by Claire Woods
“Okay. But he’s hardly a boy. He’s a grown man.”
“Don’t remind me.” He sighs sitting back, throwing down his napkin.
GABE
HER HOUSE IS DARK. Dressed like felon, I hide in the shadows. The hood of my dark gray sweatshirt is pulled low over my face. Her phone goes straight to voicemail.
I’m not the only prowler milling about. The damn paparazzi never gives up. But neither do I.
Slinking back into the shadows, my feet light, I tip-toe as much as a giant like me can in between the rows of beach houses dialing Banger.
“Gabe? Man, you are taking some heat, eh?”
“Fuck. You have no idea. Callie’s gone. I can’t find her anywhere. Her house is vacant. I need some intel. Do you know where I can find Sophie?”
“I do. But don’t tell her you got her address from me. I might’ve walked her home from Comber’s the other night.”
“Jesus. Don’t fuck with my girl’s best friend.”
“I’m not. I kind of dig her.”
“Christ, you better.”
“Hang on; I’ll text you her address. And Gabe—if you ever want to come back on the morning show to tell your side of things, I’m here.”
“Thanks, bro. I just might take you up on that.”
He sends me the text, and I jog a few blocks over to Sophie’s. It’s after midnight, but a few lights are on inside. I don’t know why I don’t just knock on the front door. Instead, I walk around back, grab a few small stones and pepper the upper corner window that Banger said was Soph’s. I texted him back curious as to how he knew that—he said it’d be a story for later.
The lights flick on in her room; two faces stare back at me. My hand flings my hood off just in case they mistake me for a prowler or worse—paparazzi.
***
Callie
“Thanks for letting me crash. I kind of freaked out when I saw the press trucks lining my street.
“It’d freak me out too. By the way, remember Sara from high school?”
“Yes, of course. We had English Lit together.”
“She’s lifeguarding this summer—said they have a few boats off the beach with camera’s pointing at your house. They haven’t figured out which one Gabe’s staying in yet. Word is they are hitting up the realtor’s looking for rental agreements.”
“Well, they won’t find it since he’s not renting. His coach is letting him stay at a family cottage.”
“What are you going to do Call?
Shrugging my shoulders, my hand fluffs the borrowed pillow she gave me, “I don’t know. I’m just going to have to get through it. My family needs me to keep the shops open. Besides, I’ve already paid my summer tuition. I can’t leave. There’s nowhere to run.”
“Do you hear that?”
A few taps coming from… the back window?
“Yeah, I do.”
Flinging off the sheet, I get up from her trundle bed the same time she springs from her mattress.
“It’s Romeo.”
“What?”
She opens the window, the two of us gaping at Gabe standing like a warrior in under the moonlight. It shines across the sculpted planes of his handsome face. His amber eyes burning as he looks up at me.
“I can’t… can’t breathe without you.”
My knees give. Soph just about faints as she whispers, “Go. Go, Callie. Life’s too short; you know that. If you don’t—I might twist my own bedsheet into a rope and climb down to him myself.”
“I heard that. I think Banger might have a problem with that.”
She flushes in the dark. “What? What did he tell you?”
“Nope. I’m not saying a damn word until you send my princess down to me.”
Soph practically shoves me out the window. “Fine… I’m going—but out the back door.”
***
“Hey.”
“Hey.” I smile back. He takes my hand, darting in the shadows. “We can’t take the beach, right?”
“Or the road.”
“Well, if anyone calls the police on us for sneaking through their property… we’re good.”
“Your uncle, right?”
“Yeah. He set up a barricade around my house, but it didn’t work. They’re all camped out by the curb.”
“I’m so sorry. I just wanted it to be you and me. Boy meets girl… they have an epic summer—”
“… and the rest is history?” I add.
“Well, yeah.”
“It’s okay. Getting to know you is worth it.”
He stops by the corner of hedges between two property lines. “Let’s try this again. I don’t see any cameras. And if there are—we’ll just break the Internet again.”
He pushes the hair back off my face, cups my jaw and pins my body up against a stucco wall. His kiss is relentless; thorough—as if he’s tasting me for the first time all over again.
We pull apart as loud yaps come from inside the house. “Busted again.” He smiles taking my hand again just as the sliding glass door opens ten feet from us.
“Run!” I yell as a chihuahua tears ass after us. He’s nipping and yapping, as an old lady peers into the dark after him wondering what in the hell he’s chasing. Us—a two-hundred-fifty-pound almost pro athlete and me, the shy girl from down the beach whose naked pics with said man went international.
“The poor thing is stopped at the canine fence.” I giggle looking over my shoulder at the small dog’s face so pissed that we were making out in his yard and he can’t do a damn thing but watch us make a clean get away.
“Wait…” I ask breathless, not from exertion but at how high he makes me feel. For a moment there in the shadows—I forgot everything, even how sick my mother is. “Where are we going where no one will find us?”
“My coach’s cottage. No one knows I’m there.”
“Are you sure?”
His eyes find mine, hot with promise of things to come. “Yes. I swear to you—no one is going to fuck with you. If they do—I’ll kick the shit out of them.” We slip past one more house reaching the cottage.
