Wild Card: A College Sports Romance (Rake Forge University Series Book 1)

by Ashley Munoz

  “Fine.” I made a point to let out an irritated sigh. “But I’m keeping my sweats on.”

  “I’ll literally cut them off your legs.”

  God, the fire in his tone set me ablaze. I wanted to push him, see if he’d strip me and then challenge whether or not he’d touch me. I was a mess, a fucking too-hot kitchen on a too-hot day with no air. He’d ghosted me, and I needed to cling to my anger over his indifference toward me.

  For starters, I would finish removing the damn sweats, but only because if he removed them or touched me in any way, I would beg him to do more than that. I just fucking would, and I hated myself for it. Slowly, I pushed the waistband over my hips and down my thighs until they were off. Then I settled into bed, feeling the warm sheets against my silky legs.

  Decker seemed to settle into me. His arm went up under my neck, which allowed him to pull me close until I was twisted toward him. His bare chest was an inferno against me, but it was that place low in my belly that started to flare to life, going even farther down; my core ached for him to touch me. Even knowing he may have touched Taylor, even knowing he may be gone in the morning…I wanted him.

  I brought my hand up, covering his firm chest, carefully running my finger down the lines and into the grooves of his impressive stomach. I kept touching him, listening to him breathe, feeling his own finger trail over my skin, back and forth like a lullaby. We were in sync with one another, rubbing, touching…breathing. In and out, up and down. There were words, stories, and songs in the prints we left on each other’s bodies. Mine spoke of desire, of how badly I wanted him, how I wished for him, and how I knew I could never have him.

  His…well…every swipe of his finger over my arm was a tiny flame dancing on my skin. I wanted him to brave going lower, trace the curve of my hip, the dip in my back. The darkness seemed to settle around us, our breaths silent…and just when I thought we’d fall asleep or ignore everything that had happened—or hadn’t happened—between us since that night in his bedroom, he spoke up.

  “Thank you for this.”

  I kept my cheek plastered to his chest after his words rumbled under me. “Why did you need it?”

  Seconds passed. More darkness. I was fighting sleep, batting and swatting it away as I waited for him to answer.

  Finally, the pad of his finger brushed over the tattoo under my ear, just like it had that night in his house.

  “This.” He applied pressure to the Nordic symbol under my lobe. “And I needed to know you were okay…” He trailed off, and I knew if I had been looking at his throat, I would have seen it bob.

  “Why this?” I whispered, brushing my fingers over the ones he had fastened to my neck.

  More time passed, more swipes of his finger against my skin and more moments for me to contemplate what on earth was going on here.

  “You make me feel less lost. I saw you over those five days, that raggedy red hoodie, and suddenly it felt like I’d finally found a compass…a way to get back home.” That gruffness in his voice made every word seem like it had been dragged through gravel.

  My throat was tight, tears clogging my eyes as I processed the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to me. Then anger swept it all away.

  “That doesn’t feel fair, Decker. You can’t say something like that, be here in my bed, and still try going after my stepsister.”

  Another long pause met me as I ran my finger along the trail of hair drifting into the elastic band of his boxers.

  “I need him to care that I’m with her. It’s…shit that’s from the past but affected me and still affects me. It’s just something I need to do.”

  I began connecting the dots, seeing the bigger picture it created.

  He wants revenge.

  “The rumors…they aren’t true, are they?”

  A shudder ran through him, and the hitch in his breathing was the only answer I needed to know Elias had done something horrible to Decker and the story I had heard about the two of them might not have been true.

  “If you heard the same ones circulating the halls, about me hitting Elias on purpose or trying to attack him…no, that’s not how it went down at all.”

  “Will you tell me about it?” I whispered, not wanting to ruin the flow of information coming from him.

  “Someday…but for now, I just need you to understand that I want to hurt him in the only way I can.” His hand trailed down my body, that finger finally brushing against my hip, splaying along my thigh.

