Chapter 16 #2
I clutched my hands to my chest as Nix drew closer, his eyes locking onto mine.
He flexed his shoulders as he noticed me, his gaze eating me alive through his helmet.
I grinned as he cut me a nod of acknowledgment, and we all whooped!
Excitement and validation pumped through me as Molly gave me a knowing look.
As I glanced to the other side of the field, I could see the opposition warming up, my focus locked on their running back. He matched Phoenix in build, and a surge of protectiveness flared in my chest.
As the players gathered around, the coin was tossed, and being true gentlemen, the Eagles deferred the choice of who would take the ball first to the opposition.
The Vipers chose to receive the ball first. My eyes narrowed as the boys started to get into position for the snap.
The running back’s body language suggested he was a confident fucker.
As I jumped up and down in front of my seat, I smiled.
He may be big, but he was about to have my Phoenix hand him his ass.
My focus had been back and forth between Phoenix and the man whom I believed to be his father.
Mayor Summers would be the one to award the trophy to the winning team at the end of the game.
He was standing at the other side of the field, but I could still see the resemblance to Nix.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed it before.
He must be feeling much more relaxed, having received the results that Nix’s half-brother wasn’t his child.
Well, guess what, buddy? Wrong fucking child.
I wondered what Phoenix would say when I told him. Probably laugh in my face.
You could be wrong? But I doubted that.
Mr. Summers was standing on a raised platform, and after saying a few words, something about a charity donation, the boys were off.
During the first half of the game, our opposition's defensive line was like a wall of muscle, each collision a thunderous testament to their will.
Helmets crashed against each other with sickening thuds, shoulder pads crunched, and bodies slammed into the turf with a level of aggression that made the ground tremble.
Reed was unmatched as a quarterback as he barked orders at his teammates, clearly pulling rank.
I joined in with Storm and Molly as we yelled our heads off, as did the college cheer squad. I found it interesting that Storm had stopped cheering. Considering she’d been the cheer captain at the Heights. Why had she chosen Psychology? Wasn’t that all about how the mind worked and shit?
Just before the whistle, we pulled into the lead at 20-12.
The boys went wild, fist-bumping each other, jumping on each other's backs, and dishing out man-pats. Helmets were removed as they jogged to the sidelines, some pouring water over their heads, others guzzling it from plastic bottles.
“Save my seat. Back in a sec,” Storm said, fluffing her hair as she made her way past the spectators on our line.
“Where’s she going? She took a pee before the game started.”
Molly grinned and flicked a glance across the field to where Reed was making his escape from his teammates. Interesting. I’d asked myself why they didn’t just go public about their relationship so many times, and I had yet to have an answer.
I moved away, telling Molly I needed to stretch my legs as she stuck her nose into her cell. No guessing as to who she was messaging.
As I got to the bottom of the stand, my eyes locked with Nix’s. He looked hot, all sweaty and riled up. As he removed his helmet, I wanted to smooth the strands of his damp hair down.
My body flooded with a mix of lust and anger as I watched him working the field as he slowly made his way towards me. My heart drummed a victory beat in my chest at the determined look on his face.
The cheerleaders for the Varsity Vipers were dressed in hot pants with their butt cheeks hanging out.
They looked more like they were about to mount a pole than cheer the football team.
I watched as Phoenix was stopped by one, my gut clenching.
He must have said something charming as the girl giggled behind her hand before walking off.
Nix then sauntered towards me like I was his next meal, and I couldn’t help but jab at him.
“I must admit, you’re quite the player,” I said, referring to how he’d shmoozed with that cheerleader. I got that it was all for show, but it still pissed me off. Phoenix had the type of looks that made most girls go mental.
Phoenix’s smug look also wound me up. “Why, thank you,” he replied, splaying a gloved hand over his chest. His helmet was now threaded under one bulging bicep.
When I was sure I could stop myself from screaming out loud, I added. “Oh, I wasn’t talking about your sporting ability.” I smacked him on the arm, and he lowered his hand.
He was so tall and bulky in his safety gear. “Why so prickly, baby girl?”
His dumbass question snapped my thoughts back to the girls making gooey eyes at him. “I just hate the Phoenix Carter appreciation society over there. Why aren’t they creaming themselves over the other jocks?”
My outburst clearly amused him. “What can I say, I’m just built differently.
” He playfully nudged my shoulder with his arm.
