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

by Ashley Munoz

  Catching my breath, I moved my hand down her body until I was able to test how wet she was.

  “Shit. Two fingers in and look how ready your cunt is for me.” I added a third and began to rub in slow circles.

  She groaned and tipped her hips up until she was matching the rhythm I set with the ministrations along her clit.

  “I need you, Decker. I need you inside me.” She gasped for air while her center ground against my hand.

  I lowered myself over her, pushing her up the bed so there was more room. Her hair fanned out behind her, her nipples pebbled against the chilled air, and her taut stomach heaved up and down as she waited for me to enter her.

  “You’re so beautiful,” I whispered reverently, and I meant it. She was perfect.

  She was mine.

  I kissed her, moving my lips against hers while I carefully and slowly pushed inside her.

  She groaned into my mouth, gripping my biceps, pushing against me while I pulled out and back in. I repeated the process three more times until I was fully immersed.

  “God, fuck…baby.” I pinned my forehead to hers, groaning into her mouth.

  Her nails raked down my scalp. “Decker, I need you to move.”

  I tilted my hips forward so slowly I thought I might combust right there.

  “You’re tight, Mallory. So fucking tight.” I lowered my head, biting her breast then kissing the same spot, knowing she’d have a purple mark there tomorrow. “Do you even know what this feels like?” I moved until my lips were hovering next to her ear. “What it feels like to have your tight pussy milk my cock?”

  She shuddered beneath me, her nails scraping up my neck and along my scalp. I was about to come from how good it felt.

  To hold off, I kept slowly moving my hips forward, rocking into her. She clambered to fuck me harder than I was fucking her, even took my lip into her mouth and bit down while her heels came up around my waist. Then she was rumbling something sexy while she arched her back, pushing those perfect globes into my chest.

  “Decker, fuck me,” she begged on a breathy moan.

  I was gone. I gripped her waist, holding her for leverage, and then I fucked her in hard, unforgiving strokes. Her breasts bounced as we moved, her eyes closed while her mouth gaped.

  “Harder,” she begged.

  I gripped her chin and pistoned my hips in a way that was going to ruin her. I moved harder, more furiously than I’d ever moved, need completely hollowing out my mind. Mallory’s body shifted forward as I grabbed her leg and moved it to the side so I could go deeper. Only then did I slow down and rotate my hips forward, pushing my dick deeper until there was nowhere else for me to go. I hit the same spot over and over…and over…until…

  Mallory cried out, moving her hips in cadence with mine. “Oh god. Oh god. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

  She came apart with a scream right as I grunted into her skin and came inside her.

  Our chests heaved up and down, straining for air as we lay tangled together. I rested my head against her stomach, where I pressed a gentle kiss. I imagined for two short seconds what it would be like to see that space swollen with my kid.

  I blinked away the image, because Mallory was likely engaged to another man.

  I didn’t talk while I lay there, stroking her skin, knowing we both needed to clean up, but I just couldn’t stop touching her.

  “I can’t lose you,” I softly confessed to her.

  My insides felt shaky as I wrapped my arm over her and tugged her closer. All I wanted was to stay here with her, forget about both our futures, and pretend tomorrow didn’t exist.

  Her fingers ran through my hair, past my ears and down my neck. It felt so good I almost groaned.

  “So, you’re living at home…but not inside?”

  “My compromise.” I laughed lightly, knowing the look on her face without seeing it. She’d have that dark brow arched toward her hairline, a light smile playing on her face. “You came here with a driver,” I threw back at her.

  “I did.”

  It was my turn to quirk a brow. “What does that mean?”

  She smiled, playing with my hair. “Check for yourself.”

  I inched over the mattress a bit to peek through the blinds.

  Two suitcases, a few boxes, and three small bags sat on the porch, but the town car was gone.

  I spun my head to look at her. My heart might as well have jumped into my throat. My tongue felt too big for my mouth. Was she staying?

  “What does this mean?”

  “I asked him to wait until we were out of sight before he emptied the trunk…and I told him I would be staying here for the foreseeable future.”

  “You’re staying?” I asked as though I couldn’t quite process what she had just told me.

  She blinked and slowly sat up, resting on her elbows.

  “I was supposed to meet Jeff tonight for dinner, but…”

  “But?” I rested on my elbow, trailing my finger over her thigh. I had to keep touching her. She had to choose me.

  “I’m here, and I don’t want to leave…but I promised my father I’d help him by taking over the New York office.” She winced, pushing some of the hair out of her face with her free hand.

  I wanted to push her back into the bed and have her ride me while I explained why here was exactly where she should stay.

  “Did you sign a contract to marry him?”

  She shook her head. “Not yet. We were going to start signing everything tonight. But, Decker…New York is happening. If I don’t take it, Taylor will step in…and I won’t let her do that.”

  This couldn’t just be chance. This was fucking fate, and it was my shot to keep her.

  “If you have to go to New York…then take me with you. If you have to marry someone then…marry me. Be with me. Start your life with me.”

  I didn’t look up for a few seconds. I was obviously still batting down those insecurities that she’d leave me.

  She shook her head slowly, rubbing my thumb with hers.

