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“What do you want to do after our shift tonight?” I ask after finishing cutting the board.
Heidi stacks the pieces in the corner and frowns. “I just want to go back to the room, but I suppose I should probably do a little more than just ride your body while we’re here.”
She keeps flirting like that every few minutes, guaranteeing my erection never gets a chance to rest. If any of the drywall had been hung yet, I’d find a private spot to fuck her against to get a little relief.
Not that it would help for long.
Every inch of her curvy body tempts me every time she moves.
At the beginning of the shift, I’d tried to avoid talking to anyone. Between the fanboying and the dudes who always try to show they are more macho than me, I expected to hate this part of the week.
It’s different with Heidi at my side, though.
Everyone genuinely loves her. Not because they think she can get them access to a certain kind of life, but just because she makes them feel good. She flows through the skeleton of a house, smiling at everyone and brightening their day. Somehow, she already knows not only everyone’s name but where they are from and what they do there.
I can’t help but think she’d make a killer agent if she ever decides to give up...shit, I already forgot what she’s studying.
The realization is like a punch to my gut.
I’m not pretending when I say I’ve fallen for her, but I’m quickly learning there is more to it than just saying the words and fucking her.
It’s like those guys who act like they want to be football stars but spend all of their free time partying and blowing through their cash rather than studying the playbook and scouting reports.
It’s time for me to put in the work.
“How’d your team do this year?” I ask.
She scrunches up her nose. I want to kiss it.
“What team?”
“At your school. The football team. Or basketball. Whichever you prefer, but football is the right answer.”
She rolls her eyes at my attempt at a joke. “I don’t know. I guess we have them. We have a few bleachers around a field. But I’ve never gone to a match.”
I cough into my hand to stop myself from laughing at her. “Matches are for soccer and starting fires. Both are horrible things. Football and basketball teams play games.”
She purses her lips for a second. “I guess I’m too busy doing real work rather than playing games.”
I shut off my retort of how much work us athletes do to prepare each week. I’m trying to get to know her, not pick a fight with her.
“So what exactly do you do around campus?”
“Tons of homework, of course. And then I work at the school’s library. I have a work-study grant that pays a bunch of my tuition in exchange for a few hours of work each week. That doesn’t leave me with a ton of time. My roommates and I watch a lot of movies in our dorm room, but it’s mostly background noise for study sessions.”
“Wow. That’s very different than my college experience. I had tutors who practically dragged me through classes. Workouts were rough but still left plenty of time for keggers on the weekends after football season was done.”
“Must be nice,” she says. “Although I’m not really much of a partier anyway. Besides, just like how the workouts you did during college prepared you for going pro, all the studying I’m doing is getting me ready for my job. If things go well this week, Mr. Jenkins is probably going to help me get an internship this summer after I graduate.”
“After you graduate? I thought you only did those while you were in school.”
“The market is tough. The internship will massively underpay me, but it will also help me establish the connections I’ll need in a few years when I get my master’s degree. And then I’ll be set. Well, not like you with tons of money. But I’ll have a good job that I should be able to live off—if I get a couple roommates—and I’ll be helping a lot of people poorer than me get their finances in order.”
I don’t know how to respond to her desire to selflessly and tirelessly work so hard to help others rather than maximizing her own income. It’s an entirely foreign concept to my experience in the league.
“Amazing,” I eventually say. “You are so amazing and good and sweet and kissable.”
She giggles as I pull her in for a quick kiss.
Before it can escalate, she pushes me away. “Later. Not here. I need Mr. Jenkins to see how hard I’m willing to work.”
I look over at the old guy and catch him staring at the ass of one of the other girls nearby.
A low growl escapes my throat.
I know guys like him. He better keep his eyes and hands off Heidi.
“Please be nice to him, okay?” she asks while handing me another board. “If he’s not going to like you, I won’t be able to hang around with you as much during the day.”
I nod my agreement.
I’ll do anything it takes to make Heidi happy, even pretend to be friendly to a man I’m certain is going to show his true stripes before this week is through.