by Alice Ward
Tears fell again, but this time, they were mine as I held her close to me while she floated down from ecstasy’s cloud. I held her head against my shoulder so she couldn’t see the emotion I was fighting. Emotion I couldn’t deal with right now.
When the water cooled, I lifted her out and carried her to the bed. Following her down to the mattress, I gave her my warmth while taking hers in exchange. Moving down her body, I cupped her breast, closing my lips around the dusky nipple. She moaned and arched from the bed, feeding me more.
When I closed my teeth on the tip, biting her flesh, she whimpered, and I bit again. Raking my teeth across her breasts, I captured the other nipple, teasing then taking as she twisted under me, her fingers grasping at my hair.
“So responsive,” I murmured as I licked the undersides of each breast, giving each the attention it deserved.
Raising up on my hands, I crawled down her body, not stopping until I was off the bed and between her thighs. I pushed her legs apart wider, and she opened for me, dewy pink and luscious. I lowered my head to feast, and she became unglued as I devoured my meal.
Arching into my face, she cried out, and I pushed her legs back, spreading her wider until I had access to every part of her. The pretty pussy and the ass underneath. Lowering my head even farther, I rimmed her with my tongue, and she squirmed, trying to pull away.
Flattening my tongue, I licked her from ass to clit, then took the little bundle between my teeth, sucking hard. She was panting, her breasts heaving with each breath. Reaching up, I took one in my hand, tugging and twisting at her nipple while I plunged my tongue deep inside of her, followed by my fingers.
I drank. Sucked. Gave. Took. I was a madman, fighting for survival between her legs.
She cried out. That cry. The one signaling an imminent explosion.
“Ace!” she screamed and came undone, her face a twisted agony of pleasure and exquisite pain. It was beautiful to witness, as was the way her breasts heaved with exertion. As was the sheen of sweat on her skin.
She was still falling when I climbed up her body, and located a damn condom, sliding it on. Then I was inside of her. Riding her. Pushing her. Pushing myself.
“Taste yourself on me,” I ordered her, and her eyes flew open as our mouths crashed together. The sound of my skin spanking hers was so fuckin’ hot. So were the little noises she was making.
Her legs wrapped around me, and I growled as her nails raked down my back, her tongue warring with mine, sucking and pulling it into her mouth.
Our need for each other was explosive, primal, the very essence of pure lust, and I felt my ball sack tighten, needing to release. I slowed down, inching away from the edge, wanting to make this last.
Holly worked against me, thrusting her hips, holding onto my shoulders for leverage, riding me fast and hard. I gritted my teeth, trying to hang on, not wanting this to end. But, it was no use. My need was too great.
The edges of my vision dimmed as semen raced from my balls and through my shaft, every muscle locking up in pleasure as I released. Blood roared through my ears as I exploded into her.
I came back to earth when she laughed, just a small sound, and I opened my eyes to see her watching me. I kissed her again, our bodies still connected for the longest time. Unwilling to let her go.
***
The alarm blasted in my ear, and both Holly and I moaned simultaneously. My hand gripped the soft flesh of Holly’s ass cheek, squeezing it roughly when she squeezed my dick. I lifted my head from the pillow and pried open my eyes. Damn, she was beautiful.
“Mornin’,” I said.
She gave me another squeeze. “Good morning.”
My alarm blared again, reminding me that I had shit to do.
“Raincheck?” she asked.
I kissed her nose. “Absolutely.”
A knock on my door sent me rolling out of bed. Pulling on some shorts, I scowled at Calvin, who was grinning and holding out a large cup of coffee.
“Thought you could use this,” he said, and I took it with greed.
“Thanks, man.”
“Shuttle leaves in fifteen.”
Nodding my thanks, I closed the door and hit the bathroom, shoving the shorts down my legs. The baggy of coke fell out, and hunger began to gnaw its teeth into me.
No.
