by Amy Brent
Mallory looked down at the table as he stroked her skin gently with his thumb while they waited for the check. He dropped a card into the thick folder and looked into her face as they waited.
He signed off on what must have been a very expensive dinner with the wine and tip before he stood and held out his hand. Mallory took it as he helped her out of her chair with a giggle as she pressed against him with a small stumble. She slid her arms around his neck and looked into his eyes before she pulled him down to her for a slow kiss. “I like the Mallory that does that kind of thing.” He told her as he kissed her again slowly to part her lips with his and trace her mouth with his tongue. “Don’t be scared of anything.”
They walked out to the car and he looked around carefully as she watched him. “Declan?”
“This happening so close to what occurred with coach makes me feel so many things. I want to guard you closely and never let anybody hurt you because I never want to feel what he is right now. I want to always have you with me so I know that you’re safe. I’ve never felt like this.”
He ushered her into the car before getting in on his side and starting the engine, insistent that they be warm and safe. “I can’t be with anybody all of the time, right? I went through a phase after my parents died where I clung to anyone that I was staying with. I was so scared and insecure and it just drove me out of that house faster than it was already happening. I still feel that way…sometimes. I just step back and tell the people I care about that I love them and try to be happy with that.” She told him as he backed out of the parking space. “You should too.” She reached her hand across the car and rested it on his thigh. “I’d like to see your house.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“Are you sure?” Declan asked her in a soft voice as he watched her nod.
“I am so sure.” Mallory promised him as he pulled out of the lot and turned right. He drove into the good part of town as she stared forward and felt the high off of the electricity in the car. It was overwhelming and she breathed in the air as she smiled widely. “I want you so much.”
“I want you all over my house…my bed, my table, my couch. This will only go as far as you want it to, Mallory.” Declan spoke in a serious voice as she smiled at him. “No matter how tonight ends; I am all in with you. I don’t have any expectations of you at all.”
She stroked him gently as he drove and memorized the feel of his muscles tensing. He pulled down a wide street and then another small one and into a long wide driveway in front of what looked like a big storybook cottage. “This is so cute.” Mallory told him as she looked over at him.
“Grandma bought it for me from her friend. She loves it.” Declan admitted as he leaned over to kiss her while he pushed the garage door button. He glanced up enough to pull in and claimed her lips hungrily as the heavy door closed behind them. She tilted her head hard to let him deepen it and dragged her tongue across his as they both moaned.
Declan held her face in his as they kissed again and again, some long and some careless. He pulled away and stared her in the eyes as he took a deep breath. “Let’s go inside. I need more room with you.”
He pulled her inside to a sunken living room with dark leather couches spread over the hardwood floor with a big stone fireplace on the wall opposite the television set. “Living room.” He kissed her hard as he pulled her close. “Kitchen over there. Three bedrooms with two on the first floor and the master upstairs with a loft that I use as an office.”
“It’s gorgeous.” Mallory told him as she tugged him closer to her and kissed him with her open hungry mouth as he gripped her hips. “I love it.” She felt herself pulled forward and yelped as she was pulled down over him on the couch, against all of his hard muscles and heat. Mallory kissed him harder as they molded together, feeling him press against her needy core as she rocked slowly and held on tight. He felt big and she closed her eyes as they began to move together, tongues and lips matching the rhythm of their bodies as they thrust together slowly.
She knew that her skirt was rising but didn’t care as he slipped his hands down to cup her thighs with another deep kiss. De clan gripped her tightly as he moaned into her mouth and she held onto him tighter. “Deck. Oh, that feels so good.” The angle was perfect as she moved against him, so heated that she was ready to explode. He held her tighter and thrust up and against her as she felt something start to unravel inside of her. She lost herself in the orgasm as she gasped against his lips in a kiss. Mallory felt like coming out of her own skin and she shook in his embrace as she tried to catch up with her body.
He slipped her cardigan off and dropped it to the floor as she let her arms fall down weakly as he held her steady. Mallory felt him kiss her lips again before he brushed them over her jaw softly. She found the strength to hold onto him again as she pulled his mouth against her. De clan slid his hand down to the hem of her shirt and push it up slowly as he pressed his lips to the bare skin of her chest.
Mallory shoved it over her head and it joined her sweater as he pushed her back against the soft leather of the seat. He pressed his lips to the lace of her bra as his hands slid over her stomach and just underneath her breasts.
She tore at his tie and shirt before he pulled off her skirt and tights with her permission. His muscular chest was hot as he pressed against her in another kiss while she tried to slide her hand between their bodies. Mallory stared down as he unhooked her bra and took one of her deep pink nipples into his mouth with a hard suck as her hand cupped his hard cock through his pants. He choked as he pulled away for a moment before looking at her. “I am so ready to come for you, Mallory. Watching you…it was everything to me.”
