I’d never felt so whole.
Not with a football in my hands, not with my mom’s arm around me in pride on my graduation day, not in any of the moments I’d ever shared with Maliyah.
Nothing had ever filled me up, all the way to the brim, the way waking up next to Giana did.
Her dark curls were an absolute mess, frizzy and sticking this way and that, the golden highlights in the midst of brown like a chaotic halo around her head on the pillow. Her mouth was open, shallow snores slipping through her pink lips as a little drool slid through the corner.
I smiled, letting my eyes trace over the beams of light streaking in through her blinds and casting her in a golden glow. And suddenly, I realized how very differently last night could have gone, how differently this morning would be had I made a different decision — had I not said fuck it and gone after the girl.
My chest ached.
One choice. One moment where I’d decided I couldn’t stay silent anymore, no matter what kind of pain it would bring to her or to me for me to speak the truth. It was nearly a week I let my pride sit on top of me, holding me down with its weight and the stinging reminder that her date with Shawn was what she wanted, what I’d promised to get her.
But when Coach let us go last night and told us to get some rest for the game today, I knew rest would be the last thing I’d find until I told her how I felt.
Part of me wished I’d been wise enough to do this last week, when I had her in my arms ready for me to take her. But it wasn’t right, the timing of it, the feeling of it. And maybe the last seven agonizing days were what made last night so sweet.
She felt the same.
She wanted me, too.
God, just thinking of how she’d whispered that she was mine on her front stoop made my chest squeeze in a mixture of possession and elation.
It was enough to drive a sane man out of his mind, to have a girl like Giana open up for me, let me in, trust me with everything that she was, and give herself to me in every way that she could.
I wouldn’t take a second of it for granted.
A garbage truck squeaking to a stop outside stirred Giana awake, and she blinked a few times, smacking her lips together before her tongue slid out to wet them. Her eyes widened when she found me staring back at her.
“Good morning,” I said.
She blinked, and then instantly covered her head with the comforter. “Oh my God, look away. Close your eyes so I can make an escape to the bathroom.”
The words were muffled under the covers, and I chuckled, ripping them off her head before I pulled her into me and kissed her — long, slow, and with every intent to do it all morning.
“You’re beautiful,” I told her.
“Not at seven AM, I’m not.”
“Especially then,” I argued, kissing her nose, but I still held her in my arms. “How are you feeling?”
Her resistance faded, and she melted into my embrace, watching her fingernails as they drew lines over my bicep. “Amazing,” she whispered, a blush tingeing her cheeks. “Sore, and dehydrated,” she added with a laugh. “But… amazing.”
I intertwined her hand in mine, pulling her to my lips so I could kiss each of her fingertips. She watched me as I did, brows furrowing even as a smile bloomed on her lips.
“This is real,” I said, hoping I could soothe whatever anxiety was already creeping into her mind in the daylight. “You and me, we’re real.”
She let out a long sigh. “So, it wasn’t a dream.”
“Like your imagination could cook up something that hot.”
She snorted, rolling her eyes before she climbed on top of me. I let her maneuver us until I was on my back, she on her knees and settled into my lap.
“So, what does this mean for us now?”
“What do you want it to mean?” I countered.
Giana considered, her hands interlaced with mine and floating in the space between us as she pulled her mouth to one side in thought.
“Well,” she started. “I guess not much has to change, does it? Everyone already thinks we’re dating.”
“Correction — a lot will change. Because as if it wasn’t hard enough for me to keep my hands off you when we were pretending, it’s going to be fucking impossible now.”
I trailed my eyes over her breasts, visible through the sheer white tank top she’d thrown on after our shower last night. Her sleep shorts were so small they barely covered her ass, and I broke my grip with her hands so I could palm that behind and roll her against my hardening shaft.
She bit her lip, rolling her body to give me the friction I desired. “Promises, promises,” she teased.
I groaned when the middle of her ran along my hard length, pulling her down so I could wrap my arms fully around her and feel the warmth of her pressed against me. “As much as I want to watch you ride me in the morning light,” I said, flexing my hips to show just how much I wanted that. “You need to rest after last night.”
