by Aria Cole
I traced circles on her wrist, wishing more than anything I could find a way to take away her pain. It all made so much sense now, the chip on her shoulder, her aversion to ball players. She wasn’t kidding when she said she had triggers, it was clear the scars from her past were deep. “You didn’t deserve that. Delilah.”
She pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear, looking everywhere but at me.
“Hey,” I caught her chin between my fingers. “I mean it, and I can promise you I’m not that guy.”
“They all say that.” Her grin twisted ruefully.
“But they don’t all mean it.”
Delilah nodded, her eyes following mine before I wrapped her in my arms again, pulling her against my body and kissing her. “Let’s forget about that right now. I’ve got you here, and I want to take advantage.”
Delilah giggled when I lifted her in my arms, standing from the chair and carrying her back into the bedroom. “I have to say, I kind of like you taking advantage of me.”
“Good, I need to do it a lot more.” I swallowed her giggle with my kiss, and just like that, I was lost in her again.
We all have an addiction, and Delilah was mine.
12
Delilah
As the summer heat faded to a cool fall, the Timberwolves burned up the scoreboard, landing themselves at the top of their league. They’d won game after game for weeks, and if they maintained this pace, if I could continue to analyze the figures and get the right players in the right position at the right time, we could win the pennant, then go on to the World Series.
Navy blanketed the sky when I finally packed up my laptop, picking my way down the stands to head back home after another game. The stadium was empty, the quiet oddly comforting long after the lights were switched off. I hit the turf and turned the corner into the hallway that lead to the underbelly of the stadium when I ran a rock-hard body.
“Coach said you hadn’t left yet.” Cash’s hands held my face and kissed me long and slow, butterflies battering up my throat as I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me.
“Come with me,” he breathed, snagging my hand with his.
“Bossy, huh, Greenwood?” I teased, but followed him anyway.
“I am, when I know what I want.”
“And that is?” I baited him.
Cash stopped when we reached the turf behind the pitcher's mound. Caressing my face, he was kissing me again, fingertips working into my hair as our mouths connected. I slid my hands between us, working the button of his baseball pants open, then peeling the metal teeth of the zipper apart one by one.
“What are you doing, Delilah?” His ravaged voice caressed my ears.
“I want to drive you crazy.” I dropped to my knees, slipping my hand in his pants and pulling his cock free. Thick and rock hard, I wrapped my fist around the base, watching it jerk with the cool air and my touch. Adrenaline fueled my desire at the thought of getting caught.
“You already drive me crazy,” Cash’s hips worked back and forth impulsively.
“Then hold on, Greenwood.” I grinned up at him before trailing my tongue up the beautiful curve of his thick cock. Swirling along the ridge at his tip, he sucked in a violent breath before his hands twined into my hair, holding me still.
Fisting my hand around his girth, I sucked my cheeks and pressed the tip of his cock to the back of my throat, swallowing and enjoying the smooth groove of his searing hot erection. I then pressed a hand between his legs, cupping his heavy sac in my hand. Cash’s legs shook, his hands gripping at my temples as the sharp angle of his jaw hardened with barely held control.
“I can't take your lips on me, sweetheart. It’s too much.” Heat radiated from his touch, making me feel warm and safe and so loved. “I want to see you.” He slipped out of my mouth and pushed me into the grass, his fingers already thumbing the buttons through their holes on my shirt, pushing the fabric off my shoulders.
I suddenly felt so vulnerable. “What if there’s someone here still?”
“They can’t even see us out here, baby. All the lights are off. They’d have to stumble over us to even notice.” His hands pulling down my pants in the next breath.
Cool air caressed my skin sending shudders through my body as his knuckles brushed against me. Cash’s fingers slid down my pants and swirled arousal at the burning bud of my clit. I arched, pushing my fingers through the strands of his hair when his lips attached at my throat and sucked. Desire surged through me, tingling and burning up my skin and making me feel a thousand different feelings in one moment.
“I’m useless when your hands are on me.”
