by Eden Butler
She hadn’t gotten back to her dorm until four a.m. Now it was nearing ten and her body ached, her head felt wooden and heavy and her limbs could use a lengthy soak in a steaming tub before at least four hours of uninterrupted sleep. Even from the very tempting and wholly satisfying happy accident that had consumed her life.
But that wasn’t going to happen. Not if she wanted to make sure her uncle was still willing to give his recommendation for next semester’s internship in the Athletic Department’s business office. Gia made sure every player’s helmet was polished and rested atop their lockers, that each practice jersey and fresh towels had been clean and folded inside. Every player had a bottle of water and a protein bar, something Gia did without ever being asked, and the entire locker room was cleaned a full hour before even the coaching staff had arrived.
She stared at herself in the mirror before leaving the bathrooms, sighing when she spotted the heavy bags under her eyes and the red streaks making her look hungover. She grabbed a small vial of eye drops from her bag and splashed them into each eye before she grabbed three extra towels she’d folded and glanced once more over the bench and locker area. Everything was set and maybe, if she beat Uncle Mike before he made it in, she might manage a twenty-minute nap on the sofa in his office. It was her only thought as she moved down the corridor and dropped the freshly laundered towels off in the storage room. But when she entered, not bothering with the light and turned to leave, ignoring everything but the linen rack set off to one side of the room, Gia’s scream of surprise got muffled behind a large palm as she was pulled away from the door when she reached for it.
“It’s me,” Luka said, his voice relaxed, but deep.
He didn’t try to stop her when she grabbed his hand to pull it from her mouth, but he did move it back instantly when they both turned toward the whistling coming from the other side of the door.
“Janitor,” Luka whispered, right against Gia’s ear. “I watched you clean the locker room and get everything set up. He won’t come in here for anything.” Gia shook her head, closing her eyes when Luka exhaled and the warmth from his breath moved down her neck like a whisper. She couldn’t keep the shiver from moving over her, shaking her shoulders and arms and Luka seemed to notice the effect he had on her. He pulled her closer, her back resting against his chest with his palm flat on her stomach.
“This,” he said, that deep voice even lower now, “is a paradigm happy accident. I was trying to catch Coach before everyone got here and look who I find.” She wanted to push him away, tell him he couldn’t touch her like this. Not here. Not now. They’d be found out. They’d be discovered and it would ruin everything for both of them. Mike would kick Luka off the team, or at the very least, bench him. He’d ban Gia from every game and would never trust her to be on the field again. That could squash any hope she’d ever have at the career she’d always dreamed about.
She liked Luka. She wanted him, but Gia wasn’t sure he was worth risking everything for.
“Lu…” she tried, her words a mumble of sound against his palm. “We can’t.”
He stood still behind her, seeming to wait, to consider. Gia turned, her gaze glancing up to get a peek at his expression, but Luka didn’t react. He only watched and waited as though he weighed the risks himself and wasn’t sure which one he’d take.
“Circumstances like this don’t come often.” He curled his big arms around her and Gia’s shuddering intensified. He smelled of fresh laundry and mocha again, both scents she was starting to equate with him and irresistible temptation. “The door is closed,” he started, reaching forward to press his hand flat against the hinge. It didn’t move or click. Then Luka moved them closer to the wall, so close in fact that Gia could make out the clearer sound of the whistling on the other side and the fuzzy shape of a man through the windows of the double doors separating the locker room hallway and stadium lobby. He mopped the large area, keeping himself entertained with a slow, sad version of Somewhere Along the Way.
“But we can’t…”
“I’ve been cursed,” he told her, those long fingers flirting across her stomach, inching further down as he moved forward, kissing her once on the spot where her shoulder and neck met. “You did something to me. You’ve got supernatural powers or something.” The spot he had to know by now that made her a little helpless with very little effort.
“What did I do?” Gia stretched her neck, moving her head onto Luka’s shoulder as he continued to kiss her skin. She lost control so easily with him. If anyone had done any spell casting, it was the man with all that funky Hale demon magic.
