Curveball (For the Love of the Game #3)

by Nadine Hudson

  “No, but she still shouldn’t have done it at all.”

  “I don’t know, Tuck. I think I’m with Nate on this one,” Glen chimed in as he weaved his way between us to his locker. I didn’t even know he was listening behind us, but his opinion was the last one I wanted right now. I can’t even believe he was able to keep his big mouth shut long enough to sneak up on me. “I mean think about it. What did she really do? She rode you like a fucking rodeo queen then stole your ID so she could be accepted into an exclusive sorority. If you look at it from her perspective it sounds like a win, win to me,” he shrugged.

  If I didn’t have to go through Nate to get to him I probably would’ve choked him out at that point.

  “Shut up you fucking moron,” I glared at him unamused.

  “I’m just sayin’. I’m about to get like ten copies of my ID made now that I know that’s like a thing here at this campus. I’m about to be a senior next year and I’m more than happy to pass my student ID out like tickets to the poon parade.” He repeatedly swiped one hand over the other as if he were making it rain dollar bills in the locker room.

  I continued to glare at him, the rage building inside of me threatening to boil over. Nate glanced between us and picked up on it immediately. He shook his head and huffed, “Listen, Glen. One of these days you’re going to go too far and somebody’s gonna beat the piss out of you and I’m not gonna do a damn thing to stop it.”

  Glen smirked proudly as if Nate’s warning was to be worn as a badge of honor.

  “Look, all I know is, the girl loves you, Tucker.”

  My eyes darted to Nate immediately, confusion filling them. “How do you know that?”

  “She’s been talking to Raegan nonstop since she left your place two days ago. Talkin’ about how she messed up. How she doesn’t know what to do. How she just wants to make it right again. Ohh and she specifically said I can’t let him go. I love him. Blah, blah, blah. But you know what? You’re right. It’s probably an act. She’s probably lyin’ to you just like Amanda. Lyin’ to Raegan too,” he stated matter-of-factly, sarcasm dripping from his words. He finished lacing up his cleats then followed Glen out of the locker room and out onto the field for practice.

  I sat there on the bench by myself for a minute. Bowing my head into my hands, I sucked in a deep breath. As angry as I was at her for lying to me, I missed her.

  Damn it. I fucking missed her. And truth be told, part of me was glad that she was miserable without me.

  We were at the starting point of what really felt like a promising future together only for it to be cut short by deceit. I shook my head at the recollection and rose to standing.

  Holding onto the anger was easy. Replaying the scene where she finally came clean, to continue fueling the fire that burned deep inside me, in my mind was easy. Feeling like I wanted to throw a brick through the extravagant bay window at Kappa Delta Phi and watch it shatter into a million pieces like the shards of my heart was really fucking easy.

  The hard part was forgetting. Forgetting the magnetic pull that naturally existed between us. Forgetting how she blossomed and came alive for me. Forgetting that regardless of the reason, she chose to give me a piece of her that she has never shared with anyone else on this earth. Yeah, forgetting all the good she brought into my life...that shit was hard.

  Four

  Quinn

  Wednesday

  I wasn’t quite sure what I was thinking or if I were thinking at all, but I stormed through the front door of Kappa Delta Phi. I no sooner made it to the foyer and I had five sets of eyes on me. Five flawless young women all frozen in place and staring back at me. I wasn’t expecting to have an audience when I confronted Amanda and demanded to have Tucker’s ID back, but so be it.

  “Can I help you with something, Quinn?” Janelle snarled at me disapprovingly.

  “No, actually I don’t need anything from you,” I snipped back, my tone just as sour as hers. “I’m a KDP sister now too and I’m welcome here any time I’d like. Now where’s Amanda?”

  Janelle scoffed at my arrogance and was soon joined by Carly. I swear these two didn’t have lives outside of each other. One can’t survive without the other.

  “ Actually, you don’t fucking live here so you’re not welcome any time you’d like,” Carly swung her head around with her retort with enough force to give herself whiplash.