She pouted, sagging in my arms.
“Trust me,” I assured her. “You’re going to be more sore there than you realize.”
“I’m fine,” she said.
I gave her a look, but then, in a move of both selfish need and stubborn persistence to prove I was right, I snaked my fingers up the inside of her thigh and under the fabric of her sleep shorts. Giana trembled when I ran the pad of my thumb against her seam, and when I pushed just the slightest bit against her entrance, she hissed, pulling away from the touch.
“See?” I arched a brow.
Giana conceded with a sigh.
“Besides,” I added, holding her in my lap. “I need to get down to the stadium. Bus leaves in an hour.”
Giana blinked as if coming out of a hypnosis. “Oh, shit. It’s game day!”
She hopped off me in an instant, scrambling to her closet with only a quick glance at the time on her phone.
“I don’t even have a bag packed.”
“It’s one night.”
“I’m supposed to be down there already. We have to pack up all the gear.”
“Charlotte will manage,” I promised her, but she kept sifting through her clothes until I got up and physically hauled her into my arms, her back to my chest, sinking us both back down into the bed with her on my lap.
“You brute,” she teased, smacking my chest.
“You love it.”
“Another tip you picked up from my books?”
“Those things are like a treasure map. Just follow the tabs and highlights to find the pot of gold.”
My fingers walked along her thigh until I could cup her, and she rolled into the touch, sighing as her head fell back against my chest. For a moment, she rested there, and then she pivoted in my arms to straddle me again.
“It was awful last night,” she said, brows bending together. “With Shawn. I mean, it was fine, like if I wasn’t in my head about you, I’m sure it would have been a great date. But I was so sick,” she admitted, shaking her head. “When he kissed me, I—”
“He kissed you?”
The ice in my words knocked her silent. “Y-yes.”
I gritted my teeth. “I’ll murder him.”
“Hey, this was our plan, technically. I don’t think we can kill him for doing exactly what we wanted him to.”
I arched a brow in my beg to differ, but Giana smoothed her thumb over it before leaning in for a long, slow kiss.
“I don’t want him,” she said against my lips. “You’ve had me since the first fake kiss.”
I let out a deeper exhale with that, wrapping her up. “That kiss was not fake.”
Giana buried her head in my chest for only a moment before she hopped off my lap altogether, grabbing me by the wrists and tugging me up, too.
“Come on. We have a game to win,” she said, tossing me my t-shirt. I caught her wrist when she did and pulled her back into me.
“I think we already won.”
She smiled against my kiss, letting me dip her back before she shoved me off again.
“Shirt. Now,” she said, snapping her fingers and pointing at the cloth in my hand. “You can try another tabbed scene on me later.”
“Oh, trust me. I plan to. The ones you highlighted in Sated Love…”
Her cheeks burned bright red before she was smacking me in the chest and shoving me toward the front door.
“Get your own breakfast, you book stealer,” she barked.
But that didn’t stop her from melting into me when I pulled her in for one last kiss on my way out.
“COME ON, BOYS! HOLD ’EM!”
Coach Sanders’s voice rang out over the roar of the crowd, almost thirty-thousand people in the stands — most of them wearing the other team’s colors. The Waterville University Bandits were the largest in the state, and they drowned out the NBU students who had dedicated themselves enough to make the drive from Boston to cheer us on.
It had been like that all four quarters.
Rain assaulted us yet again this game, only this time, it was cold enough to turn to sleet, a nasty mixture of rain and snow that made the playing conditions absolutely horrendous. I was already so sore and tired that I thought my body would revolt when I bent into position for the next play, training my mind on our one goal.
Stop the Bandits offense from getting the first down.
They were only up by three points, and with a little over a minute left to play, that was enough time for us to get the ball down the field far enough for Riley to kick and tie the game for overtime. But if they got even one more first down here, they’d be in field goal range — and that would put us down by a touchdown.
The ball was snapped, and I fired off the line, chasing after the wide receiver I was covering. I had him, no matter how he tried to juke and break away. The quarterback’s wild eyes as he frantically searched the backfield told me my teammates were doing their jobs well.
