by McKayla Box
With those damn eyes.
I pull him down on top of me and then push him over onto his back. I climb on top of him. I reach down between his legs. He’s hard as a rock and it’s such a turn on. I lean into his ear, bite the lobe, flick the inside of his ear.
“Your turn,” I say.
Chapter 41
HOUSTON
My dick hurts I’m so hard.
And when she rolls me over and grabs me, I feel like I’m ready to blow.
I take a deep breath and force myself to relax.
She’s totally sure of herself and when she grabbed my hair when I went down on her, it just made me want to get her off faster. She’s not worried about anything.
She slides down my chest and her hands unbutton my shorts, then pulls them down and off. She lays down on top of me and her skin is warm against mine. Every part of her body is perfect and I can’t keep my hands off of her.
She pushes herself down and she doesn’t even tease me, taking me in her mouth right away. I grunt and have to grind my hips down into the bed because I’m hanging by a thread. I grab the sheets and breathe.
She goes slow at first, her hand and mouth sliding up and down. My dick just aches and her hand feels so good. Then she slides her hand under my balls and I groan.
“Fuck,” I say. “No.”
“No?” she says. “Are you really telling me no?”
“Yeah, because I’m gonna lose it.”
“Do it.”
“No,” I say. “Not yet.”
She sucks me hard and I have to push her off of me. She laughs and swings her hair around, then crawls back up me. She kisses me, then sticks her tongue in my ear. She reaches down and wraps her hand around my dick again.
“How about now?” she whispers.
“I want you,” I tell her.
“You sure?” she growls. “Thought you were sick of my bullshit?”
Throwing my own words back at me.
Clever.
But I can’t lie to her now.
“I want you,” I say again.
She squeezes my dick and laughs and it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard.
“In the drawer,” I say. “There’s—”
“Don’t need it,” she says as she pushes herself up, her hands flat on my chest.
She pushes her hips back and a second later, I’m inside of her.
I put my hands on her face, bring her down to me, and kiss her, as we move slowly. We’re immediately in sync. There’s no awkwardness, no trying to figure out the other. We just fit.
She pushes herself up again and I grab onto her hips. Her nails dig into my chest as she starts moving faster. I lift up into her and she moans and it’s the greatest sound I’ve ever heard. I lower and lift up again. She moans again as her hips rock back and forth.
“I’m gonna come again,” she rasps. “Fuck.”
I squeeze her hips and thrust into her once, twice, then a third time.
And I explode into her.
She muffles a scream and drives her hips against me over and over. I keep pushing into her, my entire body going weaker with each push. She collapses onto me, our bodies covered in sweat, and we both finally stop moving.
We lay there in the dark. I can feel her heart beating against my chest. She’s still breathing hard. I rest my hand in the small of her back, running my hands lightly over her spine. She buries her face in my neck and snuggles against me. I wrap my other arm around her.
And then I drift off to sleep.
Chapter 42
LILA
When my eyes open, I’m confused for a few seconds.
Where am I?
Who’s in my bed?
I blink several times.
Then it comes rushing back to me.
I’m not in my bed.
I’m in some bed with Houston.
There’s a blanket over us. He’s lying on his back. He’s got one arm underneath me and the other over me. I’m curled up into him. My arm around his mid-section.
And we’re both naked.
His body is warm and his eyes are shut tight. His mouth is slightly open and his chest is rising and falling, sleeping silently.
I shift against him, but he doesn’t move.
He’s out.
I realize there’s light coming into the room through the window on the opposite wall. I have no idea how long we’ve been asleep, but it’s morning, so it’s been awhile.
I glance around. When I pulled him into the room last night, I had no idea where we were. Before everything happened, I was so angry at him and I wasn’t paying attention to where we were. But as I look around, I realize we’re in his room. There’s a photo of him and his mom on a dresser. Some different pictures of baseball players on the walls. A desk covered in books and papers. A sweatshirt draped over a chair.
And our clothes are strewn on the floor.
I shift against him again. I have muscles that are sore that haven’t been sore in awhile. In a good way.
I can’t believe I’m lying here in bed with Houston. I came to the party to talk to him, to tell him why I hadn’t come down to the field after the game with other media covering the game. But then he immediately started going off on me and I just wanted him to shut up so I could explain everything.
That I’d felt too self-conscious talking to him after the game, as if there was nothing going on between us.
That I’d figured out what I wanted to do with the article.
That I was conflicted about what happened in his truck.
But then he just wouldn’t shut up and even though he was yelling at me and being an asshole, I kissed him to get him to shut up and because I wanted to kiss him again.
But I had no idea we’d end up…here.
I’m not sorry.
It was amazing.
I mean…amazing.
But I don’t know what happens now.