I took another long sip of coffee, letting the caffeine be my drug of choice and turned the shower on cold. I stepped in, soaped up and was out in just a few minutes. The contents of the baggy whispered to me while I dressed.
As I brushed my teeth, I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked tired. Hell, I was tired, but I also looked old. The baggie’s whispers turned into a scream. One little bump would take all of the pain away. It would help me play better, keep me on my toes. Hell, we had an exhibition game with the Yankees today, and it would be widely televised and scrutinized. I needed to play my best.
Shit.
I dumped the powder on the countertop, cut it into lines, and rolled a twenty for a straw. A quick inhale and everything became clear. I bent for another inhale… and the fucking bathroom door opened.
“Ace?”
Standing quickly, I tossed a towel over the coke, adrenaline chasing the drug in my system. “Just a second.” Turning on the water, I splashed my face, making sure my nose was clean.
“Sorry. I just needed to pee.”
Shit, that was close.
Glancing into her sleepy eyes, I smiled as she yawned, pushing her hair out of her face. “Give me one minute, and I’ll be out of your way. My shuttle leaves in a few.”
Instead of leaving, she came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist, her lips pressed into my back. Carefully, I cleaned up my mess, twisted the baggy closed and stuck it into my pocket. A few swipes of the towel and all the evidence was gone.
After a brief kiss, so was I.
***
By the time we pulled up to the stadium, I felt like a million dollars. We still had pre-game warmups, but that was okay. I was ready to beat some Yankee ass.
I was the first in the locker room, and I hid my shit deep in a bag. We had several hours of practice before our game would even start. I knew my high wouldn’t last that long. I would wear down quick, and hard.
The trainer pulled me aside as soon as I had my bag tucked away. Gary pulled on my shoulder, stretched out my arms, and slapped me on the back. “Good job. Whatever you did, it worked. The tension is almost gone.”
If only he knew.
Coach pulled everyone into a huddle, offering up one of his famous pep talks. Yes, we knew we were playing the Yankees, and yes, we wanted revenge after losing that last damn game to them. Sometimes I think he forgot we were grown men. When we started talking strategy, lineup, and expectations, it got more interesting — it was a part of the game I loved. Ten minutes later, we were ready to warm up.
“Newman!” he yelled as I walked past him.
“Yeah, Coach.” I rushed over a little too eagerly to see what he wanted. I could tell because his dark eyes narrowed as I jogged over.
“You doing okay?”
He was looking at me strangely.
“Hell, yeah. Been waiting months for today to get here.”
He nodded. “Alright. I expect good things from you this season.” He was almost encouraging. Almost.
Two hours later, my body was already wearing down. I could hear the baggie’s siren song from out here. I kept an eye on Jack as he took the plate, but deep down, I wanted him to fail. Images of him and Holly together wanted to torment me. Worse, I knew that he was the better guy for her.
He was solid. Dependable. A little cheesy, but didn’t women love that shit? He’d be the kind to bring flowers, watch chick movies, cuddle all night.
Is that what Holly wanted?
Crack!
The ball came off Jack’s bat fast, a grounder coming straight to me. I dove for it but came up empty. Shit. I gotta get my fucking mind in the game.
Refocus
ing, I chased down balls and got them to first with a speed and accuracy that was my bread and butter. Yeah, I could hit the shit out of a ball, but covering the space between second and third was my real strength, and nobody could do it better than me.
Another hour passed while we batted and fielded, getting ready for the game. Luke took over practice pitching for Calvin. Damn, the kid wasn’t looking too good.
Actually, he looked a little green, and I didn’t know if it was from nerves or from partying too hard. Probably both. After almost taking Marty’s head off, Luke seemed to find his rhythm. He looked over at me and sniffed. I nodded and jerked my chin to the dugout.
When he turned the mound over to the next pitcher, I grabbed my dick and signaled to coach that I needed a piss break. I jogged to the locker room and pulled the baggy from my locker along with another small bag of implements. I almost dropped everything when Gary asked, “You okay?”
