Curveball

by Jillian Quinn

  I grip my shirt in my hand, about to attempt to put it on when she takes it from me. Our eyes lock, and there’s so much pain and sadness behind hers, mirroring how I feel on the inside.

  “You can do this, babe,” she whispers.

  “I know. We will do it together.”

  I slip my tongue inside her mouth, pulling her closer with my good hand to deepen the kiss. Her hands fall to my thighs, her fingers creeping dangerously close to the seam of my boxers.

  Our mouths separate just long enough for me to whisper, “I need you to help me out with this.” I place her hand over my erection.

  She smiles and slips her hand into the slit of my boxers. “I don’t know what I love more—you or your cock.”

  The corners of my mouth turn up into a devious grin. “Well then, why don’t you be a good girl and show me how much you love us both?”

  Without another thought, she strokes my dick a few times before she gives me the best hummer I’ve ever had. From start to finish, I tell her how much I fucking love her. And I mean it.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Olivia

  Rumors are the work of the devil.

  People have been talking about Mark and me since he left the hospital and moved into my apartment. He didn’t tell anyone, except for Luca and Hunter, where he would be living. They would never tell a soul. Mark has an undying bond with those two, the type of friendship that almost makes me jealous because of how loyal they are to one another.

  Everyone thought Mark was living with his mother until some of his teammates showed up at her front door. She ratted us out, too drunk to realize what she was doing. Her stupidity started a huge argument with Mark and her about her going to rehab. Mark can’t even bend over to tie his shoes without feeling dizzy and in pain, so it’s a good thing he stashed away enough money to live on for a while and to help his family, but once the money is gone, he will have to earn his money the hard way. And it’s not like I have any money.

  With the way my luck and this day have been going, I will most likely be out of a job. Sitting across from Professor Swanson, I am sweating bullets, so damn nervous that I want to vomit all over his desk.

  I never meant for any of this to happen between us. I never wanted to fuck my student and like it. But our relationship was never normal, conventional.

  Until today, I thought we were safe and that no one would tell on us. But I was wrong. My stomach knots like a pretzel, the bile coming up from my stomach, choking me. One week, and we would have been in the clear. But, no, someone had to open their mouth about us, and now, I am being humiliated by Professor Caldwell, a decrepit old bitch who walks like she has a stick up her ass and who spits when she talks.

  “She should be punished for her actions,” Professor Caldwell says, the slobber already forming at the corners of her mouth. “Olivia broke the rules.”

  Professor Swanson folds his hands on the desk in front of him and leans forward. “I don’t disagree with you, Carol, but I also think we should take a few things into consideration.”

  “Like what? Olivia is his Ethics professor, and she has been sleeping with him the entire semester. That is not only unprofessional, but it’s also immoral.”

  I see no point in denying the allegations, not when they have evidence of our relationship, shot from a cell phone of a student. They even have a shot of Mark kissing me outside my car. Honestly, I was shocked it took people this long to figure out something was going on between Mark and me, especially after all our sexploits in public places.

  “That’s hearsay, and you know it,” Professor Swanson shoots back. “The only proof you have is a picture taken last week. And it’s not even a clean shot. For all you know, that is someone else in that picture. Olivia is a good professor, and the school policy does not expressly prohibit relationships between students and professors, only frowns upon them; therefore, it is not an actionable offense.” Professor Swanson locks eyes with me, his gaze serious and intense. “However, I will not let you go with only a warning, Olivia. I have you on the schedule to teach summer classes. Is that correct?”

  “Yes,” I mutter, my voice low and soft, “summer one and two classes.”

  “You are relieved of your duties for this summer. That is your punishment. But make no mistake; this type of behavior is not welcome at Strickland Uniersity. I better not find out there is anything else going on between you and any other students.”

  I stand up from my chair, my legs shaking so badly that I have trouble supporting myself, desperate to get out of his office. “Thank you.”

  What else do I say to the man whom I have admired and looked up to while I was in school, the man who is now disappointed with me and probably regrets hiring me?

  Hauling ass out the door, I shuffle through the crowded halls, dodging students and teachers, while fighting back tears until I get into my office. When I close the door, I jump when I hear Mark’s voice behind me, and I spin around to face him.

  I lean against the door, still shaking from my meeting and needing to find some form of support before my legs give out and I collapse on the floor. “What are you doing in here?”

  He holds up a red chain with my spare key. “You gave it to me, remember? How did your meeting go?”

  “I almost got fired. You shouldn’t be in here, Mark.” I walk toward my desk, and he scoops me up in his big, strong arms. “If someone were to see you leaving my office, I would be packing my bags by the end of the day. Professor Caldwell wants my head on a spike.”

  “What did they say?” he asks with a hint of concern in his voice. “After everything you have done for me…I wish there were something I could do to make this right. You’re a good lawyer and a damn good teacher. I’m sorry, baby.”

  “Professor Swanson is giving my summer classes to another professor as punishment, but at least I get to keep my job. It’s not your fault. I made the decision to sleep with my student.”

  “I never made it easy for you.”

