Grinder (Seattle Sharks Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

room.
    “Coach posted the list,” Warren muttered.
    I vaguely registered that they both got up to look at it, too damn lost in my head to care about anything else.
    Ontario. My shoulder let out a twinge of pain like it knew that the player who’d destroyed it—and almost us—was coming back for it.
    Lettie. God, what was I going to tell her? Could the timing be worse?
    Rory and Warren sat back down, flanking me as they came back. “You’re starting,” Warren said.
    “Yeah,” I answered.
    “So what’s the drama?’ Rory asked.
    I handed him the schedule. “November.”
    Warren leaned over so they could both look, and they hissed out their breaths at the same time.
    “Ontario,” Rory mumbled. “Fuck a duck.”
    “Adkins still playing for them?” Warren asked.
    I nodded.
    “Shit. And where he goes—”
    “Helen follows,” I answered. Like the fucking bitch she was. But I’d be damned if she got near Lettie.

    * * *
    “ A re you going to tell me what’s bothering you? Or just toss dishes around like they’ve done something to offend you?” Bailey asked as she rescued the plate I nearly dropped.
    “Nothing,” I answered.
    “Right,” she said, slipping the plate into the dishwasher. “Nothing was wrong when you stomped in here like you were on a mission. Nothing was wrong when you snapped at the reporter on the phone about the lineup announcement. Nothing was definitely wrong when you murdered your steak at dinner, and nothing is wrong now,” she finished, grabbing a glass out of my hand.
    My fingers flexed on the edge of the counter. She was right. I’d been an asshole since I got home. “Think she noticed?”
    Bailey’s small, delicate hand covered mine, and a shot of desire raced up the same veins that were laced in anger, the combination dangerous to the lines I’d drawn. “I think she noticed that you weren’t quite as into the book, but that’s it.”
    I nodded slowly. “Damn. I need to be better.”
    “She’s allowed to see you have bad days.”
    “We’re playing Ontario the weekend of her birthday.”
    Bailey blinked, understanding dawning in those deep hazel eyes. “Adkins.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Helen?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Shit.”
    “Yeah.”
    Her fingers laced with mine, and I had a primal urge to lift it to my mouth and gently suck her fingers inside. Fuck. I moved my hand away, hating the way that she flinched.
    “We’ll deal with it. It’ll be fine. You’ll be fine.”
    “Right,” I said, sarcasm dripping from my voice. “It’s not me I’m worried about. Sure, Adkins can get ahold of me and fuck me up again, but Lettie…”
    “She’s your daughter,” Bailey said. “She’s got your strength and ability to judge character. Don’t stress.”
    The way she looked up at me, all soft and trusting—fuck, it did things to me. I wanted to pick her up by her luscious ass and lift her to the kitchen counter. I wanted to spread her thighs and feel her cradle my dick as I took her mouth to see if she tasted as good as she looked. I wanted to palm her breasts through that tank top she was wearing and then suck on her nipples once I had them free from her bra.
    I wanted things I had no fucking right to, not when we’d been friends this long, and most definitely not while she was Lettie’s nanny.
    “Gage?” she asked softly, gripping my bicep lightly and stroking her fingers over the skin.
    Fuck, I loved the way she said my name. Half sigh, half prayer. I bet it would sound even better when she was screaming it, my face buried in her pus—
    Oh shit, I have got to get out of here. I stepped back like she’d burned me.
    “You know, I told the guys I was meeting up with them tonight. I need to blow off a little steam.”
    “Of course,” she said quietly, her head dropping a little. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
    She gave me a soft smile and left me standing in the kitchen, watching her ass walk away.
    I met up with the guys, had a few, picked out the first petite