by Stacey Lynn
“Fine. We can go upstairs.”
“To your place? I haven’t seen it yet.”
“Don’t be impressed. I’ve got a bed and a couch.”
“Two of my favorite things.” He walked straight to me and pressed his hand to my check. “I’m sorry I pissed you off and hurt you.”
Only honesty shone in his eyes.
I nodded. “Let me lock up and we’ll talk.”
***
“Don’t say a thing about the place,” I warned him as I unlocked the upstairs door. It was beautiful—had the potential to be beautiful, anyway. But at that time, I hadn’t bought anything new for it and I was waiting to get everything from the movers the following week. The only thing I’d stocked was the fridge with snacks while I was working, paper plates, and bottles of water. “I haven’t done a thing with it yet.”
I was planning on painting walls the next week, before the furniture showed up, so there were paint samples taped all over the walls.
Oliver’s eyes went to those first, and he pressed his lips together at the empty space.
“You weren’t kidding,” he said, walking into the open area, shock in his features. “You didn’t mention the kitchen table, but there really is only a couch.”
“Bed’s in one of the rooms.”
He shot me a look that curled my toes.
“Do you want some water? It’s all I have. I’ve got snacks, too, if you’re hungry, but not much.”
“No.” He walked toward me and reached for my hand. It was in his palm before I could pull it back. “Stop blabbering. This isn’t bad.”
He laughed softly and pulled me toward the couch. I’d draped a sheet over it—something I pilfered from Beaux’s place because the couch was old and gross. Oliver gave me a look before sitting on it, and I laughed harder.
“I know. It’s nasty. My things are coming next week, though. Then I’ll be all moved in.” I spread my arms out to the open living space. The exposed brick walls and ductwork made it seem more like a loft-style building, but I loved the character. The doorways were wide and curved, and all the baseboards and wood floors were original and after a polishing would be in excellent condition.
“I like it. It suits you.”
I was too nervous to ask what he meant by that.
He took his hat off and tossed it to the floor, then leaned to the side so he could face me fully before he let my hand go.
“Serena,” he said with a groan and wiped his hand over his mouth. “God, I don’t know where to begin. I haven’t talked about her in so long with anyone but my lawyers.”
“Beaux told me you’d loved her. That you didn’t start acting like a dick until she left you.”
“Yeah, well,” he huffed. “That’s what happens when the woman you think you’ll be with forever walks out on you.”
I gave him time and excused myself to get some water. I came back carrying two bottles, and when he didn’t seem to notice I was offering one to him, I set it on the floor.
“We were high school sweethearts. Started dating when we were fifteen. Seems like forever ago and yesterday at the same time, you know?” He didn’t look at me, didn’t seem like he really wanted a response, and he continued talking before I could, so it didn’t matter. His eyes glazed over and he stared at his hands when he wasn’t running them through his hair or down his face.
“We grew up in a small town outside Savannah. All we wanted was to go to college and get out of that town and make something of ourselves. She wanted to see the world and I wanted to play football. And I loved her. God, I loved her. She has this energy, this wild and frantic energy that pulls you to her immediately. I was wrapped up in her, wrapped up in football, and she swore she’d follow me anywhere. Worse, I believed her. I proposed to her the night I was drafted, after we got back to the hotel, and we were married in my parents’ backyard before I had to start the season.”
His voice had softened and his eyes became so glazed that I doubted he even knew I was in the room. The familiar burn of jealousy—that after so many years he still looked like that when he thought of her—began to flame, twisting my stomach.
“What happened?”
He made a choking sound and pulled his eyes straight to me. “Raleigh happened.”
My brow furrowed. “What?”
“We’d been in New England before here. Having the time of our lives. Newlyweds, exploring the big cities, traveling, partying it up like we always wanted to, and then I was traded to Raleigh.”
“I don’t get it.”
“That’s because you don’t give a shit about where you live, I suspect, but Serena…she wanted lights and activity and shopping and she never wanted to return to the South. She hated it. A year after being up North, she started trying to forget everything about where we came from. Bitched around the holidays when I wanted to go home and see our folks and friends. I didn’t want that stuff to change us, but she was changed by the fantasy before I ever got a paycheck. She wanted the high life—the condos in the city and the vacation homes in Greece. Raleigh…that was too big of a step down for her.”
“She left you over it?”
He pinned me with a look that went straight to my stomach, icy and splashing out the burn of jealousy from earlier. “Said I had to get a different contract somewhere else or she was leaving. Said that it shouldn’t matter to me anyway, since I was never home. She didn’t give a shit about football, or my dreams, or the fact this had always been our plan. I could keep our place in the city and just travel back and forth. I told her we were a family and I wanted her with me. That she knew having to move when I was traded was part of the deal she’d agreed to when we were married. But I hadn’t thought of it as a deal, just something we would always do together. She said I either stayed or kept the place, found a way to keep her where she was happy, or she was gone.”
“And she left.”
“Yeah.” He laughed and shook his head. “With half my money for a grand total of six years.”
My eyes jumped open. His salary was public knowledge. Even I knew how much he’d made. She took half? “You were married three years!”
