“I’m ordering pizza. Is everyone okay with that? I can’t stomach burnt fish and potatoes.” Lucas got out his phone.
“Sounds good,” Anna and Alan said in unison. Lucas looked at me and I nodded.
“I love pizza.” As if on cue, my stomach growled and Lucas chuckled, kissing me once. Twice. Three times.
“God, don’t start,” Anna complained.
Lucas ran a thumb along my lower lip and I felt a buzzing in my belly. It happened every time he touched me.
“What do you want on your pizza?” he asked, his mouth still so close to mine.
“I’m not picky, just no anchovies.”
“Anchovies? What are anchovies?” Anna asked.
“Fish. Salt, hairy fish.” I told her.
“Gross!” she squealed and Lucas made a face.
“Seriously? People put that stuff on a pizza?” Alan gagged.
“Hey, you people put tuna on pizza, so I don’t want to hear it,” I accused.
Lucas seemed positively green. “Fish and pizza is a combination that should never exist. It’s wrong on so many levels.”
Lucas kissed me one last time and walked into the other room to order food.
“Lucas told me you do IT. Is that what you went to uni for?” Anna asked.
“Yeah. I’m an IT nerd. I’m here doing project management. Though my boss has made it clear my future with the company isn’t a definite.”
Alan opened a bag of chips and stuffed a few in his mouth. “What does that mean? Will you be going back to America if there’s no project?” he asked.
I glanced towards the living room where I could still see Lucas on the phone ordering food. It wasn’t something I particularly wanted to discuss with him yet. Not when things with us were so new. And given I didn’t really know if I had anything to worry about when it came to my job.
“I don’t know. If there’s no project then I can’t imagine I’d be allowed to stay. My company is sponsoring my Tier 2 Visa. If there’s no work, no sponsorship.”
Alan and Anna exchanged a look that I couldn’t read. “Well, no sense in getting Lucas all worked up. Not with a run of matches in the next few weeks,” Alan said.
I frowned. “Of course.”
“Of course what?” Lucas came back into the kitchen and dropped his phone on the counter.
“Nothing. Just chatting,” I said.
Lucas smirked. “Okay, well I’ve ordered five pizzas, garlic bread, some potato wedges, and soda.”
“Five pizzas?” I exclaimed.
“These guys will eat two pizzas each, so that leaves one for us to split,” Anna explained.
“That makes my belly hurt just talking about it,” I groaned, holding my stomach.
Lucas hooked his arm around my neck and pulled me in to kiss the top of my head. “I’m glad you’re here,” he whispered in my ear.
I grinned like crazy. My heart felt incredibly full.
Anna’s phone chirped and she held it up. “Mum’s trying to FaceTime. Let’s see if we get to see more than her nostrils this time.”
“Don’t answer it, Anna. We can call her later,” Lucas said, trying to take her phone.
“You know she’s curious about Morgan, indulge the poor woman.” Anna skipped out of reach, holding her phone above her head. I got a good insight to what they must have been like as kids.
“You told your mom about me?” I asked Lucas, surprised. I didn’t think we were at the talk to our parents about each other stage yet. Then I was smiling like a crazy person again.
“Maybe a little,” Lucas answered vaguely.
“A little? You called Mum when you got back from London and told her how you finally met the one. You were gushing to her like a school girl for hours.” Anna was having a lot of fun throwing her brother under the bus.
He had told his mother I was the one?
My insides twisted up and I couldn’t get a breath.
The one?
Really?
“Shut your gob, Anna, or I’ll do it for you,” Lucas shouted, lunging for her again.
Anna tapped her screen. “Hiya, Mum. Tell Lucas to stop being such a bully.”
“Lucas, leave your sister alone,” I heard a woman’s voice say.
“Ugh, you always take her side,” Lucas complained but I noticed the way his voice softened. He stood beside Anna so he could see his mother. “Hi, Mum. You’re holding the phone too close to your face again.” He waved at the phone.
