For Finlay

by J. Nathan

  She groaned into my mouth. The vibration traveling down to my balls, tightening them in a rush of need. I took it as my cue, trailing my fingertips up her ribs until I reached her bra. That wasn’t going to cut it. I slipped my hand around, flicking the clasp in the back until her bra fell open. I circled my hand back around to the front, dragged my thumb over her nipple, feeling her quiver beneath me. I trailed it back down the same path, seeking a reaction. Finlay groaned into my mouth, the sensation reverberating in my chest. Unable to resist, I circled her nipple in slow circles until she writhed beneath me.

  Fuck it.

  I pulled back, peeling her shirt and bra up in one quick motion, clearing her head. Her unsteady breaths dragged into her lungs, her bare chest rising and falling in anticipation. I couldn’t stop myself. I leaned down, taking her nipple into my mouth. Her back arched, her breast pushing closer to my face. I sucked it hard causing her to gasp. That just made me suck harder, earning me a desperate whimper. I tempered the sting with the soft swipe of my tongue.

  Finlay hummed her approval as her hips bucked up. I knew what she needed. Knew what would bring that discomfort some relief. But I ignored her unspoken pleas, reaching for her other breast. I dragged the pad of my thumb over her nipple as her head pushed into the pillow and her back curved, somehow trying to get even closer. I trailed the same path back down and then circled slowly.

  “Caden,” she pled breathlessly.

  “I’ve got you.” I moved my mouth, sucking that nipple in.

  Her back arched off the bed, her eyes undoubtedly rolling into the back of her head. “Oh, my God,” she panted.

  Relentlessly, I sucked and swirled my tongue around until I’d been tortured long enough by her body writhing beneath me. I lifted my head, considering my next move. Finlay’s head shot off the pillow. She stared down at me, her eyes a silent plea—her body undoubtedly craving mine as much as mine craved hers. I reached for the button on her shorts and slipped it through the slot. Then tugged them with her underwear down her legs, tossing them to the floor.

  Finlay naked on my bed was a sight to behold. If I could’ve held off any longer, I would’ve taken my time to admire the sexy view. Her dark hair spread out over the white pillowcase. Her perfect breasts. Smooth skin. Flat stomach. But I’d been patient. And my patience only stretched so far.

  I shoved my shorts down my legs, careful not to bother my thigh as I rolled back on top of her. Instead of huffing at the weight of my body, she bent her knees and cradled me between them, like it’s where she needed me. Hell. It’s where I needed to be. “This is your last chance to back out. But let me tell you, you’ll be leaving me cross-eyed and hard for days.”

  She grasped hold of my cheeks and stared up into my eyes. “I’m in.” She pulled my mouth down to hers, this time controlling the kiss. Her tongue pushed inside. It was playful and eager as her hips moved beneath me, seeking relief from my erection.

  I moved my knee, spreading her legs further apart and reaching my hand between them. She gasped as my fingers splayed her wetness, my thumb gliding back and forth between the lips until she trembled at the peak. I used the pad to circle and flick. She arched again on a moan. I couldn’t stop. Seeing her aroused and beneath me. Hearing her quiet purr. It drove me fucking insane. I continued to circle and flick. Circle and flick. Circle and flick until her moans turned to growls.

  “Caden,” she pleaded against my mouth.

  I couldn’t hold off any longer. I reached for the drawer on my nightstand and yanked it open, digging inside and finding a small package. Thank fuck.

  I pulled back and knelt between Finlay’s legs, tearing it open and rolling the condom on while she watched my every move. I liked that she wasn’t shy about my body. That she wanted to see every part of it. The feeling was mutual. I lowered myself back down, rocking my hips back and forth so the length of me trailed over her dampness.

  “God, yes,” she moaned.

  I smiled. “You like that?”

  She lifted her head. “Seriously?”

