by Tijan
Jared couldn’t talk either. His hand went out as if he were a robot, and he was shaking Colby’s hand, looking at the two hands, to Colby’s face, back again. A gargled sound came from him. “Oh, my fuck. You’re Colby Doubard. I’m Jared.”
“I know. Hi. Nice to meet you.” He nodded to me. “Your sister can cook.” He said to me, “I’d give you a hug, but I think Reeves would rip my arm off.”
A whole burst of flutters kick-started in my chest.
I heard Georgia sighing behind me.
Colby was shaking hands with Apollo and the rest of their family. They took pictures with him. Jake came over and it was almost the same exact response, except Georgia got all flustered, or even more flustered. Her husband leaned down to say in my ear, “She’s had a crush on him since last year.” He was grinning, and that was another testament to their marriage. There was no jealousy, no insecurity. In fact, he was almost as flustered as his wife when Jake came over to shake his hand. Angie had woken up by then and she was blinking, confused as she turned and was face to face with Jake Bilson.
She started crying.
Everyone laughed.
Then I felt a hand sliding around my waist and I was being pulled into a sweaty and smelly chest, but damn, it was a delicious sweaty and smelly chest. Stone bent down, burying his face into my neck. “Fuck. You feel good.”
My heart dipped. It skipped a beat, and those flutters suddenly exploded all over in me.
I pulled back, giving him a glazed-over look. I was trying to smile, but I wasn’t sure if it was coming out the right way. “You were amazing.”
He looked at me, his eyes darkening. He bent down, saying to my ear, “Can’t wait till we get back to the house.” Then he was pulling away, but his hand dropped, grazing just slightly over my ass and I knew it’d been intentional. I stepped back, a private smile on my face, so I looked down.
Jared and Apollo were going crazy over Stone. It was the same as with Colby and Jake. Pictures were taken. They got his autograph on everything they had, their clothes, too.
Georgia sidled up next to me. “He’s delicious.” She was now holding Angie and was patting her back, her head lying over her shoulder. Georgia was taking in Stone. “Wow. You know, we’ve always heard about him back home. I’ve met his parents, but we don’t run in the same social circles, and I didn’t know what to expect. I knew Jared looked up to him, but I was worried. Thought he’d be arrogant, or I don’t know. I heard he wasn’t the nicest person when he went to school there. Now, seeing him, I’m happy I was wrong.” She nodded at me. “I’m happy I was wrong for you, too. I saw how he looked at you. Whatever you two are doing, he’s all in. You know that, right?”
I stepped back.
I didn’t mean to. The response was instinctual, but seeing that Georgia registered it, hurt flashed in her gaze.
Before I could say something, try to rectify that, a hand came around my waist again. I was being pulled back to Stone’s chest.
He kept me anchored to him, my face in his chest, as he continued talking to someone beside me.
I could feel his other arm signaling for someone or something. His hand came to the back of my head and he looked down at me. “Just a bit longer. I’ll have someone show you to a room to wait in.”
I sagged into him, knowing there were probably a hundred images being taken of this moment. Or just one. One was all that was needed. But I couldn’t pull away, not even for the life of me, and there’d been no getting around this moment because this was all for Jared.
Georgia touched my arm, leaning into me. “We’re going to go. This little one really needs to get to bed and we have to be up by four. It’s going to be a short night for us.”
I stepped away from Stone’s shelter to hug her goodbye. Even Apollo hugged me. Angie wound her arms tight around my neck and said, “Your boyfriend is cute.” Then she was back cuddling against her mom.
Jared was last.
His face was a mix of adrenaline, excitement, and now a somberness was edging its way in.
I shook my head and grabbed him for a firm hug. “Nope. Don’t look like that. It’s my turn to come see you. Okay?” I pulled back, my forehead to his again. “Got it? No sadness. Nothing. Text me later.”
He nodded, but he flicked a tear away, then he hugged me back. “Love you, sis.”
Oh.
Those words.
I clasped my eyes shut, knowing I would have a cascade of tears falling if I didn’t keep them shut. I groped for his hand, squeezing it as he moved back. “Love you back.”
With a last wave, Georgia herded her family through the crowd. Then the two of us were left, and Stone bent down. “You okay?”
“I will be.”
And I meant it.
Chapter Thirty-One
It took about another hour before the door opened and Stone walked in. “You ready?”
I’d been curled up on the couch. He’d had me taken to the same waiting room as before. There’d been a few other people waiting in here, as well, but one by one, they left. The last thirty minutes had just been me, and this couch had started calling my name.
“Yeah. Hi.” I gave him a sleepy grin, and however I looked, Stone laughed a little.
He let go of the door, coming inside and moved to where I was still sitting on the couch. He sank down next to me, laying an arm over the back of the couch, and just like that, I wanted to sink back down into him.
A yawn left me, one of those full-body ones, and I was closing my eyes.
“Colby invited us over. I’m assuming you want to head home instead?”
Home.
I didn’t have a home anymore.
Suddenly, I was wide awake. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
He frowned. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” I was peachy, even tried to give him a thumbs up.