  “By sleeping with Taylor?” The words hurt coming out, and I knew the answer would hurt even worse, but I had to face it. So did he.

  Another painful pause, almost too long to be comfortable, passed between us. His fingers moving were the only indication that he was still awake.

  “Just tell me. I already know the answer, but I need to hear you say it, and I think you need to hear you say it too.”

  A huge swell of air left his lungs as his chest deflated. “I don’t know.”

  “So, it’s not off the table then…” I didn’t phrase it as a question, because we both knew it wasn’t one.

  “You knew, that night we met…that was my intention. Sleep with her, have him see it…ruin him.”

  Pain pierced my chest, barreling into my stomach like a lightning bolt. I knew. He was completely right, but I just thought…

  “I guess I thought you were just trying to date her.” I sounded small, almost childlike, unsure of why my voice wouldn’t work right.

  “Nothing has changed from what I originally planned,” he whispered.

  I believed him, but his hand was now firmly placed on my hip in a possessive way, sending me a mixed signal.

  I whispered the only truth I knew to him and hoped he’d see it for what it was. “Everything has changed, Decker.”

  Tears begged to be freed, and after the week I’d had where he pushed me away, I just wanted to let them free.

  “I think you should go.” I was so damn proud there wasn’t a single shudder in my voice, nothing betraying that I had somehow fallen for him, regardless of knowing the deal.

  “I can’t,” he replied roughly, like he was suppressing bigger emotions than I might realize.

  I couldn’t help it. I blinked, and the flood gates opened. I turned away from him, out of his embrace, and let the pain flow from me, wishing and hoping that once I woke up, he’d be gone and so would the remaining feelings I had for him.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Mallory was carefully removing the sheets from around our waists, going slow and cautious. I knew she was trying not to wake me, but I’d been awake for a while, watching her sleep, trying to get my hard-on under control without touching her. It was an act of God that she didn’t wake up while I struggled in silence behind her. She’d fallen asleep hugging the far side of the mattress, as far away from me as possible, which was fine. As soon as she began softly snoring, I had pulled her back against my chest, put my face in the crook of her neck, and fallen asleep too.

  Something had shifted between us when I saw her climb into Elias’s truck. Seeing that smirk on his face while Mallory climbed in, looking like fucking sin…it did something to me. I knew the irony of the situation was ridiculous, but just the same—he was using her, and it didn’t sit well with me. The conversation with Mallory after she came home wasn’t sitting well either, but I’d had all morning to think that over too. Taylor was work…she was the job, as Scotty put it. Mallory was home. Every minute she lay curled into my side this morning just re-established that she was mine. I’d finish the job with Taylor, without sleeping with her…I had made the decision this morning while holding Mallory that I could never touch Taylor like that. Not even a kiss.

  Which royally fucked my entire plan.

  The warmth from Mallory’s body shifted as she moved her hips to the side, trying to get free of my hold and the blankets. I wouldn’t be assisting with any of that. I wanted her to squirm and realize we’d fallen asleep wrapped up in each other’s arms. Her ass
moved again, but this time it went in the wrong direction. She backtracked, and suddenly she was plastered to my chest, her ass aligned perfectly with my cock.

  I had put so much work into calming down, but now I was already hard again. I considered warning her. The gentlemanly thing would have been to warn her, but I’d already warned her I wasn’t one of those…so instead I challenged her.

  Moving my hand down and over her hip, I splayed my palm flat against her stomach, over her ribs. Her skin was so soft, and I just wanted to run my fingers over every inch of her then follow the route with my tongue. I could feel her breathing change, growing shallower as I continued to pretend to sleep behind her with soft snores.

  We stayed like that for a few minutes until she wiggled her ass against me, and fuck if she didn’t do it on purpose, like she was challenging me right back.

  I moved my hand up, covering her right breast and pinching the nipple between my forefinger and thumb. I heard a little gasp leave her while her ass continued moving against me in an obvious assault. She knew what she was doing just as much as I did.

