The Hardest Fall

by Ella Maise

  I laughed. “What look?”

  He just kept staring into my eyes, and I melted a little more with every passing second.

  “No one has ever looked at me like that before, you know,” I admitted, having a little trouble holding his gaze.

  He moved closer—arms resting on my thighs, hands around my waist—and my eyes closed on their own. “Like what?” I felt him kiss the edge of my lips, then my cheek.

  “Like…that,” I repeated lamely in a whisper against his lips.

  He smiled then brushed a soft kiss right next to my ear. “Can you be a little more specific?”

  “Nope.”

  I felt his chuckle deep in my bones more than merely hearing it. “Okay.”

  Then he kissed me. Our lips molded together, gently, nothing more than a whisper in the night, up until he spoke.

  “You should keep me then. No one else can look at you the way I do.”

  “That’s not what I said, was it?” I protested with a small smile of my own, and I opened my eyes to find him gazing up at me. My heart soared. “So cocky,” I whispered.

  His thumb moved over my lip, but he didn’t look away from my eyes. “Keep me, Flash. I’m a good catch.”

  I grinned, my heart skipping all over the place. “You know what? I think I will.”

  His smile got bigger, and I felt out of my mind with happiness.

  Hands still around my waist, he stood up. I held his face between my palms and rested my forehead against his. “I’m happy again,” I offered out of nowhere.

  “Were you miserable without me?”

  I thought it was just a throwaway question, didn’t think he expected me to give him an honest answer because he reached for my mouth again, but I pulled back before he could drown me in him.

  “I was miserable, Dylan. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t talk to you. Then when I could, after the last game, I couldn’t find you. You blocked me,” I accused him. “Not that I can blame you, but I guess I still will. I missed you. I missed you like I’ve never missed anyone in my life.” I put my palm on my heart and tried to ease the ache. “I have this ache, right here, and every morning I woke up these last two weeks, I would have this moment, that first second after I opened my eyes, where I thought, Get up, Zoe, get up and see Dylan. Get up and go to his bed. Get up and have breakfast with him—he’s waiting for you in the kitchen. Then I’d realize I couldn’t do any of that.”

  Dylan looked at me, either taking in my words or deciding how to respond, or both. I wondered if I’d revealed too much of my feelings, not that I’d have cared if I had.

  “I missed you more than I had any right to miss you, and it ate at me,” he said before the silence could become awkward. “I was so pissed at myself because I couldn’t even hate you. Do you realize how hard it was for me to work with him, knowing he got you and I didn’t? How hard it still is? You thought of me the moment you woke up, and I thought of nothing but you ever since. I hated that you’d do that to me, that you’d lie to me that way. When I saw you get in his car, I didn’t believe it, you know. I was sure you’d explain it, but when I came home and found you two…so close, and him touching you…”

  “Can I tell you everything now?”

  “Yeah, you have to, and please don’t leave anything out.”

  “I won’t,” I promised, and knowing that everything would be okay after, that he’d still be standing right in front of me, I told him everything. I started from the very beginning, that first moment my mom told me about Mark and Chris, and finished with how I’d talked to Chris just days after he’d walked in on me and Mark arguing.

  “I wanted to find you the next day, and I even called you, but you’d already blocked me. The more I thought about it, the more scared I got that he’d do something to mess with you on the field. The threat was there, and I have no idea if he’d have the power to do it. I wasn’t giving up on you, but I didn’t think running to you right after I left was the best idea either. I gave myself time, until the game, knowing I’d tell you after the Cactus Bowl—that I was sure of.”

  For the amount of time it took me to tell him everything, we sat in the exact same position: him right between my legs, touching me, constantly touching me. When I had trouble voicing something, he’d squeezed my waist, reminding me he was there, right there with me. At one point, his hands pushed under my shirt and we were skin to skin. He distracted me countless times but would nudge me to keep going because he was taking in every word I was saying.

  His face was tilted down as he listened to me with his focus on his hands, drawing lazy circles on my skin under my shirt, as if he couldn’t help himself.

