Bad Choices and Heartaches: A New Adult Sports Romance (Alpen Springs Book 2)

by Casey Diam

  Deciding to re-watch her message, I plugged an earphone into my ear and went to my Snapchat DMs.

  “Hey, I sucked today.” She looked up at the roof of the vehicle she was in. “I don’t know what happened.” She looked at the camera with big blue eyes. “I don’t know what to think.” She sighed. “Miss you.”

  I miss you too, Bunny. That’s why I’m here.

  I looked up, contemplating again on how to respond without ruining the surprise when Brody came upon the intersection at Sheppards. I did a double-take as I saw a little girl with a head full of red curls.

  “Oh shit, stop, dude, stop, that’s Lily.”

  My chest swelled. Oh man, she’s going to lose it!

  Chapter 32

  Gabby

  I stood at my door, mouth hanging open, my chest swelling with delight.

  Oh my gosh.

  “Hey.” Ryker smiled.

  Speechless, I threw my arms around him and clung to him, relishing his warmth and strength. He lifted me from the floor, walking us back inside before kicking the door closed behind him.

  “I can’t believe you’re here,” I finally said.

  “I wanted to surprise you. Some surprise, huh?”

  “I am surprised. Oh my gosh.” I squeezed him, comforted and ecstatic, given the week I’d had and what I’d just found out.

  As he kissed my forehead, I tilted my head, and his soft lips pressed to mine for a brief caress that heated me from the inside out.

  “When did you get here?” I asked when he broke our kiss. His forehead touched mine as his arms settled around my lower back.

  “Almost an hour ago. Are you okay?”

  I nodded, my hands sliding up his chest. “But I’m not home alone.”

  He quirked an eyebrow, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Let’s go to my house, I just saw my family downtown heading to dinner.”

  “Cool, let me just go grab my phone and other crap,” I said, but what I really did was go check myself out in the mirror and quickly slather on my sweet-smelling lotion.

  Less than ten minutes later, I put my car in park in front of his house.

  I unfastened my seatbelt. “Wow. It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve been here.”

  “That’s cause it was. My old room hasn’t been the same without you.”

  “Whatever.”

  Once I got inside, I kicked off my winter boots, and Ryker looked around.

  My gaze wandered over the living room, and everything seemed the same for the most part. His house was pretty nice, and I used to love coming over, especially for the heated pool in the back.

  I smiled at the glass liquor display against the wall in the lounge area. “I remember my first drink.”

  He followed my gaze, and even though the corner of his mouth lifted, something haunting flickered behind his eyes.

  He walked toward me and kissed me before leading me to his room. “That fall you took looked kind of rough.”

  “You watched it?” I groaned.

  “Right after I got your text,” he replied.

  “It looked worse than it was.”

  He examined me, and I grew antsy, remembering the pregnancy test. I didn’t know how I was going to tell him, my dad, my sponsors, or everyone waiting for me to finally make it to the Olympics. I glanced his way and looked around his room at the naked dark-blue walls. “What happened to all your art?”

  “It’s in a box. My mom started to complain about some of them being too graphic for Lily, so I just took them all down.”

  “Oh.”

  After moving his pillows out of the way, he sat with his back against the headboard, and I settled between his legs, his physique around me like a strong shield and a warm blanket.

  He took my hand in his and for a moment, we sat in silence until my mind began to wander. Usually I was all for this chill vibe, but there were things I was desperately trying not to think about.

  “What was that downstairs?” I asked before he could ask about me.

  “What was what?”

  I twisted so I could peer into his face. “When I mentioned my first drink, you—I don’t know, you had this look.”

  Seconds passed, and I let them. If Ryker hated anything more than not being in control of everything around him, it was being rushed.

  “I started drinking much earlier than you think, taking sips that Mom and Tom wouldn’t notice, trying to be this slick, stupid kid. Seeing them drinking every single night growing up made it seem normal, like having juice or milk before bed. One night though, they didn’t even realize I’d gone to bed wasted until the next day when my mom came into my room and found me in my bed covered in vomit. I drank way too much, and before I passed out, I thought I was going to die. I was so scared. I wanted my dad. I wanted Will. I think that was the first time I realized that he was never going to be there for me.”