“Ms. Bradley is the best. You’ll love her. We all do,” Alan said, grabbing a handful of chips and stuffing them in his mouth.
I didn’t comment, only watched the siblings chat with their mother. Ms. Bradley asked Lucas about training. About his games. She asked Anna how her test went and whether she had remembered to schedule an appointment for her annual eye exam. Hearing their interaction reminded me a lot of how I was with my mother. And it made me miss her so much. I had just spoken to her last night. Her results had come back inconclusive so she was scheduled for another round of tests. I didn’t like her going through all of that on her own. It made me feel guilty for being here with Lucas enjoying myself.
“Okay, I’ve talked with the two of you enough. That’s not why I’m calling. Let me say hello to this woman who has my boy on the straight and narrow for once,” I heard Ms. Bradley say.
Wait. She wanted to talk to me?
I sat up straighter and smoothed my hair over my shoulder. Alan leaned over and plucked a stray hair off my shoulder. “You look fab, love.”
Anna turned her phone in my direction. “Mum, this is Morgan Carter, Lucas’ girlfriend. She’s lush isn’t she?”
Anna came closer so I could better see Lucas’ mother. Ms. Bradley held the phone close to her face, so all I could see of her was blue eyes the same color as her son’s and a lovely lined face with a nice smiling mouth.
“Morgan, it’s lovely to meet you. Well, not really meet you, as I’m not there. But I’ve heard so much about you. Lucas tells me your American.” Ms. Bradley jumped right into the thick of it.
“Yes, ma’am. I’m from a tiny town in Virginia,” I answered her.
“Don’t call me ma’am, it makes me feel old. Call me Louise.”
“Mum, hold the phone away from your face,” Anna instructed. Louise adjusted the phone so that now we could see her chin and nose, but not her eyes.
“Mum, seriously, just back it up an inch or two. You don’t need to hold it so close,” Lucas tried to tell her.
“I hate these blasted things. It’s supposed to make life easier but ends up making things more difficult. I suppose it’s nice to see each others faces,” Louise complained.
“If you’d use your laptop instead of your phone, we’d actually be able to see you properly,” Anna said, rolling her eyes.
“It keeps asking me to update things. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
“Bring your computer up next week and I’ll sort it out for you, Ms. B,” Alan chimed in.
“Is that my lovely Alan?” Anna moved her phone so Alan could say hi to their mother.
“I miss you, Louise. Anna can’t make lasagna like you do,” he pouted.
“Oh, you sure do know how to flatter a girl,” Louise laughed. “Now I talk to you all the time, let me chat with Morgan again.”
Anna handed the phone to me. “Just take it. My arm’s getting tired.”
Lucas and Alan disappeared to the pantry to get more beer and I was left talking to his mother. I smiled, hoping my nerves weren’t obvious.
Apparently they were.
“Love, I’m not going to reach through the phone and bite you. No need to look as though you’re about to cry.”
Clearly bluntness ran in the family. But Louise Bradley wasn’t rude about it. She was actually very sweet. And I felt at ease around her, my nerves disappearing almost instantly.
“Lucas tells me you work in IT,” Louise said.
I nodded, trying to keep the phone st
ill so I didn’t give the woman motion sickness. “I do. I was hired by an IT firm here in the UK. I’m on secondment but I hope to be taken on permanently.”
“You’re clearly a very smart woman.”
“She is, Mum. Very smart,” Lucas said, coming up behind me and handing me a glass of wine.
“It’s about time you were with someone that had some brains. No offense to the others, but I often wondered how you carried on a conversation with any of them.”
“I don’t think he was with them for their conversation skills, Mum,” Anna called out from the other side of the room.
I covered my mouth so I wouldn’t laugh. Lucas nudged me. “Don’t encourage her.”
“Well, I’m coming up in a few weeks for one of Luke’s games. I hope to meet you.” I noticed how Ms. Bradley gave her son a pointed look.
Lucas kissed my temple. “You’ll meet her, Mum. Morgan’s not going anywhere.”
“ROLL OVER,” LUCAS ordered, panting above me.