One of his fingers plunged into my body, the invasion erotic as nerves burned up with exquisite fire.
“That means I’m doing my job, then.” His fingers pushed in and out of my pussy, his thumb swirling in fierce circles at my clit. Soft moans charged past my lips as all the sensations flooding through me became too intense. My legs shook and my fingernails crushed his shirt as I rode the rhythm of his hand, chasing a wave of pleasure and coming ever closer to the crest.
Cash moved down my body, his nose tracing the indentation of my navel before hovering over the bare skin of my pussy. He inhaled sharply, eyes burning as the peered back at me before sliding his tongue between my thighs. With his fingers pressing into my body, his tongue running flat against my clit, my nerves hummed with fire until he drew a swift orgasm out of me. My chest heaving, I came down from a high like I’d never experienced before, his hands roaming up my skin and kissing my lips before I could even recover.
“I used to think baseball was the only thing I loved.” Cash caught my lips with his, my arousal climbing higher with the taste of me on him. “But now it’s you. I don’t want anything between us.” His cock pushed past my entrance, my body pulsing with every nerve he touched.
“I haven’t been with anyone, just you, Cash.” I moaned when he seated himself inside me, his hands clutching at my hips and holding me in place, his knees digging into the turf as he pumped, his cock driving me to the jagged edge. Cash hooked my knees around his biceps and pushed me further into the grass, every inch of my skin buzzing with lust as his lips trailed down my neck, his mouth sucking at my collarbone. One hand slipped between us and he was thumbing my clit again.
“Come on my cock, Delilah. Soak me.”
My teeth clamped down as his thumb sped up, his cock angled and hitting a bundle of nerves I didn’t even know existed. My nails dug into the flesh of his back, his thumbs gripping my hips so firmly I thought he might leave bruises. His marks.
Delicious coils of lust unfurled in my belly at the thought. I wanted to be his, I loved the thought of wearing a piece of him on me. My heart battered my rib cage wildly as his tongue traced down my neck, between the flesh of my breasts, swirling at my cleavage and catching a nipple between his teeth.
His dark eyes shimmered up at me, his hips sped up and he angled the base of his cock at just the right angle to grate perfectly across my clit.
I sucked in frantic gulps of air, his body hard and damp with sex as he sucked on my nipple, jagged thrusts driving me over the edge. A tornado of lust spun through my head as his thighs held him firmly, his cock jerking with waves of release. I could show him what my words couldn’t say. He could feel it in those moments pulsing between us.
“So fucking beautiful. Everything about you,” he murmured, his lips working against my skin. “You make everything better.”
I hummed, trailing my fingertips across his shoulder before he leaned against me, caging me in his arms and making me feel more loved and protected than I ever had. I didn't know these feelings could exist, I’d spent so much of my life protecting myself, building walls and keeping men out, that I hadn’t stopped to think that maybe someone else could do a better job.
“Let’s go back to my place.” Cash threaded our fingers together and traced my knuckles with kisses.
“I should go home...” I traile
d off, not ready to leave him yet. If ever.
“No fucking way, babe. My home is yours now.”
“You’re insane, Cash,” I giggled, though warmth coated my stomach at his words.
“Really fucking insane...for you.” He placed a kiss on my lips, pulling my pants back up my legs. “Get used to it.”
It may have been dark in that field, but I swear I saw his eyes sparkle with those words. And I believed him. For the first time in so long, I gave myself up to fate, followed my heart, and believed him.
13
Delilah
“To play-offs!” Rod held a shot in the air, a small group to guys toasting around the hotel bar. They’d won the last regular season game tonight, solidifying their spot as lead champs, with only play-offs to come. I’d honed the stats and finally felt like the team was working like a well-oiled machine. We also had a better handle on the other teams in the league, which was good, because top of the American League was the Blue Jackets, the team that’d crashed us four games in a row.
