Chapter Nine

“Here’s the problem,” Julie said as she stormed into his room, and Gavin rearranged the pillows against the headboard and leaned back to await what he’d bet a whole pile of money wasn’t the actual problem. “I’ve always been better in a lab setting.”

Under other circumstances, he might gloat over being right, but that’d be far from helpful, and the goal wasn’t to make her feel bad. Regardless of how very much he’d underestimated the level of assistance Julie would need to get laid. “I don’t think a sex lab is a good idea. For one, they’re usually called fetish clubs.”

“Are you saying I wouldn’t look good in black leather?”

“Are you saying you’d be a dominatrix?” Well, there was his problem. He kept forgetting to edit his words before they burst out of his mouth, and now he was doing his damnedest not to picture her in shiny black pants and a leather corset. Thanks to her outfit last night, he knew she already had the pointy-heeled boots.

The jutting of her lower lip snapped him back to his senses. It wasn’t the pout she used to get her way, but a sullen gesture that caused a tug in the center of his chest.

“You’re right. I’d never be able to pull that off.” The foot of the bed dipped as she plunked herself next to his stockinged feet. “I’m not nearly exciting enough.”

Him and his big mouth. “Not at all what I meant. You don’t have to pour yourself into latex outfits and crack a whip to be exciting. It’s okay to enjoy what you enjoy, no matter where it falls on the racy scale.”

Instead of perking up, she grabbed a stray pillow, smooshed it over her face, and let loose a muffled yell of frustration.

“Come on.” Gavin yanked at the corner of the pillowcase until she reluctantly let go. “Didn’t you see how excited I was to see you when I came home? I bet even Kylo Ren doesn’t get that stoked when he greets you.”

One corner of her mouth turned up, but she fought it back down. “You two don’t count.” At his gasp, she rolled her eyes and added, “I mean you do, but you don’t.”

Julie sighed, the sound on the defeated side. “Admittedly, I don’t want to don skintight outfits that’ll cause chafing. Most likely I’d just get stuck and have to call you like Ross did in that episode of Friends. I might’ve come on too strong with Kory as it is, so ugh.” She flung herself back on the foot of his bed, one arm over her eyes, golden hair fanning around her like a halo.

Which gave him a semi-safe thing to say. “Think more Victoria’s Secret Angel than dominatrix. And before you ask, no, that doesn’t mean you need wings. Trust me, most guys see a bra and panties, and that’s all it takes for them to get excited.”

Julie lifted her arm from her blue eyes and blinked at him. “At this point, I’m not even making it to that part of the evening. I ruin it before then, which makes me think I need to amp up my flirty lines. How do women get your attention? What does it take for one of them to get singled out from the herd?”

Gavin made a sour face. “Singled out from the herd?”

“Is it more like a horde? Probably, considering the fame. How many times do you get hit on in a day?” She sat up so quickly they almost had their second helmet-to-helmet offense. “Including your social media platforms—women send you messages all the time, don’t they?”

His mouth opened and closed and opened again, but he couldn’t get any sound to come out. It was such a loaded question—one that’d caused plenty of fights between him and Kristin, constant reassurance for her that the messages didn’t tempt him notwithstanding.

And they hadn’t at the time, although he’d been shocked at how forward some of them were. Nowadays, he occasionally indulged in the tiniest bit of flirting, depending on his mood and who the messages were from.

With how discouraged Julie seemed, though, he wasn’t sure she wanted the truth.

A crazed gleam hit her eye, and he instinctively lifted his good shoulder to block, sure he wasn’t going to like what came next. “Can I see the messages?” She crawled to the head of his bed to sit right beside him. “That’s exactly what I mean by in the lab. If you show me the come-ons that work and the ones that go too far, I’ll be able to analyze them and get a better grasp on what I’m doing wrong.”

