Hate You, Henley: An Enemies To Lovers Sports Romance (Brooks University Book 3)

by Hannah Gray

  “The necklace. It’s in my glove box. Has been since right before I had to pick you up and drive you to Gray.”

  My stomach drops. I wonder where it was before then. In a toilet? Probably.

  “It was hanging on my rearview, just like always.” He answers my thoughts. “Just didn’t want you to see it and call me a stalker or say how I’m obsessed with you.” Finally, he turns toward me, and I sit there, hanging on his every word. “I’m here, at Brooks, for you. Because no matter what you say, no matter how badly you try to fight it, there’s no place either of us could go that would keep us apart.”

  “But there are things that could keep us apart.” The words make my stomach turn. Having him back in my life as more than the enemy has been heaven. I don’t want it to end. “There are some things that are unforgivable.”

  “Well then, what is it?” he says so softly. As if he thinks it’s as simple as I ate his last Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup or some crap.

  I wish it were something that stupid.

  “If I tell you now, you’ll be done with me.” I bury my head into his side. “I’m not ready to say good-bye yet. Please, don’t make me.” I know the longer I prolong it, the more it’ll hurt. I’ll get more and more attached to him, so much that he’ll almost be like air to me. But the pain will be worth it, if I can have only just a little more time.

  “Okay,” he says, resting his chin on the top of my head. “I won’t make you. Not yet.”

  On one hand, his words are music to my ears. On the other, I have a sick feeling in my stomach from keeping something from him that’ll be detrimental to our friendship. It’s a catch-22. I always hated that book.

  A little time with Weston is better than no time at all. I know it’ll hurt him more this way. He no longer hates me, which gives me the ability to hurt him more. I despise that. I don’t want to hurt him. Hurting him is inevitable though. But I can at least show him how good we can be first.

  “Some game, huh?” Weston says as we walk back to the truck. He slings his arm over my shoulders and tickles my side.

  I giggle, and an obnoxious snort comes from my nose. I’ve always tried to control that horrifying habit I have, but I suppose my guard’s down tonight. No booze, no weed. Just a good time with my favorite person in the world, who I tend to also hate at times.

  Craning my neck toward Weston, I glare. “Shut up. Don’t mention the snort.”

  He pretends to zip his lips, making me laugh again even though it isn’t even funny.

  “Just imagine, in a few years, you’ll be out there. Running the show.” I wiggle my eyebrows at him. “I’ll take season tickets, please.”

  He rubs his hand on my hair, messing it up. “Don’t be so sure. I’ll probably be on a crappy team. Like the fucking Dolphins.” He grimaces. “Christ, that would suck.”

  “The Dolphins aren’t even that bad,” I scold him. “You’re such a wiener.”

  “A wiener?” He pulls his head back. “Who even says the word wiener? Are you five?”

  “Gee, I don’t know, dickhead. How many five-year-olds say wiener?”

  “Probably a lot.” He shrugs, and as we reach his truck, he gently pushes me against it, dipping his head down toward mine. “Thanks again. You, uh … really took me by surprise today.”

  I wish he’d kiss me. I wish he’d press his lips to mine and leave me breathless.

  “You deserve a lot more from me than just some lousy nosebleed seats.” My eyes bounce between his. “But it’s a start. Right?”

  Pressing his lips to my forehead, he murmurs, “It is,” against my skin.

  I love him. And … it’s time I start acting like it. Even if it scares the crap out of me. He deserves someone who’s going to fight for him. I want to be that someone. Even if I’m going to have to tell him the truth sooner or later.

  twenty-three

  Weston

  The drive home is filled with anything but silence. She talks about the swim team. I talk about football and tell her about my roommates who have become close friends. We blare out the words to songs into the cab of the truck. Both of us are terrible singers, but neither of us cares. It’s just like old times. It’s almost like the past year and a half didn’t even happen.

  Only it did. But I want to ignore that fact right now.

  “What time is your practice tomorrow?” I ask her.