“What? Why? This feels amazing,” I gasped. Lucas lifted my leg so that it draped over his shoulder as he thrust into me.
“Do it. Now,” he barked. I liked it when he got bossy. But only during sex. The rest of the time he could go to hell.
We were in his bed—a king sized monstrosity with black sheets and too many pillows.
After talking to his mother, the pizza showed up and Anna hadn’t been lying when she said Alan and Lucas could easily eat two pies each.
Then we played Cards Against Humanity. Alan was a little too good at that particular game. We hung out for a few hours before Lucas became antsy and said we were going to bed.
Everyone knew sleep wasn’t what he had in mind.
I flipped onto my stomach and Lucas pulled me up onto my knees. Gripping my hips he pushed inside me.
“Ahhh,” I groaned. He was so deep. He rubbed my ass, kneading the skin as he screwed my brains out.
“You feel so fucking good. God, you’re amazing. I love being inside you.” Lucas often muttered all sorts of nonsense while we had sex. He was rather chatty actually.
“I don’t want to be inside anyone else ever again. Only you, Morgan,” he rasped, pumping into me.
I tried not to take what he said too seriously. Men will say all sorts of things while getting their rocks off. But I wanted to believe him when he said things like that. When he told me I was perfect. That he wanted only me. For always.
My heart was getting all twisted up in him.
Because every time with Lucas was the same.
He touched me as though we were living on burrowed time. Desperate. Terrified. Passionate. Each moment had to matter. Because the truth was we didn’t know when it would crumble beneath us.
This all had the feeling of being temporary. But I would love every single minute of it.
His fingers tangled in my hair and he pulled my head back. “Kiss me,” he murmured. I turned my head so he could reach my mouth. He never stopped moving inside me. I pushed back against him wanting to take him as deep as possible. I didn’t think it was possible to fuck like this.
“Are you close?” he whispered. I nodded, feeling the familiar burn in my belly.
He reached around and pinched my clit his other hand running down my back to the crack of my ass. And then I was coming with a yell. That drove Lucas wild. Because he was thrusting hard and rough until he came as well.
We collapsed in a heap on the bed, neither of us able to speak.
After a few minutes when we were able to breathe normally again Lucas rolled on his side facing me. “It can’t keep getting better can it? I’ll die from a heart attack at this rate.”
I grabbed his hand and pressed his palm over my galloping heart. “I’ll die right along with you then.”
He gathered me close to him, my head fitting below his chin, my ear pressed to his chest. After the passion, we found a comfortable ease together. Almost as if we had been doing this for years rather than weeks.
His fingers traced lazy circles along the curve of my spine.
I was drunk on him.
“I wish you never had to leave,” he murmured into my hair.
“You’d get sick of me eventually,” I joked.
He held me tightly. “You have no idea how important you’ve become to me, do you?”
I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry.
These were the sort of things he said while he was inside me. When I couldn’t be sure if he meant them or not.
“Lucas—”
“You know there’s no one else right? That I’m with you and only you. That I haven’t looked at another woman since you came into my life.” He sounded almost frantic. As if he needed to get the words out before he couldn’t say them.
“I’m glad to hear that. I’m not into sharing.” I was trying to lighten the mood. Things felt heavy. As if we were on the cusp of something.
It scared me. It thrilled me.
“Look at me, Morgan.”
I turned so that I could see him. His eyes met mine and held me prisoner. I couldn’t move.
“No matter what you read in the papers, or what you think is true, always ask me first, okay? Because when I tell you there’s only you, I mean it.”
“I will. I promise.”
He kissed me again and then pulled away. “I need to run to the bathroom. You okay here?”
I wrapped the blanket around myself. “I’ll be fine.”
Lucas went into his en suite bathroom and I lay in the middle of his bed, staring up at the ceiling trying to make sense of what he had just said.
He told me he only wanted me. That I was important to him.
Things felt as though they were getting serious pretty damn fast.