I do know, though, that it’s Sunday morning and I need to get the damn article turned in. I hadn’t planned on staying at the party for long and I ended up spending the night.
I know I need to get up, but I don’t want to. It’s warm next to him, and there’s a part of me that wants to wake him up so we can do it again before I leave. But I have no idea what to expect when he wakes up and I need to get moving.
I wiggle out from under the blanket and get out of the bed. It’s cold in the room without his body heat and I shiver as I pull on my clothes. The blanket is twisted now and I can see all of him in the bed.
God, he’s gorgeous.
All of him.
I pull the blanket back over him. He stirs for a second and he turns his head away.
Out like a light.
I run a hand through my hair and step into my shoes. I reach out to touch his shoulder, then stop. I don’t need to wake him up.
Because I don’t know what to expect, and I don’t want to deal with that right now.
Instead, I turn and quietly leave.
Chapter 43
HOUSTON
I turn over in the bed and realize it’s empty.
I open my eyes.
It’s morning. I can tell by the sun sneaking in through the blinds on the window. I close my eyes again, trying to put the pieces together.
Lila.
My eyes fly open.
Jesus, Lila.
When she kissed me, it was like a bolt of electricity hit me and I’d gone from wanting her to get the hell out to wanting her as badly as I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. I remember every second of it, right up until she attached herself to me and I fell asleep with her next to me.
And now she’s gone.
How long has she been gone?
I hate that I’m irritated that she’s gone. Normally, I’d be happy to wake up in the bed alone after a night like that. I’ve had plenty of them, and it gets awkward when the girl stays and all I want is for her to be gone and to find some breakfast.
But now?
I
expected her to still be in the bed and I’m pissed that she’s already bailed.
I sit up and pull on my shorts. I reach for my phone and check it.
No messages.
Fine, whatever.
Hope she enjoyed it.
I’m pulling on my shirt when the phone starts buzzing. I pick it up off my bed and see Lila’s name on the screen. Right on cue. I slide my thumb over the screen. “Yeah?”
“Hey,” she says. “You’re awake.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know,” she says. “You were out when I left, so I wasn’t sure—”
“I’m awake,” I say. “What do you want?”
The line buzzes for a long second.
“I wanted to let you know that I had to leave,” she says. “I needed to get into the office to get this article done because—”
“It’s fine,” I tell her.
Because of course it’s about the fucking article.
Like it always is.
“Okay,” she says. “I just wanted to—”
“You going to put last night in the story too?” I ask.
There’s a pause. “What?”
I laugh. “I just figured you might want to include that in your little profile of me. Since you’ve got everything else you need, maybe go ahead and put in there that we fucked.”
The line buzzes again.
“Houston, I didn’t plan on last night,” she says.
“I didn’t, either. Trust me.”
“It wasn’t part of some plan,” she says. “If you would shut up and listen and not think you know everything for once, then maybe—”
“I don’t need you to explain anything to me,” I tell her. “We’re good. You got what you wanted and I got what I wanted. You got your story and I got off. Seems fair.”
She stays quiet for a few seconds and I’m glad. When I’d fallen asleep last night, I was thinking maybe I’d been wrong about her. Maybe I hadn’t given her a chance, and maybe I’d been quick to judge. But now, knowing she just scrambled out of here to go write her precious story?
I don’t think I was wrong at all.
“Hey, Houston,” she finally says.
“Hey, Lila.”
“When Beck walks out to the mound to talk to you, do you act like you know everything then, too?” she asks. “Do you just assume he’s out there to piss you off or fuck up your rhythm? Or do you ever think he’s out there for an actual reason that isn’t tied to screwing you over?”
I don’t say anything.
“Maybe think about that,” she says. “You gigantic, self-absorbed asshole.”
She hangs up.
Chapter 44
LILA
I stare at the phone then drop it on the desk.
I’m in the newspaper office and I decided to call him because I still felt weird about leaving while he was sleeping.
Big fucking mistake.
In every way.
I should’ve known he wouldn’t hear me out, that he’d assume he already had all of the answers.
Because it’s what he does best.
I was just hoping that it might be different now, after last night.
Guess not.
I stare at my computer screen and grab my cup of coffee. I’ve been able to get half the article written. The office is empty, it’s quiet, and I’ve been focused since I got here. I always work decently well under a deadline and I have some clarity. I know what I want to write about him and how I want to do it. I’m not sure where the clarity came from, but it’s there.
Maybe the mind-blowing orgasms.
I laugh to myself and shake my head.
I never would’ve thought that I needed to sleep with him in order to figure out writing this piece, but here we are.
I’m just mad that he won’t listen.
When I left the house, I had all kinds of thoughts.
But I didn’t think that what happened was a one-night stand.
You don’t have one-night stands like that.
There was something else at work between us and he’s a liar if he says there isn’t.
