Already with this? “I’ve been waiting here forever.”
“Yeah, well, this is the wrong place to wait.” He stopped in front of me, and looked me up and down, taking a little longer than was polite.
If we had been at a nightclub or party, I would have thought he was coming onto me with a look like that, but this was where, for a little while, both of us lived and worked.
In fact, how long we both lived and worked here was almost entirely up to Drake and his ability to get over himself and make the team.
If it were possible for a guy who had just gone undrafted in the most spectacularly visible of manners to act like a smarmy asshole, Drake Rollins was clearly doubling down and going for a world record.
With Drake standing in front of me up close like that I couldn’t help but feel a rush of electricity wash over my body. It had been months since we’d been this close to each other, and I didn’t know how to act around him now that we were supposed to be ‘working’ together.
“So, uh, how do we do this?”
Drake smiled that winning smile of his, the one that made me forget how to speak. “I thought you’d know all about that.”
“We-well,” I stammered, “I had some ideas that I wanted to discuss with you.”
He shifted in his stance, like he was starting to get bored already. “Obviously,” I kept on going, trying to fill the space up, since it was clear Drake didn’t feel like talking much, “we can figure something out that works for both of us.”
“Yeah, I don’t really want to do this.”
I let some of the calm and sunny disposition fall away, and stepped in a little closer, more than mildly intimidated by Drake’s huge muscles and piercing look. “You know, Drake, I don’t really want to do this either, but I don’t have much of a choice, and it sounds like from what I hear, you don’t either.”
Drake looked at me like it had been forever since a woman his own age, had spoken to him like that. He quickly recovered, though, and the smile came back just as bright as before. “Come on, this has gotta be the best assignment ever for you! You get to follow me around,” he puffed himself up and flexed a little, admiring how ripped and toned he was.
I had to admit, being this close to Drake Rollins had me admiring how ripped and toned he was too, with the added bonus of being able to reach out and touch him if I wanted.
No! Down, Lily, down! This was neither the time nor the place to indulge in those kinds of fantasies. No touching!
At least not in real life. Later on when I got back to my room, ALONE, I could maybe relax that rule a little bit and be all over him in my head. But that was as far as it could go.
I needed this assignment and I needed this job.
“Had enough?” I asked, tapping my foot and crossing my arms under my breasts. Drake stopped immediately, his eyes falling down to my chest. I could feel my cheeks redden as I dropped my arms. On the one hand, it looked like I was going to have to be the only adult in this working relationship; but on the other hand, I really did enjoy it when he looked at me like that.
It was a look that combined curiosity and almost unbridled lust, and coming from a guy as drop dead sexy as Drake Rollins, it felt really, really, good. A girl had to take her little ego boosts where she could throughout the day - it was a rough world out there.
“Not even close to enough,” Drake quipped as he looked me back in the eyes. “But that’s for another time.”
“Uh huh. Let’s try and keep this professional, Drake. We’re going to be seeing lots of each other, starting today.” As soon as the words came out of my mouth I realized what I had said, and how I had said it.
“I have no doubt about that. I’m looking forward to seeing lots of you, Lily.” That smile, the one that made me wet even seeing it on the horizon, was back.
Ugh, how could I walk into that so easily? Drake Rollins was unfair. He was like the cheat code to shut off my normal brain and just make me pant with lust.
“So,” I said, desperately trying to bring this back to something within spitting distance of a professional conversation, “I was thinking we do daily interviews, both on and off camera. I’ll take the off camera stuff and use it to write my daily columns about how you’re doing at training camp, and how the rest of the team is looking for the upcoming season. The video stuff…” I trailed off when I realized Drake wasn’t really paying attention anymore.
His eyes were traveling up and down my body, like a big cat deciding where to bite first on prey he had already captured and subdued.