Returning Your Love (Pippen Creek #1)

13. Jamie

Chapter 13

Jamie

“ I ’d be up for another weekend at the pond.” I agreed with Shelly’s suggestion, hoping Chaz caught onto my intentional sexual innuendo.

His quick, intense stare promised he had, but he didn’t turn me down immediately like I expected.

Shelly attempted to elbow him and missed in her drunken state, almost stumbling past him. I grabbed her arm to hold her steady.

“Go have fun, Chaz,” she slurred, “because I’m spending next Wednesday through Sunday with Tara. Her fiancé is being a douche, and she wants to head to Boston for a few days.”

“My schedule is packed, including Saturday, and I can’t close the shop.” Chaz’s excuse caused Shelly to roll her eyes. “And Sunday, I’m going to my parents for Dad’s birthday.”

“When were you going to tell me about those plans?” Shelly asked with a little heat in her tone, and he shrugged as though indifferent.

I lay my hand on Shelly’s lower back, thinking a show of affection might help keep the peace between them.

She shied away and swigged her beer, feigning interest in the crowd around us.

“Mom called while I was at work the other day, and I forgot to mention it,” Chaz offered.

“Not like I’m gonna be here anyway. Frenchie!” Shelly called, waving her hand before lifting her empty bottle.

Frenchie nodded, and I turned to face Jamie, needing him to know I was available if he ever changed his mind about us. “Maybe some other weekend?”

“Yeah, maybe,” he said, going for a noncommittal shrug, but he couldn’t hide the heat in his eyes when he looked at me, the yearning he tried to squash but couldn’t.

Selfishness rose up inside me, and I held his stare, hoping he would see how desperate I was to strip him down and flip fuck until we passed out cum-covered, every cell in our bodies sated for the first time in I expected both of our lives. Sure, he and Shelly used to be all over each other back in high school, but no fucking way could she give him what I could. The emotional connection of unconditional love and acceptance. Surely those two things when wrapped up in the physical made coming together all the better.

I lusted to find out.

Fucking drooled for it.

Shelly started chatting with the woman beside her, leaving us free to continue our stare down that promised fulfillment in every way I’d fantasized about.

Pain and weariness filled his hazel eyes and etched his brow, even though desire radiated from deeper inside him. He’d completely lost the tan from our camping trip, his skin pale yet unblemished. His full lips pressed together briefly, and I swayed toward him like he’d activated a magnetic field around his body, pulling me in one torturous inch at a time. Satisfaction awaited at the end—I fucking knew it. Could taste it?—

He angled away from me, and I grasped his arm. Breath held, he studied me as I gently brushed my thumb over the sensitive skin inside his elbow.

“Y-You okay?” I asked, voice lower since I stood close to him.

He started to nod but stopped and shook his head, his focus on my mouth.

Exhaustion from denying us or pretending everything was fine in his life? Perhaps both?

I flicked my tongue over my lower lip intentionally, and his breath caught, pupils dilating exactly as I’d expected.

Fucking hell, this man.

“The last place you want to be on Sunday is with your parents,” I said, pulling him in a little closer so I could speak almost directly into his ear, using the ruckus around us as a reason for being all up in his space. A deep inhale filled my lungs with his scent and stiffened my dick. “Skip out, Chaz. Spend the day with me. We can simply act like best friends or do whatever the fuck you want.”

I stepped away enough to see his face, and at the blatant lust in his gaze, I dropped my hands and shoved them into my pockets to stop myself from grabbing him.

Chaz swallowed hard, and with every second he agonized over his decision, my pulse pounded.

Tonight’s game had been a bigger disappointment than I’d expected, but this tension? Made up for every second. I’d had no visions of winning considering we’d faced the best team in our league, but I’d hoped to get more than three points on the board. The kids hadn’t seemed as upset as I was. But then again, they played for love of the sport, most not driven to come out on top.

That thought put me back in the present and the fantasy of me cradled by Chaz’s thighs while I fucked into him with slow, steady thrusts, our gazes locked, a cocoon of love wrapped around us.

The perfect fucking moment in time I wanted more than anything.

