the way that I do. To know that he wants you, naked, panting, moaning, wrapped around him, the way you were with me just this morning.”
She swallows hard and grips onto my arms, her nails barely digging into my skin. I know she’s turned on. I’m right there with her. Jesus, I can’t get within twenty feet of her without an erection. The pull she has on me is completely new to me.
“I didn’t mean to flirt with him.” Her voice is a rough whisper.
“I’m not saying you did anything wrong. It was innocent enough. But you need to know that even something that innocent makes me crazy, rational or not.” I slide my hand down her back to her ass, then around to the front and push inside her shorts, over her panties, down to her center. I can feel the heat coming off of her.
Fuck, I can smell how turned on she is.
“This is mine.” I kiss her neck and drag my nose down her jawline. “Your body, your skin, your scent, drive me wild. I crave you. And I don’t want anyone else even thinking about you.”
“That’s awfully selfish,” she replies, trying to be sassy, but she’s panting now. I push my hand farther into her pants and press my fingertips against her firmly.
“I’m a selfish bastard. I never claimed otherwise.” She’s so close to the edge. Her eyes are glassy, her lips shiny and plump from biting them. I know how delicious they are.
So I lean in, pull her bottom lip between my teeth and nibble.
Her hands clench my arms as she holds her breath to keep from crying out as she comes in my hand.
Fuck, I want to carry her up to her bedroom and sink inside her right now.
“Excuse me, Miss Boudreaux.”
She stills. I block the view of the intruder with my body, discretely pull my hand out of her shorts and smile down at her with a wink. She clears her throat.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt. Would it be possible to get extra towels in our room?”
“Of course. I’ll bring them up in just a few moments.”
“Thank you.”
The guest leaves and Gabby expels a long, deep breath. “What’s up with this kitchen?”
“I’m going to fuck you in it on Sunday when we’re alone. Just out of principle alone.”
“Stop saying stuff like that,” she says with an exasperated frown. “I’m working!”
I cup her face in my hands and just take her in. “You’re beautiful.”
“Still working.”
My thumb brushes her bottom lip. “I didn’t like what I walked into this afternoon.”
“I get
A slow smile works its way over my face. “Damn right.”
“Laughing at something funny isn’t a big deal.”
“Walking into a room and seeing a man with his hand on my woman is a big deal.” Her eyes widen. “If there was any confusion, let’s clear it up right now. For as long as there is a physical relationship between us, no one else touches you.”
“That goes both ways.”
“Of course.” I kiss her forehead and back away. “Now, get to work. You’re incredibly lazy today, with all the kitchen shenanigans and stuff.”
“You’re nuts,” she says with a laugh.
“Nuts about you.”
***
“This is delicious,” Neil says as he inhales the fried chicken Gabby made for dinner. “There is nothing like southern fried chicken.”
“Thanks,” she replies with a smile. “It’s Sam’s favorite.”
“Sam?” Neil asks.
“My son,” she says. “He’s seven. He’s with my mom this week on vacation. He texted a little while ago. It seems that he and his cousins exhausted my mom and her sister at Disney World today.”
“Good. I’m glad he’s having fun.” I push my finished plate away and rest my arm on the backrest of Gabby’s chair, lift a lock of her hair between my fingers, and begin to mindlessly twirl the soft strands.
I can’t stop touching her damn hair.
Neil’s eyes are watching my hand as he continues to talk to Gabby.
“Sam’s a big Cubs fan,” I add.
“I have some things in my car. A few balls, and I’m pretty sure I have a jersey he can have too. I’ll be sure to give them to you before I leave.”
“Wow, thanks. He’ll be thrilled.”
Neil grins, and when Gabby stands to begin clearing the table, he joins us, insisting that he should earn his keep.
The cleanup goes quickly with the three of us pitching in.
“Do you have a girlfriend, Neil?” Gabby asks.
“No, ma’am,” he replies and then laughs. “I should steer clear of women for a while. I seem to be getting into trouble with them.”