He cupped a breast in one hand as he slipped the pants open for her to grasp him. De clan sucked on her other nipple for a moment before he kissed down her stomach and spread her thighs apart. “You smell so good.” He slipped the lace to the side as he leaned down to press his lips to her as she arched her back against him. “You’re so wet with cum for me.” His tongue darted over her folds and flicked her clit and she cried out and gripped his head. His hair was long since loose now and she buried her fingers in it as he continued to lick and suck on her at a frenzied pace.
Mallory came again just as hard as before, surprised with how long it lasted as he coaxed her through it with his mouth. She dropped her head back as he slipped her panties down her weak legs and moved to sit back against the cushions with a deep breath. Mallory struggled to lift her head to see the glistening on his lips from all of his work before she dropped it again. “I’ve never felt that way with anyone before. You’re so good.”
Mallory forced herself to move up before she slowly crawled over Declan to kiss him hard as she ate her taste off of his lips. He had been bare under his pants and she felt him pressing against her as she murmured to him through her kisses. “I want to do everything to you…with you. I want you so badly.” Mallory told him as she leaned down to kiss his neck and bite at him.
She ended up going down on him as she drifted down his body. Mallory felt him all the way in the back of her throat, something that was new to her but so good that she never wanted to stop. He held onto her head as he thrust up against her with soft moans and cries before he told her that he was going to come in a soft whisper. Mallory drank him in as he released with slow thrusts, drunk with desire over the man under her as she breathed in the smell of his come and his sweat.
She vaguely remembered him lifting her and taking her upstairs as he kissed her hard before he pushed her back onto a bed. He ran his hands through his hair as he looked down at her in the glow of his soft amber light and reached into the drawer for a condom. He didn’t ask if she needed that but it was what he always did with women. “I want to be inside of you. Can I, Mallory?”
She scooted back on the soft comforter as she took in his perfect muscular form with hungry eyes. “Please. I need you, Deck.”
He slipped the condom on with shaking hands as she stared at him, finally m
oving between her legs as he kissed her neck and down to her nipples again as she begged him to make love to her. Declan slowly slid inside of her as she moaned and wrapped her legs around him tightly while she got used to his thickness. When he was buried all the way inside of her, Declan pulled back and slipped back in again as she rocked against him. He told her how good she felt as they moved together and she whispered back to him as they kissed desperately through their joined releases. She pulled him close as he dropped on top of her heavily, his breath ragged as she stroked his hair.
“I’m yours, Mallory.” Declan told her softly as she took a breath and smiled.
“I am all yours. I’ve never felt better.” Mallory told him as she felt his lips against hers.
They spent the night in his bed as they alternated between dozing and coming back together in new ways to feel each other. Mallory knew that her family here didn’t care as long as they knew that she was safe and who she was with so she threw herself into the night with him and allowed herself to fall for him slowly and quietly.
They were a couple by the next morning and while it was sudden, it was heady and wonderful. There was no lack of jealousy and comments from women around the campus but she was too crazy about him to care. Mallory met his friends and his team, comfortable at the games as she watched him coach the guys that were his age with an intensity that often paid off later in bed. He turned her on with his confidence and his ease in life.
She also saw a soft side when she would see him with the coach that he was replacing as he spoke closely with him as concern flooded his face. She knew that he held back somewhat with her, but Declan was insistent that she always spend the night with him and always be near him whenever they were together. He was very quick to claim her in any situation and sometimes she thought he acted a bit too intense.
“Are you insecure with me?” Mallory asked him one night in bed as she was tangled with his naked limbs after rough lovemaking. “You know that I’m yours.”
“I also know that you’re beautiful and that others see that.” De clan argued with her as she stared at him with a hard gaze.
“I am in love with you, Deck. Nobody else could compare to this.” Mallory told him before she gasped. They were only two months into this and she hadn’t meant to release that yet. “Too soon?”
“I love you too. I am in love with you.” De clan told her as he pushed her back to kiss her hard while she pulled him closer. “Baby, you’re my everything.”
CHAPTER SIX
Declan met her family and spent Sundays there for dinner several times over the next few months. They all loved him and Mallory could see that Rayna really believed in them with every visit. Mary was over the moon with Declan and while she embarrassed him sometimes, it was very sweet.
She also met his grandparents and was immediately part of the family and just as in love with them within a couple of dinners.
Spring turned into Fall and he started to play rugby again, something that she could not get enough of as she watched him in action. The other coach seemed to be adjusting back to regular life and Declan breathed a sigh of relief as the games turned into victories and a positive feeling among the team members.
They planned their holidays around their families, joined at the hip at this point. They went to dinner on the first night of the break and celebrated by falling into bed right when they arrived back at his house. Mallory was on top of him as he reached into the drawer and came up empty. “Damn it. I’m out. Want me to go to the store? I need to fuck you.”