The phone in his pocket burned his thigh, as if it were a nuclear device that’d already been activated. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“Oh. Are your replies too dirty for me to see? If you’re sending dick pics, I could see why you might not want me to se—”

“Holy shit, Jules. I’m not sending out dick pics on the regular. Do you honestly think I’m the type of guy who sends unsolicited pictures to women?”

“Of course not,” she said, but his tensed muscles didn’t dare relax. “I figured they were solicited. I’m sure lots of women ask to see it.”

Despite his best attempts to stifle a reaction, his skin heated, and he couldn’t stop shifting and fidgeting, and this line of conversation needed to end already.

“Are you actually blushing? Gavin Frost, badass quarterback of the Mustangs, gets embarrassed?” She poked a finger to his cheek, her voice taking on that same higher pitch she used on her kitty. “That’s so cute.”

His face was three shades of red, he could feel it. “It’s not cute.”

“Oh, right. What’s the macho word for cute?” Julie tapped her lip and glanced at the ceiling, as if she’d find the answer there. “Ooh, that’s so ruggedly sexy. You’re such a strong, virile stud. I bet the females of the species can’t wait to procreate with you.”

He did his best to hold a dirty look. “You were doing all right until that procreate part,” he deadpanned. “That stuff usually scares the shit out of dudes, FYI.”

“Solid point.” She lifted her phone and used it like a recording device. “Subject is okay with compliments about his handsomeness but not with the idea of becoming a caregiver for her and their future children. So while those traits are what women are instinctively drawn to, any thoughts regarding them can’t be spoken aloud without scaring the primitive, super-tough caveman, who’s secretly a big ol’ baby when it comes to having babies.”

Julie swiveled the speaker side of the cell phone toward his mouth. “Would you like to add anything else, Test Subject Seven?”

He gripped her phone over her own hand, tugged it closer to his mouth, and grunted. “Me hungry and big strong muscles sore from PT. Time for dinner. Then you, woman, will go to hot springs with me.” He added another grunt for good measure.

Julie laughed and bit her lip. She leaned closer, and he caught a whiff of vanilla and jasmine. His heart hammered faster, and his throat went dry. “This scientist will concede to the demand for food.”

Gavin swung his legs off the side of the bed, happy for a change of subject and planning his rebuttal in favor of the hot springs once they had food in their bellies.

“If,” Julie continued, and the line of his back snapped into a rigid line. “You agree to show me some of the messages women have sent to you. I’m going to need at least five examples of what doesn’t work, five that fall in the middle ground and can go either way, and five that were successful enough that if the two of you had been in the same place, both of you would’ve gotten lucky.”

Gavin groaned, cursing himself for not lying and declaring women didn’t message him. Not that it would’ve worked. As she’d pointed out at the airport, he wasn’t a very good liar, and he and Jules didn’t lie to each other, ever. Occasionally he softened things for her benefit, but outright falsehoods—as his mother referred to them—weren’t his style.

Considering his best friend had morphed into Julie the Science Gal who didn’t take no for an answer, she wouldn’t have believed him anyway.

Julie lightly placed her hand on his elbow and, speaking of softening, his internal organs went completely squishy on him. “It’s important to have a varied test group in order to get the most accurate results and, Gavin, I desperately need results. My self-esteem can’t take another hit.”

Dammit. When she put it that way, how could he refuse? Somehow, he was only now realizing how tightly she had him wound around her finger. Because she was his person. That one special someone who was there through the ups and downs, no matter what. She’d been the first one he called when he’d been drafted, and when the offer with the Mustangs came in, he’d discussed it with her before anyone else.

His parents had been numbers two and three, which turned into a bit of a shitshow when a nosy reporter had called his mom and she’d spilled the beans. Both he and Lance Quaid had experienced some heat over the snafu, but luckily, they’d ironed things out and moved on.

All that aside, when he glanced over his shoulder and saw the combination of pleading and longing on her face, he couldn’t say no. “Fine. But before you do any excessive celebrating, it’s gonna come at a price…”

“Wait? I’m getting a penalty when I haven’t even committed the violation yet?”