Win on the gridiron with the Bobcats included. If that made me a lousy coach, so be it. I couldn’t help what my heart longed for.

“Sunday?” I pushed when he didn’t respond.

At his slow nod, I expelled a heavy breath. “Your place or mine?” he asked, his tone resigned but filled with his usual persistent determination I’d always admired.

The promise of crossing another line hovered between us as real as the scent of booze and sweat in the air. Honoring vows didn’t mean jack shit when it came to the same desire we shared for each other.

“Dad’s off on Sunday and will be home, so yours?”

Chaz nodded again, swallowing hard and tempting me to lick up his throat.

“I’ll see you then,” I said, obvious intent coating my words of my plan to see every goddamn inch of him stripped down.

His head jerked in yet another nod, his pupils swelled and traps up tight near his ears beneath his T-shirt. “You can come whenever you want.” The rasp in his suggestive tone stroked over my balls and taint, causing my asshole to clench with yearning to be filled.

Good thing I’d worn briefs beneath my khakis or I’d have been in trouble. My entire body vibrated with the need to kiss his mouth and claim him for the world to see, but now wasn’t the time or the place.

I winked and turned away, counting the days until I would have Chaz in every way.

Nine, so just over a week.

Dexter walked into Frenchie’s, but Dad didn’t follow on his heels like usual.

I ambled over to my dad’s best friend, and he flashed his grin, pulling me in for a quick bro-hug.

“Heard your kids played their hearts out tonight,” he said, stepping back.

“Yeah. I’m bummed they didn’t get the win. Maybe next time.”

“Maybe,” he agreed, but like everyone else, I was sure he didn’t hold onto hope. “Buy you a beer?”

“Not sticking around, but thanks.”

Dex nodded and glanced around the bar as though scoping out the possibilities for a hookup. Guess that was why he hadn’t dragged Dad along for a night on the town. We sure didn’t have much to choose from though. He’d have been better off using an app, which included men from down in Berlin.

Dex’s gaze caught on someone, and his mouth twisted like he’d bitten into a lemon.

“You okay?” I asked with a chuckle, trying to figure out what’d set his grimace in place.

“Yeah—new guy just hired.” Dex shook his head, disgust clear on his face. “He’s a punk. Gets on my last goddamned nerve.”

Surprised raised my brows. “Seriously? You like everyone.”

He huffed a sarcastic laugh and turned back toward me. “Almost everyone. Christian Cole can go pound sand for all I care.”

I had no clue who the fuck he was talking about, but Dex strode toward the bar a few seconds later and bumped not so subtly into a dirty blond on the stool beside him before ignoring the fuck out of the guy. Sexual tension filled the space between them. It was as obvious as Iris’s blue hair where she stood behind the counter filling a pint glass for Dad’s best friend.

Whoever that Christian guy was, he did more than get on Dex’s last nerve, that was for damned sure.

“Going home already?” One of Dad’s officers snagged me by the front door—Davidson. The single playboy the local ladies swooned over.

“Yeah, I’m done with the noise.”

He chuckled. “I hear that. Been a long as fuck day. Looking forward to my bed.” I doubted he slept in it by himself all that often considering the talk on the town.

“Trouble at work?” I asked.

Dad hadn’t mentioned anything, but I’d only seen him at home for a few minutes before heading out the door for the high school.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Davidson said, running long fingers through his thick, wavy hair. “Just the usual bullshit of a small town.”

Which meant petty stuff. Calls about bears in trash cans. Skunks walking down the road in broad daylight. The occasional domestic issue between screaming partners. Our town drunk slumped over on the park bench and needing a place to sleep off the alcohol since he couldn’t remember where home was. I’d pretty much seen everything imaginable while doing ride alongs with Dad. Nothing serious but exhausting all the same.

“Take it easy, Officer Davidson,” I told him, clasping his shoulder.

“Plan on it.”

Like Dad’s co-worker, I too looked forward to my bed. But mostly because the sooner I slept, the sooner the next day arrived. Then the next and the next, until Sunday dawned, and like Chaz had said, I could come whenever I wanted.

Can’t fucking wait.