“No, I want you too badly. It’s just the once and I started pills a little bit ago. We’ll be fine.” Mallory assured him as she slipped over him and looked down to where they were joined. “God, nothing between us feels good.”
“Slick, hot, wet. You feel fucking incredible.” Declan told her as he thrust with her and stroked her nipple with his thumb. “Baby, harder. Ride my cock.” She did, her head thrown back as she took him hard and fast on the center of the mattress. He came first with a loud cry, releasing into her as she tightened around his cock and moaned his name. “I am so glad that we found each other. I love you.”
“I love you.” She smiled at him, so comfortable with who they were that he felt like he needed her again. He turned her onto her back as she grinned wickedly and spread her thighs apart for him to thrust inside of her hard and fast. They were both wet with come and their bodies slapped together almost violently as she reached around to pull him deeper. “Deck. Coming. So hard.” She cried out as she bucked wildly against him and closed her eyes tightly.
He knew that she was close and he thrust hard to join her as they came again neck to neck.
The night before Christmas Eve was the night that changed their lives. Coach Clint couldn’t handle the pain of the holidays without his family and shot himself in his father’s garage. Declan got the call and she had to hang up as he stared forward blankly. “Baby?”
“He’s gone. Clint ended things. He couldn’t take it.” Declan started to sob as she jumped into his arms on the couch to hold him close. Clint had been something like a father figure to Declan since he had such a lack of one in his life. “I can’t ever lose you, Mallory. I love you too much to ever be without you.”
“You won’t. I love you. I’m here.” Mallory promised him as tears slid down her cheeks to join his as they kissed softly. She was brought back to losing her parents all over again and they held each other as they cried before they gently made love again.
Condoms had never been purchased again since she was on birth control now. They couldn’t stand not feeling each other.
The holidays faded with the grief that he was feeling and that she was supporting him through. Mallory knew that she was feeling off but she blamed it on the stress and lack of peace in their lives. By the end of January, she was exhausted and struggling through early classes at school.
It killed her to see Declan coaching in Clint’s place for an undetermined amount of time now. The team was devastated and Coach Pete as well and they’d all gathered together at the service in a huddled group all in pain. She’d sat with Rayna and her parents as well as Declan’s grandparents as she watched him fall apart before her.
He was struggling but true to his players as she fed him the strength that he needed. She was informally living in the house now, something that had happened around the time of the suicide. He never wanted her to leave or be away from him. She didn’t want to be away from him either.
A week into February, Rayna was over and she looked closely at Mallory. “You don’t look so hot. It is still bad around here?”
“He’s better. He’s functioning and everything but I’m so damn tired all of the time.” Mallory replied as she tugged her messy hair into a ponytail. She stared at Rayna eating chocolate ice cream out of a pint sized container and slowly her mouth fell open. “Oh my god.”
“What?” Rayna murmured around her spoon as she glanced at her friend on the couch curiously.
“You’re on your period. You always eat ice cream on your period.” Mallory told her as Rayna shrugged. “Rayna, I’m not on mine.” They’d been like clockwork living together for so long and Mallory started to cry.
Rayna calmed her down and went to buy a few tests so they could flip out over something genuine if need be. There was still a damn good chance that it could be stress and just horrible timing all around. Mallory paced around the living room with a blanket wrapped around her shaking shoulders as she cried helplessly all alone. Declan was at a team meeting as they tried to figure out where to go from here and he wouldn’t be home for a while. She looked up as Rayna came back in carrying a bag from the local store and dropped to the floor.
“Bathroom. Come on. Don’t you freak out unless there’s a reason.” Mallory stood and followed her friend down the hall and into the guest bathroom slowly as Rayna lined up her choices on the counter. She also placed a giant chocolate bar there and Mallory laughed as she started to cry again. She w
as alone when she tested as Rayna waited on the couch for her with the candy and she took a deep breath as she walked down the hallway.
“Few minutes.” They broke open the candy bar as they waited together and stared forward.
The test was as positive as it could possibly be and Rayna collected Mallory into her arms as her friend cried and lamented that this was a horrible time and that she couldn’t do this to Declan now.
“Maybe it’s the best time. Maybe it’ll give him hope and love and he’ll want all of this despite what happened. You guys aren’t coach and that won’t happen to you.” Rayna told her as Mallory sniffled heavily. They both heard the garage door open and she stared at her friend. “I guess you’ll find out soon.”
“What’s going on?” Declan asked, his face lined with pain and worry as he stared at the girls. “Did something happen?” His hair was longer now and messy and he looked like he needed sleep.
“Stay or go?” Rayna whispered to Mallory as she held her.
“I think I can do this. I love you.” Mallory told her softly, holding tightly to Rayna for one more hug before she stood to leave. “Deck, I have something to tell you.”
“Okay.” He sat down beside her with a glance at the half-eaten candy bar before he pulled her against him.