  “Ladies, ladies, ladies…” Amanda’s voice echoed through the room as she entered. “Is this how we treat one of our newest pledges?” Her voice dripped with sweetness and refinement. “Quinn, how are you? What can we do for you?” She smiled brightly at me.

  I straightened my posture and asked, “I need you to give me Tucker’s ID back, please?”

  Amanda started to giggle and the noise rippled outward through the other girls now surrounding us.

  “Ohh, honey. I can’t do that. Not until I confirmed with him that the deed was done. You understand, don’t you?”

  I wanted to lunge at her but I restrained myself. “Here, I’ll confirm it now. I’ll call him and you can ask him yourself.” I pulled out my phone and started to slide through my contacts when her voice interrupted me.

  “That’s not necessary, Quinn,” she responded, holding her hand over my phone. “This one I think I’d like to confirm in person.” An impish grin curled up on her lips. I always forget that there’s a reason Amanda is the President of Kappa Delta Phi. Beneath her perfect, shiny appearance was a cutthroat bitch, bound and determined to get anything and everything she desired. And right now, she desired Tucker. Or at the very least, she desired to torment him further.

  The thought sparked a fire inside me. I wasn’t about to let her have him and I certainly wasn’t about to lose him either. She tried to walk away, tried to dismiss me, but I grabbed her arm and spun her back around to face me. “Give me Tucker’s ID,” I commanded, my tone cold and serious.

  She didn’t appear afraid, but rather amused. “I’ll tell you what…” She nodded to one of the girls standing around us who scurried over and grabbed a small wooden box from the other side of the room. She brought the box to Amanda who opened it up and started rifling through it, before pulling out Tucker’s ID.

  “You want it. Here it is, but know this. If you take this back you are done with KDP and… you… will… regret it.”

  I stared back at her, trying to contemplate my next move. What does she mean by that? If I mess this up, my mother will surely torture me far worse than she ever could. My heart was hammering in my chest as I tried to consider the consequences. Then my eyes focused in on the picture on the ID. Tucker’s perfect, sweet smile gleamed back at me in her despicable hands and I suddenly realized this was the easiest decision I’d ever made in my entire life. Without giving it another thought I snatched his ID from her hands and turned toward the door.

  Gasps sprouted from the room I’d just left as I walked out the door. But I didn’t care. If this is what it took to make things right again with Tucker, then it was completely worth it.

  * * *

  Tucker

  Thursday

  I got to Professor Rydell’s class late and I was a little surprised when I didn’t see Quinn. My eyes scanned the room thinking maybe she sat somewhere else, but I was wrong. She wasn’t here today.

  My heart sank in my chest. I wanted to see her. I wanted to talk to her. I needed to know if we could work past this. I scanned the room one more time for good measure, but I already knew she definitely just didn’t show. I pulled out my phone and started to text her.

  Tucker: Where are you?

  After fifteen minutes of no response I tried again.

  Tucker: Are you not coming to class? I was hoping we could talk.

  Another fifteen minutes passed and still no answer. My foot bounced on the floor beneath my desk. Maybe it’s too late? Maybe she doesn’t even want to try to work it out anymore?

  Tucker: Look Quinn, I’m sorry for the way I reacted. Please don’t ghost me.
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  Class ended and still nothing. So I decided to go to her dorm.

  I approached her door and could hear screaming and yelling coming from inside. I knocked and a moment later the door whipped open, Chastity stood on the other side, her hair swept up in a messy knot and an irritated look painted on her face.

  “Now’s really not a good time, Tucker.” She held a hand up to me indicating I shouldn’t come in, but when I realized it was Quinn’s voice that I heard booming down the hallway I pushed past her.

  “What’s going on? Is she okay?” I started to make my way back the hallway when I felt Chastity grip my arm and hold me back.

  “She’s fine. She’s just on the phone. It’s been going on for a while now, though,” she explained, seemingly unsurprised by the escalating altercation happening on the other side of her roommate’s bedroom door.