I stuffed the bags in my glove. “Yeah. I’m great. Just have to take a shit.”
His brow furrowed, then he lifted a shoulder, and I headed back to the row of stalls. I locked the door and pulled out a small metal tray from the bag, then a straw and lined everything up on the back of the toilet.
I consumed a small line first, just enough to calm me down so I could line out two larger ones for extra endurance. The taste in the back of my throat from the drainage woke me up quickly. I pushed my thumb against each nostril, sniffing hard to clear any powder that may have clung on to the hairs inside my nose.
I stuffed everything in the baggy, flushed, and opened the door. And nearly ran into Calvin, who was standing there with his arms crossed over his chest.
“I was rooting for you, ya know?” His voice was hard, bitter.
“What do you mean?” I asked and wiped my nose with the back of my hand.
“You know exactly what I mean.”
I pushed past him and went to the sink to splash water on my face.
“Holly loves you, do you know that?”
I met his gaze in the mirror. “I told her not to. I was honest with her from the beginning, you know that.”
“Have you been honest about the drugs?”
I stiffened and slowly turned. “That’s none of your concern.”
“It is my concern, for two reasons. I want to win this season, and a coked up shortstop doesn’t figure into those plans. Second, I care for Holly, and she doesn’t need a coke head in her life. She wants to start a business, have a family someday, have a real life, and you can’t grow the fuck up.”
I looked past him, at some of the guys heading our way. There wasn’t time to tell him that I wanted Holly. That I wanted something different from the life I’d been living. That I wanted to win this game, and without a hit, I knew I’d fail my team. That I was scared.
I didn’t say any of it. I just stared at him with my patented I don’t give a shit expression.
His shoulders sagged just a little. “Yeah. You don’t care. Go do your shit. Know this, if Holly asks me anything about you, she’s getting the truth.”
He walked away, and I headed back to my locker to hide my stash. I went through some rehab and stretching, getting ready for the game.
And just before we hit the field, I took another hit.
Hell, I was already down.
How much lower could I go?
It was nearly game time, and when I was heading back to the field, the euphoric feeling I normally got from such large lines was missing. It felt cold and dark, and my soul empty. Coach slapped me on the back as I walked out into the dugout.
“Show ‘em we’re a force to be reckoned with, son.”
Son.
I don’t think my own father ever called me son, at least not in a loving way. No son of mine is gonna sit the bench… play for the minors… yadda yadda yadda. I walked out onto the field, listening to the screams of the fans who loved me, but the man who didn’t love me, his voice still canceled them all out.
The Yankees looked vicious as they walked out onto the field. Some of my favorite players were on the team, some of my not so favorites too. During my short stint playing for them, I made quite a few enemies, usually because I screwed someone’s wife, girlfriend, or sister. Hell, I might have got a mother in there too.
Nothing to be proud of, Ace. You’re gonna die alone.
The first batter up cracked Luke’s pitch past the fence. Damn kid, did you forget to do your line?
He looked shook up as the batter ran base to base to collect his home run with pride. I ran over to him. “You okay, kid?”
He looked pale. “I’m just all freaked out. It’s like they all know,” he whispered.
I laughed. “I’ve been there.”
It didn’t seem to soothe him.
“Okay. Here’s what I used to do to get through the game and play my best. Pretend you’re in a video game. Like actually inside it. Everything around you seems real, smells real, and even sounds real, but that’s only because it was created based on your world. You’re not really surrounded by people, just holograms.” I spoke slowly to help calm his nerves.
“Close your eyes.” I rubbed his shoulders as the batter took home. The next one was already up, beating his bat against the plate and kicking dust.
“When you open your eyes, you are in the game. I’m player two. The rest are computer players, that’s all.” I slapped him on the shoulder and ran back to my place on the field.
Poor kid. I remember being young and scared like that. Why in the hell did Coach start a newbie on a day like today?