  When I rest my head on his shoulder, he hooks his good arm around my waist, the cast at his side. The doctor estimated about two to three more weeks until he can have the cast off. With the rate Mark has been healing, Dr. Bryant is optimistic that he will be able to play ball again. And, knowing my man, he will kill himself to make his dream a reality.

  I look up at him, and he smiles.

  “No, you never made this easy for me. But I don’t regret a thing. Choosing you was the best decision I ever made.”

  “So, does that mean I’m getting an A in your class?”

  I laugh, the first genuine one I have had all day. “You earned the A I am giving you, but yes, you are getting an A in my class. Despite what I initially thought about you, you are smart and work hard.”

  He moves my hair to the side and sucks on my ear. The heat from his breath and the things he does with his tongue cause my entire body to clench and my toes to curl.

  “Good girl,” he hisses between breaths, his mouth slowly moving from my ear to my neck, “because I’d have had to bend you over your desk and spank you for giving me a bad grade.”

  “We can still do that if you’d like,” I manage to get out, losing my concentration with his hand and mouth all over me.

  “I think I love you more each day,” he whispers against my neck. “You’re like an addiction I can’t kick.”

  “I love you, too, but you’re like poison,” I shoot back, laughing.

  “Yeah, but we’re good together.”

  His words bring a smile to my lips.

  In the beginning, Mark was like poison to my heart, toxic and dangerous yet so strong and powerful. He got into my pants and somehow managed to work his way into my heart, forcing me to rethink my life and career. I will never live to regret the choice I made because, for the first time in my life, my bad decision feels so good.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mark: One Year Later

  Over the last year, I busted my ass to get back into game-ready s
hape.

  My coach worked with me in his free time and even let me practice with the team in the off-season—with one small stipulation. I had to take Chase Matthews under my wing after he replaced me as our starting pitcher. So, I did as Coach had asked, and over the course of summer and fall, some of my knowledge rubbed off on Matthews, and I healed myself in the process.

  When I walk into Luciano’s with Olivia on my arm, I see all my fraternity brothers and old team members are taking up the first and second floors of the restaurant along with some of the agents and staff from DMG, the agency I signed with last month. I signed a contract with Charlotte Coachman, a super-hot sports agent who is dating Alex Parker, one of the Philadelphia Flyers star players. She goes by the name Coach, which makes things a bit more confusing when she’s in the room with Coach Jordan.

  My baseball coach and my agent are sitting next to each other at one of the many round tables scattered throughout the first floor. Coach brought Alex Parker with her, attracting a lot of attention to her table, as my friends are all hovered around him.

  Photographers snap our pictures as we make our way through the crowded restaurant. Since today is draft day, local news outlets are here to film my reaction to the announcement. I keep my fingers crossed the Phillies pick me, but I am up against some stiff competition this year.

  Everyone I know has come to hopefully celebrate this day with me. Sammy and my mother are at their own table with some of our relatives who started to acknowledge us after I was able to convince my mother to enter a detox program.

  My accident had been a wake-up call for my mother, and between Sammy and me begging her to get help, she’d eventually agreed to enter treatment.

  Without my supplemental income and with no car, I had no way to support them. We were living off whatever I had left in savings until I was healed and able to get an office job in the city. I never imagined myself working in a law firm and preparing legal briefs even though I chose law as my major. But I only went that route, so I could bullshit with Luca and Hunter during class.

  “Look at all these people who are here for you, baby,” Olivia says to me, her eyes wide with surprise. “You deserve it. After all the work you put in…”

  She still takes my breath away, giving me the same giddy feeling I had in the beginning of our relationship every time I lay eyes on her. I fell in love with my professor of all people. I never thought I was capable of loving a woman until I met Olivia. If all goes well tonight and I get that payday I have been hoping for, I plan to ask her to marry me.

  I lean down to kiss her forehead, and she peeks up at me beneath her brows, smiling.

  “If I didn’t have you through all the bad times, I’m not so sure we would be here right now.”

  “You had a few rough months after the accident, but look at how far you’ve come since then.”

  “It was all because of you. You always believed in me, even when I thought I was worthless.” Steering Olivia toward the family tables, I hold her tight against my side. “I’m never letting you go, you know that?”

  “You’d better not,” she shoots back. “If you get famous and leave me behind, I will hunt you down and beat the shit out of you.”

  I laugh. “I’d like to see you try, Teach.”

  She playfully smacks me on the arm. “Call me that again, and you’re going to have to excuse yourself and follow me into the restroom.”

  “Don’t say shit like that right now, woman. Between all the excitement and your tits in that dress, I’m having a hard time not getting hard.”

  Olivia just shakes her head and laughs to herself.

  When we approach the middle of the restaurant, where I find all my close friends and family, Luca’s eyes light up. He’s been there through some of the darkest hours with my mother and me, he’s helped me support my family when I had nowhere else to turn, and he’s always been the brother I wished I’d had.

  He cups his hands around his mouth to yell, “Mark is here. They’re announcing the draft in five minutes. Get ready!”