  “I don’t fucking care anymore! Take it all!” Quinn’s voice ripped through me, her anger causing my adrenaline to fire off. I didn’t know who it was, but someone had her really upset and an overwhelming urge to protect her washed over me. I ripped my arm from Chastity’s grasp and bursted through the door into Quinn’s bedroom. She was on the phone, standing on the other side of the room, face beet red, eyes soaked with tears, and her hand tangled in her hair as if she were trying to rip it out by the roots.

  Her jaw dropped and her eyes turned to saucers when she spotted me. My chest rose and fell rapidly with my breaths, her screaming and the adrenaline coursing through me preparing me for a fight. She didn’t speak, but I could still hear muffled screams of someone on the other end. I couldn’t tell who it was, but I was pretty sure I heard both a male and female voice. Her parents maybe?

  She looked distraught, broken. Her eyes were void of light and the sight cut through me like a damn knife. Just like the day in the food court, she looked like she needed to be rescued. The magnetic energy that I’ve come to recognize so easily sparked between us and I could practically hear it crackling. Drawing me to her. Without giving it another thought, I strided toward her, closing the distance in just two steps. I was swept away by emotions I didn’t understand.

  I tugged the phone from her hand.

  Ended the call.

  And threw her against the wall, my body crashing against hers at the same time that our mouths found each other. Objects were falling around us from her shelves, but we didn’t care. She gasped and moaned into my mouth, throwing her arms around my neck to deepen the kiss. I could taste the sweetness of her lips mixed with the saltiness of her tears as she lost herself in me.

  “I’m so sorry, Tucker… I never meant to hurt you… I love you so much…” she murmured between kisses and nips as I consumed her. I ravaged her like I had been starving for days and she was the only source of nourishment that could satisfy my hunger.

  I was still pissed at her. Really fucking pissed at her. But in that moment, I was feeling something even stronger than anger. More primal. Animalistic even. I wanted her. Not to delicately relieve her of her innocence, but to tear into her.

  Take her.

  Own her.

  Fuck her.

  Hard.

  I wanted her to feel the mixture of pain and pleasure that she has put me through these last few days.

  I needed her to feel it with me.

  And I needed her to feel it now.

  * * *

  Quinn

  I sat in silence at my desk. The only noise coming from the clanking of Tucker’s ID that I tapped against the desktop as I considered how I wanted to proceed. I wanted to give it back to him. To show him he means so much more to me than some ridiculous sorority. To tell him that I love him and I want to be with him. I just wasn’t sure that he would be willing to hear it.

  The doubt caused my chest to constrict and my heart to ache. My eyes burned from the incessant flow of tears that have consumed me over the last few days. I’ve cried so much that I think I may have run out of tears. That can happen, right? I pushed the thoughts from my mind and stood from my seat. Checking my phone I realized I had to leave for class or I would be late.

  “Even if he doesn’t want to be with me, I’ve got to try.”

  Before I reached my bedroom door, my phone buzzed and the name flashing across the screen made me instantly nauseous. Devil Woman. I pulled in a deep breath through my nose and I felt my entire body get tense. A defense mechanism to protect me from the poison I was sure was about to be spit in my face after what happened at Kappa Delta Phi.

  “He-Hello,” I somehow managed to get out past the lump that had formed in my throat.

  “Quinn,” my mother’s voice was calm and quiet and it terrified me. The calm before the storm. “Can I ask you a question?”

  I froze. I wasn’t sure how to respond.

  “Did you really think that we wouldn’t find out? That you could behave like a disrespectful, reckless little cunt and we wouldn’t hear about it?!”

  Her voice grew louder and angrier the more she spoke and I flinched at her words. I knew she wanted me to say something. Give an excuse. An apology. But I wasn’t sorry. And I couldn’t speak. Nothing I would have said would’ve mattered anyway.

  “Do you have any idea how bad things are about to get for you?” Her voice was calm again. It was always disturbing to me how she could switch her tone back and forth between calm and collected and menacing in an instant. One of many intimidation tactics that she had surely perfected over the years.

