Unsaid Things (Players of Marycliff University #4)

by Jerica MacMillan

  Breaking the kiss, he pulled back, guiding himself to her entrance with his hand, teasing her by rubbing the head all over her center. “Sweetheart, I just want you.” With that, he lined himself up and entered her.

  She let out a soft sound of pleasure and her head sank back into the pillows at the feel of him filling her up. He came down over her, holding himself on his forearms, pressing their bodies together as much as possible. She wrapped her legs around him, urging him to move by pressing her hips up against his. He let out a groan, low and sexy, and she loved how she could still make him come undone, could do it better and easier than ever.

  He took her mouth in another kiss, slow and languid like his strokes. Sometimes he took her hard and fast, up against a wall or bent over a convenient piece of furniture. But tonight was all slow and sensual, skin sliding on skin, deep, drugging kisses, a reunion full of emotion as much as want and base need.

  Soon Lance’s pace increased, even though she could tell he was trying to hold himself back. To make this last as long as possible. He pulled one of her legs up, opening her even more, allowing him to sink in even deeper. She arched against him, every nerve singing, loving every stroke. His hand moved between them, gathering her wetness to slide his fingers in circles over her clit.

  “I can’t last much longer. I need you to come with me.”

  She couldn’t answer as he increased the pressure and speed, stroking her both inside and out in a perfect rhythm. Her hands clutched at his shoulders as the tension coiled tighter and tighter inside her, her nails digging into his skin. He let out a groan, but she knew he loved it as much as she did when he got a little rough with her. He pinched her clit, flicking it back and forth a few times, and she gasped. He returned to the ever quickening circles, the pressure growing firmer as each thrust pumped hard and measured against her inside.

  “Come with me, Abby. Now.” With one last thrust he gripped her hips and held himself against her, grinding his pelvis against hers. The tension inside her exploded, her muscles convulsing, heat washing outward from her center.

  She went limp, Lance’s weight pressing her into the bed as they both recovered. Stroking a hand over his shoulder and up to his cheek, she turned his face to hers and kissed him softly. “Welcome home.”

  He chuckled and moved off of her, rolling to the side and kissing her again. “Thanks. I’m glad to be home.”

  Abby snuggled into him, more content than she thought she could be given all the stress still swirling around them. But she would worry about that later.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “So you haven’t been over there yet?”

  Lance shook his head. It was the day after New Year’s. It had been over a week since Aaron had shown up out of the blue, crashing with Abby’s mom. “No. Abby’s been keeping in touch with her mom, but says she doesn’t want to go there again while her brother’s still around.” He stood over Chris, spotting him on the bench press.

  Chris finished his set and placed the bar back on the holders, sitting up and wiping his face with a towel. “I can’t blame her. It wasn’t a happy reunion from what I could tell.”

  They switched places, Lance lying back on the bench after Chris wiped his sweat from the vinyl. Chris adjusted the weights on the ends of the bar, making sure the pins were secure. He tried not to let it show, but it bothered Lance that Chris had been there when Abby went home to confront her brother for the first time since he’d left. Even though he knew that Chris had stayed outside, like Lance had the first time he’d been to her mom’s place.

  He eased the bar down to his chest, pushing it back up smoothly. Chris stood behind his head, more out of safety precaution than actual necessity. Lance was lifting for maintenance, not to beat a personal record or anything. Chris, on the other hand, was pushing himself, working hard to get ready for the NFL Regional Combines coming up in less than two months.

  Lance waited until he’d finished his set before continuing the conversation. “No. She wasn’t happy to see him. And she’s not happy that he’s staying with their mom, but apparently her mom has been in touch with him for a while before now.”

  Chris racked their weights before they moved to the dumbbells. “That seems kind of fucked up.”

  “No kidding.”

  “She ever figure out why he’s here?”

  Lance shook his head as he selected a set of dumbbells, positioning himself in front of the wall-to-wall mirrors to ensure correct form. Chris joined him, and they finished off with a few miles on the treadmill.