  I chuckled, lowering my lips to the crook of her neck as I continued rocking my hips, letting her adjust so she was ready for me. She lifted her hips, aligning us. That’s all the encouragement I needed. I latched onto her neck and I pushed inside. She groaned as her head dropped back, my weight stopping her from bucking me off the bed. I pulled out slowly, loving the slickness that made it easy to glide in and out, each time burying myself deeper. Soon, I hit my rhythm. Finlay seemed to like me slow and deep. So for as long as I could, I kept that pace, keeping us both at the brink.

  “Are you trying to see how long you can do that without me losing my mind?” she asked.

  I laughed. Not because it was funny, but because I could’ve done it all night long. But I wasn’t the dumb jock some considered me to be. The desperation in her eyes told me what I needed to do. I reared off and continued my quest, this time faster. This time deeper. This time making sure to hit that spot right in front that was certain to make her see stars. And it did. Her body tensed, grabbing hold of me in pulsing successions that sent me damn close to the edge. I buried my face in her neck and thrust until my own body stilled, my release erupting out of me as she panted beneath me.

  After a long moment of thanking God she gave in to me, I lifted my head. Finlay stared right back at me. “What are you looking at?” I asked.

  “You.” Her chest rose and fell with each hard-fought breath.

  “And?”

  “And you’re pretty hot.”

  Laughter burst out of me as something tightened in my chest. It wasn’t bad. It was terrifying. Because it was in that moment, as Finlay’s green eyes gazed up at me, that I realized she had the power to destroy me in more ways than one. I knew it, and I was pretty damn sure she knew it too.

  Finlay

  I couldn’t imagine waking up in Caden’s arms would ever get old. I’d slept with my back to his bare chest all night, knowing I could’ve stayed like that forever. His scent enveloped me. His body centered me. And his grasp on me never once wavered. All of it was just too good to be true.

  “Stop,” Caden said, all raspy and sleepy.

  “Stop what?”

  “Thinking.”

  I turned in his arms. His eyes had barely even opened yet. “How do you know I’m thinking?”

  “I know you.”

  “You think you know me.”

  He scoffed. “I know what you feel like when I’m inside you.”

  I dropped my face into his chest and groaned.

  “What? Why does that embarrass you so much?”

  Without lifting my head I shrugged.

  “It shouldn’t. Last night was amazing,” he said, embarrassing me more than I thought possible. “So, you better not be regretting it. Because I’m not.”

  I lay there for a long time, not knowing what to say. The previous night surpassed my wildest expectations. The way he touched me. The way he whispered in my ear as his body moved with mine. The way he made sure every one of my needs was met before taking care of himself. He treated me right. But I couldn’t shake the fact that I’d hated him for so long. I’d hated him when I didn’t even know him.

  I wanted to tell him about Cole. I wanted to ask him about the day of the wake. I wanted to clear the air once and for all. But the calm way his heartbeat drummed beneath my ear, as if he were at peace, was all too distracting. “How’s your leg?”

  Without warning, Caden rolled me onto my back. His sleepy eyes gazed down at me as his weight covered my body. “Good. But I could think of something that would make it feel even better.”

  I snickered. “Oh, yeah?”

  He nodded, his lips lowering to my neck and trailing a path of glorious opened mouth kisses down it. “We never made it to the shower.”

  My eyes instinctively closed, the sensation causing my body to become languid. “We don’t need to be to class yet.”

  His head pulled away from my neck. “Oh, yeah?”

 
; I nodded as my eyes opened.

  He kissed me hard then pulled back, just gazing down at me with the same soft look I was getting used to from him. The one that held possibilities. The one that made me feel special. The one I’d never imagined would ever be directed at me. “Stay tonight. And the next night. And the night after that.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure Forester would just love that.”

  “What? He’s barely ever here. And, you wouldn’t want me getting lonely would you?”

  “You’re pathetic.”

  He laughed before his eyes narrowed on mine for a long moment “This is crazy, isn’t it?”

  “What?”

  “How right this feels.”