“I can’t keep away from you.” He moved closer, breath heavier now, fingers digging into her hips, lips sucking on her skin as he brushed against her. “I wasn’t supposed to get entangled. I wasn’t supposed to let anyone do this to me…”
“What…ah…what did I do?”
Another brush of his hips and Gia got the idea. He was strong and fierce and she felt how much he wanted her just then with the outline of his dick against her bottom, with the grip of his hand tugging at her jeans, lowering her zipper.
“Gia…”
The whistling in the hallway got louder, then, as Luka gave up pretense of trying to tell her what she’d done to him in favor of showing her, another voice interrupted the whistling and the couple paused, heads jerking as they heard the janitor laughing, talking to someone else.
Luka, though, didn’t stop for long.
Something in Gia’s brain muted the good-sense button that was supposed to remind her not to be reckless. She was a hundred feet from people who knew her, who knew her uncle. They could tell him what she was doing and with who if they discovered her. But Luka pushed his hand into the front of her jeans, cupping her, groaning when he found her wet.
“Gia…ah, God… you make me lolo…”
Then he leaned forward, pressing her against the wall as he kissed the back of her neck, gripping her hair between his fingers, touching her, brushing his hips against her until caution left Gia and she gave in to the sensation Luka worked inside her.
He didn’t speak as he moved. He didn’t do more than kiss her neck, and lower her jeans, ignoring the sounds of voices, three now as he knelt behind her to touch her. She groaned, leaning an arm against the wall, holding her mouth against it as Luka smoothed two fingers over her ass, stroking her, slipping the tips between her folds to tease her open.
More voices came toward them, two through the double doors and Luka continued, adding his thumb to the back of her ass as he fingered her front, doubling his efforts. Gia had to bite against her arm the faster he worked at teasing her.
Minutes passed and the sound of his fingers inside her, the wetness growing became nearly as loud as the voices outside. Gia knew she should tell him to stop. She knew this was careless. She knew she’d die if he didn’t finish and so she arched back, urging him on, wanting more of him, needing it.
“You’re almost there,” he told her, knowing how she sounded just before she came by now. He stood closer, kissing along her back as he increased his movements, fingers deeper. “There?” And Luka touched deep inside Gia, his knuckle rubbing against that sweet, small knot that had her gasping and her teeth sinking deeper into her skin as she came.
Luka didn’t care that the voices were louder, that the whistling had started up again, that two people stood just on the other side the storage room door.
“Hey, man, you seen my niece?”
Gia straightened her shoulders, her orgasm nearly doused completely by the sound of Uncle Mike’s voice, but Luka didn’t stop, didn’t recoil, or slow in his movements as he took out a condom and had it on before whoever Mike spoke to could answer.
“No, sir. But she must have been here this morning. We all have protein bars in our lockers.”
“Yeah. She does that. She’s a good girl.”
Gia lowered her head, feeling the guilt flood her, but then Luka pushed her legs ap
art and slipped inside her, filling her completely and she forgot everything. She heard nothing. Saw nothing. Felt nothing, but Luka behind her, in her, around her and his arms cradling her, his breath against her neck as he took her hard.
“You’re not a girl,” he said against her ear. “You’re a woman and you’re not good.” He moved inside her, holding her around the waist with one arm and steadying himself with a palm to the wall. “You’re the fucking best, nani Gia.”
“Lu…oh, God.”
She didn’t care about being discovered. Not just then. Not in that wild, hot, blissful moment. She only cared that Luka held her, that he took her and right in that moment, as they hid from the world getting lost for just a brief moment, Gia thought being entangled might just be worth risking everything.
SEVEN
Gia
“What do you think?” Luka’s smile was ever-present. She’d never seen him prouder of anything. It was understandable. Three years of hard work and scrimping and saving led to this moment and he wanted to show it off.
“That depends.” That huge small faltered, but only a little. “Am I the first woman you’ve ridden here?”
Luka widened his eyes, then snorted before scrunching his face. “Sorry. Ew. Okay, yes. Well.”