  “I’m yours, but we don’t have to get married, at least not until you’re ready…or you know, we’ve lived a little. And who knows…” She shrugged, keeping her hand on mine. “Maybe it doesn’t even need to be permanent. Maybe we can help my dad find a replacement.”

  “I just want to be where you are.” I smiled.

  “On one condition.” She suddenly twisted her lips to the side.

  I searched her face, waiting for her to say we had to stop having sex or something else equally horrible.

  “You let me pay off the mortgage for your mom’s house.”

  I shook my head. “No. It’s not your concern—you can’t…”

  “Yet you’d lay down your whole life to follow me to New York?” She raised that eyebrow again. “Look.” She moved until she was straddling me, clasping my hands in hers. “One day, I’d like to move here…settle here with you, watch you mow that back yard while I cook something in that kitchen. I want this to be ours and our future. I know that’s probably rushing things a lot, but it’s one of my fantasies. So let me do this, please?” She moved against my growing hard-on, her chest heaving as she began to work me up. It didn’t take long.

  Images of little kids playing in the yard, laughing, filling the space with life…it was beautiful and everything I hoped for one day, and I wanted that with her. I wanted her to be part of it. If that meant she paid it off or bought it then fine, she could, as long as she was at the end of that dream, living it with me, going to sleep at night with me.

  “Deal,” I said softly, watching as she held me in her palm then slid down onto me.

  She waited, adjusting to my length while catching that gleam in my eye. Yeah, I’d made a new deal with her.

  “Move your hips, baby,” I whispered, placing my hands on hers.

  Rolling forward, she let out a tiny moan. “I need to make a quick phone call.”

  “Yeah, you can get right on that.” I pulled her against my cock.
/>   “You’re interfering,” she murmured, biting her lip.

  “Fuck, baby. If this was interfering, we have a lot of interference in our future.”

  She eyed me, leaning down to kiss my lips. “Promise?”

  It was what I’d asked her that night in my bed.

  “Yeah, I promise.” I jutted my hips up while pulling hers down. She came again, groaning her release while I watched her fall apart. It made my chest swell.

  If this was what it meant to play the wild card, it had to be the luckiest card in the deck.

  I was done for.

  But I’d been finished for a long time. I realized as I watched Mallory crawl off me and move around my space that she was always supposed to be in it, always supposed to be pulling on my t-shirt after sex, always in my head, her lips at my beck and call, her body in my bed at night.

  I realized I would follow her anywhere. I’d been trying to make pieces in my life fit ever since my dad passed, but now all of them belonged to her. Wherever she was, as long as she was with me, I’d be okay. I’d fit.

  Her smile as she pulled out her phone and talked to her dad, her face as I grabbed her hand and just held it—she completely undid me. I knew then that for the rest of my life, this was all I’d want.

  Epilogue

  Two months later

  “Taylor!” I set my purse down on the entryway table, knowing Gareth would likely move it as soon as he realized I’d entered the house. He hated when we didn’t use the doorbell.

  Dad’s house was bright, the summer sun highlighting the lush gardens outside. Taylor had been living here the entire summer so far, although now that I think of it…it had only been about two months since I left our townhouse. I hadn’t left Decker’s side since that day he helped me carry my luggage into his trailer. We had lived blissfully in a little sex cocoon where all we did was sleep, eat, and fuck. We did occasionally stay in the main house and eat meals with his Mom and Kyle, but otherwise we were like bunnies, without the procreation part. Now we were headed to New York, officially taking things over…and as a married couple.

  We didn’t have to get married. Dad had convinced the shareholders to back off the marriage clause, but it was Decker who’d swayed me. We’d gone away for the weekend; he wanted to try to replicate that camping trip I’d gone on with my dad when I was a kid. So, Dad had told him the spot, and we found out there was an entire Airbnb setup with tiny cabins along the river.

  We rented one, and while out back under the string lights that hung over our little patio, he’d gotten on one knee and said I could either wear an engagement ring for however long I needed to be comfortable, or I could marry him and not stress him out any more about whether or not I might change my mind.

  I decided to put him out of his misery.

  We married a week later inside a tiny chapel with only ten people present. It was perfect, exactly what I wanted, and I couldn’t have been happier—even without officially working for Kline Global yet, although they’d called and offered. I asked if they’d be willing to keep the offer open while I started this new chapter of my life. They agreed, and even offered to allow me to write for them in my free time, if I had any.

  Things were good, except for the fact that my younger sister kept dodging my calls.

  “She’s upstairs, girl,” Bev said, walking past me toward the laundry room.

  I jogged up the steps, wondering why my sister had texted for me to come after ignoring me for a week. She had almost missed my wedding, although she refused to explain why. I had been too busy then to really focus on it, seeing as Decker had planned a weeklong honeymoon for us, but now—now I wanted answers.

  “Taylor!” I stomped up the stairs and threw open her door.

  She was sitting on the floor, holding a piece of plastic. Tears streamed down her pink face, as if she’d been at it for a while. My heart pitched, lurching at what could be wrong.

  I shut her door and rushed to her side.

  “What happened?”