There was nowhere for him to throw, and the poor sucker ran out of time.
One of our defenders blasted through the line, wrapping the quarterback up and taking him down in a sack that made the stadium go quiet, save for the roaring little corner of it that was filled with NBU students.
We celebrated on our way back to the sideline, the loss so big we knew they wouldn’t dare a field goal. And as our special teams jogged out for the kick reception, I guzzled down water and tried to preserve what little energy I had left for what was still to come.
It took every ounce of effort I had to keep my mind on the game and off Giana.
That was new for me. Football had had my full attention since I was a kid. Even when I was with Maliyah, the girl I thought I’d end up marrying, she faded easily to the back of my mind when it was game time.
It was different with Giana.
She was on the sideline, too, fielding reporters and camera crew with a cool, steel reserve. It shouldn’t have made sense, how well she handled professionals at least five years older than her, some more than that. She also wrangled us as student athletes, which was akin to herding cats. But somehow over the last year and a half, she’d found her voice, her confidence. She spoke clearer and louder, knew what she was doing, and had the ability to look as cool as a cucumber while she did it.
It was hard not to watch, to admire — especially when I also knew how to unravel that well-put-together woman when it was just the two of us.
Zeke catching the ball down at the ten snapped me back to the present, and I watched him zoom almost thirty yards before he was taken down. I kept my focus on the field as Holden ran out with the offense next, leading them in a myriad of plays that got us well within field goal range.
But we didn’t need it.
Leo Hernandez took a snap that should have just been a short run, but he found an opening and bolted, juking every defender who caught up too slowly to do anything but watch him fly past them.
And just like that, we scored a touchdown with mere seconds left on the clock.
It was just enough time for Riley to kick the extra point, and for the Bandits to get one Hail Mary play in that resulted in nothing.
We won.
And I was convinced we were fucking unstoppable.
Even a long, piping hot shower couldn’t thaw my bones after a freezing cold game in the sleet, but I felt marginally better once I was dressed in my sweats. The team was jovial as we showered and dressed and got ready to get on the bus, one that would take us to our hotel for the night. I had no doubt the team would be going out to celebrate.
I, on the other hand, had much different plans.
“So, what shithole bar are we hitting tonight?” Leo asked, towel around his neck as he waggled his brows at me.
“I found one called The Looney Bin,” Riley answered, showing her phone with the reviews she’d been reading. “College bar. Apparently pretty strict on fakes, but that’s never stopped us before.”
“Look at Novo getting in the spirit,” Leo praised.
“After a win like that?” Riley threw a thumb over her shoulder. “We’re essentially guaranteed a bowl.”
“Not just a bowl game,” Zeke added, tossing his arm around her before he kissed her temple. “The bowl game.”
I started bobbing my head, drumming out a beat on the lockers as I did. “Ship. Ship. Ship. Ship.”
I chanted and danced until the rest of the team joined in, and before long, there were hollers and screams ringing out, guys standing on the benches or literally hanging from the rafters. It was absolute chaos in the most incredible way — the way only a team on the brink of greatness truly understood.
I was wrapped up in watching it all unfold when a pair of cool hands covered my eyes.
I smiled, ready to whip around and drag Giana into me for a kiss that I’d been dying to give her since the beginning of the game. But it wasn’t her voice that cooed, “Guess who?”
It was Maliyah’s.
I stiffened, peeling her fingers off me before I turned with a bored expression on my face.
She was freshly showered, her long blonde hair in a wet, messy bun on top of her head, and oversized cheer sweats covering her from neck to toe. Despite my non-enthusiastic greeting, she held a wide smile, bouncing on her toes a bit.
“Great game, babe.”
I grimaced at the nickname, but chose to ignore it as I turned back to my locker and began packing up my bag. “Thanks.”
“So, when do I get that date?” she asked, leaning between me and the locker to block me from grabbing my cleats. I frowned at first, confused before I remembered the stupid fucking team auction.
“You do realize it’s not a real date, right?”
“That’s what I paid for,” she argued as I politely scooted her to the side so I could finish getting my shit together. “Besides, we haven’t had any real time together since I got to NBU.”
