Playing with Fire - A Sports Romance

by Lydia De Luca

“Don’t worry, baby, we’ll figure something out,” I tell Corey. I cuddle closer to him, tucking my legs up so I’m nearly in his lap.

  “Enough talk about Daddy,” Vivian says. “I want to know what I’ve been missing out on. What have you three been doing the past couple months? I don’t feel like I know anything anymore.”

  With Vivian’s topic change, our conversation gets lighter. Mitch, Corey, and I explain how we all met that fateful night downstairs at Riverside. Vivian swoons when Corey tells her about his declaration of love on top of the Empire State Building, and Mitch tells us tales of the strange things he’s seen as a bartender. Because I’m still healing, Corey doesn’t want me to leave the room. We order in Chinese food and talk until the sun goes down.

  My heart is full tonight. With my lover, my best friend, and my cousin with me, I couldn’t imagine needing anything else.

  “I think they like each other,” Corey tells me after we’ve cleaned up the mess from supper and Mitch and Vivian have left. He settles onto the bed beside me and I lay my head on his bare chest.

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” I mumble.

  “She’s a big girl, Frankie. She can take care of herself.”

  “It’s not Viv I’m worried about,” I tell him.

  “Mitch was in the Marines, doll. I’m pretty sure he can handle Vivian.”

  “You don’t know my cousin.” I grin up at him and he takes the opportunity to kiss me. When he pulls away, I settle back onto his chest and say, “I’m not ready for you to go back to playing.”

  “I know. I feel like we need a bodyguard for you.”

  “Really?”

  Corey runs his fingers through my hair, trailing them along my neck and down my back. “You mean everything to me. I want you to be safe.”

  “Maybe we can get Mitch to come with us next week when we travel.”

  “We?” Corey’s surprise has me turning to face him again.

  “I don’t want to be without you. I’ll pay my own way, fly commercial if I have to.”

  “I don’t want you flying alone.”

  “Then I’ll ask Mitch to come.”

  Corey smiles and shakes his head. “You think he’s going to quit his job so he can follow you around?”

  “I’ll pay him.”

  “That’s a lot of money, Frankie.”

  I lean up on my elbow and look into Corey’s eyes. The deep blue is calming, and it makes me feel safe. I’ve been keeping secrets from him, though, and my guilt makes me break eye contact. I trace my finger over the peaks and valleys on his stomach.

  “I have more money than I know what to do with.”

  Corey’s silent for a moment before he asks, “Isn’t that Marco’s money, though?”

  “No. I have more money than Marco does.”

  He stops my hand with his. “What do you mean?”

  I explain to him that Marco’s fortune was passed on to him by his father, my grandfather. When he died, half went to my grandmother, and half was split between Marco and my mother. My mother made one of the only wise decisions she’d ever made and entrusted someone to invest it for her. Marco made his own investments. The baseball team. The other companies he owns. While in the long run they paid off, it took a large amount of capital to make everything as profitable as they are today. And not everything panned out.

  When my mother passed away, everything that was hers became mine. And since I was a minor, my grandmother put everything that wasn’t already invested into a trust fund for me. She was a shrewd woman, and her investments flourished. Upon her death, half of her estate went to Marco, the other half went to me.

  “I found out after I graduated that Marco borrowed from his inheritance. So I ended up with more than half of the estate, and I continued to use my grandmother’s people to invest in the markets. I make enough working for Marco to cover my living expenses, so the money just keeps growing. I could live off the interest from my trust fund alone, in much more comfort than I have now.”

  He’s silent, staring up at the ceiling with his fingers intertwined in mine. It’s a while before he speaks again.

  “I don’t get it.”

  “Get what?” I ask.

  “You don’t act like a trust fund bitch.”

  I laugh and squeeze his hand. “Well, thank you. That’s good to know.”

  “Do that again.”

  “Do what?”

  Corey leans up on his elbow and looks at me. “Laugh like that again. I love to hear you laugh, Frankie. You’re so beautiful.”

  “I love you.”

  His smile could light up New York. “I love you, doll.” He pulls me down beside him and I press my body against his. “Is there anything else you’re keeping from me?”