  “That’s why I don’t want you to go to him or tell him anything about this, Dylan.”

  He looked up at me. “You can’t ask me to do that, Zoe.”

  “I just did. That’s why I came here—I couldn’t not tell you, but I don’t want the whole wait to be for nothing.”

  “I’m not going to stay away from you until draft day, Flash. You can get that out of your head right now. Now that I know everything, nothing you say can keep me away from you.”

  Smiling, I leaned down, pressed a kiss to his lips, and pulled back.

  “I wasn’t planning on doing anything remotely close to that, even on the off chance that you didn’t want me anymore.”

  Then he was the one leaning forward and capturing my lips, his tongue doing things that left me in awe. When he drew back, his eyes were clear.

  “What do you want then?”

  “I saw how hard you worked to get where you are—just living with you for a few months was enough for me to see that. I’m not gonna be the reason for even the possibility that—”

  “What are you asking of me?”

  “Just don’t make it obvious that you know, that’s all.”

  He gripped my waist in his hands and my body jolted.

  “I can’t have you sleeping somewhere else, Flash. I can’t go another day without waking up to you wrapped around me. We’ll find a small apartment and move in together. I know I only have a few months until the draft, and after that—”

  Not even trying to contain my smile, I might have shouted my response a bit louder than I was aiming for. “Yes. Yes. Yes!” With the way I was acting, you’d have thought he’d asked me to marry him.

  It was the worry in his face that smoothed out first—as if he’d really thought I could pass up the chance to wake up to him for however long—and then he laughed with me.

  I couldn’t stop touching him, couldn’t stop looking into his eyes. “Okay, don’t freak out, but I’m falling for you so hard, Dylan Reed—complete free fall. I’ll probably land pretty soon, too.”

  His smile turned playful and he stood up.

  “Land where?”

  I pushed at his shoulder as his hands started shifting higher underneath my shirt, making me hyper aware of how close we were standing, how affected I was by his touch.

  “You know what I mean.” For the first time in a while, I avoided his eyes. “And I want you to fall for me too. I want it so badly—so badly, Dylan. I want to be someone important to you, want to be the kind of someone you are to me, someone you can’t live without. And fine, maybe I’m a little weird—that’s a big maybe—but I want you to…like the fact that I’m weird, and want me—”

  “That’s easy, Flash. You’re my best friend, like I told you you’d be, and I already love your brand of weird. I’ll never forget seeing those neatly stacked M&Ms in the kitchen, and the love you have for pizza? That’s a whole other level of weirdness.”

  I groaned and pushed my face into his neck.

  “Everyone loves pizza—that’s not weird.”

  “Not as much as you do, though.”

  Dylan slowly dragged his hands back down, and every inch of skin on my body buzzed with awareness. Then his hands were cupping my face and he was pulling me away from his neck to look into my eyes.

  “I’ll catch you when you land, Fla
sh. Just don’t take too much time, because I’m already there, impatiently waiting for you.”

  I blinked. “You can’t make a joke about something like that, Dylan.”

  “Who said I’m joking? You happened in a heartbeat Zoe, I had no chance.”

  Did that mean what I thought it meant? Then his lips were on mine and I was kissing him as if our lives depended on it, and all thoughts evaporated from my mind. His hands let go of my face as I wrapped my arms around his neck to get closer and let out a surprised squeak when he pulled me down to his lap.

  “Shit,” I cursed, reaching back to grab the edge of the bar top. “Dylan, I’m heavy. You can’t—”

  “I can do anything I want to you now.”

  Did he think that was a threat?

  His brows drew together. “Wait, Chris? He never mentioned anything to me.”

  I pursed my lips and shook my head. “We’ve only talked twice since I told him, but he texted me to let me know you were here, so maybe…” A small shrug. “Maybe we’ll talk more. Up to him.”

  “So I’m banging my best friend’s sister, huh? I like it.”

  He grinned, and I grinned back.

  “I don’t feel any banging happening, but if you say—”

  The words died in my mouth as we kissed again and I was carried…away…somewhere.

