Gavin smiles at me, his eyes warm when he sees what I have. “Baby, you need to wait until we get to the hotel before it’s time for those. It’s about a three-and-a-half-hour drive to State College. Can you hold out that long?”
I flush as I toss the box back into his bag. “I was just checking how many there were.”
“Worried there won’t be enough?” He smirks at me as he turns on the car.
“Gavin, you brought a twenty-four-pack. I think we’ll be fine. More than fine.”
“Normally, it’d take us a few weeks to finish that box. But you’re extra needy now, so I wanted to be prepared.”
“Prepared for what? To supply the whole Ohio State team?”
Gavin laughs. “You’re cute, babe, all innocent and shit.” He leans over and presses a hard kiss to my mouth. Running a gentle hand over my hair, he settles back into his seat. That’s Gavin being Gavin again, a combination of heat and affection. The mix always shifts, but he rarely offers up one without the other. It’s one thing about him that draws me in.
Looking over his shoulder, he backs up out of the parking space. “That twenty-four-pack wouldn’t cover a fraction of what those boys will go through tonight. Winning a big game always makes you randy as fuck.”
“You’ve always seemed more tired and sore after a game, maybe pissed off if you lost.”
“Because you weren’t seeing me until Monday or Tuesday most of the time. The high from winning is gone by then. It’s back to business as usual on Mondays.”
Gavin lets me pick the music as he’s busy navigating to the freeway. He talks about his upcoming game schedule for a while. I don’t pick up on there being any meaning behind it until he’s gone over all the teams they have left to play.
“So you should come to a game sometime this season.” His voice is casual, but the quick sideways glance to check my reaction isn’t. “Then you’ll see what I’m like on Sundays.”
“Really?” He’s never invited me to a game before.
“Which home game would you like to go to?”
I shrug. Any of them sounds good to me. Gavin wanting me there is enough that the opponent doesn’t matter.
“You aren’t some kind of Warriors fan, are you?” His voice drips disdain.
I laugh. The Warriors are DC’s team, my hometown, and they’re big rivals of the Condors. “No, not so much. It’s kind of annoying how everyone there is obsessed with them.”
“Thank fuck I don’t have to cure you of that. I guess I should be glad that you’re not a huge football fan. Otherwise, you’d like those losers.”
Reaching over, I squeeze his thigh. “What if I say I want to come to your game against them next month?”
“You’re disinvited. Sorry, babe.” He rests his hand on top of mine, so I don’t take him seriously.
I smile. It’s fun to tease him. “What about the Dallas game?” They are another big rival of the Condors.
“How about the Chicago game instead?” he counters. “That’s my home team, and I like them. We play them in two weeks.”
“Okay, that’ll work.”
“Great. So you’ll learn what game day is like. Better get ready. If we win, I might want to do you somewhere in the stadium to celebrate.”
“Sounds lovely—risking arrest because someone’s all worked up after his game.”
Gavin laughs. “Someone’s always worked up around you, Jana.”
We’re quiet for a few minutes while he’s distracted by changing lanes and weaving through traffic.
Gavin asks about what I’ve done while he was away. He knows a little from following my Instagram, but he wants to know more and asks a lot of questions. He’s either very interested or extremely bored and looking to pass the time on the drive. Either way, I enjoy the interest he displays in me.
Chapter Six
Gavin stands with his friends at the tailgate, sipping a beer. He's relaxed his strict rules enough to enjoy a drink with his old teammates. That wide grin and those beautiful blue eyes sparkling as he laughs tug at my gut.
The beer I've had urges me to cross the distance between us and plaster myself to his front. I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him.
"Hi," I whisper as I look up at him. My fingers trail through the hair on the back of his neck.
"Hi." He smiles down at me. His easy, happy mood warms me as much as his body heat does. "You're friendly when you're drunk." His free hand not holding the beer slips around my lower back.