  “It was supposed to be at ten, but Coach had to move it to four in the afternoon.” She sighs. “No early practice for me tomorrow, thank the good Lord.”

  “And your first class? What time is that at?” I think curiously of how much I don’t want to take this girl home. I want to take her somewhere she can scream as loud as she wants and I won’t have to worry about who’s listening.

  “One o’clock.” She turns toward me, and her eyes narrow slightly. “Why?”

  “I don’t have practice until the afternoon. And don’t have class until eleven.” I fully expect her to think I’m crazy. We don’t even have any spare clothes. “Let’s stay somewhere between here and campus tonight. A hotel.”

  Her eyes widen. “Really?” She wrings her hands together. “I mean … I guess? I should text the girls though. I’m already on thin ice. Don’t need them thinking I’m out on a bender.”

  “Text them.” I nod to her cell phone. “I have plans for you tonight. And they don’t involve needing to be quiet.” I think back to when we were together. “But I’ll admit, it was hot, slapping your ass when you were noisy.”

  She sucks in a breath.

  She types something on her phone and then smiles. “Guess I’m all yours tonight.”

  “Good,” I say, looking back at the road. “Because I never did get dessert at the game.”

  Henley

  “Because I never did get dessert at the game.”

  A shiver runs right down to my shorts at his words. His words imply he’s going to do something that nobody has ever done to me. I’ve never been kissed … there.

  I follow him into the hotel lobby, his hand tugging mine. As he checks in, I can’t even hear what the receptionist tells him or what our room number is. I just stand there, my ears buzzing and my heart racing in anticipation.

  Once he’s done, he pulls my hand toward the elevator. And it’s like my feet are floating as I walk behind him. I’m nervous, and I don’t really know why. Just last night, I had him … inside my mouth. We had sex. And he had his fingers in me. And not in that order.

  He releases my hand, and his long finger presses the button for the elevator. Moments later, the doors open, and he strolls in and turns toward me, waiting for me to join him. A devilish look on his face. His eyes are dark, and I know exactly what he’s thinking.

  “You coming or what?” He smirks, toying with me.

  Swallowing, I will my legs to take me to him. They feel like Jell-O as I walk to stand next to him, and the doors shut behind me.

  After pressing the button for floor nine, he crowds me against the wall, boxing me in. His lips go to my neck, and his hand trails down my stomach, continuing to my legs. He toys with the fray of my shorts before inching his fingertips upward. “Mine,” he hisses. “Right?”

  When I don’t answer, his teeth gently graze my neck, making my thighs clench tighter.

  “Say it,” he growls. “Or I’ll fuck you right on this elevator and show you how mine you really are.”

  “Yours … for now.” I turn my head up as he pulls back and looks down at me.

  “Not good enough.” He steps back, pushing the Stop button on the elevator. He unzips his fly. “I told you, if you didn’t say it, I’d fuck you right here. Right now.”

  He takes himself out, pumping a few times before stepping to me. He digs his nails into my flesh with one hand while the other roughly unbuttons my shorts and yanks them down.

  His hands snake around to my ass, and he lifts me up, pressing my back against the wall. “I think this is what you want, isn’t it?”

  I suck in my brea
th and nod. “Yes.”

  Thank the Lord it’s late, and the hotel isn’t very busy. Not to mention, there are five other elevators, so it isn’t like we’re tying up the one and only free one. Because right now, I can’t make it the thirty seconds it would take to get to our room. I need him right now.

  Thrusting upward, he fills me in the best yet almost painful way, causing a yelp to escape my throat.

  “You’ve been mine since the day you were born.” He exhales. “But the second I watched your lips wrap around my cock or felt my dick inside of you while you came undone around me, I became yours too.” His thrusts grow harder, and he gently pulls my hair back, forcing my head upward. “You own me, Henley.”

  “Kiss me,” I say, but it’s more of a plea. “Please.”

  “You need to be mine, not for now, but forever.” His eyes are near black now. “Need you to understand that.”

  When I don’t respond, he tightens his grip on my hair with one hand, and with the other, he digs his fingers deeper into my ass. “This ass, I’ll take it. One day.”

