FALSE 9: Red Card Series

by Erickson, Megan

  I blinked into the darkness, my eyes finally settling on Bianca, who was curled up on the couch in the corner. “B?” I whispered.

  She sat up, a tentative smile on her face. “Hey.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I convinced the nurse I was your sister so she’d let me stay the night.”

  I laughed, but groaned because that kind of hurt. “She believed you?”

  “I’m very persuasive.” She stood up and crept toward me on socked feet. She sank into the chair beside my bed. “You should be sleeping.”

  “Where’s your nurse costume?” I asked.

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re stupid.”

  I reached for her hand and linked our fingers. “I was going to ask you a question but then I was rudely interrupted by my parents and hospital staff doing their jobs.” She pressed her lips together. “Are you going back to New York now? To model?”

  Her eyebrows shot into her hairline and her mouth dropped open. “What?”

  “What part do you need me to repeat?”

  She dropped my hand like it was hot. “You think I’m going to go back?”

  I fidgeted with the blanket on my lap. “The threat’s gone. You can go back if you wanted to now.”

  She stared at me. “I don’t want to.”

  “Your uncle—”

  “I’m sure my uncle had a lot to say, but that doesn’t mean he’s right. I wasn’t lying when I told you I was done, Lavin. I’m done. I want a college degree and I want to plan events and I really want a life that involves zero stalkers.”

  My heart beat double time. “I think that can be arranged.”

  She held up my hand, and for the first time I actually looked at what she’d written on my hand with black Sharpie. She’d scrawled B loves L surrounded by a heart with an arrow through it. “And I want this.”

  I swallowed, hoping like hell this wasn’t a dream and a result of my head injury. “I want that too, B. More than anything. Is this real?”

  She smacked me. Again. Just like she did earlier. “I can’t believe you thought I’d go back to New York. We went over this, Lavin. I’m crazy about you and deserve you, and you’re crazy about me and deserve me.” She spread her hands out. “See? All settled.”

  My cheeks hurt, my smile was so big. “You’re right. All settled.”

  She reached over and ran her fingers along my eyebrow. “Hey, at least you finally have a cool scar.”

  “Wait, really?”

  “You might even get one of those bare spots in your eyebrow.”

  “No fucking way.” I reached up to feel stitches on my brow. “Sweet. I always wanted one of those.”

  She shook her head with a laugh. “You’re so dumb.”

  “Who needs a brain with a cool eyebrow scar?” I waggled my eyebrows, and she rolled her eyes. “You’ll be beating the chicks off me with a stick.”

  She leaned back in her chair, arms crossed, her eyes squinted in a glare. But I noticed how hard she was trying not to laugh. “Oh yeah? Maybe I’ll let them have you.”

  “No you won’t.”

  “Oh, you’re so sure of yourself now?”

  I lunged for her, and she squealed, but she wasn’t fast enough. With my hands under her arms, I hauled her onto the bed with me and pressed a fast kiss to her lips. “For once, I’m sure. Sure I fell in love with you Bianca Santos.”

  Her breath was coming fast, and her cheeks were flushed. She licked her lips and said in a hushed whisper. “When?”

  “When did I fall in love with you?” Her nod was jerky and her eyes shone. I wrapped my arms around her. “On campus when you kissed my cheek. I didn’t want to wash my face.”

  Her hands came up, fingers sliding into the hair at my temples. “Cemetery,” she said softly, inches from my lips.

  My brain was scrambled with her body pressed so tight to mine. “What?”

  “I fell in love with you at the cemetery.”

  “We’re weird.”

  She laughed softly, and murmured. “I love weird with you,” before kissing the hell out of me.

  * * *

  “I have a surprise.”

  Bianca whispered those four words at the beginning of the soccer banquet, and I hadn’t been able to focus since. Because her voice had been all breathy, and she’d given me that sexy smile full of promises that always meant good things for my dick. Plus, she wore a blue strapless dress with a full fluffy skirt thing that ended about mid-thigh with high heels. Her hair swirled around her shoulders every time she moved, and I couldn’t breathe whenever she looked at me. For real, I couldn’t fucking breathe. I was going to have a goddamn heart attack before I got my hands on her again.