“What’s the problem?” she asked, laughing at the play of bipolar noises he made and the accompanying expressions that followed them. “What kind of answer was that?”
“It was the visual,” he said, scrubbing his face. “My mother was the first woman to ride in this car, but the way you said that was…”
“Latent with innuendo?”
“Always,” he continued. “And that had all kinds of jacked up images in my head and I just…” Another face scrub and Luka grabbed Gia, pulling her across the seat to settle her on his lap. “I’m gonna need your mouth to clear my twisted mind from any Oedipal-like imagery that you made pop in there. Come here.” He pulled her leg over his lap and tugged her close. “Waste no time, woman.”
“If I must.” Gia kissed him, covering his mouth, tongue dipping to meet his until the windows fogged and she believed all visuals of his mother and whatever awful things that followed her in Luka’s new Mustang had vanished. She leaned back, rubbing his face as she watched. “There. Now. Is that better, Oedipus?”
“God, don’t call me that, lolo.” He pinched her bottom, giving Gia a playful slap that made her squeal. “Tell me, seriously.” He motioned around the cab, to the black interior and diamond patterned seats. The car wasn’t new, but it was pristine. “You like it?” Luka did this often, had done similar things, Gia noticed in the past few weeks that they’d been together. For all his ability and confidence, she suspected deep down he was always seeking approval. It seemed to matter to him what she thought of the gifts he bought her—though they were always sweet and simple, not expensive or flamboyant, which she preferred— or the places he’d taken her. Luka wanted Gia to be happy. To be satisfied. He wanted her approval.
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you,” she said, brushing a kiss against his lips. “There’s nothing you do or have or want that I don’t love.”
He leaned back, hand on her hip as he watched her. “You’re too much. Too sweet.”
“I can be a bitch if you want, with very little effort.”
Luka smiled, snaking a hand up to hold her face. “No, nani. I don’t want that. Stay sweet and sexy and kind. Always be kind.”
“The world isn’t always kind, Luka.”
“I think we both know that, but you, G, you’re better than this world.” He rubbed her arms, fingers light over her shoulders like touching her was a gift he wasn’t quite convinced he deserved. “Show them how much better you are. They’re mean and ugly. You show them how kind and beautiful you are.”
It was hard to refuse someone like him, especially when he said things like that and meant them. And Gia knew, the way he spoke to her, how he held her when he did, that Luka meant it all. It was in the way he moved his wide, amazed gaze over her face when she spoke; like listening to her was something he didn’t think he’d ever get tired of. He watched her and listened. He saw her when no one else had.
Gia wondered how they’d gotten here and why it had all happened so quickly. Would they flicker out just as quickly? God, she hoped they wouldn’t.
“It’s not the same, seeing you every day. I don’t like it.”
“Well, you can always go to my uncle and tell him you want to date me,” she said, her laugh dying when he didn’t smile back at her. They’d talked this over a hundred times, always ending up in the same argument. Always coming to an impasse. She didn’t want to ruin the good day he’d had. You only have one time buying your first car, but from the look on his face, the same worn argument was going to happen.
“Luka…please don’t.”
“A million damn times, I’ve said it. I don’t care who knows.”
“You should,” Gia said, slipping off his lap to sit in the passenger seat. He was unbelievably stubborn when it came to coming clean to her uncle. “He was serious about that warning and you know it. I’m my father’s only daughter. The only one. Uncle Mike promised my dad that he’d keep me safe and, my God, Luka, to Italian men, keeping their daughters safe means keeping them away from anything even resembling an… unapproved penis.”
“Unapproved…” He glanced down at his lap and then back at her. “So…I’m the unapproved…” Gia nodded, looking at his lap herself before his loud grunting exhale brought her attention back to him. He gripped the steering wheel, his jaw tightening. “Well, it’s too damn late now.”
“Luka…”
“You’ve had my unapproved dick. A lot.”