  Luca’s entire family gathers at the tables across from my family, some of them mixing and mingling with mine. He has a huge Italian family that likes to talk and eat. And they love to kiss. A lot. So, when I approach the table, they assault my cheeks, about ten different people kissing me in a row. They do the same to Olivia, who I can tell is taken a bit off guard by having everyone in the Marchese family kiss her.

  After Luca kisses Olivia and welcomes her, he clamps his hand down on my shoulder. “Are you nervous, bro? This is a big night for you, for all of us.”

  “A little bit. Where’s Hunter?”

  “He got stuck in the airport on a layover from Cali, now that he’s a hotshot playing for the Niners. I doubt he’ll make it on time for the announcement, but we’ll make up for it later.” Luca motions for the waitress with his hand.

  She hands each of us a beer from the tray and walks away.

  Luca holds his glass out for us to toast, and all of us tap our drinks together with a loud clink. “They would be stupid to pick Clemson over you, bro. You got this.”

  “Thanks, Luc,” I say with a tiny smile. I’m afraid though that everyone has gathered here tonight for no reason.

  What if the Phillies pick another pitcher?

  Sammy comes darting through the crowd in a pale pink dress with her hair pulled into a ponytail on top of her head. She crashes into my chest and wraps her arms around me.

  “I missed you,” she mutters against my shirt.

  “I missed you, too, kid.” I kiss her hair, and she hugs me tighter. “Sorry I haven’t been around as much.”

  She takes a step back, releasing me from her iron grip. “At least Mom is better, now that you fixed her. She brings food home from work a lot, and sometimes, she even surprises me with the apple pie I like from the diner.”

  My mother comes up behind Sammy, wedging herself against my side, and I pull the two of them into a hug. Since she went to rehab, things have been different. I was able to forgive her for all the horrible things she had done in the past, and now, we’re replacing those shitty old memories with happy new ones. I can finally hug my mother without smelling the stench of alcohol on her breath.

  She doesn’t make enough money at the diner to not be at least somewhat dependent on me, but all of that will change if I get drafted. They won’t have to live in that house any longer. Just like my accident, our lives could change in a second.

  “It’s starting,” Luca calls up to the second floor, where over one hundred members of our fraternity are hanging over the railing. “Shut up, so we can hear.”

  Placed around the restaurant are huge flat screen TVs, so we can watch the Major League Baseball Draft to see if the Phillies picked me. For years, I checked out the draft with the hope that, one day, I would have that life-changing moment I could share with my friends and family. Now, my time is here.

  “Turn it up,” Luca says to the bartender controlling the TVs with a universal remote. “Louder.”

  With the speakers in the restaurant loud enough to break from the volume, I stand and wait with Luca, Olivia, and my family. I’m too nervous to sit down. Olivia holds my hand, her grip like a vise. She might be more nervous than I am. Sammy holds her breath along with my mother. Even Luca and his family look just as tense.

  I suck in a deep breath and let it out, knowing the Phillies are going first since they were beyond horrible last year. You could hear a pin drop in the room as the announcement is about to be made. Olivia squeezes my hand even tighter.

  “With the first selection of the 2017 MLB Draft, the Philadelphia Phillies select Mark Montgomery, a right-handed pitcher from Strickland University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”

  The entire room erupts into chants and people congratulating me. None of this feels real. Olivia attaches herself to my arm, kissing me and screaming. Luca and my fraternity brothers are howling, his family and those around them clapping. People are touching me, tugging o
n my shirt, and freaking out. My brain cannot even process the news, and my legs feel so heavy, I could collapse onto the floor at any moment.

  After all the years of hard work and hustling, it’s paid off. I am free from living the same shitty life; free to do whatever the hell I want. With my heart racing so fast, the room spins around me, forcing me to take a seat in the closest chair. Cameras are flashing with news crews lined up around me, taking pictures.

  Olivia jumps on my lap and slides her arm across my shoulders, leaning forward to kiss me on the cheek. “You did it, baby! You did it!” she squeals in my ear, her voice reaching a high octave.

  “We did it.” Taking her face in my hands, I part her lips with my tongue, threading my fingers through her hair as I deepen the kiss.

  She breaks away from me first, her voice a low whisper in the crowded room, the sounds of everyone talking and yelling drowning out her voice. “This is probably not the best time for you to…ya know”—her head lowers to my pants—“get hard. I mean, people would notice if you were to stand up right now.”

  I look up long enough to see the flash of bulbs in our faces before pushing back her hair to whisper, “Go into the restroom, lift your dress up over your hips, and bend your sexy ass over the sink. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “Mark”—she blushes—“these people are here to see you. We can’t go running off in the middle of your party.”

  “Like you said, it’s my party, and I’ll do whatever I want. What I want to do right now is eat your pussy. Now, go.”

  I do my best to tone down my boner to a semi by rattling off sports scores in my head, thinking of anything but her sweet ass before she hops off my lap.

  “I’ll see you in a few,” she says, blowing me a kiss.

  “And this is why you are going to be Mrs. Montgomery someday.”