“And whose fault is that?”
Her expression flattened, but she shook it off, forcing a smile. “I’ve missed you. It would be good for us to have some alone time. Time to talk.”
“I don’t have anything to talk to you about.”
“Clay—”
“Look, you can have the picnic voucher and take someone who actually gives a fuck about you,” I said, slamming my locker shut before I shrugged my bag over one shoulder. “Or you can take me and we can sit there in silence. Your choice.”
I didn’t know why anger was licking its way so fiercely up my spine. Maybe it was my father’s voice in my ear, how he pointed out the manipulative tactics I never realized she used against me. Or maybe it was Giana, how she made me promise to put myself first and not be shy about it.
Either way, I had zero interest in playing this game any longer with my ex.
“I highly doubt we’d sit there in silence,” Maliyah countered, still trying to laugh it off. I saw in her eyes that she was about to reach out and touch me, but before she could, I ducked away and headed for the door.
She was hot on my heels.
“What the fuck is your problem?” she demanded, catching me by the arm and turning me to face her. I could have easily shrugged her off if I wanted to, but maybe part of me was ready for the fight.
“My problem?” I asked incredulously, and I didn’t care if half the guys left in the locker room had stopped celebrating now and were very tuned in to our conversation. I stepped into her, towering over her as she sank away. “I’m happy, Li.”
I paused, letting those words sink in as I breathed over her. Her narrowed eyes softened, something like pain flashing in those blue irises.
“Can you accept that and just… fucking let me be happy?”
I waited for only a moment to see if she had anything to say to that, and when she didn’t utter a word, I just shook my head and turned, leaving her and the rest of the team behind as I headed for the bus.
I waited until most of the team had gone out, until all the coaches had retired to their rooms and put Holden in charge of letting them know if anything went wrong. I almost felt bad for our QB, our captain, our most responsible leader. He wore a lot of weight on his shoulders.
But he wore it proudly.
“You sure you don’t want to come?” he asked me at the door of our hotel room, and I knew he was asking less because he wanted me to party, and more because he didn’t want to be alone with the motley crew we called a team — especially after such a win.
I smiled. “Sorry, man. I’ve got other plans.”
Holden smirked at that, but he didn’t make to head out. He just watched me, his eyes assessing.
“What?”
He shrugged. “Nothing. I just… I’m sorry, about what I said earlier this season. About Giana being a rebound. I can tell she’s much more than that for you.”
I grabbed the back of my neck. “Well, honestly… you weren’t wrong. At least, not at first. But now?” I shook my head. “I’m so far gone for that girl it’s fucking terrifying.”
Holden laughed. “Yeah, well, I wouldn’t know what that feels like. But I trust you. And I’m happy for you.” He pointed at me then. “Just stay focused on the season, okay? And don’t let your grades slip. You can spend all spring doting on her, but I need you for a few more months.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” I said with a salute. “You really have never been like this with a girl?”
“Come on, Johnson,” he said, thumping his chest. “You know football is the only love of my life.”
I arched a brow. “Yeah… we’ll see how long that lasts.”
He just smiled on his way out the door, and as soon as he was gone, I texted Giana to make sure the coast was clear.
Fortunately, she didn’t have to share a hotel room the way the guys on the team did — she and Riley were the only ones afforded that luxury. Even when Charlotte came, she was too bougie to share a room with an employee. But she hadn’t come to this game at all, leaving it completely in Giana’s hands while she attended a friend’s wedding on the other side of the country.
That, alone should have told Giana and everyone else how good she was at her job.
I snuck quietly down the hall to the elevator, taking it two floors up to where Giana’s room was. She opened the door before I could even knock, pulling me inside and immediately melting into my arms.
Her scent invaded me, hair freshly shampooed and smelling like raspberries as she kissed me deep and long. I inhaled that kiss, that woman, wrapping her up as tightly as I could as I blindly walked us inside her room.
“I’ve missed you,” she breathed against my lips.
“You saw me this morning. And all game.”
“Shut up and tell me you’ve missed me, too.”