  I eyed the plastic object pinned between her fingers and sucked in a sharp breath.

  “I’ve been in denial…because I’m always careful, Mal. Always. I was on the pill too, but I must have done something wrong.”

  I thought back to when she got sick, sending me in her place for the card game. She’d ended up taking antibiotics, which I knew could mess with birth control…but was that the right timing for all this?

  She sniffed, swiping at her tears with her sleeve. She was in another massive sweater, making me realize it didn’t matter how, just that it was happening and she was hurting.

  I tucked pieces of her hair away from her face, unsticking a few from the dried tears.

  “I mean, I had a feeling…then I missed another period. That can’t be normal, right?” She tilted her head back, her watery blue eyes meeting mine.

  I shook my head, too afraid to use my voice.

  “Yeah, I thought so. So I took it…and I guess there’s no question.” She held up the pregnancy test in front of our faces. “I’m going to have a baby.” A loud hiccup left her chest as she crumpled into my side. “My mom is going to kill me. You don’t understand…there’s—he’s going to find out, and…fuck.” She cried, her words coming out garbled and confusing.

  “Who’s going to find out? The father?” Who even was the father? I worried Taylor might not even know. I thought back to a few months ago, when she had entered into a self-destructive phase. There seemed to be a new guy at our house nearly every evening.

  One time I had walked in on her riding some quarterback on our couch while wearing only his jersey. It was as if she just stopped caring or giving any fucks at all about me, or even herself.

  “No, my dad…my real dad. He’s going to find out.” She grabbed for a Kleenex tucked away in her shirt and blew her nose.

  I scrunched my nose in confusion. “What about the father of the baby—does he know?”

  “God, Mal. It was so embarrassing…I sent out a text to three potential guys who could be the dad. None of them have texted me back.”

  Fuck.

  “That’s okay. You don’t need the dad, but it’s still so early, Tay. You have to just take this a day at a time.” I softly rubbed her shoulder, trying to encourage her.

  “I know…maybe after I get my degree, I can calm down and acclimate to the news.”

  I wanted to be careful with this question…sensitive. “So…you think you’ll keep it then?”

  She scoffed, her shoulders shaking. “Isn’t that the craziest fucking part? I’m already in love with the little thing, and I don’t know how that’s possible. But yeah, I’m keeping it. I’m scared to death, but I’m going to figure it out.”

  “You will, and it’s going to be amazing whatever you choose.”

  “Thanks, Mal. Sorry about shutting you out. I panicked.”

  “It’s okay, I get it.”

  “Do you know anyone who’s looking for a roommate next year?” She sniffed once more, swiping at the last of her tears.

  “You’re seriously going back to school to finish your degree?”

  “I said I was.” She turned to look at me, now sitting crisscross applesauce.

  I tried to copy her, but mine looked less cross and more like applesauce. “I know, it’s just…I figured it might not work out if you were going to go through with the pregnancy.”

  “I’m doing both.” Her eyes landed on me, full of determination.

  “Okay, I support you. The only person I know who is hanging around in their current apartment is Juan. I can ask if he’s going to be looking for a roommate.”

  “I think I would rather live with my mother and commute than live with him. He’s a jerk.”

  I reared back, totally confused. “Since when do you guys even know each other well enough to know if he’s a jerk?”

  She let out a tiny sigh, looking off to the side. “He’d come around, oddly when you were in class. Sometimes it felt like he was checking up on m
e, but I had no idea why. It got worse when I dropped out. It was like he knew. But when you started dating Decker and staying at his place, Juan would bring me breakfast and coffee. He made up this lie saying our coffee machine was broken.”

  “It totally was.” I nodded my head, still reeling from this information.

  “Well, whatever. I hate him.” She waved her hand like that was the end of it.

  “I guess I’m confused. All of those things sound really nice—how was he mean?”

  “Because every time he came, he’d give me the food and say something mean like, Here take this and eat it…maybe try getting some sleep at night so you don’t look half dead. Or he’d say, I brought you coffee assuming you had another sex fest last night and can’t go to class. I hope you used a condom. Really rude shit like that.”

  I sat back on my hand, staring at mysister in total shock. Why had Juan been such an asshole to her? That morning he’d randomly shown up at my apartment came back to memory; he never had told me why he was there. Had it been for her?

  What in the world…?

  “Well maybe one of the daddies will take you in.” I tried to joke, but from the way Taylors eyes lit up, I realized maybe she was actually hoping one of them would step up. “Cheers to paternity tests, and for having the best big sister in all the world. We’ve got this, Tay. Even if no one steps up, that baby will be so loved.”

  She stood, lending me her hand. “First things first: you have to help me tell Mom and Dad.”

  I accepted her help, groaning while I stood. “I’ll support you with anything but that.”

  “Too late—you promised. Now get your ass in gear. Also, can you and Decker try to have a baby right now so our kids are best friends?”

  “Yeah, Tay…I’ll get right on that.” I rolled my eyes as she led the way out of her room, the plastic pregnancy test shoved under her bed.

  “You’re the best.”

  Thank you for reading this story, please consider leaving a review— it helps me grow as a writer and encourages me to keep going.