  I tense beside him, even though it’s nothing too concerning. Not anymore, not since I fell in love with him.

  “What is it?” he asks.

  “You know the night we met, I was looking for a one-night stand, right?”

  He chuckles, low and quiet. “Best one-night stand ever.”

  I smile, but it doesn’t reach my eyes. “It’s not the first time.”

  “You don’t have to apologize. So what, you’ve had a couple one-night stands.”

  “It’s not just a couple,” I say. I speed on before he can stop me, before I lose my nerve. “What I told you in New York is the truth. My mother was a whore. And with how Marco acted when I was growing up, blocking even the most basic of friendships, that was all I had. I’ve lost count of the number of no-name men I’ve been with. I became my mother.”

  “No. You’re not your mother, Frankie.”

  “You’re right, I’m not. I learned from her mistakes. I’ve had an IUD since I was twelve. I’ve never had sex without a condom, but I still get tested for STDs every three months. I’m religious about it. I don’t ever want to end up like her.”

  “You won’t,” Corey assures me. He grips my face in his hands and pulls me to him. His lips are gentle, soothing. When he releases me, he pulls me close and wraps me in his arms. I want to stay here forever.

  Corey’s breathing beside me calms my fears. He knows my darkest secret, and he’s still here. But still, there’s one thing I’m dying to know.

  “Are you clean?” I ask, peeking up and putting my chin on his shoulder.

  He moves his hand to my cheek and kisses my lips. “Of course. I never have sex without a condom, either. But after what you told me, I got tested when we came home from New York. I never want you to have to live with that fear.”

  I hug him tight and he kisses my forehead. “You’re everything to me, Corey.”

  “You too, doll.”

  I claim his lips with mine once again. The slow, gentle kisses turn hungry, and the desire that began building before Mitch and Vivian showed up is there again. Corey slides my tank top off and begins mouthing my chest, breathing hot breaths against wet skin. I reach down and slip a hand into my shorts, and I laugh at the moan Corey makes when he sees me touching myself.

  “My turn,” he growls as he peels my shorts from my body. He slides his tongue between my folds and licks furiously, flicking against my sweet spot, plunging deep inside. His fingers join the battle, and I explode again and again.

  When his assault stops, mine begins. I push him down onto the bed and tug his jeans off, hungry to have him between my lips. His moans, his writhing body beneath me, they’re building me up without as much as a caress against my skin. When he’s ready to come, he tries to pull my face to his. But I want to taste him, I want to see the pleasure on his face as he shoots inside my mouth. I work him with my tongue, my teeth, my hand. I hold him as his balls tighten and squeeze as he explodes deep in my throat.

  I climb up on top of him and lay my naked body on his. Our tastes intermingle as our tongues dance together. This should be it. This should be all Corey gives me tonight. It’s all I’ve gotten since the fire. But his hands continue to caress my body and I begin to think he might be ready for mor
e. He grabs my hips and pulls me higher. His hands slide down to my ass and he kneads both cheeks with his palms. His fingers go lower, reaching around behind me and sliding deep inside of me. His cock is growing against my thigh as he fingers me, teasing my sensitive skin.

  He releases me with one hand and reaches for the drawer beside the bed. I grab his hand, stopping him.

  “No, baby.”

  “I want you, Frankie.” He tries again to reach the drawer and again I stop him. His frustration is clear, but I’m quick to wipe it away.

  I take his cock in my hand and slide his tip between my folds. “I want you, Corey. Skin to skin. Just you and me.”

  “Forever, doll. You and me forever.”

  We both moan as I sink down on top of him. I watch his face, watch the sheer pleasure explode across the surface, as I move against him. I want to come, but I can’t get enough of the ecstasy written in his eyes. I swirl my hips and my insides throb when he growls my name. I swirl again and he grabs my hips and forces himself deeper inside of me. We meet there together, sharing our love, sharing our bodies. There is nothing on earth better than this.