I chuckled, still kissing her as I laid her in the bed, and everything about her was comfortable and pure. Her wet hair, her warm skin, her oversized t-shirt and tiny sleep shorts that I loved so much — it all felt like home.
She felt like home.
“I’ve missed you, too,” I murmured, sliding between her legs and framing her with my biceps on the bed. “I’ve missed your smile,” I said, kissing her lips. “And your laugh.” Another kiss as she laughed to appease me. “And the feel of you wrapped around me.”
She took the cue, ankles hooking behind my ass as she pulled me down for a deeper kiss. Her tongue was eager, meeting mine on the heels of a soft whimper as she rolled her body against mine.
I groaned, pinning her hips against the bed to stop her. “Woman,” I warned.
“I’m fine,” she protested, fighting against my hold. “It’ll hurt for a second, yes, but I want it. I want you.”
Jesus Christ.
How any man could deny Giana Jones was beyond me.
I certainly wasn’t the man to try, not with her gripping me and pulling me into her and demanding that I give her more.
It was different than last night, our moves slower and softer as we took turns undressing one another. I peppered kisses down her abdomen when her shirt was gone, helping her out of her sleep shorts before I settled between her thighs ready to feast.
It was an addiction, how my body hummed to life at the sound of her pleasure. I reveled in the fact that it was me giving it to her, that she twisted her hands in the sheets more and more with every swipe of my tongue over her.
I took my time, kissing and licking and sucking until her pussy was soaked and swollen and aching for relief. I wanted her nice and warm and ready for me to help combat the soreness I knew she was experiencing after her first time.
When she started spreading her legs wider, eyes squeezing shut as she chased her release, I slowed, kissing my way back up to her mouth.
“No,” she mewled, and I laughed against her lips before rolling us so she was on top.
“So impatient,” I teased.
She straddled my waist, her slick lips gliding along my shaft without a barrier between us. We both hissed at the sensation, and before I could stop her, Giana rolled her hips to do it again, to feel me slip between her lips and tease her entrance.
She sank, just an inch, just enough to fit my crown at the tight opening of her.
Enough for both of us to see stars.
I gripped her hips hard, halting her as I groaned through every urge that beast inside me was signaling to slam her down on my cock and fill her up, raw and without restraint. Somehow, I managed a breath, managed to reach over for the condom I’d sat on the nightstand and roll it over me.
Then, Giana’s hands found my chest, and I held myself steady for her as she slowly lowered down.
When the tip of me sank inside her, we both moaned, her nails digging into my flesh as I gripped her ass in equal measure. I helped lift her, just a little before she sank down even more.
“Oh God,” she breathed, rolling her hips as she repeated the motion. “It feels so fucking good like this.”
I loosened my grip on her, letting her take control and letting myself appreciate the full fucking beauty of her naked body as she rode me. She rolled it as she found her rhythm, sinking a bit more each time until finally, she took all of me inside her.
She gasped, and I bit back a groan at the feeling of her walls clenching around me. “Fucking Christ, Kitten,” I cursed, my words rasped as she pressed up onto her knees, coming all the way off before she sank down again in one fluid motion.
“Yes,” she breathed, eyes fluttering shut. “More.”
Balancing her in my lap, I maneuvered until I was sitting up, my back against the headboard as I shoved pillows out of our way and took her fully in my lap. In the new position, I could open my thighs, could take the weight of her as she rode and meet her with thrusts that drove me even deeper inside her.
She trembled at the depth, wrapping her arms around me and kissing me hard as she wound and rolled and ground her clit against my pelvis with every thrust.
“I fucking love when you ride my cock,” I husked, sliding my hand up between her heaving breasts. Up and up it went until my fingers could curl around her throat, my palm hot against her esophagus as I claimed her gasp for my own. “You love it, too, don’t you, Kitten?”
“Yes,” she whimpered.
“Show me how much you love it,” I commanded, gripping her a little tighter as my other hand helped her ride. “Ride my cock until you come so hard you scream my fucking name.”