  When a door opened and closed, and my back hit a wall, our lips still connected, I opened my eyes to see where we were. We could’ve walked for hours and I wouldn’t have noticed. Apparently, he’d only carried me up the stairs I’d seen earlier; we were in Jimmy’s office. I registered the mostly empty mahogany desk, small old-school safe, tall file cabinet, and couch. It wasn’t big in the slightest, but it did look pretty comfy, and I was more than happy to spend the night on it with Dylan. Since it was so small, it meant I’d get to creep even closer to him.

  When Dylan nipped my lips, I lost all focus again and there was just us. When he carried me away from the wall, he didn’t take me to the couch like I expected him to. Nope, he took me to the desk and dropped my ass right on it.

  Before I had a chance to open my mouth or even catch my breath, he was taking off my shirt. For a really short moment, I wanted to hide myself from him, but instead, I reached for the hem of his shirt and peeled it off of him. Giving my breasts—which were hiding in my favorite light blue bra—a quick look, he groaned and pulled my legs open, stepping right in between. He put his palms on the desk on either side of my hips, caging me in, and brought his face down to mine to kiss me. I had to lean back and hold on to him to return his out-of-control kiss. He only stopped when my back touched the wooden surface.

  “I didn’t even get a chance to learn what turns you on,” he murmured right before sucking and gently biting the skin on my neck.

  “I don’t think you need to learn anything,” I rushed out, my voice coming out all choppy. “You’re pretty much killing me, so I’d say it’s working, and you just looking at me seems to get me going, so…”

  He laughed, and the sound vibrated on my skin. “You telling me you’re wet for me?”

  His hands gripped my waist and slid me downward in one quick movement. I gasped and laughed, holding on to his shoulders. Then I felt his thick, hard cock against the seam of my jeans and lost it completely. Biting his neck, I let out the most wanton moan. I wiggled and pushed myself down as hard as I could as his fingers tightened their grip on my waist to keep me still. Letting go of my hold on his shoulders, I reached between us and tried to unzip his jeans. When it didn’t get me anywhere, I pulled back from the kiss and hit my head pretty hard on the desk.

  “Shit. Shit. Shit.”

  He had the audacity to laugh.

  “Easy, baby,” he whispered, one of his hands gently tangling in my hair and smoothing the pain away. “You want me?”

  I couldn’t have wanted him more, and I really didn’t think I could speak at that moment, so I just nodded. We stared into each other’s eyes, not moving, and whatever he saw in my face made him shake his head and smile down at me. His cheeks looked flushed, his lips swollen—because of me. He took a deep breath as I held mine. His already dark blue eyes were darker, like the night sky, and I couldn’t remember ever seeing anything more perfect.

  “I wish I could capture this moment,” I whispered. “You…just looking at me the way you do.”

  “You’ll have all the time in the world to do anything you want to do to me, Zoe. Trust me.”

  When I licked my lips, his hands finally moved down and he started to take off his pants. I did the same, wiggling and trying to get rid of them as quickly as possible. I knocked a few files off the desk, but neither of us seemed to care.

  “Let me,” Dylan said, and he took my pants off in a second, my panties sliding off with them.

  I didn’t think I could wait any longer, so I sat up and went for his lips again. He helped me by leaning down and wrapping his arms around me. I thought he was feeling just like I was, like he couldn’t get close enough.

  I squeezed my hand between our bodies and wrapped my hand around his cock. When one hand wasn’t satisfying enough, I used the other one too. He wrenched his lips away and hissed into my ear when I rolled my thumb over the plump head.

  “I want to taste you,” I moaned, my voice low.

  “It kills me to say this, but not right now.”

  I felt his fingers between my legs, parting me, pushing in, and I couldn’t even remember what we’d been talking about.

  At one point he must have flicked open my bra because when he urged me to lie back, there was nothing but the cool surface of the wood against my skin. I shivered and watched him pluck the loose undergarment off of me. When his mouth closed in on one nipple, first licking and then sucking, I didn’t know what to do with my hands, so I just lifted them above my head and held on to the edge of the desk, arching my back and offering more. He gave the same treatment to the other one, making me squirm and pant under him.