  My chest spasms, and I’m wracked with a coughing fit. Corey stills, then sits up, holding me and rubbing my back, trying to soothe me. When I can’t stop coughing, he helps me down on the bed beside him and reaches for my glass of water. Before I can take a drink, a siren blares out in the hall.

  “Shit!” Corey scrambles out of the bed and we both look at the door. There’s smoke seeping through the cracks. “Shit! Frankie get dressed.”

  Corey tosses me a pair of jeans and a t-shirt I left on the floor by the bathroom before he grabs his own clothes and begins throwing them on. He’s dressed before I am since I can’t stop coughing. He helps me into my clothes and pulls me to the door.

  “Careful!” I tell him between coughs before he can grab the door handle. That’s how I burned my hand when I was trying to find a way out of Corey’s apartment.

  Corey taps the door handle with his hand. “It’s hot. Shit!” He runs to the bathroom and drenches a couple towels with water before returning to me. “Hold this over your mouth. We might need to run.”

  “I don’t know if I can!” I’m wheezing, my lungs are burning.

  Corey glances from me to the door. He grabs the handle and throws it open. Flames have engulfed the hallway. The carpet has swirls of fire in an odd pattern, and the walls are black where they’re not orange with flame. He sticks his head out the door before pulling back and looking at me.

  “It’s like someone lit the hall on fire right in front of this room.” His voice is loud over the roar of the blaze, but he’s strangely calm. “We’re going to make a run for it, doll. There’s about twenty feet of fire before it stops. I can see the stairs and they’re clear. Come here.”

  Corey pulls me into a hug, then sweeps my legs out from under me and cradles me in his arms. “Hold the towels over our noses and mouths. I’m going to get us out of here.”

  The second I have the towels in place, Corey rushes out into the hall and runs for the stairs. The flames lick our skin until we reach five feet in front of the stairs, where the fire stops. We burst into the stairwell, and the blaring siren gets louder as it echoes against the cement walls and linoleum treads. There’s no fire here, no smoke, just noise.

  Like Superman saving Lois Lane, Corey carries me down the ten flights of stairs and outside into the warm summer night. The streets are littered with people standing around under the lights shining down from the street lamps above, staring at the Savory. The fire alarms are quieter here, and there’s no smoke or fire on the outside of the grey brick building. Sirens blare as police cars pull up. Policemen start pushing the crowds back, trying to make way for the fire trucks.

  Corey sets me down on the curb. “Stay right here, baby.” He rushes away from me before I can speak, yelling, “Officer Linden!”

  An overweight policeman turns from what he’s doing and frowns at Corey as he approaches. Corey points at me, at the building we escaped from. The officer pulls out his radio and starts talking into it. He points back towards me and Corey’s gaze follows. Corey nods, then runs back to my side.

  “Hold on, doll,” Corey says as he sweeps me up into his arms again.

  “What are we doing?”

  “Moving over here. It’ll be more comfortable.” Corey carries me over to one of the nearby blue-striped, white police cars and sets me down on the hood. With the moist air blowing in off the lake, my lungs feel better, but they still ache. When I start coughing again, Corey sits down next to me and puts his arms around me. He holds me like that as we watch the spectacle in front of us.

  Chapter 15

  Corey

  When Frankie’s coughing quiets down, I text Mitch to let him know what happened. Thankfully, I’d grabbed my phone as I got dressed. Frankie’s, along with all our other belongings, are still upstairs, possibly being consumed by fire.

  Mitch texts back less than a minute later. As it turns out, he didn’t make it past Riverside, so he was evacuated along with everyone else when the fire alarms went off.

  “Frankie!” It’s not the voice I expect. Vivian comes running at us as fast as her four-inch heels can carry her. Her chest is trying desperately to escape her blue and green dress at the same time as her endless legs grow a few inches under her shrinking skirt. Behind her, Mitch is somehow not tripping over his own two feet as he follows. His eyes aren’t on Vivian’s ass, like most men’s would be, but on my girl.

  “Hi Viv,” Frankie wheezes out. She slips off the hood of the car and falls into Vivian’s arms.

  “What the hell happened?” Vivian asks as she holds her cousin at arm’s length.