“I’m starving. I want to swing through some place for food.”
When we left, we walked side by side. Stone was leading me through a maze in the back until we came out into one of their back parking areas. Most of the people were gone, but some still remained. People took note of Stone. Even the people who worked there.
He was special.
That came over everyone when they saw him. It was an invisible sizzle in the air, and it wasn’t that he was famous. There was something extra about him, something from his aura that whispered to people to take notice, pay attention, and remember him because he would be a time in history they’d want to always cherish.
Or maybe it was just me. Maybe I knew to take note of these times because they’d always be a memory for me.
Either way, people stood up taller when they saw him. The smiles came quicker. If people were talking when he went past, the second he said hello, their conversation was dropped so they could return the greeting, as if they’d been paying him attention the whole time.
It was the same when we left, when we stopped at the parking lot attendant, when we got food, and this was one night. One day. One weekend in Stone’s life. I didn’t know how he remained grounded, but he did. He was.
When we went inside his house, he put his food on the counter, his keys next to it. “Want something to drink?”
“Water.”
“No wine or anything?”
I shook my head. I’d gotten sleepy on the drive here. He lived a good forty minutes away, and that was after the rush of traffic, and it was close to midnight by now. He poured a glass for both of us, then went to unwrapping his sandwich. Putting it on a plate, he saw my food was untouched. “You’re not hungry?”
“No.” Another yawn. Good gracious.
“Thought that might’ve been a power nap for you before.”
I eyed him. “I can’t believe you’re not tired.”
He shrugged, placing the second sandwich on his plate. Scooping up his water, he motioned. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
But I knew. Grabbing my water, I followed him to the theater ro
om. He grabbed a remote, hitting the button and the screen lit up the room. He sank down on the middle couch. His plate was put on the console by his armchair. His water, too. I sat beside him, but a few feet away, my own water in hand.
I wanted to go to bed.
I wanted to sleep.
But seeing him, seeing the restlessness in him, he needed to wind down. Eating and the TV were going to do that apparently. And if I were being honest with myself, I wanted to spend time with him. He scored all the touchdowns for the Kings that night. He was the MVP. He’d been interviewed by so many members of the press.
I was feeling what all those other people felt.
We weren’t enemies anymore. I wasn’t even sure if we’d been enemies in the first place. There was a dark place in my heart that he contributed to. He knew about my family. He knew what his father did to mine, what I now knew his mother had done to us. But there was one more thing he didn’t know. No one knew, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to give it a voice. Ever. Maybe it was a secret better kept buried.
“How was it seeing your brother tonight? Georgia said they couldn’t meet after the game. That’s why I invited them to the field. You were okay with that, right?”
He was asking in between taking mouthfuls of his sandwich, half watching me for an answer and half watching the ESPN highlights. His team was on there. Him especially, but he turned the volume up when they talked about the other teams. I knew he was already starting to pay attention to their next opponent.
“It was good. He seems to be doing as best as he can be, given the circumstances.”
Stone was distracted, so he didn’t push me to talk more about it.
I waited, finishing my water, until he was done eating, until he had finished his own water, until I saw his first yawn come over him. He relaxed back, rolling his head toward me and a tired grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. His eyes warmed, taking me in.
“You look nice tonight. I didn’t tell you before.”
I didn’t care about that either, but it felt nice to hear. That’s when I made my move.
I scooted over. He started to get up, but I was there, a hand on his chest. I pushed him back down so I was straddling him.
He sank back in the couch, a grin starting. His eyes grew heated and he was taking me in, all of me, in a whole different way than he had thirty seconds prior. His hands went to my hips. “What’s this?” But he knew. A low simmer was starting. I felt it. I saw it in him, and he began kneading my hips.
I leaned back, almost looking at him lazily. “Put on some music.”
His eyes widened at the command, but he did, reaching for the remote next to us. The lights in the room shifted, going dark, then blaring red as hip-hop filled the speakers. I was assuming he put on a music video, but I didn’t look. I only had eyes for him.
This was what I’d been wanting since this morning, since Phone in My Face Guy, every time I hid in the library, when I walked to my house, when I was getting ready, when I called Morpheus, when I met Jared and we walked into that stadium. And it’d been a slow trickle of torture watching him duck and weave and spin and twist, and being knocked down, only to see him jump right back up and do it all over again.
My hand still on his chest, I rolled my hips.
“I’m going to ride you.”
He groaned. “Fuck.” He slipped farther down on the couch until he was almost flat. I climbed up and settled back down, feeling him hardening and then closing my eyes, I started.
My body was a wave. A full, sensual wave, and I moved my hips in rhythm, hearing another groan from him, a deeper groan. And I picked up speed. It was like I was riding a mechanical bull, but I was in charge. This was about me having my fun. He could watch. He could enjoy that way, but this was me.
He and I…we’d never been sexually shy with each other. Not the first night, all the positions he’d twisted me into, and I went with everything. I’d never been like that with anyone but him.