  I’d never brought a date to the banquet. It was kind of an unspoken rule among the players that only serious girlfriends attended. Which meant Dre, Shane, Zac, and I attended the last two banquets alone. This year, I’d asked Bianca, and she’d informed me she’d already planned to attend with her uncle, but that she had every intention of sitting next to me as her date whether I asked or not.

  So I sat through the awards and the accolades clenching my fists on my thighs and telling my dick to fucking wait its turn. But goddamn, this was a test of willpower. Bianca’s laugh was beautiful, and with every breath she took, her chest heaved, drawing my attention to her magnificent tits.

  Every once in a while, she’d brush her leg against mine. On purpose. With a little smirk. And you know what? Fuck waterboarding. Put Bianca in a room with a Russian spy for like ten minutes and he’d spill everything to get his hands on her.

  The banquet was almost over. Coach was finishing up the awards, and I was bouncing my leg, eager to figure out what those four words meant. Shane kept shooting me looks, and Dre had asked if I’d started smoking crack because I was sweating and jittery. Fuckers.

  Dad and Pop were there too. Parents attended every year, but they sat separate from us players in the back of the restaurant that Coach had rented out. Dad had immediately noticed my lack of focus and tried get me to rub calming oil on my wrists.

  “Final award for the night.” Coach was saying as she stood at the front of the room, his hands on a miced-up podium the restaurant had provided. He always seemed so uncomfortable at these things, but this year he was a bit more relaxed. I was going to wager it was because of the blonde who had arrived with him. She was tiny, like half his size, and Bianca told she was the nurse, the one he’d been dating. She looked at him like the sun shone out of his ass, and I caught him staring into her eyes, his face all soft. I didn’t think Coach did soft, but I’d been wrong, apparently.

  “This one is for MVP of the year, and I have some things to say about this young man.” I bit my thumbnail, antsy as hell, wanting to yell out Shane’s name now so we could get this over with. How could anyone else be MVP? Shane was our top scorer.

  Coach cleared his throat and shifted his weight, his gaze never wavering from the piece of paper in front of him. “This player is the definition of there’s no I in Team. I know I’m known for giving you all a hard time, but I’m hardest on those I see the most potential in. I’m a realist. This is Division III and while I do think some of you could land on a professional team, I don’t think that’s a goal for a lot of you. And this young man…the potential I saw in him had some to do with the sport and more to do with what kind of man I think he’s growing into being. He works hard, he cares about his teammates, he gets along with others, and doesn’t shy away from challenges.”

  This was a big speech. Damn. Shane must have been more focused than I realized.

  “The recipient of this year’s MVP award is Lavin Saint.”

  Cheers went up around the room. Dre stuck his pinkies in his mouth and whistled. Shane rose to his feet with a happy shout, clapping like a fucking seal. Bianca hollered like I’d won the lottery, and all I could do was sit there and stare at Coach. He’d lifted his head, and met my gaze steadily. When I didn’t move, he pursed his lips and wav
ed at me to walk up to him.

  Me? MVP? What in the fuck?

  Bianca tugged on my arm, and I stood up, still unsure what was going on. I looked over my shoulder at Dad and Pop. Dad was crying, because he cried over every intense emotion, and Pop’s chest was all puffed out, like that’s my boy.

  I walked to the front of the room, where Coach handed me a trophy. Then he did the last thing I ever expected on this earth to happen. Crazier than Bianca saying she loved me. Crazier than getting kidnapped by two dumbass goons. Crazier than winning MVP of the year.

  He hugged me. He just wrapped those beefy arms around my torso and squeezed. An actual real hug. That happened. To me.

  I didn’t know what to do other than stand there and…be hugged. Coach had never willingly touched me unless it was to smack me on the head. He knew about Bianca and I now. She’d told him when I was in the hospital, but the season had been over and he hadn’t said a word to me.

  The hug was still happening. I was still in his arms. Then his head lowered beside mine, and he spoke actual words right in my ear. “I know I told you that Bianca was meant for bigger things, and I decided those bigger things include you.”