  Frankie shrugs and defers to me as she reaches for Mitch. That same surge of jealousy hits me as he nuzzles into her neck again, his arms tight around her, his hands splayed against her back. He mumbles something I don’t catch. All I see is Frankie’s nod before she steps back. It’s not until she’s firmly by my side again, her arms around me, one hand shoved in my back pocket, the other hooked in my front pocket, that I push my jealousy aside.

  “A fire broke out in the hallway,” I say. I have concerns about what really happened, but neither Frankie nor Vivian challenges what I’ve said, so I continue. “We ran through some of the flames to get out, but neither of us were hurt. I think the smoke bothered her lungs a bit, even with our wet towels.”

  Frankie turns her face into my chest and her body starts to sag against me.

  “Come here, doll.” I help Frankie over to Officer Linden’s car and open the passenger side door. I help settle her into the dark front seat and kiss her forehead. “Vivian, can you stay here with her for a minute? I need to speak with Mitch.”

  “Sure.”

  I leave the girls alone and pull Mitch off to the side. I’m not sure how to put what I’m about to say, so I blurt out, “What are you doing the next couple weeks?”

  “Excuse me?” Mitch asks.

  “Look,” I glance back over my shoulder at Frankie before turning back to Mitch, “I get a bad feeling someone’s after Frankie. The fires. The spiked drink. The Porsche. It’s—”

  “Whoa, wait. What Porsche?”

  “She didn’t tell you? Shit.” I glance at Frankie again. “Up in New York, she rented a car. I took it out for a quick spin, stopped at a store for less than ten minutes. I get back out and it’s all jacked up. This isn’t Marco. If Marco were doing this shit, it’d be you and me in the hospital, not Frankie. It’d be my Corvette in pieces, not a fucking rental.”

  “She rented a Porsche?”

  I nod. “Frankie and I were talking after you and Vivian left. She doesn’t feel safe, and after tonight, I don’t blame her. I gotta get back in the game or I’ll be running into trouble. Frankie would feel safer with you around when I’m not there. We got home games through Sunday, then a week and a half on the road. We’ll take care of your room and board, replace your salary, whatever it ta
kes.”

  “Wait, you want me to travel with you?”

  “She does.”

  “And she wants me to drop everything and hop on a plane?”

  “I do. Look, that fire upstairs wasn’t a random fire. It looks like someone poured gas or something on the carpet and walls outside her room. The fire extended about twenty feet on either side of the door, but the rest of the hall was clear.”

  Mitch looks up at the hotel as if he can see for himself what I’m talking about from down here in the street. “I’ve got a spare room. It’s yours as long as you need it.”

  That’s not what I’m expecting. “Is that a yes?”

  “Replace my salary and cover the travel, and I can get the rest. You want more than me?”

  “Yes. No. Wait, what?”

  “My roommate is ex-Marines. You make him the same offer, I guarantee he’ll take it.”

  “Mitch, I…” Before I can continue, Officer Linden steps up beside me.

  “I’m afraid you might be right, Mr. Lucas.” He heaves out a breath that smells of stale coffee and cigarettes. “The fire was contained to the tenth floor hallway. We’re going to need you and Ms. Sarcone to come down to the station to make a statement.”

  “Of course,” I say.

  Linden looks over my shoulder and raises a thick eyebrow. “She okay?”

  He starts walking over to her as I say, “She inhaled a bunch more smoke before we made it out. You think we can stop by the hospital before we go downtown?”

  Linden stoops in front of Frankie and takes her hand. She looks so tiny next to his considerable girth. He asks a few questions, she gives a few answers I can’t hear, and he starts talking into his radio. By the time he’s able to get himself off the ground again, a couple medics are rushing over to us with a stretcher between them.

  The medics wheel Frankie over to one of the ambulances sitting on the side of the street out in front of the Savory. They check her vitals and place an oxygen mask over her face while they ask her a bunch of questions. Vivian is pacing back and forth while Mitch stands off at the front of the ambulance with his phone stuck to his ear. I feel so helpless. My girl is hurting, and all I can do is stand here and watch.