She gave a low cry of pleasure before her breath whooshed into his ear. “I love you, too.”

With the crystal clear picture in his head of her gorgeous naked curves bucking up into her hands, he gave up his own control and let his release follow hers.

* * *

Vicki couldn’t believe she’d just had phone sex with Ryan.

And it had been amazing.

She wanted to clasp the knowledge to her chest and hold it there, along with all their other firsts. Wanting him as close as she could get him, she shifted on the couch to pick up the cell phone from the counter.

“You’re not putting your clothes back on, are you?”

Even though he wasn’t there to see her, she still flushed at her nakedness...and the shockingly sweet fact that he’d asked her to strip down less than a minute after picking up her call.

She put the phone to her ear and said, “I promised you a full day, didn’t I?”

His laughing response was layered with unquenched desire. She knew exactly how he felt. Her orgasm had been fantastic. But it wasn’t nearly enough to quench her need for him.

“I hope you made good on your other promise to me.”

She wrapped the blanket from his couch around her and sat down. The message he’d left for her had been full of love. And worry. She didn’t want to add to it. But she also wanted—and needed—to be completely honest with him from here on out. She was tired of the lies.

And she refused ever to tell another one to the man she loved.

“I had a great day at the studio, even though everyone had already read the interview by the time I got there.”

Ryan cursed. “I take it James came by?”

“Everyone but him, actually. I know we’re all supposed to be competing for the fellowship, but everyone was really great about it, especially when they learned that Anthony has been added to the board.” She’d been more than a little surprised by the support from her fellow artists, and not just the ones she thought of as friends.

“No one wants to be sold out like that.”

Vicki wasn’t surprised that Ryan had cut right to the heart of it. Whoever said jocks were dumb or clueless had never met her ballplayer.

“And they know you, how hard you work, how passionate you are about everything you do.”

“Thank you for always believing in me. And for loving me.”

And yet, even as she felt his support all the way down in her core, she had to pull the blanket tighter around her shoulders to try to combat the chill that was trying to take her over as she worked out how to tell him about Italy.

“Something else happened today, didn’t it?” he asked.

When would she stop being surprised that he knew her better than anyone? And that he could read her silences better than anyone had ever understood her actual words?

“I got a phone call. From Italy. It wasn’t Anthony,” she said quickly, before Ryan got the wrong idea. “A major museum of contemporary sculpture wants to put together an exhibition of my work.”

“That’s amazing, Vicki. Why didn’t you tell me the good news as soon as we got on the phone?”

“Because—” She could feel every single mile between them and knew how much farther away she’d be if she went to Italy. “—they don’t just want my sculptures. They want me, too. As an artist-in-residence. For at least a year.”

“Italy is a big deal, isn’t it? Bigger than San Francisco.”

She couldn’t lie to him. “Yes, it’s a big deal.”

Ryan was silent for several brutally long moments. “You know my mother was born in Italy, don’t you?”

“I do.” When Vicki had complimented Mary on her spaghetti sauce, his mother had told her about learning it from her Italian grandmother.

“And did you also know there’s an Italian national baseball team that isn’t half bad?”

Quickly putting it all together, she said, “You’re not going to play baseball in Italy, Ryan.”

“It would be fun.”

“Don’t be crazy,” she said when she realized he was serious. “You can’t give up your career for me and a year in Italy that might not mean anything at all in the long run.”

“I know you’ve never come first before, not with your family or your ex-husband, but I meant it when I said I would do anything for you. Anything.”

“But your career—”

“Has been great. And you know what? I would trade every single win to have spent those years with you.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” Her eyes felt wet with the tears she was trying to hold back. “But I love you for even thinking it.”

“Yes, I would,” he countered. “And I love you, too, amore mio.”

When he called her “my love” in Italian, more tears fell.

“The museum gave me a little while to decide, so don’t quit the team just yet,” she told him in as light a voice as she could, as though the whole idea of him quitting the Hawks was utterly preposterous.

Which it was. Vicki would never in a million years force him to choose between her and baseball. Yes, she’d heard what he said. And she believed he meant it.

But how could she ever forgive herself if she took him up on it?

When she had married Anthony, she hadn’t realized all the things she’d be giving up. If she turned down a year in Italy, at least she’d be doing it with her eyes wide open.

Knowing they weren’t going to make any more headway tonight, she said, “Now that we’ve covered my day, it’s your turn to tell me all about yours. Especially the part where you got sweaty and your muscles bulged.”

“Well,” he teased her back, “I got this phone call tonight...”

For the next hour they shared the little details of their day that no one else would have cared about, but that meant the world to each of them. And after Ryan convinced her to take the phone into the master bathroom and get into the bathtub, and she was calling out his name as she followed his wickedly sensual instructions to the letter, she momentarily forgot that she’d ever had a worry in her life.

Chapter Twenty-five

Ryan would gladly have stayed on the phone with Vicki all night, but she insisted he get some sleep before his big game. She’d whispered how much she loved him one more time before she disconnected.

But even with her soft, sweet words of love playing on repeat in his head, he couldn’t sleep.

They hadn’t talked about Italy again before disconnecting, but it was clear that they both knew a long-distance relationship between San Francisco and Matera was next to impossible given his career. Sure, there were weeks here or there where he could leave town and work out from the road, but as soon as spring training started, he would be locked into a home and travel schedule that was set in stone.