  My other hand came up and around her hip, and I dipped my finger under the waistband of her cotton underwear. They felt stretchy and comfortable, and for whatever reason there was something about the fact that she wore sensible clothing to sleep in that settled inside me. Like we weren’t trying to impress each other or be people we weren’t…it was just us. I wanted moments like this with her, moments where I saw her wash her face and brush her teeth, moments where I read a book while she dressed in her pajamas and crawled into bed with me. Something real…lasting.

  Her huff of breath pulled me from my thoughts as she pushed against my erection, and my fingers trailed lower, over her smooth entrance.

  “Decker.”

  I didn’t respond, just pushed two fingers into her and began to slowly rub them in a circle.

  “This pussy…Jesus. You don’t even know, do you?” I kissed her shoulder, whispering in her ear, right next to her tattoo, the one I knew wasn’t just a coincidence. This girl I was falling for had a fucking way out of the storm inked into her skin. She is meant for me.

  “I can’t do this.” Her labored breaths pushed her tits against the soft fabric of her shirt, making me withhold a groan.

  “This?” I moved my fingers in and out of her wetness with forceful strokes, letting her know how much I wanted this.

  She rocked her hips in rhythm with my touch. “No…we can’t do this,” she said breathlessly while continuing to rock into my touch.

  I couldn’t help myself. I pulled my fingers from her core, bringing them to my lips, which were right next to her ear, and sucked the taste of her into my mouth.

  “You taste delicious, Mallory. Fucking delightful.”

  “Decker, we can’t…” She pulled away from me, and this time I let her go. I wasn’t about to force her into something she didn’t want, but the way she’d writhed against me told me something different. Sitting up, she tried to climb over me, but since her bed was shoved against the wall, there was no escape. I grabbed her right as her left knee straddled my hip.

  “Decker,” she warned, stabilizing herself with her hands on my chest.

  She was extended over me, her soft pink cotton panties resting right against my boxer briefs. Thank fuck I’d had the foresight to shed my jeans sometime during the night.

  “Taylor could walk in on us any second, then this whole plan of yours goes to shit.”

  I smiled, not caring at all about her concerns, because sometime in the middle of the night when I was staring at the way her hair brushed against her forehead, it had hit me in the chest, nearly as painful and terrifying as that baseball had the year before. I wouldn’t risk losing her. I couldn’t. I would fix this, all of it, but first…

  I began moving my thumb over the moist spot in her underwear, right over her entrance, thinking back to the fantasy I’d had of her in that bookstore.

  “You’re wet for me, Mallory Shaw. I plan to tend to that this morning, and I don’t care who the fuck comes in and sees.”

  Her eyes blazed with lust, with need, and probably with hate. I knew she was confused, angry at me, and hurt. I was going to explain it all, everything…but I needed this.

  “Close your eyes.”

  She bit her bottom lip, dragging it between her teeth as indecision warred along the planes of her beautiful face.

  “Just trust me…please.” I rocked my hips into hers while rubbing my thumb up and down her slit.

  She let out a soft moan while her hips rolled forward, and then those gorgeous green eyes closed. Dark lashes splayed against her freckled, tan skin. The way she looked on top of me in a black tank, her legs on display, her hair mussed from sleep…my chest felt like it was opening up, making room for this foreign feeling to invade, fill up, consume. She made somewhere deep inside burn in a way that took away my breath.

  “I need to see you. Take your tank top off,” I commanded, voice a little raspy. I cleared my throat and pushed the material up from her stomach.

  Her fingers brushed against mine as she pulled the rest of the material free, allowing the fullness of her breasts to show.

  I groaned, watching her palm the left one, rolling the nub between her fingers.

  I drew the material of her panties to the side, tempted just to rip the things right off her hips. Her core rested against my erection, still clothed by my boxer briefs. With her eyes closed, she had no idea that I was staring at her with something akin to worship. Her breasts were full, her stomach trim, flaring into perfectly round hips and thick thighs…she was the most perfect thing I’d ever seen, all woman, and I wanted her. Today, tomorrow, the next day…there was no end to how many times I wanted this view.