  On the way out, Chris slapped Lance on the shoulder. “Let me know if you need any more help with all of that, man. Whatever I can do, I’m there.”

  “Thanks, man.” Lance shook his head, stuffing his hands in his pockets after pushing through the door. “There isn’t really anything to do right now. I’m just trying to be there for Abby, y’know? It sucks because I want to do something. Anything. Mostly I want to go over there and give her asshole brother a lesson in fraternal responsibility, but I’m pretty sure that’d just piss Abby off, which wouldn’t help anything.”

  Chris laughed. “Fraternal responsibility.” He laughed some more. “That’s good. But yeah, I get where you’re coming from. I don’t have any siblings, so I don’t know from firsthand experience, but even I know you don’t just ditch your family like that. How’s Abby handling everything?”

  “Stressed. School’s starting in a couple days, and she still doesn’t know what he’s doing here. And now she won’t be available all the time to go over there if she thinks she needs to. Her brother’s apparently been keeping up with the grocery shopping, but …” Lance let the sentence trail off, running a hand through his hair. “She’s worried about her mom, and she doesn’t know what to do. She’s worried about what it means if her brother stays, and what it means if he takes off again. It’s one of those shitty situations where there isn’t going to be a good outcome no matter what.”

  Chris nodded, all his earlier laughter gone. “Yeah. Yeah it is.”

  They said goodbye, each getting into their cars to head back to their respective women. How strange. If anyone had told him his life would look like this when he graduated, he’d have laughed. Both him and Chris with serious girlfriends? Him on the verge of proposing? And yet, here they were.

  If they could get this situation with Abby’s brother figured out, he’d feel more settled. He’d had that ring for weeks. Abby should’ve had it on her finger a week ago. With everything going on now, he didn’t know if proposing would be a good thing or not. He felt pretty sure she’d say yes. But would planning a wedding on top of all her family drama just stress her out more? Knowing her, yes.

  He sighed, starting the car and heading home. The last thing he wanted was to add more stress to her load. And with school starting, she’d be working for the foreign language department again, which meant even more stress. No, he’d wait, even though it killed him. Hopefully her brother would leave again soon, and once they were past that, he could propose. Then there’d be no doubt that she was his and he was hers. Forever.

  Abby lounged on the couch reading Cien Años de Soledad for her Hispanic Literature class. Her professor launched them straight into the deep end, not warming up with something shorter or easier to read. Couldn’t they have started with some of García Márquez’s short stories? He wrote a bunch of those. And even if the writing was equally dense, she could get through one in a sitting. Only the fact that she’d read the book in English last year made it so she didn’t struggle with it as much as she would’ve. She didn’t remember all the details, but enough of the broad strokes that she wasn’t completely lost when she encountered words and phrases particular to Colombian Spanish that she hadn’t seen before, and weren’t always listed in her Spanish-English dictionary or the app she used on her phone.

  A knock on the door pulled her out of the book. She was a quarter of the way through, and they were supposed to finish it next week. She needed to get cracking. F
rowning at the clock and annoyed at the interruption, she got up and went to the door. It was a few minutes before five, so a little early for Lance to be home, and he wouldn’t knock. Megan always texted before coming over. Plus, Abby knew she would be busy this semester getting a show together. She’d already recruited Abby to model for her, and told her how she planned to enlist Chris and Matt’s help. Abby had laughed at that. “Good luck. You’re gonna need it.”

  Megan had stuck out her tongue and changed the subject, happy to have gotten what she wanted out of Abby.

  Abby checked her phone just to be sure she hadn’t missed a text from Megan or one of the other guys. Nope. Were they expecting a delivery? It was late for UPS or Fedex, but maybe?

  Without bothering to check the peephole, Abby opened the door, and immediately regretted her oversight. The urge to slam the door again was almost overwhelming. “What are you doing here?”

  His signature smirk came to Aaron’s face. “Is that how you greet your brother?”