He keys in, flipping on a table lamp.
I’m suddenly nervous not sure what he’s expecting tonight. There’s no doubt I want to be with him, but I’m once bitten, twice shy when it comes to sex.
He senses me hesitating. “Come in Callie. I won’t bite unless you want me to?”
Ignoring the smirk, and sexy eyes testing me I walk over to his fridge. “I’m starving… for food. I haven’t had much of an appetite all day.”
His face turns red as he falters. I’ve never seen Gabe less than one-hundred percent cocky confidence.
“I lost my summer job.”
“What as the rental cop?”
He nods, “I was causing more traffic than I was stopping. I’m slim on groceries and cash. Will you still want me if I can’t even afford to feed you?”
“Ugh. It’s bullshit how much money the University makes on athletes and yet you all are poor and starving until you go pro.”
“Some don’t even get that far. How did you know all that?”
“My uncle called earlier… he gave me an earful. You’ve got a fan in him. I wish I could’ve seen the look on his face when I finally confessed you were the one I stole the campus cruiser from. He wants to meet you. He already invited us over for a cookout this week. So, that will solve at least one meal…” I pause, pulling out a jar of peanut butter and handing him a spoon to share.
“I’ll feed you, baby,” I pat his face. “I own the café in town remember?”
“I can’t freeload like that.”
“You won’t be. You’ll have to pay me back in kisses.”
“That I can do.” The metal spoon clatters in the sink as he drops it to lift me in his arms carrying me to bed.
“Don’t worry. My head knows it’s too soon, but my heart’s telling me this is right.”
“Oh yeah?” I look up above him as he lays me down on his bed. “And what�
��s your body telling you?”
“That I need to make you mine.”
“Gabe?”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve only been with one person,” I bite my lip looking down at his chest. “And it was only once. I-I want to, but I’m nervous.”
“It’s okay,” he answers softly leaning on one elbow. “I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I want you—badly. But I want a relationship with you more.”
“Who are you? Guys don’t say things like this.”
“They do. But only to the girls, they want to be with. I just need to hold you tonight.”
“We can do a little more than that.” Sitting up halfway, I yank Soph’s borrowed shirt over my head and toss it to the floor.
His eyes widen at my breasts in a satin ivory bra.
“Can this go too?” His finger traces the seam around the smooth fabric.
“Yes.”
He grins sliding down my body to kiss my tan skin, taste me everywhere while making me burn to be touched in dangerous places. Places that will get us in trouble despite what we just said.
In his arms, I forget the world. There’s only pleasure. Burning desire, breathy moans, and roaming hands.
Each touch, each taste in the dark more decadent than the last. It’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I’m not Callie—I’m just a hot-blooded woman in the arms of a demi-god whose feasting on my body like I’m ambrosia.
“Gabe,” I breath sliding my hands down his back. “I want you. I’m on fire for you.”
He lifts his mouth from where he was sucking at my neck. Through the underwear, we left on I feel him pulse against me.
“You sure baby?”
“Yes. Please…I need this.”
“I can make you come without going all the way.”
“I know. But it’s time I left my past mistakes behind me and make new ones.”
“Oh?” He smiles against my breast, “the only mistake we might make is doing this too much.”
His hand slips between my legs rubbing through the slickness, prepping me for him. His finger draws circles lazily around my clit then slides in deep, both of us moaning at how good it feels.
“I can’t wait to be in here,” he moans against my throat.
“Then come on in. I’m waiting.”
“I’m going to come in my pants again. You’re so fucking hot.”
He slides his briefs down; my eyes follow his huge cock springing free. The thick head swollen and glistening with precum. He grabs a condom from the bedside drawer and places it on the bed.
“Do you trust me?” He asks taking himself in his hand and gliding up and down his monstrous cock from root to tip.
“Yes.”
“I want to feel you come, bare.”
I nod, biting my lip having no idea what in the hell he’s saying. All I can think about is having him inside me, finally making me feel what sex should be about.
He slides between my thighs, nudging my knees farther apart as he guides the tip of his dick between my slit. “Oh….” I moan feeling the thick tip slide in. His hips thrust forward, arms grabbing the bed rail as he goes in so far and deep, caressing places where never endings rejoice because they’ve never been touched.
He stays in deep, jerking back a few inches and rocking in my body. One hand coming down off the rail to touch me.
My head thrashes back and forth. I’ve heard about a woman’s G-spot but thought it was a myth.
“Come on my cock Callie. I’m trying to last but damn you feel so good.”
His fingers press more insistently against my clit, rubbing the tiny spot furiously while the tip of his dick hammers my G-spot.
The sound of the headboard slamming mixes with my shouts of “Oh God,” as I come on his cock like a good girl.
He stays as long as he can; feeling me ride the wave. I feel him twitching hard and hot deep inside me, and in this moment of insanity, I don’t even care. I want him to lose all control; the way he’s made me. But he pulls out instead, my eyes watching him come on my belly. Spurt after spurt lands. His eyes close and open, he bites his own lip, hands rubbing his shaft as he comes looking like a sexy Chippendales model all tan abs, chiseled cheeks and fucking bedroom eyes full of passion as the land on me.
