Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 115577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
My chest felt like it cracked open.
Claire nodded. “If anything, just don’t screw it up by becoming a distraction. That’s the only way this turns into a problem.”
“I won’t,” I said firmly.
Emily squeezed my hand again. “We won’t.”
Coach studied us for a moment longer before nodding once. “All right then. That’s settled.”
Claire clapped her hands together lightly. “Great. Now go be in love somewhere that isn’t under a security camera.”
That pulled a laugh out of Emily, and I couldn’t help but grin, too.
We stood, thanking them both, and when we stepped back out into the hallway, the door closing behind us, everything felt different. All the fear that had guided me for so long had evaporated, and in its place, there was nothing but light.
Hope.
Possibility.
Emily turned to me, her eyes shining. “Did that really just happen?”
I pulled her into me without hesitation, my hands framing her face. “Yeah,” I murmured. “It did.”
Her smile broke wide, and I kissed her — right there in the hallway, hoping I could bend those rules we’d just agreed to just one more time.
“Now who’s being trouble,” Emily said against my lips.
I ran my hands down her back, cupping her ass and squeezing tight. “You did this to me.”
“Mm… what else can I do to you?” She nipped my jaw, and I growled, swatting her ass before grabbing her hand in mine and walking faster than I ever had toward the parking lot.
“Let’s find out. You still got that list?”
“Folded in a drawer at home. A copy here on my phone. Forever embedded in my brain.”
“And what’s next on it?”
She grinned, and then took off in a jog, racing me to our next chapter.
“You’ll have to catch me to find out!”
Emily
“So, are you going to explain to me why I wasn’t allowed to shower after the game?” Braden asked when we made it back to his house the following Sunday night. “The guys were all very displeased with my stinky ass. Media didn’t seem too thrilled either.”
I gripped him by the hand and walked backward toward his bedroom with the biggest smile on my face. “It’s on the list.”
Braden wrinkled his nose. “You got a thing for body odor? Didn’t see this kink coming.”
“I’ve got a thing for you in this filthy jersey,” I said, running my hands over the grass stains before I slid my nails into his still-damp hair. “Been wanting to peel it off you since the first time I watched you play.”
He arched a brow, his face slick with grime and dried sweat. “Well, you’ll get your wish. There is much peeling involved to get this thing off me, especially with these pads. Which usually do not leave the stadium, by the way. The equipment staff was very confused by me insisting on taking everything with me.”
“How’d you get them to say yes?”
“Told them it was a playoff suspicion thing, that it worked for me in college.” Braden shrugged. “It worked for tonight, but don’t count on it again.”
“One time is all I need.”
My mouth was on his then, inhaling the moan my touch elicited as I pulled at the hem of his jersey until it untucked from his pants. I slid my hands under it then, feeling the hard ridges of his abdomen and tracing the little dips that pointed in a line to the promised land.
“How do you stand me when I smell like this?” he teased against my mouth.
“It’s like pheromones to me.”
He chuckled, sweeping me up into his arms and toward his bathroom. “You’re not messing up my bed with your stink fetish. We’re getting straight into the shower.”
“You just want to soap up my tits again.”
“For the rest of my life, if I’m being honest.”
All the teasing left me, and I pressed a hand to his chest when we pushed through the bathroom door. He paused at my expression.
“Um… I just mean—”
“Don’t take it back,” I whispered. “If you meant it, don’t take it back.”
Braden swallowed, his golden eyes searching mine. “I meant it. Does that freak you out?”
I was already shaking my head, and when he gently dropped my feet to the floor, I tore at his jersey with more urgency. “No. It makes me more feral than this jersey.”
I pushed at it, trying to get it up and over his gargantuan body, but it was impossible with the pads in place. Braden watched me with amusement as I grunted and pulled, huffed and pushed, trying and failing to do much else than stretch out the fabric.
“Help me,” I pouted after a moment, and Braden rewarded me with a deep laugh and a kiss before he answered my request.
I had to admit, it was even more delightful watching him strip than it was for me to do the work.
I savored every moment, every item of clothing and piece of equipment being shed. It took longer than I thought it would, and when he was done, Braden was panting a bit. He set everything outside in the hallway before returning to me, his cock hard, body still grimy from the game.