  He finally put an end to the hug, slapped me on the back so hard I nearly capsized. And shoved me toward the podium. I didn’t have words to process what he said because I was still stuck on all he said about me being MVP. Christ, I needed a quiet corner for my brain to work.

  “Speech. Speech. Speech.” My teammates chanted, all of them yucking it up. The knuckleheads.

  Well, I couldn’t get my quiet corner now that everyone was staring at me. I cleared my throat, gripping the trophy with sweaty palms. “Uh, hey,” I said into the mic. My voice was way too loud, so I pulled back. I scratched my head over the spot where I’d had to get stitches when that asshole had slammed me into the goal post. The hair had grown back with a cowlick. “I’m not sure what to say since this is kind of a surprise. I thought it’d go to Castle. Maybe we can share it.”

  “It’s yours!” he called, cupping his hand over his mouth.

  “Whatever,” I muttered. “Anyway, I guess I’ll say thanks to Coach for that speech. I hadn’t realized, uh, what you saw in me, but that meant a lot coming from you, so yeah. Thanks. Thanks to all my teammates. I love playing with all of you. These last three seasons have been some of the best of my life, and I know I’ll carry these memories forever. I guess…” I looked down at the trophy, at my name etched there on the gold-plating. Something swirled in my gut, telling me to take this seriously, not to brush it off with a joke. I inhaled and let out a shaky breath before straightening my spine. “I never expected the glory. I never tried for it. But holding this trophy, and learning what I have these last three months,” I locked eyes with Bianca, who sat with her shoulders back, hands clasped to her chest. “I guess I’ve learned it’s okay to want the glory and to go for it. Because there’s nothing in the world like getting it.” I held the trophy in the air before leaning back down into the mic. “Go Badgers.”

  The room erupted in cheers and I strode back to my seat. I sat down and immediately said to Bianca, “Did I sound stupid?”

  She shook her head, eyes wet, cheeks flushed. “You sounded amazing.”

  “Cool,” I said, relaxing back in my chair with a grin. “Amazing.”

  After the banquet, after I’d had the life squeezed out of me by my dads, after Coach had given me another slap on the back, and we were all catching rides home, Bianca gripped my hand and all but dragged me out to the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. Waiting there was a big black limo. A driver, wearing a suit and one of those fucking hats like we were royalty, opened the door, waving his white-gloved hand inside. “After you.”

  Bianca slid in, and I climbed in after her, helping her settle the puffy skirt of her dress. The driver shut the door behind us, and quickly settled into the driver’s seat. “Everything okay?” He asked.

  “Yes, thank you.” Bianca said.

  “Where are we going?” I asked. “What’s with the limo?”

  The driver didn’t answer. He just shut the little partition separating us from him, and then the limo began to move.

  We were settled in the back along a large couch-type seat. Dim lights ran along the ceiling and the floor. I fucking loved it.

  “So, Mr. MVP,” Bianca said, handing me a bottle of water. The bottle was glass. For real. “Have you ever ridden in a limo?”

  “Uh, yeah for prom, but it was some budget limo shit because it wasn’t anything like this.” I took a sip of the water. It was ice cold and swear to God, it was the best water I ever had. “I could live in here.”

  She took the water from me and placed it back on the bar top. “Well I’m glad you like it. We have it for an hour. I rented it just to drive around just the two of us.”

  “As far as surprises go, this is awesome.” I stared up at the ceiling and spotted a window. I wanted to stick my head out of it. I knew Bianca would go for it.

  “Well that’s not the only surprise.” She slid closer to me as I calculated how big the window was and if Bianca and I could both fit into it together.

  “What?” I was really distracted by the window. “What else is there?”

  She slid into my lap, startling me. I leaned back as she placed her hands on my shoulders. My heart rate sped up. Wait a minute…

  “Just you and me, Mr. MVP,” she said in that breathy voice. My dick immediately reared its head like a hungry lion. “Alone. For an hour.”