  I rubbed my hand over his arm.

  “Do you remember why you drank that much?”

  He shook his head. “I just know it was when I first began to resent Will.”

  “Did he know what happened to you?”

  “I don’t know, but what would he have cared? He chose Ash.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “It’s true.”

  “Well, I don’t believe that. It’s what you’re telling yourself—”

  “Gabby, I don’t care anyway. It’s whatever.”

  I knew he just wanted to drop the subject, but I also knew the old Ryker. The one who always felt left out when it came to the relationship that Ash had with their father.

  I adjusted and kissed his forehead, his nose, his mouth. “You used to say ‘I don’t care’ a lot.”

  “And you used to say, ‘I care.’” His lips brushed my cheek. “A lot.”

  “Because you always thought no one cared about you or what you did, and I always cared.”

  “That’s why when you stopped, it killed me. I think you kept me sane for longer than you realized.”

  My hand slid to the back of his head as I pressed my lips against his. If I’d had any doubt whatsoever in my mind about my feelings for him being one-sided, he just erased it completely.

  I meant a lot to him, and him telling me this was all I’d ever wanted to hear.

  “I still care, Ryker.” I uttered between kisses. “I never stopped.”

  His tongue delved into my mouth, and a wave of desire lit up my core. My body pressed to his, longing to feel his closeness, his naked skin against mine. My head lolled back as chaste kisses trailed down my neck. My nipples tingled, my sex grew needy, and my body overheated underneath my clothes.

  One of his hands grabbed my thigh, bringing it over his lap the same time his other hand slid around my back to shift me so that I straddled his lap.

  “I missed you.” He sucked on the sensitive skin at the base of my neck, and I ran my fingers through his soft hair.

  Large warm hands slipped beneath my T-shirt and smoothed over my back as his lips found mine again. His hips shifted forward and as his erection teased over my needy center, I sighed and ground my hips over him, wishing my leggings and his pants wasn’t in the way. But the material was so thin, it was almost as if I could feel him. Our tongues met and became familiar, chasing the achy demands of our bodies.

  His hand moved between us and into the waistband of my underwear until his fingers met my soaked center. A low gasp slipped from my lips, but it was short-lived as he continued to kiss me like he was the devil and I was sin. Condemned, with nothing left to lose. I was all he lived for now. Temptation and wicked pleasures.

  I lowered my hand between us and into his pants, touching and withdrawing the thick, velvety hardness my body was aching for.

  I stroked him, and the soft sigh it elicited from him sent a thrill through me. It didn’t take more than a few seconds of us touching each other for Ryker to whisper, “I need to be inside you.”

  “I want that,” I murmured. “Let me just—” I
kissed him and moved over to one side so I could pull down my leggings.

  I straddled him once more, and he wrapped his arms around me and kissed my neck.

  His hands moved over my thighs before slipping between my legs. I sighed and bit my lip before seeking his mouth with my own. I went to touch him again and realized he must have snuck on a condom while I was lost in his kisses, so I lifted my hips and he took the hint, placing himself at my entrance before sliding home. Our sighs filled the silence.

  “Fuck.” His head fell back on the headboard, and I kissed his jaw, and then down his neck like he’d done to me.

  My hips rose up and down slowly at first as my body took pleasure from the fullness he established.

  His hand moved to the back of my head to guide my mouth to his. He nipped at my lip before our tongues met in a tantalizing tease. His hips rose, and I rode his cock like this was something I was familiar with. It wasn’t, yet it was so natural. It was a high unlike anything I’d ever felt, like flying off a forty-five-foot jump, but better.

  “I love fucking you. I want to bury my cock inside you every day. You feel so good.”

  His thickness plunged in and out of me, and kept driving me closer and closer.

  “Keep doing that. Oh, God.”