Cash slipped a hand around my waist, smiling deeply as the guys took their shots. Cash wasn’t drinking. I think the situation with his dad had thrown him off for a while. I knew he’d ended up paying off his father’s house just like he’d said he wanted to do, but he hadn’t heard from his dad since. My heart ached for him. I could see the pain haunting his eyes. He wanted a relationship with his dad, but right now they were on two different levels.
One night Cash had wondered out loud if his dad even watched his games. I’d told him I was sure he did, but in reality, I didn’t know, because I couldn’t fathom a parent so out of tune that they wouldn’t even care to. Cash was a gift on the field, a star in the league. I know I couldn't keep my eyes off him when he played. My heart hurt for Cash, because his past was so similar to my own. I understood his pain probably better than any other. A father who wasn’t a dad was the worst kind of abandonment. The love of a parent was supposed to be so absolute, that bond was the strongest to forge us and yet for us, it was incredibly broken.
“Can we get your autograph?!” A group of giggling college girls sped up to Cash in the hotel bar, thrusting out notepads and pens.
“Sure.” Cash’s lip twitched up in that flirty way as he looked at me and then pulled me to him, as if claiming me in public. I liked the feeling that he was telling all these women that I belonged to him and they didn’t stand a chance. I swear I watched the girls almost melt in front of me. One even gave me a glare, but I beamed, happy and content to be wrapped in his strong arms. I untangled myself from him and backed away a few steps, letting them have their moment with Cash, before the last girl, with fire in her eyes, pulled down the neck of her shirt and pointed at her breast.
“Could you sign here?”
My mouth dropped open and my heart sank. These ball players were hounded by beautiful women. How could anyone resist? They were younger, more beautiful, wilder than me, I’m sure.
My stomach twisted painfully as I watched Cash take the pen from her hands. My eyes shuttered closed as I imagined him signing her chest, her eyes doing that flirty thing, his hands on her skin, her legs around his waist. Suddenly reality crashed down all around me and the wreckage was unbearable. Cash Greenwood could have any woman on the planet. Why would he be satisfied with Delilah Grey?
I’d walk in on them fucking in the locker room and my heart would shatter into a thousand pieces at my feet.
What was I thinking?
He was a ball player.
I had to leave.
Without thinking, I sped away, punching at the elevator and willing the doors to open before Cash could pull himself from the group of girls. The elevator doors opened, and I turned just in time to watch them closing on Cash’s confused eyes.
Pain twisted in my gut as the elevator whirred up seventeen floors until I was safe and alone and in my own room again.
I fell onto the bed, my heart thundering as tears swelled in my eyes. Just as I was about to unleash and sob uncontrollably, thinking I was repeating the very same mistakes my mother had, a pounding echoed through the room.
“Delilah!”
“Go away, Cash!”
“Open this door!”
“Cash!” I screamed back, tears in my eyes. I didn’t know who I was angrier with, him for not leaving me to lick my wounds, or myself for pushing him away.
“I’m not leaving until the door is open, and you know what happens if I don’t make that flight home tonight. No play-offs tomorrow. We’ll both be camped out here until I’m a starved and useless pile of nothing on the floor waiting for you, Delilah.”
I slid the chain across the door, then cracked it an inch. “I just need some time.”
“That’s bullshit. We both know what you want, and I’m damn sure it isn’t you up here crying in bed.”
“I told you, I have a lot of triggers. This is wrong. We’re wrong. I know we’ve been saying that all along, but tonight just reminded me—”
“Tonight? What the fuck happened tonight? Let me in and tell me what’s going on in that head of yours.”
I shook my head as more tears welled in my eyes.
“Delilah.” His serious tone pulled me from my breakdown. I locked eyes with his, and the way they bled compassion nearly unchained my heart completely. I swallowed, taking a deep breath and thinking I was in uncharted waters here. I opened the door and allowed him in.
“Now what the fuck was that about?” He entered the space, seeming to fill it up with his intoxicating energy.
“I just…I have issues with…stuff.”
“I gathered.” He crossed his arms, tipping his head to the side as he waited.
“My dad played Major League.” Cash’s eyes widened with the revelation. “For nearly three decades… My dad was Will Branch. The Will Branch.”