  My brain had a lot to process tonight and for fuck’s sake, it was about to short circuit. I blinked at her. “Wait. Are we fucking in a limo? Oh my God, we are. I always wanted to fuck in a limo. Of course, I wanted to fuck period, but fucking in a limo is on my bucket list too.” Something outside the window caught my eye. “Is that a dog on a Segway?” Fuck, I was losing it. Maybe I was having a stroke. Too many head injuries. I’d die a virgin.

  She wrenched my head to face her, and I finally focused to see her shoulders shaking with laughter, a delicate giggle bursting from her lips as she dropped her forehead to mine. Her fingers coasted over my lips, a silent plea to shut the hell up as she slowly rolled her hips in my lap. Her giggle deepened into a moan, and I couldn’t make a fucking sound since all the blood in my body rushed south like a waterfall.

  Her body was so soft. And warm, and just…all over me. My senses went haywire, my nose full of the smell of her hair, my palms tingling as they roamed over the soft skin of her thighs and the rough texture of her dress. I didn’t know where to look first. Those hypnotizing eyes, the swells of her breasts, the vein pulsing in her neck, and her heat between her legs rubbing all over my dick through my pants.

  “B,” I managed to say, my voice rough. I sounded like I smoked a pack a day, and my lungs felt like it too.

  “Shhhh,” she said. “I want to take care of you.”

  “I want to take care of you.” My hands coasted up her thighs.

  “You’ve been taking care of me for weeks.” Her lips slid down my neck, her tongue tasting me along the way. My hips jerked as my dick sought out a hot place to invade like a heat-seeking missile.

  “Fuck,” I murmured.

  “That’s the idea.”

  Her fingers made quick work of my tie, and then the buttons on my shirt. She ran her hands over my abs, my chest, her fingernails catching on my nipples. Christ, there were too many sensations.

  I leaned forward and pressed my lips to hers, wanting to taste her, to show her how much this meant to me, that it wasn’t just fucking a limo like I’d previously said all my infinite wisdom.

  I slipped my hands into her hair, angling her head to deepen the kiss. Our hips were working in time now, in a rhythm that we both seemed to pick up. It was so damn poetic, like our own music, and I couldn’t believe I was even thinking those things, but that was how perfect she felt. That was how perfect we were together.

  I tore my mouth from hers, my dick already leaking in my pants.
I tugged down the front of her dress so that her tits were bare. Her dark nipples hardened as I twisted them gently. I placed my palms on her arched back and drew her to me. I sucked on a nipple, swirling it with my tongue before nipping the peak. She gasped, and she shuddered against me, her fingers digging into my scalp. “Lavin.”

  “B, you are so fucking beautiful,” I murmured against her skin as I ran my lips across her chest to her other nipple.

  With my free hand, I slipped my hand down her dress and under all the layers of her skirt. I froze when I realized she wasn’t wearing anything. Nothing but the dress. I tilted my head up. “Are you fucking serious?”

  She smirked at me. “I told you I had a surprise.”

  “Okay are there more? Because I’m seconds away from stroking out if you surprise me with something else.”

  She laughed, squeezing my hips with her thighs. “I think that’s it.”

  “Killing me,” I said as I took her mouth again just as my fingers found her clit. She moaned into my mouth, her hips churning harder against my hand. I circled the hardened nub before sliding two fingers back and plunging them inside of her. She let out a little squeak, her mouth slipping from mine to pant against my cheek. “Oh yesss,” she said on a frenzied hiss. With two fingers working inside of her, I let my thumb press on her clit. She bucked against me, her chest heaving, hard nipples rubbing against my bare chest.

  “You are so fucking wet.” Ironic that she was drenched while my throat was so dry with want I could barely talk.

  “For you,” she whispered, her head thrown back, eyes half-open. “Never been like this before.”

  “I want to see you come. I need that before I get inside of you.”

  “Yes.” She rode my fingers, and I crooked them as my thumb pressed harder on her clit, swirling through the wetness there.

  She was a goddamn dream, a siren, astride my lap with her shiny hair everywhere, her heels on, long legs flexing as she chased her orgasm. Meanwhile, I was just trying not to come in my pants. I clenched my jaw. “B,” I gritted out.