  My hips moved faster as I wrapped my hands around him for leverage, my head pressed to the side of his. My core vibrated as tingles spread through my entire body, and I tightened around him.

  Liquefied, I continued to enjoy the endless pleasure as he moved inside me.

  Not even a minute later, I moaned, greedy with want yet satisfied as I clenched around him once more, my thoughts fading as I chased the heightening desire blasting through my veins. Ryker groaned into my neck as he came, and I collapsed into him, my body involuntarily twitching from maybe too much indulgence.

  We remained still, panting and holding each other for minutes.

  “Sometimes I think that you were right about long-distance relationships being hard, but then, there are moments like this where all I can think is that it’s so fucking worth it. You’re worth it.” He kissed my cheek, keeping his arms around me.

  Chapter 33

  Ryker

  Close to an hour later, I was still starving from the long flight here when Gabby and I met up with my friends at Marcos, a Mexican restaurant in town. I was craving Johnny Joe’s, the bar and grill junk food haven that we’d all have much more preferred, but that was where the Alpen Springs High crowd hung out, and I didn’t feel like getting more attention since I was only here until tomorrow, and my time was for Gabby, my sister, and my friends.

  “What’s Eddie been up to?” I asked after I’d placed our order at the counter and found an empty table in a back corner.

  “Still dating fuck boy on the down low,” Brody said.

  “You know Eddie, he can’t help himself when it comes to the forbidden ones,” Averie added.

  As Gabby snaked her arm inside my elbow, I turned my palm up, and she interlaced her fingers with mine.

  I caught Averie giving some eye signal to Gabby across the table before I asked Brody. “Tyler still around?”

  He adjusted the dark blue beanie on his head. “Yup, but it’s basketball season, so at least I’m not home as much.”

  A worker from behind the counter carried a tray over with my combination dish to share with Gabby that I would most likely end up eating alone, since she’d said she wasn’t hungry.

  Brody looked down at his plate of grilled beef, rice, and peas with guacamole on the side. “Now I’m the fifth wheel instead of the third tonight.” He shook his head. “Can't believe I’m the last man standing out of the both of you.”

  “You are not by yourself!” Averie said, touching his arm. “You can seriously have any girl you want, so don’t even. What about Cassie? She can’t stop tripping over her feet at school every time you pass her in the hallway.”

  “The preacher’s daughter?” Brody’s mouth twisted in scorn. “Just because I’m a virgin doesn’t mean I want to be saved, Averie.”

  He leaned his head to the side as she tried to slap him.

  “How about Nicky?” he asked.

  “Nicky?” Averie shrieked. “You like Nicky?”

  His eyebrows waggled, and she laughed.

  “Since when?”

  “Since you introduced them,” I supplied.

  She gasped, eyes shifting back to Brody. “What? You know I’m going to tell her, right?”

  Brody waved his hand and shook his head as he chewed and then swallowed. “No. Don’t do that.”

  I grinned and urged Averie, “Do it. Maybe you’ll have better luck getting him laid before he leaves for college.”

  Ash and the girls chuckled as Brody showed me his middle finger. “I have time. Not going to college right away anyway.”

  “Does your parents know that?” Ash asked.

  Brody had mentioned the gap year thing to me, but I saw where Ash’s head was at. Brody’s dad was the wealthiest man in Alpen Springs, and with Tyler already being a fuck up, I couldn’t imagine the Kellers being fine with Brody not going to college.

  “Not yet,” Brody responded. “I’m just going to travel for a while until I figure out what I want to do.”

  “Maybe they’ll finally realize that I wasn’t the bad influence all this time.” I raised my eyebrows. “I’m already in college.”

  Gabby placed a hand on my thigh, causing my restrained desire for her to re-ignite. And as my cock jumped to life, I looked at her.

  As if she could read my mind, a smile teased across her lips before her eyes lowered to the table.

  “You sure you aren’t hungry?”

  She shook her head, face scrunching, and she looked so fucking adorable.