  “You couldn’t make my life any worse than you already have,” I murmured back to her. My response ignited a flame on the other end of the line that scared the shit out of me.

  And around and around we went…

  For almost an hour I was going back and forth with her, being called worthless. A disappointment. A cunt. And everything in between. My dad joined in halfway through the argument to add threats to the insults. Threats of taking away my tuition, my housing, my phone, my credit card. Anything and everything they could think of.

  “I don’t fucking care anymore! Take it all!”

  And just as I heard my dad’s voice boom through the phone, now spewing actual physical threats of dragging me home by my hair, I was distracted by someone standing in my doorway.

  Tucker.

  I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there. Frozen in place. The last thing I expected was to turn around and see him here. In my room. Breathy. And looking at me like he had something dark. Dominating. Something positively sinful on his mind. My entire lower half clenched involuntarily at the sight and my mouth fell open. The pull between us formed thick and heavy in the air and I suddenly couldn’t think about anything, but him.

  Tucker suddenly kicked the door shut and closed the distance in no time at all before ripping my phone from my hand and ending the call with my parents. In an instant he crashed his mouth against mine and I voraciously took him in. Losing myself in his scent, his mouth, his arms. In everything that was him.

  “I’m so sorry, Tucker… I never meant to hurt you… I love you so much…” I wanted to tell him everything I’d been thinking, but he silenced me with his mouth and then with his words.

  “Shut the fuck up,” he growled as his hand twisted itself into my hair and pulled hard jerking my face upward.

  “Ahhh!” I cried out, first in pain then in pleasure as his mouth sucked and bit hard along my neck setting my nerve endings on fire. I’d never experienced such pain, such pleasure, such passion in all of my life. I arched my back and spread my legs for him, pressing my center in his direction, craving more. Yearning for him.

  His fierce green eyes pierced my own and with his gaze fixed on me Tucker’s hands snaked up the back of my shirt and met at the clasp of my bra, but only long enough to rip the material from my body. I heard the clips snap as he tore them apart then peeled my shirt and what was left of my bra over my head and threw them across the room. He dove back into my mouth dragging my lip through his teeth as he pulled away making me yelp.

  My
response made him grin and his fingers made quick work of my button and zipper on my jeans before he dragged them down my legs and left them pooled at my feet on the floor. He spun us around, lifted me off of my feet and tossed me onto my bed as if I were a rag doll.

  “You want me to fuck you, Quinn? I’ll show you what it feels like to be fucked,” he thundered. His voice was deep and raw and his eyes burned with emotions I couldn’t quite pinpoint but his tone indicated it was a storm of love and dark, dangerous passion that brewed behind them.

  And it was so. Damn. Hot!

  He grabbed me by my legs, ripped them apart and drug me across the bed toward him until he was positioned between my thighs. I was close enough that I could just barely feel the bulge that I’d craved through his pants. He dug his fingers into the flesh of my thighs to the point of pain as he stared down at me. His glare was serious, focused, intense and it caused my pussy to immediately start throbbing with desire. “Keep your fucking eyes on me, baby. Don’t look away.”

  His tongue snuck out of his mouth and wet his lips as he pulled down his pants freeing his rock hard erection. He quickly tore apart the condom wrapper and slid it down his shaft. After pushing aside the flimsy material of my panties he shoved his fingers deep inside me and I gasped, gripping the blankets beneath me.

  “That’s right, Quinn. You’re always so fucking wet for me… This is mine. Do you understand me?” I squirmed beneath him, his fingers penetrating me, his palm massaging my clit and his dirty words causing my body to react in uncontrollable ways.

  When I didn’t answer he leaned further over me and grabbed me by the neck startling me. “Do you fucking understand me?” he growled more forcefully this time. He pressed more firmly against my clit and his fingers moved skillfully inside of me. His grasp on my throat was a new sensation I wasn’t prepared for. And it soaked me straight through my panties. He squeezed it tightly, but left just enough room for air to still escape.