  Abby crossed her arms. “It is when he shows up at my apartment unannounced. How did you get my address anyway?”

  He chuckled. “From Mom. How else?”

  “What do you want, Aaron?”

  “Can’t I come in? I just wanted to come check on my baby sister. Make sure the guy she’s living with is treating her right.”

  Abby narrowed her eyes, but relented. “Fine. Come in. Tell me what you want, why you’re really back in town, and then you need to leave. Lance is going to be home soon, and we have plans tonight.” The lie came out stilted, the old habit of not giving him any ammunition to use against her harder than it used to be. But if Aaron knew her plans were to eat dinner with Lance and read some more he might try to stay longer. She’d created a schedule for herself to get through this book on time, and she needed to finish three more chapters today. Plus she had other homework. She didn’t have time for this interruption.

  Aaron came through the door, closing it behind him, clucking his tongue at her. “That’s not very sisterly of you, Abby.”

  She led him to the dining room table, not wanting him to get comfortable on the couch. “Abandoning Mom and me for two years isn’t very brotherly.” She sat down, not offering him a glass of water or anything. “Why are you here, Aaron? What do you want?”

  Pulling out the chair across from her, he leaned back, slouching down, one ankle propped on the opposite knee. “I thought we covered this before. I came to visit Mom for Christmas. And now I want to see how you’re doing. Make sure this guy is treating you right.”

  With a bark of laughter, Abby shook her head. “Whatever, Aaron. You haven’t given a shit since you left. Why now all of a sudden? Where’ve you been? Why did you come back?”

  “Oooh. ‘Shit,’ Abby? Your language has devolved since I left. Your boyfriend a bad influence?”

  “You know, it hasn’t escaped my notice that every time I ask you a question you refuse to answer or change the subject.”

  He smirked again. “You always were the smart one.”

  She stared at him. His expression didn’t change. “Okay. Well, you’ve seen where I live. Now it’s time for you to go. I have homework.” She stood.

  He didn’t budge. “I thought you said you had plans.”

  “I do. That’s why I need to get my homework done now. Time to go. It shouldn’t be a problem for you. You’re good at leaving.”

  His hand flew to his chest, clutching at his sweatshirt under his open coat. “You wound me, Abby.”

  She didn’t say anything, waiting for him to stand up. The sound of the door handle turning broke their staring contest, Abby’s head swiveling toward the sound.

  Lance walked through the door. “Hey, Abby. How was your—“ He cut off when he saw Abby standing at the table, her brother sitting across from her. “What’s going on here?”

  “Aaron came by for an unexpected visit. He was just leaving.” Abby stared at her brother some more.

  He stood, slowly unfolding himself, puffing out his chest as he stepped closer to Lance. “So this is the boyfriend, huh?” He glanced pointedly around the apartment. “I’d’ve expected better from some guy with a full time job. According to Mom, you make good money.”

  A muscle ticked in Lance’s jaw as he set down his keys on the little table near the door and took off his coat. “Is that why you’re here? Money?”

  “No, Lance—“ Abby tried to break through the extra tension between Lance and her brother.

  Aaron cut her off. “Why? You got some for me?”

  “Aaron!”

  Lance stared him down, his nostrils flaring. “If I do, you’ll leave and leave her alone.” It wasn’t a question, but a hard command. Abby had never heard Lance use that tone of voice, not even when he’d been angry at his dad when they were in Texas.

  Abby tried to step between them, but Lance reached out and pulled her to his side. Aaron still wore his smirk, his blue eyes calculating as they ran over her and Lance standing together. Lance reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, taking out a handful of bills and holding them out toward her brother. “Here. This is all the cash I have on me. Take it and leave.”

  Abby drew in a breath, ready to object, but the pressure of Lance’s fingers on her hip stopped her.

  Aaron looked them over again, reached out, and snatched the wad of bills from Lance’s fingers. He gave them both a nod, his shoulder colliding with Lance as he passed them to leave. Abby knew it was deliberate.