“Together eight. We hadn’t even been married for three years before she filed and I came to Raleigh. But I just wanted to make her happy, I guess. I don’t even know. She asked for what she wanted, my lawyer told me not to, but I couldn’t tell her no. I’d never been able to tell her no until I said I couldn’t stay in the city with her. I didn’t even like it there. She knew I’d missed home. She just didn’t care. The worst was that the night she left, she told me she’d always hated football, just used me to get out of our small town and knew it would happen. She felt like she’d invested enough of her life and now she deserved everything she’d asked for. I should have realized all of that when she quit coming to my games after my first season in New England.”
“That’s…” I sputtered, unable to think. “That’s absurd!”
“Yeah, well, her support is almost up and guess who’s broke?”
My eyes widened. “She…what?” I shrieked.
Three and a half million dollars a year, minimum, and she’d blown it all?
“How is that humanly possible?”
He flashed me a dumbfounded grin and shook his head. “I have no earthly idea. She’s currently fighting to extend the support.”
“You’re fighting her this time, though, right?”
“I’m cutting her off, and she knows it. She’s pissed. Today’s display was a way for her to get what she wanted a different way.”
His lip curled and I sat back. Wow. I’d met women like this. I’d seen it happen at bars and after-game parties and in the box suites where most wives and girlfriends watched the games. Serena had seemed so genuinely sweet when I first met her, I never would have pegged her as one of the women like that.
“When you followed her, you looked like…”
I couldn’t finish the thought. Just remembering the way he’d chased after her,
looking so lost, made my stomach roll.
“Like I loved her?”
I nodded.
“She’s a memory, Shannon. She was also a part of me for most of my life. High school, college, my draft…football. Everything. She’s wrapped up in all of it. I can’t take that back. I grew into a man with her. And I can’t lie and say that when I found out what she’d been doing all along I wasn’t wrecked. I was. For a long time. I’m not sure when I quit caring about her at all, but I know I did. I went after her today to give her the attention she wanted and to make it clear that she’d never see me or my money again.”
I understood so much of what he was saying. Hearing him confirm it, at least tell me he knew he was over her, helped.
We all came with baggage. Mine—mostly from Patrick—was losing trust in what seemed so good.
“I might have been projecting some of my own insecurities onto you this afternoon after what happened,” I admitted.
“I’m not a cheater.” He leaned forward and pressed his palm to my cheek.
I leaned into his touch, his scent, and the strength in his hand.
“I never have been. I wouldn’t do that, and I’m not going to lie, it’s not like I didn’t have opportunity. But I was always faithful to Serena, and if we had stayed together it would have been a lifetime. I’m not that guy.”
“I believe you.”
We stared at each other for several moments, that familiar heat beginning to swirl between us.
My heart began beating faster, my pulse a little bit louder in my ears when he leaned closer.
“I’m going to kiss you now,” he whispered. “And you’re going to kiss me back.”
I smiled, a puff of breath escaping my lips. “I’m sorry I got upset and ignored you.”
“I’m sorry I walked away from you for Serena. That will never happen again.”
His lips met mine then, soft and sweet and slow and absolutely delicious. I melted into him, pressed myself to his chest when his other hand wrapped around my back and pulled me to his lap.
We kissed for hours. And when we fell asleep, curled and entwined together on a lumpy couch, only a sheet to cover us, I woke up the next morning knowing with certainty that that night had been our beginning.
Chapter SEVENTEEN
OLIVER
“Oliver.” Accompanied with her breathy little gasp, I knew Shannon was waking up, enjoying the ministrations of my fingers against her already hot, slick flesh.
Always ready for me. Me. Not the football player, because she didn’t give a shit about that. If anything, that was a point against me.
It’d been years since a woman had looked at me and seen me. Didn’t see the dollar signs or the endorsements or the potential photos in magazines with her on my arm. I never knew how much I’d missed it until the previous night, when Shannon had listened to me, understood me, and believed me at my word.
“Good morning.” I pressed my lips along the exposed column of her throat, pushing back her wild and sexy curls. Goose bumps flared on her skin, following the trail of my mouth. My fingers continued teasing her, running through her pussy before drifting away.
Her hips began rolling, her ass grinding against my erection.
She said my name again, a breath and a plea wrapped up in one.
“I like this,” I whispered as she shivered. Her cheeks were already flushed with want, her lips parted as she panted for me. “Like waking up with you, ready and hot for me.”
“Always.”
Hell. She was so damn sexy.
“I want you,” I said, my voice gruff with need. I woke up every morning, hard for her. The few nights we spent together weren’t enough. My body wanted hers, all the time. To show her what I wanted, I began pushing down the yoga pants she still had on from the night before, no underwear beneath them as if she’d been waiting for me the entire time. The previous night, I hadn’t taken her like I’d wanted to. I’d kissed her until our lips were raw and we fell asleep, and it was a night I’d remember forever. Because she came to me, angry and trusting and believing and gave herself so fully, so completely without reservation.
This morning, she’d take everything I gave her.
“Please.”