He's right. I wouldn't have gone up to him like this in front of everyone and pushed my body into his without a little liquid encouragement. But I'm not drunk. "You seem like you enjoy it."
"I do." He flips his hat around so it's on backward, the brim out of the way so he can lean down toward me. He's going to kiss me, and I can't wait for the press of his lips on mine. I love that he's willing to do it in front of everyone.
A loud squeal fills the air.
"Gavin McGraw! We want a hug if you're giving them away!" a tipsy female voice yells.
"I want a turn!" another female chimes in.
Gavin stiffens in my arms and raises his head to look behind me. I turn and find a group of college-age girls hovering a couple of feet away. They're dressed in Penn State gear, and it's brave of them to invade our Ohio State tailgate. But such is the power of America's hottest underwear model.
"Go ahead," I say as I take a step away from him. Gavin's arm around my waist drops. Our intimate moment is gone.
"You don't mind?" he asks.
It’s irritating that our moment was interrupted, but I don’t want to come across like a possessive hookup overstepping her bounds, either. "No, as long as they keep their paws off your KJs."
I turn his hat around, and the brim forms a shield for his face. I don't want some overeager fan girl trying to steal a kiss in her excitement to meet him. His lips are all mine today, even if I can't have them right at this moment.
Gavin turns to face the girls and smiles at them. "Okay, ladies, who's first?" he drawls.
He slips into his cocky, attention-loving persona and wears it like a mask. Because I’ve never seen him interacting with this many fans before, I've never put it together this clearly. He uses this act to keep people at a distance. He is arrogant, but not as much as he would have us believe. This whole time I’ve known him, he’s been protecting himself with it. The trouble is that I don’t know exactly where the act ends and the real Gavin begins.
I grab the beer out of his hand, ever-conscious of his image and how it will look to have pictures of him clutching a beer while posing with drunken fans posted online during the bye week. This thing between us is only personal now, but I can't turn off the marketing side of my brain.
The next several minutes are full of excited smiles and squeals and even a few attempts at drunk groping that Gavin neatly blocks. His friends stand to the side and mock him freely as a line of Penn State female fans hug him and get pictures with him. One of the guys takes a poster board that someone made to support PSU and finds a marker to scribble on the back.
"Hey McGraw, take your shirt off!" he yells as he holds up the sign. Free hugs from Gavin McGraw! it reads. "We might be able to convert some of these Nittany Lions to Buckeyes if you do."
"That should get us at least a few of them," another guy agrees. All the guys join him in laughing.
Gavin flushes. He flips off his friends and turns back to the endless line of women.
I crack a smile because it's fun to see him a little rattled, for once. It’s better for me to focus on my amusement instead of the sting I feel every time another girl squeals his name and wraps her arms around him.
Several minutes later, Gavin gestures me over as he finishes with the female fans. His cocky, confident demeanor for the fans is beginning to wear around the edges. He tugs me into him and wraps both arms around me as he buries his face into my hair. I love being held like this by him. His fans got one-armed hugs, but he saved the real deal for me
.
“I’d have thought another hug is the last thing you’d want right now.” I stroke my fingers over his back. Vulnerable Gavin gets to me.
“No, you’re different.” He clutches me tighter to his chest.
Now that he’s in an affectionate mood and the fans have disappeared, maybe I can get that kiss.
Gavin lifts his head and smiles down at me. It’s one of his real smiles, full of pure contentment in this moment, and it tugs at my heart. There’s no trace of the brash confidence he wore for the fans. His eyes are warm with happiness at being here with me, and I fall a little more for him.
He runs his hands down my back to cup my butt and lifts me until my face is level with his. My arms go around his neck as his hands slide up my thighs and urge my legs to wrap around his waist. I comply because I’m willing to do whatever he wants when he looks at me this way.
“Hi,” he whispers as he stares into my eyes.
I smile because that’s kind of my thing to say when we get close and it feels intimate and I don’t know how to react. He copies me, and it’s cute as hell. “Hi,” I say back.