  Once the door clicked close, Lance strode over and flipped the deadbolt and the lock on the handle before coming back to Abby. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in close. “You okay?”

  Abby nodded. “Yeah. He showed up like ten minutes before you got home. He still won’t tell me why he’s here.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Just that he wanted to visit Mom and make sure you were treating me right.”

  Lance made a sound in his throat that Abby couldn’t decipher.

  She pressed her face into the fabric of his dress shirt, inhaling him, letting his scent fill her to replace the smell of stale smoke that followed her brother around and letting the feel of his arms around her ground her again. “I wish he’d just leave. We were fine without him. Why is he here? What does he want? I wish he’d never come.”

  Lance ran his hands up and down her back, soothing her. “I know. Me too.”

  When Lance inhaled to say something else, Abby pulled back and pasted on the brightest smile she could manage. “Hungry?” She didn’t want to hash this out right now. There were too many things going through her mind. Worry, irritation, frustration. She needed to sort it out, and not get in a fight with Lance over him giving her brother money. That would seem like just a little taste to Aaron, and he’d be back for more now. But it was done, and she’d let it happen.

  His brows were still drawn down, his eyes searching hers, but he let go of whatever else he might’ve said, brushing his lips against hers in another brief kiss. “Starving. Did you have anything planned for dinner?”

  “Not really. Delivery? Or should we go get something?”

  “Let’s go get something. Let me change real quick.”

  He disappeared into the bedroom, leaving the door open while he discarded his work clothes for jeans and a long-sleeve henley shirt. Abby put on her shoes and jacket while she waited for him, completing the actions on autopilot. Aaron had grown more and more manipulative as a teenager, and his sudden reappearance and evasiveness meant he was working some kind of angle. Money seemed to be the key to Aaron’s appearance today. Once Lance gave him the cash he left without protest. Why did he need it? She harbored no illusions that what Lance gave him was enough to get him to leave for good. And she knew that he would leave again at some point. He’d done it once already. She’d rather he just go sooner than later so she could quit worrying about it. How much money did he need to leave? And could she come up with it without involving Lance?

 
Chapter Fourteen

  “Lance gave him cash? And then he just left?” Megan froze with a soapy paintbrush in her hand, brown suds all over her palm, to gape at Abby.

  “Yeah. He’ll be back though. I couldn’t tell how much Lance gave him, but it couldn’t have been more than maybe sixty bucks.” Abby sat on the edge of the counter next to the kitchen sink while Megan cleaned up after working on the painting Abby was modeling for. It featured her hands surrounded by two other pairs of hands, each progressively darker in tone. Posing with three people, two of whom were large football players, made for some awkward contortions. They ended up with Abby kneeling on the floor with her hands on a table draped with a neutral silver cloth, one guy standing off to the right with his hands around hers, and the other guy off to the left with his hands surrounding them both. The guys were awkward about it at first, not wanting to touch each other that much or for that long, but Megan and Abby kept chatting and cracking jokes. Eventually they all relaxed enough that it wasn’t too bad. Hopefully the next session would be less awkward. And it would be the last one.

  Megan stopped staring at her, returning her attention to the paintbrushes that still needed cleaning. She shook her head. “Man. I still can’t believe he’s back at all. I didn’t think we’d ever see him again.”

  “Me too. I didn’t want to see him again.”

  Megan made a sound in her throat. Abby wasn’t sure what that meant, but decided to take it as agreement, because anything else would piss her off right now. “I’m not surprised he’s after money, though,” Megan said.

  Abby sighed. “Yeah. Me either. I wonder what he wants it for.”

  “Drugs?”

  Abby considered that. That had occurred to her too. She shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe. Who knows? He won’t tell me anything. If he can’t deflect a question, he just refuses to answer it. It’s maddening, but I can’t force the information out of him. I don’t really care, honestly. I just want him to go. And not come back.”