“Fuck that was good.” He breathes when it’s over.
He collapses on top of me, not caring his stickiness is everywhere.
When I nod, he chuckles kissing my bare shoulder. “That was just a prelude to what I can do. Imagine when I put the rubber on and really fuck you.”
When our hearts stop beating like a race horse’s he scoops me up taking me into the bathroom.
“In.” He orders with a playful smack to my butt.
“Where are you going?” I ask as the spray hits my skin.
“Condoms.”
“Oh, god,” I moan, hands braced against the tiled wall. He wasn’t kidding. Guess athletes have stamina on and off the field. I only hope I can keep up with him.
***
Warm lips fall on my forehead. “Callie? Babe? I’m heading out.”
“Huh?” I rollover sleepily feeling a million dots of pleasure shoot through my body. Aftershocks from everyplace this gorgeous man touched. With my hands pressing against the tiled shower he took me from behind, his long length reaching deep inside. I never knew sex could feel so good. His fingers stroked me as he hit my G-spot over and over again while he whispered in my ear how much he wanted me—how good I felt on his cock and when he came. I felt the gushing load fill the condom when he was deep inside me.
“I’m leaving for my workout.”
“Mmm… okay,” I reply in incoherent grumbles still lost in the dream, I was having about him.
“Go back to sleep, princess. I just wanted you to know in case you woke up and I wasn’t here.” I’m wiped after the emotionally draining day I had yesterday and my new lover pleasuring me until practically dawn in ways I’ve only read about Christian doing to his Anna. But Gabe is only fifty shades of mine and I’m not letting him go. He thinks he’s caught me, but truthfully, I’m the one in disbelief he’s mine.
We talked in sleepy voices after our libidos were sated. He told me about his parents’ bitter divorce, how his father cheated. And how seeing his mother’s utter devastation made him vow never to be a cheater. In any capacity.
That’s why the scandal rocking UVA is hitting him harder than one could ever know. It goes against his core principles, to the oath a teen boy made to himself about the type of man he wanted to be one day. The kind of man—who’s caught my heart and is heading straight to the end zone.
I confided in him about how my mom’s refusing to do the one surgery that could save her. How foolish I felt for giving my heart and body to Elliot one summer. My dreams of being a doctor and how I might have to put them on hold to run the family businesses.
Gabe opened up about his regrets at not entering the draft last spring. He said if he knew what was brewing he would have, because now being a top pick or even playing his senior year seems to be hanging in the balance. He said he wanted to make his mom proud; though she’s not here to see it. They were very close. She died unexpectedly of a heart attack a few years ago and the pain of it still lingers for him every day. I feel so much closer to him because he truly understands what I’m going through with my mother’s illness.
Sighing, I get up to pee, checking my phone.
Sophie texted that she and her mom are going to open the Blue Hydrangea saying the media is already camped outside waiting for it to open.
I text back thanks and that I owe her big time. She sends a smiley with a bunch of kissing lip emoji’s.
Climbing back into bed, I hug his pillow, smelling his scent in the bedding, wishing he were still here. Since I don’t have to be at the café, I have the perfect idea of how I can help Gabe.
Sighing, I reluctantly put his pillow down to get dressed. I scribble a note for him and head out into the early morning with
my heart feeling light again.
He’s brought back my smile and the hope that I can still be happy despite everything life is throwing my way.
“Callie?”
“Hey, Gina. I need a favor…” I feel the silly grin lighting up my face, but I can’t stop it.
“Oh?”
“I need a bike…for the rest of the summer.”
“I already gave you another one. Don’t tell me that one got crushed too? Or stolen?”
“It’s not for me. It’s for him.”
“Yeah… I saw that my niece is quasi-famous now.”
“He needs my help.”
“Sure he does,” she snorts.
“He does. He lost his job. His father’s a big jerk and Gabe has his pride but no food. I thought if we gave him a bike to ride he could save money, not needing to gas up his SUV. He could also use it to train. I was also hoping, maybe you could give him a few shifts here?”
“Ah, Callie. You are America’s sweetheart. Sure, besides if he’s here business will boom, and I can keep an eye on him.”
She leads me out front where she unlocks a deep red sports bike. “It’s the best one I have, good for off-roading as well. Just tell him not to wreck it.”
“I will.”
“Here.” She hands me a helmet, water bottle and some gear, stuffing it in a new backpack she lifts off a rack. I try to take out my credit card, but she shakes her head. “Consider it a donation to a starving athlete.”
“Thanks, Gina.”
I adjust the seat throwing the pack over one shoulder. It’s awkward, but I manage to pedal the huge bike the half mile back to his cottage. Leaving the bike and gear by the front door, I let myself in, finding him in the kitchen chugging a bottle of water.
“Babe? Where did you go?”
“Come with me.” I grab his hand leading him to the front of the house. “My family also owns the bike shop in town. This is yours for the summer. I thought… you could use it instead of your gas guzzling car, and maybe it’ll help you train…,” I trail off feeling stupid.