  My belly dipped as heat crept up my neck and into my cheeks. I didn’t have sufficient words for how I felt. How hearing his words made me feel. But he didn’t give me time to respond. He ripped the sheets off us sending a chill rushing over my naked body. Before I knew it, he threw me over his shoulder, laughing devilishly as he carried me into the shower with him. And he didn’t release me until we were both late for our morning classes.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Caden

  There was a knock on my front door the following night. Forester had disappeared as usual, so I just shouted from my spot on the sofa, where my leg was extended on the coffee table. “Come in.” I hoped it was Finlay, but I knew she’d gone out for dinner with her roommate and planned to come by later.

  Leslie appeared in the living room doorway, looking ready for a night out in a tight little shirt and short skirt that teased her ass cheeks.

  My head instinctively shot back. “You’re back?”

  She smiled as she approached. “Hello to you too.” She dropped onto the couch so her bare thigh pressed against my leg. “I missed you.”

  I sighed. “Leslie.”

  “Caden,” she mimicked, teasing me like we were still together.

  “This isn’t a joke.”

  She dropped her hand to my thigh, moving it slowly up like she always did to get me hard. “Stop being so serious. We both said things we didn’t mean.”

  I tried to inch away but the arm of the sofa stopped me. She knew she had me at a disadvantage, leaning in and pressing her lips to mine. My head retracted and my arms shot out, holding her at arm’s length.

  Her eyes flared as she jumped to her feet. “Why are you doing this to me? To us?”

  “I tried being up front with you. I’d never cheat, and already I felt like I was. I shouldn’t have been thinking about anyone but you, but it happened. So I ended it. It’s only fair to both of us.”

  “No,” she yelled. “It’s only fair to you. You knew the only way to fuck some other girl was to get rid of me.”

  “That’s not it. I told you. I didn’t want to disrespect you. I wanted to do it the right way.”

  Her eyes narrowed in disgust. “There is no right way. I did everything for you, you selfish prick.”

  She wasn’t going out without a fight. So I let her say what she needed to say. She was actually right. She had been there. She had helped me. And I was a selfish prick.

  “Is the water girl going to do the same for you?”

  I cocked my head. “What did you say?”

  “Oh, don’t think I don’t know. I’ve heard you’ve been flaunting her all over campus. Besides, I saw the way you looked at her at your party. I’m not blind. Can’t say I understand what you see in her. But I’m willing to overlook this little bump in the road. Especially now that I’m sure you’ll want nothing to do with her.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Leslie turned on her heels and walked to the entryway, returning with a jersey in her hand.

  “What’s that?”

  A sly smirk tore across her lips. “Oh, wait for it. It’s good.” She opened up the number sixteen jersey, holding it up so I could read the name on the back: Thatcher.

  It was as if the floor had dropped out from beneath me. The sight of that jersey—of that number and name—brought on a bout of sadness I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in a long damn time. “Why do you have that?”

  “Oh, this? It’s not mine.”

  “What?”

  She shrugged. “It’s your water girl’s. It was in her room.”

  My mind spun. Why would Finlay have Cole’s jersey? I thought to our trivia game. To all the things she knew about the history of the team. “She’s a diehard Alabama fan,” I explained, trying to convince both Leslie and myself that her love for the team was the real reason she had the jersey. Unfortunately, something told me it wasn’t.

  Leslie’s smirk grew as she walked toward me. “Yeah. I bet she is.” She extended her phone to me.

  I grabbed it. “What?”

  She nodded to the phone in my hand. “Just take a look.”

  The picture on the screen was a cork board filled with pictures of Cole and Finlay. And she wasn’t in just one. She was in every damn one of them.

  What the fuck?

  “Apparently, the two of them dated,” Leslie explained. “These were in her room, too.”

  A dagger plunging into my heart would’ve felt better than that news blindsiding me. Was Leslie right? Was it even possible? Had Finlay dated Cole?

  My heart became a jackhammer in my chest.

  How well did I even know Finlay?

  Never once had she mentioned that she knew Cole. Never once had she mentioned anything about her past that I hadn’t pulled out of her. Never once had I even considered our meeting had been anything but chance.

  Jesus Christ.