I covered my face with a pillow and squealed. Because I was falling for Lucas and it was comforting to know he felt the same.
I heard laughter out in the hallway. Then a thud against the wall. The bathroom door remained closed so I got up, grabbed Lucas’ robe and wrapped it around my naked body.
I opened the bedroom door a crack, my eyes widening at what I saw.
Alan had Anna pinned against the wall, their bodies pressed together. They were kissing. No, devouring each other was more like it. Then they parted and Anna pulled him into a room and closed the door.
“What are you doing?” Lucas asked, coming up behind me.
“I thought I heard something. It was nothing,” I said quickly, closing the door.
Lucas
“Mate, you’re on fire! What’s your secret?” Bruno, our defensive midfielder from Brazil asked. We were running drills at the training ground and even I had to admit I was in peak form.
Jack didn’t look too disgusted with me for once, which was a nice change.
Alan jogged up and slung an arm around my shoulders. “It’s the regular muff he’s getting from his American lady.”
I elbowed him in the gut. “Shut it, Cole before I shut it for you.”
“So are the rumors true then? Lucas Bradley is settling down?” Charlie Barker asked. Charlie was new to Chester this season having transferred from Bristol. I personally didn’t think he was being given much of a chance to show what he was made of. Jack had relegated him to bench warmer. He had yet to have more than five minutes of playtime.
“Why is my love life of interest to you lot? I would think our upcoming game against the Wingers would have more of your attention.” I kicked the ball towards the goal, David Johnson, our second string goalkeeper missed it. It hit the corner of the net with force.
“And that’s why you’ll never get any first team play,” Alan called out. David flipped him off and threw the ball back to me.
I dribbled the ball over to Stoney who was paired with Finn for passing drills. “Here you go, mate. “I’m joining you guys. I’ve had enough of the knob gallery over there.”
“Oh, yeah, that would be great.”
Martin Stone always looked at me like the fans did. Poor kid had a bad case
of hero worship. Too bad I wasn’t the best role model.
He was a hell of a striker in the making. Jack had pulled him up from League two. At only eighteen, he was very green. I had seen many a young kid letting the sudden money and fame go straight to their head. Professional football could ruin a person if you weren’t careful.
“Come on, let’s run some set plays. You up for it Finn?” The right back gave me a nod and the three of us ran through some plays. Stoney impressed me with how aware he was. How his head was always up, scanning the pitch, looking at the other players. He was an intuitive player. In spite of his young age, he was head and shoulders above a lot of players that came through the Premier League. I just hoped he got the notice he deserved. I felt it my duty to take him under my wing. To coach him a bit. To help him become the player he could be.
Just as Gaz had done for me.
After training, I declined drinks with some of the guys. I had made plans with Morgan. I had actually agreed to go on a walking tour of Chester. She was more than a little excited. I was less than. But I knew she’d be extremely appreciative later.
“Ditching us for your woman?” Nick asked with a cheeky grin.
“Are you going to let us meet her? Or are you afraid that once she meets the rest of us, she’ll realize what a bum deal she got?” Shane laughed and the room full of half-naked jackasses joined him.
“Fuck off, all of you,” I responded good-naturedly.
“Don’t be like that, Bradley. We just want to make sure she’s good enough for you,” George Fletcher said, wrapping a towel around his waist.
“Marla’s planning a dinner party for later in the week, you should bring Morgan,” Craig suggested.
That sounded like the worst idea in the history of bad ideas.
“I’m not sure we can make it.” I didn’t even bother thinking of an excuse. Taking Morgan to Craig and Marla’s was the last thing I wanted to do.
Craig looked crestfallen. “Come on, it would be nice to meet her. It would mean a lot.”
“To you or Marla?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. When would he see what a bitch his wife was?
But to tell him what I knew of her would be to admit my own betrayal. And that was the last thing we needed in the middle of a season. Craig was my friend. More than that he was my teammate. I had seen teams torn apart by women bullshit. Chester wouldn’t be one of them.
The Beautiful Game (Man of the Match Book 1) Page 25