But maybe he just doesn’t want to see it.
And there’s nothing I can do about that.
I take another sip of coffee and set it down. I roll my shoulders and flex my fingers. I need to finish this piece and get it done and move on from Houston Cade. He’s taken up too much of my time already. I need to buckle down and get to the end. I need to get this written so I can stop thinking about him. I’ll have this done and turned in by noon and it’ll be out in the world tomorrow.
Good riddance.
So I need to focus.
No distractions.
Chapter 45
HOUSTON
“Houston,” Cash Hollow says. “I’m gonna hang this up in my locker. But I want you to sign it first.”
The rest of the guys in the clubhouse roar.
“The fuck are you talking about?” I ask as I drop my gear in front of my locker.
He holds up a newspaper. “You’re a star, baby!”
The rest of the guys cheer and clap.
I laugh and shake my head. “I’m not signing shit because you’ll just put it on eBay.”
“Nah, come on,” he says. “I’ll keep it so I can tell people I knew you back in the day!”
I shake my head again. “Whatever.”
It’s Monday afternoon and we’ve got a light workout scheduled. For me, I’ll just do some stretching and running. I won’t throw because my arm is still recovering from Saturday.
The mood in the room is upbeat, everyone still on a high from Saturday’s win. Guys are joking around and making fun of one another. I’d like to think it will be like this all season, but I know better. It’s a roller coaster, no matter how good we are. It’s easy to have fun when you’re winning, but it’s tough to find the good mood when things take a turn. So it’s important to enjoy this while it’s happening.
Guys trickle out to the field until it’s just me and Beck in the clubhouse. I’m still pulling on my socks and spikes.
“Did you see it?” Beck asks.
“See what?”
He straps his chest protector on. “The paper.”
“Just when Cash held it up. Why?”
“It’s her article,” he says. “On you.”
I pause as I’m tying my shoe. “I just thought it was something in the local paper.”
“Nope. It’s hers.”
“How bad is it?”
He straps on his shin guards. “You disappeared on Saturday night and then I didn’t see you yesterday.”
“Went over to my mom’s,” I tell him. “Hung out there for most of the day.”
“And Saturday night?”
I sit up, but don’t say anything.
“I saw her come in and then you two disappeared,” Beck says. “She pulled you away. Didn’t look like you were getting along.”
“We weren’t,” I say. “And then we…did.”
He raises an eyebrow.
“It doesn’t matter,” I tell him. “Was stupid and I got suckered, I think.” I shrug. “Oh well.”
He eyes me. “You really didn’t read it yet?”
“I didn’t even know it was fucking out. She told me something yesterday about having to get it written, but I wasn’t listening at that point.”
“I thought you were at your mom’s,” he says.
“I was,” I tell him, annoyed. “She called me before I went over.”
“So she didn’t spend the night?”
“Are you writing a fucking book, dude?”
He laughs, then shakes his head. “No. Just curious as to what’s going on with the two of you.”
“There is no two of us,” I tell him. “She got what she wanted from me and then she went and wrote her thing. The end.”
“You sure about that?”
After she hung up on me, I took a shower and headed to my mom’s. I needed to get of
f campus and away from everything and everyone. I’d thought a lot about Lila and Saturday night, then just got more pissed off that the story was still her primary focus. I was hoping that hanging with my mom and watching TV and having a couple of meals would help clear my head, but all it did was give me more time to get annoyed by the fact that I’d let Lila in. I’d lost my focus and she’d used me.
“Pretty fucking sure,” I say. “She hung up on me yesterday when she called. So…yeah.”
Beck stands up and digs into his locker. He pulls out his mask and glove.
And a newspaper.
He takes a look at it, then holds it out to me. “You should have a look.”
I frown, then go back to tying my shoes. “I’m good.”
He stands there for a second and I finish knotting my laces, then sit back up.
“Remember how you didn’t shake me off once on Saturday?” he says. “And how we were totally in sync and you pitched a hell of a game?”
“You called a hell of a game,” I say. “I didn’t shake you off because you were right on every one of your pitch calls.”
He nods slowly. “Yeah. I was.” He sets the newspaper down on the bench. “Don’t shake me off here, Houston.” He nods toward the paper. “Have a look, dude.”
Then he leaves and I’m alone with the newspaper.
Chapter 46
LILA
“You sure you don’t want to come?” Shea asks. “I feel like you need to get out. It’s a Monday happy hour. Half price drinks and apps.”
I shake my head. “I’m fine. I’ve got homework to catch up on.”
“I thought you’d be on a high today,” she says. “People were buzzing about the paper all day.”
“Were they? I guess I wasn’t paying attention.”
She nods. “They were. I thought you’d be excited that it’s out and seems to be hitting pretty well.”