61. Rosalyn

SIXTY-ONE

ROSALYN

The mattress jostles as Nathan collapses onto his side next to me.

"Holy fuck." He's panting as hard as I am.

His eyes look glazed. His body is gleaming with a sheen of sweat. His hair is sticking out in every direction.

He looks like perfection.

We lie next to each other for a long moment, catching our breath.

I can't believe we just had sex.

I can't believe I broke my dry spell with famous football player Nate Waller.

I roll my head to the side to take him in again.

I can't believe my best friend from twenty-five years ago grew up to be a famous football player. Who is built and knows how to use it.

Another smile pulls across my lips.

He really is something.

A breeze from the ceiling fan overhead ghosts over my skin, making me shiver.

The chilled air has felt good until just this moment. And now, as my body cools, I'm becoming more and more aware of the stickiness. Everywhere .

Nathan notices my reaction to the cold and pushes up onto his elbow.

And good lord, there's a reason they put athletes on magazine covers. Nathan, who has been retired for a couple of years, is still so goddamn muscular.

I can't pull my eyes away from his biceps.

His arm moves, and he reaches out to trail a finger across my stomach. He drags a line of stickiness with his fingertip, and I shiver again.

"Come on," Nathan grunts as he sits up.

I stare at his back muscles while I drape an arm over my bare breasts. "Come where?"

Nathan looks back over his shoulder at me with a smirk.

I roll my eyes. "Oh my god, you're still twelve."

He barks out a laugh and stands from the bed.

"Sometimes feel like it. Unless you're talking about my hips, then I'm eighty." I frown. He smiles wider. "I'm just teasing. It's only like seventy-five."

He reaches a hand out to me, and I take it.

I don't think he's kicking me out, not that I'm going to stay the night, but I have no idea what he's thinking.

Nathan helps me sit up, then grabs my other arm—pulling it away from covering my chest—and uses both arms to drag me to the edge of the bed.

When my feet hit the ground, I stand.

"Now follow me." He turns and heads for a darkened doorway. "A shower is going to be the easiest way to clean up the mess you made."

"The mess I made?" I take a step to follow him, one hand going back across my chest, basically holding my boobs in place, and the other hand dropping down to cover my vagina.

Nathan might be comfortable walking around bare-ass naked, but I'm not quite there.

He steps into the bathroom and flips on the overhead lights.

The room becomes so incredibly bright.

I hurry the few steps to follow, and once I'm past the doorframe, I flip the light back off.

Nathan lets out a chuckle. "What are you doing? "

I stand with my back to the wall. "It was too bright."

He hums in response, and I listen to his steps cross the room.

Then there's the soft scratching sound of a match being struck.

Flame flickers to life, and the image of Nathan lighting a candle is reflected back at me through the mirror.

He drops the match into the sink, then repeats the process twice more until he has a trio of candles burning between the two sinks on the long vanity.

The glow is the perfect amount. Enough to see by but not enough to illuminate every inch of everything.

Nathan crosses over to the shower stall and slides the frosted glass door aside so he can reach in and turn on the water.

He then opens a cabinet and shakes out a clean towel before he hangs it on the hook next to the shower. "The hot water is pretty much instant, so you can get in." Nathan gestures, then smirks as his eyes travel along my body. "You do recall that I, quite recently, saw you naked, right?"

I huff. "I recall. I'm just not as wildly comfortable walking around nude as you seem to be."

"You should be." He takes a step toward me. "Now get your ass in the shower and hurry up. If you take too much time, I'll join you. And I'm not sure you're ready for that."

The ache between my thighs throbs, reminding me that no matter how much I enjoyed it, I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

And probably the day after that.

I rush past Nathan and into the shower.

"The body wash is in the black bottle. Since it's hard to read the labels in the dark." Nathan reaches into the shower and slaps my ass.

I swat at his hand and shut the shower door.

It is rather dark in here with the door shut, so I appreciate his tip about the bottles.

I pour some of the body wash into my palms, then lather them together.

The scent is masculine. And expensive. And rubbing the suds all over my body feels like I'm getting an olfactory hug from Nathan .

I do a once-over and rinse, then I snag the loofah hanging off the faucet handle and squeeze more soap onto it.

I didn't want to get a bunch of… stuff on Nathan's loofah. But this round is for me, because this shower is really nice, and I want to enjoy it.

Unfortunately I didn't bring a hair binder with me, and I can't bring myself to ask Nathan for one because I don't want to know if he has stuff from other women around here, so I'm careful to keep my hair behind my shoulders and not get it wet.

Nathan is moving around the bathroom, but I take my time scrubbing myself down, even washing away most of my makeup.

Once I'm rinsed again, I turn off the water.

Nathan opens the shower door before I can, handing me the towel he hung up.

I take it wordlessly and wrap it around myself.

Then I look down.

This is the biggest, fluffiest towel I've ever used.

It almost wraps around me twice. The exact opposite of a hotel experience.

I squeeze myself with it. "Thank you."

Nathan nods. "I have some clothes here for you too." He lifts a small pile, then crosses the room to set them on the vanity.

"Um, I have clothes," I say slowly, the obviously left unsaid.

Though I do recall Nathan putting my underwear in his pocket… so I don't think I'll be getting those back.

Nathan shakes his head. "You can't sleep in those."

I blink at him. "I don't need to sleep in them. I need to sleep at home."

He shakes his head again. "Not yet. I'm mostly sober now, but I need a nap before I drive you home."

"Nathan," I say with exasperation, though I'd honestly forgotten we'd been drinking. The euphoria of what we just did overtook my buzz. "I don't need you to drive me home."

"I do. Now get those pajamas on and come to bed."

"Nathan."

He yawns loudly, drowning out anything else I might want to say .

I huff out a breath as he closes the bathroom door.

If I really wanted to, I could walk out of his fancy penthouse and order my own ride.

But… A groan leaves me, because I know I'm not going to do that.

I use Nathan's extra-large towel to dry myself off quickly, then pull on the pair of too-long sleep pants and plain black T-shirt.

It's not exactly a sexy look, but thankfully the waistband is stretchy, and everything is comfortable.

And comfortable is good, because I guess I'm taking a nap with Nathan.