  I cry out, so close to the edge. Whether it be the excitement of sex on an elevator, in a forbidden place, or if it’s his filthy words bringing something out inside of me that has been waiting to come to life, I don’t know. All I know is, I never knew I could feel so connected to someone simply by smashing our sexual organs together. For lack of better words. But I do. I feel him mentally, physically, and emotionally as he pounds into me.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful.” He leans down, kissing between my breasts. “A work of art.”

  “Weston …” I harshly scratch my nails up his back and tighten my legs around his waist. “I’m so … I’m so close.”

  “Let go, babe. Let go all over me. I want to fucking feel it,” he says as his own body begins to stiffen. “I’ll be right there with you …” He barely gets the words out before we’re both crying out in pure ecstasy.

  I’m higher than I’ve ever been before. I feel no pain. There’s no guilt or anger. I just feel beautifully numb.

  It turns out, I don’t need booze to numb me from the past. I just need Weston. He’s novocaine to my brain and paradise to my soul.

  I had sex in an elevator.

  And it was one of the best moments of my life.

  twenty-four

  Weston

  I listen to her snore softly. It’s two in the morning, but I can’t sleep. My mind is racing with thoughts of how far in I am now. There’s no escaping it. I’ll drown in need for Henley Hayes’s existence.

  She won’t fully give herself to me, and I worry she never will. I don’t know what I’d do if I got so far down this road of infatuation and she still told me she wasn’t mine. I’d lose my fucking mind. Who am I kidding? I’ve already lost my fucking mind.

  In her sleep, she rolls from her side to her stomach. The comforter dips just above her ass, showing off her sexy back, and her hair hangs down to the bottom of it. In her sleep, her plump lips form a pout. I’d like to wake her up and fuck her right up until the sun comes up. But she’s tired. Hell, I should be too.

  After our little elevator incident, I got her back here and had her against the glass window. With the lights out, of course. She pulled my hair while she screamed out my name. Completely drunk off her orgasm and too turned on to be embarrassed.

  If I thought I loved her before, that wasn’t shit compared to now. Now, we’ve connected on another level, and I don’t see us ever going back to the way it used to be. We’re neither friends nor enemies.

  As I listen to her sleep, my eyes finally grow heavy. And I know without a doubt that I could do this for the rest of my life and be a happy man. I wouldn’t need any other girls. Or fancy parties once I’m in the NFL. I’d take crappy nosebleed seats and a mediocre hotel any day of the week if only I got to sleep next to her.

  Always.

  The sun peeks in through the window, assaulting my eyes. I rub them and pry them open.

  Henley’s still on her stomach, her face turned toward me and her hair a complete mess. But slowly, she starts to stir.

  “Good morning, beautiful.” I glide my hand down her spine, right to her full ass. “I’d say you slept good since you snored all night.”

  She swats at me. “I did not. I don’t snore.”

  “You’ve always snored.”

  She has. It’s not loud or obnoxious. It’s light and adorable.

  Fuck, I’m using words like adorable.

  “Whatever.” She rolls her eyes. “If you weren’t being a creeper, watching me, you wouldn’t have noticed.”

  “The neighbors probably noticed,” I tease her.

  “Then, I guess the neighbors heard us … you know.” She props her head up on her chin. “Hopefully, they weren’t pervy, old guys.”

  She knows I don’t want anyone hearing her moans other than me. Those sounds are for my ears and mine alone.

  Lifting my hand up, I bring it down hard on her left ass cheek. Leaving a red print immediately.

  She squeals and rubs her hand over it. “Ouch! What’d you do that for?”

  “You know why.” I hold her gaze. “Time to shower.”

  Edging myself off the bed, I walk around to her side and pull the comforter off of her, leaving her body completely bare. She flips onto her back, giving me a perfect shot of her naked body.

  Reaching down, I run my hands up her stomach and over her breasts, causing her nipples to harden.