Her gasps became moans as I pushed her pants to her knees and removed her top. I removed my own clothing until we were settled on the couch, Shannon’s back pressed against my chest.
My hands roamed her skin, teased her nipples while I rubbed my thumbs over them, and she gasped and arched into my touch. My fingers pressed inside of her, opening and stretching her for me.
“That feels so good.” Her head pushed back into my shoulder and I began sucking on the sensitive flesh of her throat, tasting and touching her everywhere I could find.
“You’re so wet, so tight for me. Do you want my cock, Shannon?”
“Yes.” She pleaded and twisted her neck until her lips were against mine. I took what she offered, rolling us until I was above her. My tongue slid into her mouth, my hands moved everywhere I could reach—her cunt, her tits, her nipples as I plucked them. Every time I did, she whimpered into my mouth.
I pulled back, sliding onto the couch, and spread her legs, opening her to me. I pushed her wide open until one of her legs hit the floor and the other was draped over the back of the couch. God. So fucking beautiful. Her wet, pink cunt swollen and pulsing for me.
“You’re so fucking delicious. I want to taste you everywhere, all of the time.” My lips trailed down the length of her body until I reached her neatly shaven pussy—just a small patch of hair above it that drove me wild. I teased her there, just above her clit, and her fingers curled into the sheet beneath her. Her hips bucked up while I ran my tongue along the outer edges of her lips, around her clit, and then sank it firmly into the tight, hot hold of her.
“Oliver,” she groaned. Her whimpers increased while I drove her wild. I wanted to take her to the brink, over and over again, drive her wild, drive her out of her fucking mind like she always seemed to do me whenever I touched her.
My spine went hot, need beginning to heat my balls. Pre-cum dripped from my tip and I wrapped one hand around my shaft, pumping it hard and fast while I sucked on her clit. My fingers drove inside of her, curling deep within her until I pressed against her ridged flesh.
“Fucking come, Shannon,” I growled against her as she tightened around my fingers.
She spread her legs further and fell apart. Her clit was swollen, her taste like sweet heaven on my tongue. A taste I never wanted to forget.
I groaned against her as she began shaking and trembling beneath me, signaling the first wave of her climax as it rushed through. I knew her signs now, the way her thighs began to shake. The way she pushed against the armrest of the couch as if she didn’t know whether to flee from the sensation or thrust herself toward it.
As her orgasm started, I pulled out, eliciting a cry of frustration from her. “What the hell?”
I smirked and stood up. “You’ll get there.”
I was being cocky, and she growled at me in frustration. “Hurry.”
I’d hurry. And then I’d take my time once she got off once, but I needed in her. I reached down and yanked her hips toward the armrest, flipping her over with ease before I hauled her over the edge of the couch.
Her hands curled into the sheets and I pressed my hand against her shoulder blades. Her toes barely touched the floor and I lifted her, standing behind her as I ripped open a condom and rolled it on. “Stay still.”
She wiggled her hips, and I couldn’t help myself. My hand smacked the globes of her ass. A sick thrill shot through me as her ass jiggled and turned pink from the sting of my hand on her.
I’d marked her with my cum and my teeth.
I wanted to mark her with every part of me.
“Oliver.” She gasped my name, moaning and breathless, and I couldn’t stop.
I smacked her ass again, rubbing it to soothe the sting. Instead of arching away, she pushed u
p, seeking my hand.
“You like this?” I asked, my teeth gritted. I took my cock in one hand and ran it through her slick cunt, biting back my own groan. With my tip at her entrance, I spanked her again. “Tell me, Shan. You like this? When I spank you? Do you know how fucking hot it makes me to watch your skin turn pink?”
She moaned my name again, and I grinned when she glared at me out of the corner of her eye, her face pressed into the couch beneath her.
“You do, don’t you? You don’t think you should, but you fucking love it when I get my hands on you, however it comes, isn’t that right?”
“Yes,” she breathed, as I spanked her again. Every time my hand connected with her, she pushed back, until the tip of my dick slid right inside her.
She hugged me like a vise grip, and I lost the desire to tease her. I wanted to fuck her. Slam inside of her balls deep until she shouted my name, until my name was the only thing she thought. Oliver, Oliver, Oliver. I wanted her chanting it all day long.
“Are you going to come?” I asked as my hands went to her hips. I pressed into her, fighting the need to turn into a wild animal and fuck her relentlessly.
This woman. She took everything I gave and fucking loved it.
“Please,” she whimpered. “Oliver.”
I grunted as I hit the end of her, tilted her hips and bent my knees so I could go deeper inside of her. She contracted around my dick, sucking me in and holding me tight while her walls began convulsing.
I moved faster and faster until my fingertips grew wet from sweat. She came almost immediately as soon as I wrapped my hand around to her front and rubbed her clit. Her whole body tightened, muscles flexing in her arms as she held herself tight. Her pussy clenched around me and I continued fucking her harder, my hips smacking against her, my balls hitting her clit with every thrust forward. They pulled tight, screaming for relief, but I held off until another orgasm rolled through her, making her shake and shiver while the only thing she chanted was oh God, oh God, yes, coming, Oliver.