He raised an eyebrow, and she harrumphed. “If we want to get technical, it’s more of a quid pro quo.”

…

“Okay, here’s one of the too far messages,” Gavin said.

Julie abandoned her attempt to keep the fillings of her burrito inside the tortilla and licked at the escaping salsa. Once you released your hold on a burrito from Ramon’s, there was no easily picking it up again. Still, for the betterment of her sex life, she set hers down, grabbed a napkin off the pile between her and Gavin, and wiped her mouth and hands. Then she wiggled her fingers in the universal gimmie gesture.

“Isn’t this an invasion of privacy?”

“Yes,” Julie said, snatching the phone from him anyway. “But here’s the thing. Women do this all the time—share texts, convos, and messages with one another, and then overanalyze together and figure out the best course of action. I shouldn’t be punished just because my best friend is a dude.”

“Wow. Really feeling the love here.”

Julie waved the phone at him. “That’s what all these messages are for, hello. I’m the person who keeps you humble.”

Keeping one eye on the screen, she blindly reached for her drink cup until her palm made contact. She sipped from the straw and read the message.

I’d let you come over and murder my vagina. Next time you’re in Philly, HMU.

“HMU?”

“Hit me up,” Gavin said.

“And did you?”

He tilted his head and narrowed his brown eyes to slits.

“What? You said it was too far, not that it didn’t work. Plus, how often do you get permission to murder a vagina?”

“I’m starting to rethink doing this in the middle of a restaurant.”

“Is that a good pickup line or a bad one?” Julie asked, unable to stifle her smug smile. First, she’d embarrassed him in his bed—wait, that came out wrong. While they were in his bed, he’d gotten embar—still not right. Earlier, while in his bedroom and doing totes platonic activities, he’d blushed. His discomfort shouldn’t be so entertaining, yet amusement coursed through her in a steady rush.

“This one also made me think the woman might be a tad unhinged.” Gavin scooted closer and tapped another of the DMs he’d received through Instagram.

Biology had been Julie’s second language but had taken the lead as her favorite form of communication through the years. Anatomical terms were her home base, and she could discuss the dissection of a testicle over meatballs. Seriously, some dude had shot one of his while cleaning his gun, and she’d gotten to be the one to dig into it and record the damage.

But as she read how this random woman had used anatomical terms—it included a suggestion about his uvula, her vulva, and defecation—Julie’s stomach churned enough that she rethought picking up the other half of her burrito. “Whoa.”

“Yeah. And before you ask, no I didn’t meet up with her or even respond. I blocked her after this message.”

“Fair.” Thanks to getting caught up in articles about women harassed in the office, she’d read some pretty creepy come-ons, but now she was concerned for Gavin’s safety. “You’ve got, like, bodyguards around you wherever you travel, right?”

Gavin shot her a look like she was being ridiculous. “I can take care of myself.”

She continued to stare, unconvinced. She emphasized her feelings on the subject by crossing her arms and leaning back in her seat. Without a partner, she was going to have to somehow balance playing good cop and bad cop at the same time.

“In addition to my own strength, speed, and the boxing conditioning I do during the off season, I also travel with an entourage of defensemen who could take out an angry bear.”

“If they worked together, or a bear per defender?”

Gavin sighed, and he could sigh away for all she cared. “I appreciate that you worry about my safety.” He placed his hand on her knee and swiped his thumb across her patella, the motion working like a soothing balm. “How do you think I feel when you’re several states away and you talk about working at the lab late at night? Or going into your apartment complex at one a.m.? There’s a reason I make you stay on the phone with me. I need to hear that you’re safe and sound before I can go to sleep.”

Warmth rushed through her in a comforting wave. “We both need to be careful. Deal?”

A half smile spread across his face, and the next swipe of his thumb did funny things to her insides. “Deal.”