  Her thumb moved a little over my thigh, and I bit my lip as the urge to eat her instead of this meal caused my muscles to tense. The most intoxicating part was that I knew she wasn’t doing it to turn me on, she just wanted to keep touching me in some way, just as I wanted to keep touching her.

  “So, what’s the plan for the rest of the night?” Brody asked. “Party, chill, movie? My folks are out of town and the cabin is free. I could make a few calls, get a keg, a crowd, it’s up to you.”

  I missed partying with my friends, but this town was filled with my past, a past that was straight-up filthy. Hooking up had become the main point of parties for some time, but I wasn’t the same guy I was a month ago. At least, for the most part, I wasn’t, which was probably why I had the stupidest urge to still test Gabby.

  She and I had known each other for most of our lives, and she liked me, but could she really handle all of me? My insecurities about not being good enough for people. My past. The girls. My short temper.

  I shrugged. “I’m up for anything.” I nodded at Gabby. “As long as she’s coming.”

  Removing her hand from my thigh, she glanced at Averie. “Whatever you want to do. You’re only here for a day, right?”

  Was that snark?

  My gaze shifted to her, but she was staring across the room.

  “Yeah.”

  She must have felt my eyes burning into her because she looked at me. Being the arrogant jerk that I was, I turned my attention to Brody without acknowledging her, even though the action sent an ache through my chest. “You think Tyler will mind a kegger at your house? I’m thinking we should have that party we didn’t get to have before I left.”

  “Oh, fuck yeah.”

  As Brody pulled out his phone, I glanced back at Gabby. I wouldn’t have given a shit about giving the cold shoulder to someone else, but I couldn’t do it to her. Placing an arm around her shoulders, I pulled her toward me and pressed my lips to her temple. Her body stiffened in resistance to my touch, but I kept my mouth in place until she relaxed a second later. Just because I was itching for a fight tonight, it didn’t mean I should place her in the crosshairs.

  She shouldn’t have to deal with me like that ever again.

 
Giving her the option to say no because I didn’t want her to think she had to go if she didn’t want to, I asked, “You want to go to the party, right?”

  She nodded, and I smiled. “Good, cause we’re about to be attached like Averie’s butt to Ash’s knee when she tries to twerk on him.”

  “Hey, asshole, we’re sitting right here,” Ash said.

  “I know, but who doesn’t love short jokes. It’s funny, right?” I laughed.

  Brody added, “Yeah, and I could see that happening too.”

  “That isn’t funny,” Averie responded. “And I’m not that short.”

  “Have you ever tried to give him a blow job standing?” I asked. She wasn’t that short, but damn did I miss fucking with her.

  Gabby slapped my thigh. “Hey!”

  “What? It’s a legit question.”

  “Hey, Ryker, have you ever eaten Gabby out while standing?” Averie shot back.

  “Ooh.” Mouths fell open around the table, but I just smirked because lifting Gabby onto my shoulders so that her pussy was at my mouth for the tasting? “I haven’t, but I should. I think I will.” My gaze shifted to Gabby, whose gorgeous lips were parted in shock, but her eyes, they were curious and blazing with desire.

  “And for the record, I do not twerk on Ash’s knee,” Averie said, causing us to laugh.

  “She’s right,” Ash added before a knowing look passed between him and Averie that made her cheeks turn red.

  “So, what exactly do you twerk on?” Brody asked Averie. “Innocent virgin here would like to know.”

  Laughter exploded at our table again. “Dude, there’s nothing innocent about you,” I said. “Unbelievable.”

  Chapter 34

  Ryker

  “Ryker, holy shit, how’s college?” some random shaggy-haired dude asked as I stopped by the keg for a refill.

  I held out my Solo cup to Tony, who seemed to have started manning the keg in a corner of the living room.

  “Better than high school,” I responded. That was what they all wanted to hear, right? Not how I’d actually thrown up one day from exhaustion during training. Or how my girlfriend was here when I wanted her there—speaking of which, where was she?