  “Seems like she’s trying to dig her claws into every Alabama quarterback she can get her hands on. If you ask me, it’s disgusting.”

  Fuuuuuck.

  How could I have been so blind? So stupid? With Cole gone, had I been some kind of sick replacement for her? Had I just been another quarterback to warm her bed? Another star to latch onto to give her notoriety?

  Heat pulsed throughout my body. I needed air. I needed a drink. I needed something to hit.

  My mind whirled, flashes of our times together hitting me at warped speed. I’d let her in. I’d told her things I told no one. And all she was doing was using me. Worming her way into my life. And I’d fucking let her.

  God dammit.

  How could my feelings for her have developed so fast? Feelings so strong I’d broken things off with Leslie? It wasn’t like Finlay had been easy to get close to. It wasn’t like she hadn’t made things difficult. But every move had been calculated. She’d played me like the fool I clearly was.

  That shit stopped now.

  Leslie lifted her shoulder. “Told you you’d want nothing to do with that football groupie.”

  The rest of Leslie’s words were drowned out by the throbbing in my head. It wasn’t the remnants of the hit that hospitalized me. It was the knowledge that I’d been used. I’d been fucking used.

  I knew something wasn’t right from the moment I met Finlay. But I chalked up her hot and cold attitude to her being overwhelmed by the guys and their antics. Once I got to know her, I saw her softer side. Her fun side. Her sexy side. But it had all just been a ploy to get to me. To insert herself into my life. To be part of my world. To benefit from my future.

  Leslie was right. I didn’t want anything to do with Finlay.

  I’d never want anything to do with that lying bitch again.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Caden

  Leslie had left hours ago, and I’d yet to move my ass off the sofa where I lay with the television muted and my head banging with the weight of what she’d revealed. I’d been fucking played.

  Knocking on the front door jarred me from my thoughts. “It’s open.” I pushed myself upright as the door in the entryway creaked open.

  Seconds later Finlay appeared in the living room doorway donning cut offs and a T-shirt. Her backpack was on her back, presumably filled with a change of clothes to stay the night. And despite what w
e’d shared, I felt nothing but disgust looking at her deceitful face. Remembering her traitorous touch. Inhaling her lying scent. I felt nothing for the girl who made me drop my walls and open up about my troubles with school and my hatred for my father. The one who made me break it off with a girl who dedicated her time to helping me. And loving me.

  Everything about Finlay was a fucking lie and I fell for it. Hook. Line. And sinker.

  “Hi.” She smiled. Of course she smiled. She’d bagged the quarterback. She got him to dump his girlfriend. She pulled the wool right over his eyes.

  I did nothing but stare at her. At a girl I’d never known. How had I’d been fooled so thoroughly? How had I’d been so damn stupid?

  “Are you okay?” she asked as she stepped into the room, slowly approaching the sofa.

  I shook my head. “Nothing about this fucked up situation is okay.”

  She sat down next to me, dropping her backpack onto the floor at her feet. I moved a couple inches away, not wanting to touch any part of her. Her eyes took in the distance. “You want to talk about it?”

  “Talk about what?”

  Her eyes narrowed, caught off guard by the cold clip to my voice. “Whatever’s going on.”

  “Leslie stopped over.”

  “Oh. How’d it go?”

  “You mean, me breaking up with the one girl who had my best interest in mind?”

  Finlay’s brows drew in.

  “The girl who took classes with me to make sure I passed. The girl who cared about my future?”

  Finlay’s head recoiled, clearly taken aback by my escalating anger.

  “The girl who always told me the truth.”

  “What am I missing?”

  I grabbed the number sixteen jersey from the floor beside the sofa and pulled it tightly to show Thatcher on the back.

  Finlay’s eyes shot wide, the fear immediately evident. “Where’d you get that?”

  “So, it is yours?” I guess a part of me held out hope that it wasn’t.

  “Did Leslie bring it over?” Her voice hardened. “She stopped over to see my roommate. She must’ve taken it.”

  “So you’re not even gonna deny it?”