  When I pull her upward, she wraps her legs around my waist. Her pussy sits right above my now-hard cock as I grip her thighs and walk us toward the bathroom.

  With one hand, I turn the shower on. And while I wait for it to heat up, I dip my head down, bringing one of her perfect tits into my mouth, earning me the hottest moan.

  “You’re so fucking sexy.” I move to the other and run my tongue around it. “I’m going to taste other things too today, sweet cheeks.”

  She groans and grinds herself against my body.

  “Would you like that?”

  “Yes,” she breathes out. “I would.”

  Stepping us into the shower, I set her down on her feet and grip her face. “Has anybody else ever tasted you, Henley?”

  “No,” she says softly. Looking down at her feet. “You’ll be the first. I … want you to be the first.”

  So many of her firsts I’m taking. I hope I’m her first in every single thing. I want to ask her, but I’m afraid of the answer. She might not be my first, but she’s the only one who matters.

  The water runs down over our bodies, dripping over her breasts and onto her flat stomach.

  Her lips part as she looks back up at me, begging me to kiss them.

  She’s so beautiful this way. The way I’ve always remembered her to be. No matter how much trouble she’s been, this is the girl I remember. This is the Henley I know.

  “I don’t know what made you change. Don’t really need to know, I guess.” I continue to grip her cheeks.

  Her eyes stay on mine, and inside of them is a certain look I don’t recognize.

  “I’m going to do something. Something probably dumb and irresponsible. But I’ve wanted to do this since I was practically born.” I can tell she wants this as much as I do. “I need to taste those lips. I need to kiss you so hard that you feel dizzy.”

  Her throat moves as she swallows hard. And her eyes flutter shut as my lips move closer to hers.

  My lips touch hers, and hers feel soft and plump, just like I knew they would. Wet from the water and damn near addictive. At first, they don’t react much. She just holds them against mine, as if thinking it’s not real. But slowly, a certain hunger takes over, and she kisses me harder.

  I don’t want to rush this. We’re almost nineteen years old, and we’ve never fucking kissed. I want to savor her. I want to make it last. But my dick also wants more as it pokes against her stomach.

  My tongue slips inside of her mouth, making a low moan escape her.

  “
Fuck,” I hiss, pulling back slightly, looking down at her. “Why’d I wait so long to do that?”

  “I don’t know.” Her eyelashes drip with water as her eyes dance between mine. “I wish you hadn’t.”

  Suddenly, I don’t think it’s the water from the shower that’s dripping down her cheeks.

  “Everything would be so different right now if you had just said these things sooner. I would have never … I just would have done things differently.”

  I kiss her again, leaving her damn near panting. “I know, baby. I know. But I was young and dumb, and I didn’t want to ruin our friendship.” Saying the words out loud makes me realize how stupid that was. “I should have made you mine when I first learned how to fucking talk.”

  She cries against me. “I love you.” She blurts the words out, but it seems to shock even herself. “I’m so-sorry. I know it’s a lot. Too much. Too soon. But … damn it, Weston. I’ve loved you my entire life.” She sobs. “I can’t hold it in any longer.”

  Placing my finger on her mouth, I quiet her pretty lips. “Don’t apologize for loving me. I’ve always loved you.”

  Her fingertips dig into my back as she clings to me. “Y-you do? And not as a friend or a … sister?” She cringes. Using the words from the fake text messages she got.

  I wipe her cheeks with my thumbs and kiss her again. “Fuck no.” I tell her something I’ve always wanted to tell her, but I know I shouldn’t. “I’ve loved you since our moms put us next to each other to help us sleep.”

  They always told us we napped better as babies and toddlers when we were together. Dane would thrash around and wake us up, so they never put him around us. Henley and I—it was like we needed each other to rest.

  “When you walked before me, my mom told me I walked right after. Because I was chasing you.” I chuckle at my mom’s words. “I’ll always chase you, Henley.” I say the truest words I’ve ever spoken. “When you were four and cut your bangs by yourself, I did mine to match. That fucking sucked because I looked like a fool, but I did it because I loved you then.”