He holds me for several moments without speaking, enjoying the closeness of our bodies as he looks at me. His smile is soft, like his eyes.
“You going to kiss me now, or what, McGraw? Because it’s cruel to lead a girl on like this.” I give him my best flirty lip pout.
Gavin laughs. “Of course.”
He leans forward a couple inches, and his mouth is on mine. It’s all smoothness and heat, and I forget everything else but him and how good it feels when his lips and tongue move over mine. I could kiss him for hours like this. I’m so close to his body that I feel like I’m almost part of him.
Gavin releases my mouth. “Damn, Jana, you’re like crack.”
His hands grip my thighs to hold me up, and he takes advantage of his access by tracing his fingertips over my inner legs. That’s definitely a move designed to turn me on.
“You don’t know how much I want to do you against the nearest flat surface. We’re in the perfect position to fuck,” he says.
Affectionate Gavin has left the scene in favor of the horny man I know a lot better. He’s close to losing some of his famous control, and all I did was kiss him. Well, okay, wrapping my legs around his waist is kind of suggestive. I love that I can affect him so much, but it’ll have to wait. “What’s harder to resist? Me or cheese?” I tease to lighten the mood.
Gavin scrunches up his face like he’s thinking really hard.
I punch him in his shoulder. “Seriously? I can’t beat out dairy products? That’s got to be the farm boy in you coming out.”
“Well, cheese is pretty fucking good.”
He must be in a really great mood, because he lets the farm boy insult pass. He grew up in Springfield, Illinois, the capital of the state, not exactly a podunk farm town.
“Hey, I didn’t get a hug yet, Gavin! I want one just like that!” a loud female voice calls out.
Gavin sighs, our moment interrupted once again by strangers, and he reluctantly lets me drop down his body until I’m standing on the ground again. He looks at the new crowd of women forming next to us.
Where did they come from? I guess we were too busy making out to notice another group had formed. I spot the Free Hugs sign the guys left propped up against the car next to us, and I know what happened.
“Sorry, ladies. She’s the only one smart enough to wear my jersey, so she gets special treatment,” Gavin says.
If the jersey on my back isn’t enough of a sign, his words make it clear that I matter most to him. Smiling, I lean against his side.
“Free hugs are over because I’m going to watch the Buckeyes kick your team’s ass.”
There’s some grumbling, so he makes a concession for the crowd.
“Show up to a Condors game in my jersey, and I’ll give you a hug,” he promises.
The tailgate broke up while Gavin was occupied with his fans, and his friends abandoned us while he was busy making out with me. We’ll have to find our own way to the sidelines to watch the game.
Gavin takes my hand as he pushes past the women on our way to the stadium. Plenty of people recognize him, probably because they’re also Condors fans. A few Penn State fans in the crowd congratulate him on his successful season so far, but most leave us alone. Instead, they watch us and whisper to each other and point at us, and some even take pictures. Gavin ignores it all, keeping a firm hold on my hand so we don’t get separated. I’m glad he doesn’t mind us being photographed together because I don’t want to be abandoned to this half-drunk mass of opposing fans.
Gavin’s used to dealing with the crowd and demanding fans, but I’m not. I mock him about all the new crazies he’s picked up after the underwear ads, but for the first time, I understand a bit of how he feels. It’s draining to be under such public scrutiny. He performed well for those women earlier, but I get now why he needed soothing afterward. His whole Gavin McGraw act wears on him. I could go for some comforting myself when we make it past this crowd.
We’re walking through the bowels of the stadium on our way to the field entrance when I tug Gavin to a stop. He kept his tight hold on my hand even after we cleared security and escaped the fans. We’re alone for the moment.
“That was intense, Gavin. How do you deal with that every week?”
“You okay?” He pulls me into his side and drops a kiss on my hair. It’s like he’s trying to make me fall for him.
“Yes. But I’m glad that there’ll be security on the field to keep them away from us.”