  Then he was right there, pushing his cock into me, straightening up and watching where we connected with a reverence I couldn’t explain. My ears ringing, blood roaring through my veins, I opened my mouth to gasp, but I was so overwhelmed by his size and by having him again that nothing came out. A split second later, another gasp, and then I groaned, feeling him slowly work himself inside, stretching me wide open.

  “You have no idea how much I missed you, Flash. Missed being inside you. Feeling you work my cock. Fucking you.”

  My body shivered, and I smiled.

  Then he stopped, and I had to force my eyes open.

  “Wh-What? No, don’t stop.”

  Still halfway in me, he dropped his forehead right in the middle of my chest, his warm breath on my cool skin causing me to shiver under him.

  “Condom—I forgot the condom.”

  “Shit. Get one, please.”

  One of his hands moved on my thigh, caressing, pulling me deeper into madness.

  “I don’t have one, Flash. Goddammit, I don’t have one on me.” His hips moved as if he couldn’t help himself, pressing into me, going deeper, and we both groaned.

  “You realize that you’re failing at this college thing, right? What college student doesn’t carry around condoms?”

  “Smartass,” he murmured with a smile to his voice, then we both groaned.

  It was on the tip of my tongue to say, I don’t care, just please fuck me, but he spoke first.

  “I haven’t been with anyone else since you,” he murmured, his tongue finding my nipple and swirling around it. “I’ve never been with anyone without a condom, and I promise I’m clean.”

  Relief washed through me and I pulled him up to my lips.

  “I’m on the pill,” I whispered against his parted lips right before taking a deep breath and kissing him. He moved just an inch, causing my body to twitch in pleasure. “Please, fuck me, Dylan.” I panted, gasped. “Please.” I didn’t mind begging—not at all.

  Thank God that was all it too
k. He slowly pushed the last few inches into me, swallowing down my groans with his mouth.

  “That’s it…just a little more.”

  When I tried to ease his thickness off a little by rolling my hips against him, he straightened and held on to my waist, watching with such an intensity. I opened my legs wider, putting my feet up on the edge of the desk. Meeting my eyes, he pulled almost all the way out then thrust back in, causing me to bow up.

  He put his hand on my stomach and stroked my body into delirium, all the way up to my throat and then down again. Tipping my head back, all I could do was feel his fullness inside me and try not to lose it too early.

  I was plenty wet, but it took a few minutes to get used to him. When I looked at him, my eyes barely open, I saw him watching himself gently thrust in and out of me. I chose to watch his abdominal muscles, the way they contracted and released. I watched the way his strong shoulders rolled with his thrusts, the way his arms flexed, how fascinated he looked, lost, yet found.

  When he lifted his gaze and found me watching him, his pace quickened. Reaching for my hand, he pulled me flush to his chest and slipped his tongue into my mouth. I spread my legs wider and wrapped my legs around his waist, wanting and needing more.

  “I’m clean, too,” I whispered breathlessly when he let me breathe for a second. My mind was all jumbled up. Was I too late to say that?

  “Good,” he murmured and hearing his voice did something to me. He moved his hands under my butt and somehow managed to spread me open wider, manipulating my body in ways I wasn’t prepared for. My butt hurt from his grip, but I didn’t mind the pain; it only fueled what was coming. Suddenly, everything faded away and all I could hear was the rush and roar in my ears. Every nerve ending in my body screamed, and it was all too overwhelming.

  “Dylan,” I moaned, half whimpering. “Dylan, right there—faster, yes. Please.”

  “Right here?” he asked, fucking me harder. “Are you going to come on my cock? Do you want me to give it to you harder?”

  I was seconds away from sweet death, and I only wanted more. My answer was a gasp and an arch of my spine.

  “Yeah, that’s it, baby. I’m going to fuck your sweet pussy every day until my last breath, Zoe,” he murmured before biting my neck and sucking my skin, and that was all it took for me to get pulled under by an intense orgasm. He kept fucking me through it, his thighs hitting my wide open legs with the loudest smacking sound as my world turned upside down in his arms.