It was almost too brutal for only her second time having sex, but just like she had last night, she bloomed for me under the filthy instruction, panting and moaning more and more with every dirty word I whispered in her ear.
She loved it like this, rough and raw and possessive — and I’d give her exactly what she wanted for as long as I had the pleasure.
The more she rode, the faster her movements became, the harder it was for me to focus on anything other than her pussy hugging my cock. But I stayed focused, sucking her nipple in my mouth as her movements became more wild and chaotic. Eventually, she was trying to move so fast that she wasn’t moving at all, and I took control, holding her to me as I pounded into her at the pace she needed for her release.
And she found it.
Her cries built more and more until she was full-on screaming, so loudly that I clamped a hand over her mouth to drown them out. I didn’t miss how my name sounded in those muffled cries against my palm, and I ate that shit up, fucking her hard and fast until she fell completely limp in my arms.
“Oh… my… God,” she breathed when I released my grip.
I smirked, kissing her hair and half-expecting her to stop then. I knew she was spent, knew she had to be sore, and with her orgasm no longer something she could chase against the pain, I wouldn’t have faulted her for wanting to stop.
But slowly, she began riding me again.
Her hips rolled, soft moans escaping from her lips as she adjusted to me again. Her pussy was even tighter somehow, swollen from release, and I savored the way it felt to plunge into her each and every time.
“Roll over,” I demanded, and before she could obey, I did it for her — flipping her off me and onto her stomach before I was straddling her from behind. I hiked her hips up to meet my pelvis, positioning myself at her entrance before I drove all the way in.
“Fuuuuck,” she hissed, arching her back. I took the cue to grab a fistful of her damp hair, holding onto it tightly and restricting her from moving her neck back to neutral. I kept her arched, her eyes cast up to the ceiling as I pumped into her.
It was sensational, the way she felt, the way she looked — completely sated and yet entirely focused on making sure I found the same release. Her hungry eyes looked back over her shoulder when I finally released her hair, both hands gripping her hips, instead, as I watched the lips of her pussy suction to my cock each time I withdrew.
“I wish you could see this view,” I told her, slowing down and taking my time with every new thrust. “The way you’re stretching open for me, how your tight little pussy hugs my cock every time I pull out.”
“Clay,” she moaned, and then in a move I was not expecting, she lowered her chest down to the bed and reached through her legs, through mine, until her fingertips gently caressed my balls.
The noise that came from me was one I didn’t recognize, and I saw a whole universe of stars as she did the move again. I could barely keep pace, barely focus on anything with her touching me there, and with more confidence when I didn’t tell her to stop, she rolled them in her palm, squeezing with just the right amount of pressure to drive me over the edge.
“Oh fuck, Giana. I… I…”
I couldn’t even warn her, couldn’t say a fucking word as my release spilled violently from me, taking every ounce of awareness I had and focusing on that one euphoric feeling. I pounded into her, savoring every thrust of my release like it was the sweetest drug.
And it was.
She was.
It was the longest orgasm I’d ever had, one that continued to assault me with wave after wave even when I was sure it was over. I didn’t know if it was her hands on my balls or just her, period, but I was so fucking spent by the time I stopped coming, it was all I could do to carefully pull out of her and roll to the side, my chest heaving, lungs burning from the exercise.
“Holy shit,” Giana said, crawling over until she was lying on my chest. “Is it… is it always like this?”
“Never,” I answered honestly, and I cocked a brow at her before we both erupted in laughter.
I pulled her into me then, our legs tangling together as we held onto each other and traced lines on our bare skin as our breathing slowly calmed.
Eventually, our breaths evened out, the room growing quieter, more still. I ran my fingers through her hair, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead as something achingly foreign pulled at my heart.
“I’m yours,” she whispered, as if she knew where my spiral was taking me, how I was picturing a day when she’d decide I wasn’t enough for her, a day when she’d walk away and leave me in her dust.
I swallowed against the tightness that built in my throat at the nightmarish thought, choosing to find comfort in her words instead of questioning the truth of them.
“And I’m yours,” I whispered back.
Her arms tightened around me, and for one night, everything was perfect.
We should have known it could never stay that way.