“It’s not that simple. If my uncle…”
“Fuck this…”
Luka interrupted the argument the way he usually did— with his mouth against Gia’s and his hand holding her face still so he controlled the kiss. He demanded and took, leaning her back against the passenger seat, maneuvering them so quickly that she hardly noticed when he pushed back the seat, his kiss stealing her breath and any good thought as he moved on top of her. It was a stupid, careless thing to do, making out on campus, in the parking lot just outside of her dorm, but Luka had been so excited to show her his new car and Gia hadn’t seen him all day. A quick ride around the city had taken them from campus and back to her building just before the academic offices closed for the weekend.
They simply weren’t thinking.
“Lu… someone will see.”
“It’s finals…no one cares…” He moved his hand, slipping it under her shirt to brush his thumb over her nipple. “I’ve missed you, nani. Besides,” he said, kissing her neck as he moved his thumb faster over her nipple. “We should break in my new…”
“Get the fuck out of that damn car right now!”
A loud, hammering bang sounded on the hood and Luka leaned back, putting all his weight on one hand as he pulled Gia to his chest and the car door flew open. She could only make out the shape of a large man before a hand curled around Luka’s collar and he was jerked forward, off of Gia and out of the car.
“Gia Adelina Jilani! Get yourself sorted and out here. Figlio di puttana!”
“Uncle Mikey! Wait!” Gia scrambled, trying her best to moved herself between her uncle who had Luka by the collar, his face white, eyes reddening as a thick vein in his neck pulsed and Luka himself, who held up his hands, his words a muffled of sound she couldn’t hear of her uncle’s loud oaths of disappointment.
“Please, Uncle…”
“Madonna santa! …what will I tell my brother? He’ll be…”
“Will you please stop?” she tried again, tugging on her uncle’s arm. The man closed his eyes, running a hand over his face as he held Luka at arm’s length.
“And you! Cazzo, after all we’ve done for you, Hale! All the times... What did I say? I told you I would have your balls. Where’s my knife?” He re
ached for his pockets, patting his pants and jacket before he went for his keychain. “Going to cut you…”
“Uncle Mike, that’s enough!” Gia managed, stepping in front of the older man so that Luka could get away from him. When he reached for Luka, jaw clenched so tight his chin shook, Gia pushed on his chest to hold him back. “Stop it, please!”
“I told my brother…”
“I am not a kid anymore, and you know that. Papa should know that, too. I’m here to experience life…”
“Not that kind of experience!” He pointed at Luka, his top lip curling. “Dio santo, not that…”
“It doesn’t matter! I’m a good person. I’m a good student and a hard worker. You can’t say I’m not.” He opened his mouth, but didn’t speak and Gia took a step back, moving closer to Luka. “And so is he. So why wouldn’t we want to be around each other? We both like the same things. We run in the same circles. It makes sense and we…”
“No! There is no ‘we!’ Not with my players. I told them that from the beginning. I told you that, too! No. Players.” Mike waved between Gia and Luka, his mouth tight, eyes closed as he shook at his head. “No. Damn. Players.”
“I…I didn’t…”
“Enough! All I’ve done for you,” he said to Luka, head shaking, “and this is how you repay me? This…disrespect?” Then, the older man looked at his niece. “From both of you? Oh, Madonna…”
“That’s not fair. You know it’s not fair.” Gia’s voice was low, her breath felt weighed the longer her uncle glared at her. She could take his disappointment in her, but Luka hadn’t done anything wrong. He hadn’t done anything she hadn’t wanted him to. “We both work hard for you. You know we do. Luka especially…”
“Gia…stop. Please,” Luka said, interrupting whatever defense she’d make for him. She turned away from her uncle, lowering her hand from his chest like she’d given up trying to keep her uncle from lashing at him. Luka wore no real expression on his face. He guarded whatever he was thinking, but Gia knew him well enough that she could make out the disappointment in his eyes. There was shame there, too. Mike had given him and his twin a lot of chances to prove themselves. He’d mentioned that to Gia often. He’d hated sneaking around with her for that reason alone. It had been the main reason they’d argued about coming out in the open about their relationship. Luka hated lying to people he respected.