Chapter Seven
The game is fast and hard and loud while watching it on the sideline. It’s not the best view to see plays develop on the entire field, but I don’t care. It’s not like I’m some football expert.
Gavin loves it. He gets into it as if he’s still part of the team, cheering as they succeed. He talks some football language I don’t understand with his former teammates about the plays as they watch. He lets me stay close to his side and answers anything I ask. Mostly, I stay quiet and absorb the game and Gavin’s reactions. I love seeing this side of him. I’ve watched some Condors games and seen him play on TV, but there’s nothing like experiencing a football game up close at his side.
During halftime, Gavin asks one of his friends to take a picture of us on the sideline. Wrapping his arm around my waist, he grins, his happiness obvious. I don’t complain when his hand settles on my butt, out of sight. When we’re finished posing, he uploads the picture to both of our Instagram accounts.
What is he up to? That seems like a couple thing to do. It’s the first picture we have of us together, and posting it on both of our accounts feels kind of like a relationship announcement. But we’re not really in that kind of relationship, so I’m confused. I don’t ask him about it because the busy sideline is not the place to get into that sort of discussion.
Gavin’s so excited with the come-from-behind win that he bends me back over his arm and kisses me, hard, with lots of tongue. I love it, except that when he returns me to being upright, I’m conscious of what feels like thousands of eyes on us. There are even some catcalls from the unhappy Penn State crowd. He doesn’t notice as he moves on to celebrate with his friends near us. His choosing me to celebrate with first warms me almost as much as pressing against his body did.
On the way off the field, Gavin congratulates the Ohio State players. There are a lot of back slaps and handshakes, and I think, even a couple of ass pats. Football players are weird. Gavin keeps me close enough to him that I don’t worry about being trampled in the mass of big, beefy guys. I get a few happy hugs from some of the guys he interacts with, too. I don’t know any of them and will never see them again, but Gavin takes it all in stride, like it’s not unusual for them to celebrate with me.
On our way out of the stadium, Gavin stops next to a large black man wearing an OSU sweatshirt. He’d been on the sideline, but part of the group at the other end of the
field.
“Hey, Nichols, how’s it going, man?”
“Can’t complain, McGraw. Living in Miami is great. Pretty cool that we both have a bye week so we could make it.”
“Yes, it is. Hey, this is Jana Thomas. Jana, this is Cedric Nichols.”
Nichols nods at me, giving me a friendly smile. He’s a huge mountain of a man, probably a lineman.
“Yeah, right, Jana from Instagram,” he says.
“What?”
“McGraw is always liking your pics, I noticed, and now I follow you, too. That one friend of yours, Cherlise, is pretty hot. Think you can hook me up with her? Her profile is private, and she didn’t accept me.”
“She’s got a boyfriend.”
“Ah, damn. It figures. All the hot ones always do.” He nods in my direction. Wait, is he implying that Gavin is my boyfriend?
“You going out with us tonight?” Gavin asks.
Not a word about how I’m only a casual sex buddy he brought along for company, someone he hasn’t spoken to for most of the year. Nope, he seems fine with Nichols having whatever impression he has. This day keeps getting stranger and stranger. Everything he’s doing makes me think things I’ve been afraid to hope for in the past. He’s not treating me like a no-strings-attached sex partner at all.
“Yes, I’ll catch up with you there. I’ve got to go. I’m supposed to meet up with Miller and his wife now. Can you believe it? Miller, married?”
“I know. Crazy. See you later, man.” The guys shake hands, and Nichols lumbers away.
“Do all your friends troll for chicks on Instagram?” I ask.
“Most of the single ones do.” He takes my hand to get me walking again.
“How many of your internet perv friends are going to like that pic of us on the sideline?”
“Make your account private if you don’t want strangers liking your pics and seeing what you’re doing. You’re going to pick up extra attention now that you’re posting pics with me.”
Between Hearts: A Romance Anthology Page 54