One sharp nod, and she decided to move on. Together, they skimmed more of his messages. The middle ground messages landed closer to the fangirl side of the scale, where there was a hint of flirtation but also admiration and questions about fame.

Finally, Gavin pulled up the messages he’d deemed a success.

“You look like my future sex buddy?” Incredulity dripped from the question, and still it fell short of releasing the tightness in her lungs. “You already fed me this line.”

Gavin shrugged. “It was a good one.”

“You responded, too.” Julie snatched the phone from his hand, and he dove for her, cursing at his sling for getting in the way. With her curiosity soaring out of control, she twisted away from him and sped-read the entire exchange.

Heat pooled low and deep, and jealousy spiked, leaving her annoyed and turned on. Funny enough, it was something she’d experienced a lot with Brad. She’d get all hot and bothered, and right as she almost reached God, yes territory with the help of her fingers, he’d be done.

Maybe I wouldn’t have been so boring if he’d managed to take care of at least one of my needs. He had closed his eyes, though, so what if he’d had to picture someone else to get there? Her heart splatted, and she pivoted back to Gavin and handed over his phone.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have read those. You allowed me a peek, and I crossed the line.”

“It’s okay, Jules. You think I didn’t know you might see it? For the record, she and I just…flirted a bit.”

“I saw. I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘a bit,’ either.”

“She’s a sports reporter. I met her at a press conference, so she wasn’t a total stranger.”

“By that logic, neither is that guy who sat next to me on the airplane ride here. I guess I should’ve checked off joining the mile-high club with him.” Green had never been her color, and she worried he’d see right through her. Not that she fully understood her yo-yo emotions. Why did she care that Gavin had come damn close to sexting a beautiful reporter?

Julie wound a strand of hair around her finger and demanded her mouth not open and ask the other question whirring through her mind. “She also suggested doing more than flirting. She wanted to… At the same time. On camera. Is that…?”

The overheating of her face served her right. Call it karma after playing off his earlier self-consciousness and teasing him about it. “So, phone sex is an option? Not sure why I haven’t considered going that route. It would certainly widen my pool.”

“I’m not gonna lie, flirting with her online was fun. Ego-boosting even. I could rewrite and delete things before I hit send. There wasn’t the usual pressure of where to go for a date and finding topics to discuss…”

The scrape of chair legs sounded loud among the din of the other diners. Gavin cupped Julie’s chin and tipped her face to his. “But the not-sexy fact of the matter is, that woman”—he canted his head toward the upturned phone on his thigh—“could have ulterior motives. If we’d added video as she’d suggested, she could record it and release it. For all I know, she’s just out for a story.

“You worry about my physical safety, but ending up with a sex tape or some shit like that would be far more dangerous for my career than some stalker who can’t get that close to me anyway. I’m not telling you what to do, but you also need to consider that. There are a lot of assholes out there who could take advantage of you.”

“I hear you.”

He nodded. “Admittedly, that night, I got caught up in the moment. We’d had a great conversation in person the week before; she has a similar traveling schedule, so she’s well aware of the hectic lifestyle; and as you saw, we talked about how hard it is to connect with people when you’re rarely in one place. It’s the first time in a long time I was tempted to even consider the possibility of a casual relationship as opposed to pouring every ounce of myself into my first season with the Mustangs. Considering the various complications even that message could cause, I probably shouldn’t have engaged in the first place.”

Julie placed her hand over his. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”

“Yet I feel like I should.”

Going through the messages women sent Gavin was supposed to be a learning experience. And it had been, just not in the way she’d expected. The main thing she’d learned was that Gavin excelled at straddling the line between sexy and crass, to the point she’d had to cross her legs tighter as she’d read his portions of the exchange.

For a foolish second last night, in her hazy, half asleep state, Julie had wondered what it’d be like if Gavin had pressed his lips to hers. Now that she’d seen how witty, passionate—and okay—a hint naughty he could be, a tiny part of her longed for him to use a few of his killer pickup lines on her.