“Jesus, Delilah. I knew your dad played, but…” He trailed off. “Over 2000 RBIs Will Branch?”
I nodded sadly, always hating this part. The wide-eyed, in shock, baseball royalty part. My dad had the leading number of RBIs in the entire league, and had maintained that record up until recently. Someone I knew was inching closer to that mark.
“Well I’m glad you told me, but it still doesn’t make a damn bit of sense why you ran out on me.”
“My dad cheated, Cash. My mom stayed with him for years while he slept around on her. He even picked me up from school once with a groupie in the front seat. I was twelve.” That memory still cut deep. “He drank too much, he did a lot of coke, and he liked women. I’m just too afraid to repeat that, Cash. That’s why I can’t be with you. That’s why every nerve in my body may be screaming yes, but my brain is telling me to stay as far the hell away as possible.”
“Christ, Delilah.” Cash circled me in his arms, drawing me close and forcing me to melt into him. “I’m not him. You know me. Up until now I’ve never even looked twice at a woman. Baseball is the only thing I loved, not booze, or drugs, or groupies. You’ve been with me all season. You know me better than anyone. I didn’t sign that girl’s chest, I signed a napkin. I would never disrespect or risk losing you. Don’t you know by now that you are everything to me? When I’m with you, Delilah, it’s like I’m home. When I look at you, I feel privileged that someone so beautiful and so smart would want to be with me.
“Loving you is everything, Delilah. You once told me that I wanted you because you played hard to get. But you, baby, you don’t play hard to get, you play hard to forget. I am yours. I was yours yesterday. I am yours today. And it won’t matter if you want me or not, sweetheart, because I will be yours tomorrow and for every other day that I take a breath. You are it, the missing piece, my perfect half. Without you, I am nothing, I have nothing.”
“I… Cash…”
“I know, baby.” He gently stroked my hair with his strong hands. “But you’ve gotta try, for me, for us.”
Stray tears dripped onto his shirt, soaking into the fibers and leaving me breathless with all the emotion
s swelling within me.
“I’m sorry I ran away. I never should have done that. I just saw those girls, and all I could think about was my dad…”
“I know, baby. But I don’t like you running from me. I need you running to me, then we’ve got a shot. I want to see you, and I want you to see me. I see all your bad and good parts, and I want it all. I love it all. I am a greedy man, sweetheart, I want every single inch of your heart, mind, body and soul.” He placed a kiss on my forehead.
“I hate when you’re so wise,” I sniffed, wiping at a tear.
“I know you do.” He laughed. “We okay?”
I nodded, releasing him from my grasp and sitting on the bed. “We’ve got to be at the airport in an hour.”
“So let’s get you packed.” He paused when I didn’t respond. “Hey.” He tipped my chin up and placed a kiss on my lips. “I know this is hard for you, but we’ll take it one day at a time. I can give up anything you need to make you more comfortable. We’ll ease into this, okay? Time is what builds trust, and I got it in spades. I’ll be by your side, or under you, but better yet on top or behind you.” Cash whistled as he checked out my ass.
“You’re kind of incredible, Cash Greenwood.”
“So I’ve been told.” He winked.
“You really didn’t sign her boob?”
Cash burst into a laugh. “Nah, never signed a boob, though I’ve been asked a few times. I wouldn’t mind signing yours, though.” He caught me in an embrace. “Maybe tattoo my name right here.” He placed a kiss right above my boob.
“Not a chance, Greenwood.”
“What? You don’t want to wear my mark?” His finger trailed across my chest to tease at the nipple peeking through my shirt.
“Maybe somewhere…a little lower.”
14
Cash
Monday morning before Delilah was even out of bed, my bed, I was pounding out miles on the treadmill downstairs. She’d stayed with me all weekend after we had gotten in from our long flight, and this week was the start of play-offs. We watched games together, dissected plays and players, fucked like we would lose our minds if we didn’t—and I was pretty sure I would—and spent every waking moment together.