Luke botched the first pitch, almost hitting the batter. If he didn’t pull it together, we were screwed.
“C’mon, Singleton, focus on the game,” I yelled out as my own source of encouragement.
He appeared to calm. His shoulders lowered, relieving the tension that was creating the chaos in his pitches. I watched his thumb glide across the seam of the ball and his arm wind it up. Strike. There ya go, kid.
Luke found his groove, striking out three batters in a row. It was certainly a morale booster to come out of the gate swinging like champs, but it would’ve been better if it lasted.
Marty knocked one over the fence, so did Jack. I scored a triple, and Frank pushed me home. After that first inning ended we were up 3-1.
From there, things fell apart. Luke spazzed out on us and started throwing wild pitches that resulted in walk after walk. Coach didn’t want to pull him, but at the start of the fourth inning, he had no choice. We were down 3-5. The Yankees were starting to gloat.
I stopped two steals, caught four pop-ups, and tagged three men out before they made it to second. But the Yankees still managed to score another four runs by the end of the ninth inning. The final score, 7-9.
The walk back to the locker room was a long one.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Holly
I rubbed lotion into my skin as I watched all the bikini-clad school girls bouncing around me. “Were we ever that young?” I asked Whitney.
She slid her sunglasses from her eyes to the tip of her nose and lifted her head to take in the chaos that surrounded us. “Yes. I just hope we weren’t ever that stupid.”
Whitney wasn’t, that was true. I had been stupid my entire life, mainly my choices in men.
“You either,” she said sternly, giving me a tight glare from above her shaded lenses. I loved how she could read my thoughts. We’d been friends for so long it was almost as if she knew me better than I knew myself.
I looked around the hotel pool, scoping out all the hot young girls that were now staying there. I knew that as soon as they were gone, another slew would arrive, and then another after that. “How many of these girls do you think Ace will sleep with before he gets home?” I asked.
“How many do you think?”
I looked around, started to count, and then threw up my hands. “All of them.”
“Bingo.” She waited a moment before adding, “So, how are you planning on handli
ng this?” I knew what she was asking. What was I going to do with Ace?
“I’ll just tell him the truth.”
The thought of letting Ace Newman go sickened me. He was so exciting, so passionate, and the sex, holy shit, the sex was like a religious experience. But no matter how much I wanted him to change, he wouldn’t. I couldn’t change him, and I needed more from a relationship that what he was able to give me. Holding on would just hurt us both.
“You’re doing the right thing,” she assured me.
There were things I hadn’t told her; things I wasn’t sure I’d ever tell her. Ace was a troubled man, paralyzed at times with fear, riddled with pain, and had a constant battering in his own head about failure and an inability to please his father. I related to him, and that was a strong pull towards him, but I didn’t want to share Ace’s personal life tragedies without his consent, even if it would make my best friend understand why I loved him.
“Quit it,” she hissed without even turning to look at me.
“Quit what?”
“Rationalizing why Ace Newman is lovable and deserves a chance.”
Yup. She knew me too well.
Ace was a toxin, but I still loved him. I just had to let him go. It was time for one of us to grow up.
“Excuse me?” A tall, slender girl with light blonde hair was standing at the edge of Whitney’s lounge chair blocking the sun.
“Yes?” Whitney sat up in her chair and pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head.
“Are you Whitney Harris?”
“Yes.”
“Engaged to Calvin Malone?”
She nodded.
Her two girlfriends behind her let out a squeal. “You’re so lucky,” the blonde girl announced.
“You’re Holly Summer, right?” one of the other girls asked.
“Yeah, I am.” It was the first time I’d been recognized outside of New York or Indiana.
She bit her bottom lip. “You aren’t still dating Ace Newman, are you?”
How the hell did I answer that? Yes? No? It’s complicated? It’s a figment of my imagination? Seriously, there really was no label for what we were to each other.