  I slowly pulled my aching cock out, a small pebble of clear liquid already weeping from the tip as I gripped the root and allowed the heat of her body to pulse against it. I wasn’t ashamed in the slightest that I was going to remember this moment and jerk off to it until I was old and in need of Viagra. With her eyes still closed, I made sure to watch her for permission as I said, “I haven’t been with anyone in over a year…I’m clean.”

  Her lashes fluttered against her cheeks, but she didn’t open her eyes, just nodded her agreement, meaning she was too. Otherwise she would have put a stop to this a long time ago.

  Pulling her hips forward, I gripped my throbbing hard-on and rubbed it up and down the length of her soaked slit. I groaned at how good it felt to have her heat against my dick. I wanted to pull her until she was sinking down onto it, but I knew we weren’t ready to go all the way. I had some explaining to do first. This was just meant to make her feel good, let her know how much she affected me.

  Up and down, I rubbed her pussy while she rocked against me, slowly getting herself off. Her hands stayed up, cradling her breasts as her core moved against me. Her arousal soaked the base of my cock, teasing me to just flip us and push inside of her.

  “More, I need more, Decker…” she muttered breathily.

  I did too, but if I kept playing with her, I was going to do something we weren’t ready for, so I pulled on her hips, indicating that I wanted her to move.

  “Reach forward with your left hand and grab the headboard, then do the same with your right, and move your ass until you’re straddling my face.” I pressed my fingers into the globes of her ass to encourage her.

  She paused, her fingers digging into my chest. “I’ve never…done this specific thing with anyone.”

  I smiled, loving that her eyes were still closed but her eyebrows had caved and those white teeth pinned her lips in place.

  “Good.” I laughed, pressing my fingers deeper into her skin, hoping it would leave a mark. I wanted to look tomorrow and see how desperate I had been to have her sit on my face.

  Licking her lips, she did as I instructed, gripping the headboard and moving up my chest.

  “Come here.” I breathed out as the feel of her singed every nerve ending in
my head. With my hands around her ass, I drew the material of her underwear that covered her cheeks toward the center of her crack, using it as a way to move her closer.

  A gasp left her as I tugged her by the bundled material, forcing her reluctant posture to falter until she was directly over my face. I used my hold to apply more pressure, pulling up on the panties until they were tight against her entrance, then I gently ran my tongue along the constricted cotton.

  She hissed while rocking into it.

  “You like that pressure, baby?” I asked, repeating what I’d done, carefully licking her only along the wet material of her underwear, just barely tasting her wet cunt. I knew it would drive her crazy.

  “Pull it tighter,” she demanded from above me.

  Fuck. My dick was still weeping with precum, begging me to just hurry this along as I did as she asked. I pulled the material even tighter against her pussy, bunching it in the back, then leaned up, licking and biting against that wet spot. My free hand flew, smacking her ass, and fuck, I wished there were a mirror in here so I could see my handprint there.

  I had never been rough with a woman before, because I was still young and, well, if it went wrong or she freaked out, it could go all sorts of backwards real fast. I had never found anyone I trusted enough to let myself go with like that, but with Mallory…I didn’t even have to think twice. Her luscious ass begged and begged for that sort of attention.

  I wanted so many more moments with her, moments where I rocked into her from behind, getting a view of that backside. Me on top of her, fucking her with abandon, sinking my dick so far into her that we didn’t know where she ended and I began. Her riding me while we sat on the couch…the list was endless.

  “You’ve completely soaked these.” I loosened my hold on the briefs and snapped them against her skin. “Look at this…you’re a mess.” Moving the cotton entirely to the side, I ran my finger in and out of her entrance. “Do you hear that?” I moved my fingers in and out of her. “You sound like you want me to fuck you, Mallory.”