He was liberating. He was thrilling. He made me feel confident and sexy, and I was addicted to every time he was inside of me. And speaking of, he wasn’t. Not yet. I wasn’t there yet, but he was. Reaching between my legs, I opened his pants, then helped him out. My hand wrapped around him, and I stroked him. Slow. Sensual. All the while still rolling my hips forward and back, my body following like I was made of water.
“Jesus, Dusty.”
He swallowed just as I rubbed his tip.
I picked up the pace, my body and my hands. But only a half a notch faster. I was tormenting him now.
His hands were holding me tight, as if he couldn’t bear not to participate, but also couldn’t bear to interrupt what I was doing.
I was weaving a spell, for both of us because I was just as affected as him. My pulse was pounding. My blood was buzzing. I was wet for him, aching, and I wanted to shift over him, sinking down, but I was still rolling. Back and forth until the song changed behind us. We were on song three, this one had a faster tempo and I gave in now, leaning down to graze my lips over his.
His mouth opened, trying to draw me in. I didn’t let him, just the graze.
He groaned again. “Fucking hell. What are you doing to me?”
I moved my hand down his chest, then began pushing his shirt up, my hands sliding over his chest underneath. Stone helped with that, ripping his shirt off, and he reached for me, and this I allowed. He went for my bra, and I shook my head, leaning back again, still riding him, but not letting him feel me completely. My hand never stopped stroking over him, but then my mouth was watering and I slipped back a little on his legs, just enough room. I leaned down and took him into my mouth.
His fingers entangled in my hair.
“Oh, God. Christ.”
All the way in, and I opened my throat, slipping him in even farther.
He was starting to pant above me.
“You are killing me.” He hissed in a breath, a low, guttural moan tumbling out as I touched my teeth to his shaft.
His hips bucked. “Jesus!”
My tongue swirled over his tip. I sucked him like a goddamn lollipop, my head moving until he reached forward, his hands moving to my own pants. I let him. I was getting impatient myself, then he shoved his hand inside, and as I was picking up my pace, his fingers thrust inside of me.
He began moving in and out of me, matching my pace on his dick until he came. I didn’t. I was only primed for him. He jerked, exploding in my mouth, and I swallowed. He’d been watching me, his eyes lidded, and seeing that, he let out a low and soft curse. His hands went under my arms and he lifted me. I was back to straddling him, but he didn’t push inside me. His fingers slid back in and he sat up, his other hand behind my hip, urging me to keep riding him.
I did. My eyes closed. My head back.
I pumped, back and forth, and once I was going, he tugged my bra off. Just as air touched my nipples, his mouth closed over one, warming me. His tongue swirling around me. He was returning the favor. I groaned, wrapping a hand around his neck, and I started pounding down on his fingers. He slid a third inside, shoving up and up and up.
I was going down and down and down, until the climax ripped through me, hurtling at a breakneck speed, and I screamed. The sensations were pounding me still and I couldn’t… I was coming and coming and coming.
“Fuck yeah.” He grunted, then he was reaching inside his jeans pocket.
A condom came out. He rolled it on, and I shifted, sitting up so he could put it on.
His hands came to my hips. My hands went to his stomach, and together he went up at the same time I sank down on him.
And we started up all over again.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I was fucked.
No. Really. I was fucked.
Waking up in Stone’s arms for the third morning in a row, I felt my heart do a whole flip, shimmy, and settle. It settled. The whole rolling/riding him last night had been an awakening. Or maybe it was just that grief was starting to fall into t
he grooves and dips in my heart, letting me feel other stuff, stuff that maybe had been building inside and I hadn’t realized it until now. Until I woke up, Stone’s arm over my chest, his leg pressed up behind me, his head tucked into my back, and I felt peaceful.
Peaceful.
That wasn’t good.
Again. I was so fucked.
His arm twitched. His body tensed. He was waking up, and his hand ran up my stomach, finding my naked breast and he cupped me there.
I needed to go over this again because there were more flutters in my stomach than there’d been last night, or like ever.
I might’ve had a crush on Stone growing up, but him being an elitist prick got that out of my system. Or I thought so because damn, what if that crap never left me? What if it’d been in me this whole time and now him being all nice and kind and taking care of me and giving me all these climaxes, what if all those brought up all of that?
“Morning.” He moved into me, his hand left my breast, sliding down, down, going past my waist and dipping between my legs.
I groaned.
Oh, yeah. He was bringing all of that up right now. As his fingers slid inside of me, I gasped. He was stirring those emotions up. They were like mud that had settled. He was dipping in the water and dirtying everything up.
Then, a second finger slid in, I rolled to my back, and I was gone. Whatever storm he was waking up in me, it was going to happen. Till then, I reached for him as he moved over me and his mouth found mine.
I waited till after I’d made breakfast for both of us, after we’d each had a coffee.
“This can’t be a regular thing.”
I was so stupid. I was already missing his dick.
He looked up from the counter. His plate was empty. He had a second cup of coffee in front of him, along with a glass of green juice and his phone. His eyes narrowed at me. “Come again?”
He smirked.
Yeah. I deserved that, but I was staying firm. “You and me. What we’re doing up there, we both agreed no relationship.”