“You don’t need to be jealous, Thumper?” How could I not be jealous when girls pretty much threw themselves at him all the time?
Trust me to fall for someone who had a ridiculously long line of broken hearts behind them.
Shit, fall for? Yes! Fall for my subconscious echoed back.
Purposely, I cast a furtive look around him at Cash, who was stretching out in front of the bench area, flexing his muscles.
My actions did not go unnoticed, and Nix was right there.
There was a dangerous gleam in his whisky eyes as he stepped forward to shield my body from other members of the team, who had kept sneaking a look.
Phoenix’s possessiveness was off the charts, and I lapped that shit up.
His face was bruised and bloodied, and he looked every inch the conquering barbarian.
“What are you wearing, Harper?” he drawled, his voice thick with what I assumed was arousal.
Heat flared in the pit of my stomach. I would not melt! I needed to make him work for it, “Surely you know your own number, Brutal?” I questioned with wide eyes. My tone was sultry, and I twisted a lock of hair around my finger as I stared up at him with a feigned innocent expression.
Those whisky orbs that were glued to me darkened, and his lazy smile hinted at debauchery. “I know my own number, baby. The question is, why is it blazed across your perfect tits in such a tight, indecent way? Are you trying to distract me from the game?”
Unwinding my finger from my hair, I glanced down at my chest and then back at him, weighing up what to do next. “Is it working?” I whispered, raising my arms and giving him a spin so he could see how the material slid up my butt cheeks.
Nix’s breath hitched. “Hell yeah,” he growled, his eyes scorching through the material of his top. His gaze rested on my nipples as they pressed against his jersey. His intense expression made me feel naked.
“You can stop staring now.”
“I can’t. I stare when I see something I want,” he husked, his deep voice resonating directly into my sex, forcing me to press my thighs together. Fuck, this boy had the power to ruin me.
My body continued to buzz, “Good. I’m glad you’ve noticed me at last?”
He moved a step forward into my personal space. That physical reality of his closeness gave me a heightened awareness of his sculptured body beneath his top. “Baby Sawyer, I’ve never not noticed you.”
His admission caused my veins to pulse with adrenaline. “Well, you’ve been distant during the whole mom scenario, and so I’ve decided to take the bull by the horns.”
“I see. Care to elaborate?”
“It means, come and get me, Phoenix. Because if you don’t, someone else will.”
His nostrils flared. “Is that so?”
“Yes. I’m done waiting, Nix. It’s time to get grafting.”
“Oh, I intend to, sweetheart, but your timing sucks. I’m due back on the field in five. What do you expect me to do in that time?”
“Go crazy, thinking about me wearing your jersey and cheering for you. Oh, and I’m not wearing a bra, just in case you didn’t notice.”
“Oh, I noticed.”
And then he moved, his tall frame dominating my small one. He got in my space, but I stood my ground, lifting my chin to meet his determined expression with one of my own. Before I could comment, his finger silenced my lips.
“Fuck grafting, how about I cut to the chase for once?”
Nix lowered his hand and dropped his helmet.
It fell forgotten onto the grass as he leaned into me.
I gasped as his firm, gloved hands dropped to my hips, and he tugged me forward.
My breasts hit the hard plastic of his shoulder pads, which he wore beneath his jersey.
A burst of pleasure shot through me as Phoenix forced me to bend backward with the bulk of his torso, a blur of muscle and intent.
“You’ll be the death of me,” he groaned, his expression almost pained as he placed his forehead against mine. I grasped his bared biceps just above his football sleeves and felt the muscles flex beneath my fingers.
Phoenix then drew his nose down my cheek, gently running his tongue along my bottom lip, tasting the skin there and causing my tummy to flip. And my eyes fluttered closed.
Whoops and whistles hit the air, jumping above the general commotion of the crowds.
And then I heard him curse beneath his breath before he fused his lips to mine and kissed me.
And. Fuck. Me.
I felt a twinge of pleasurable pain as his hands tightened against my fragile bones. It was a full-on attack on the senses. Phoenix’s mouth teased mine apart, and then he thrust his tongue into my mouth. His entire body wrapped around me, like a second skin that I never wanted to remove.
Another raucous cheer and a volley of wolf-whistles rang out from all around us. Sighing, I let myself go, opening for him like a wilted flower drinking in the rain.
It was a hot, wet, and almost brutal kiss that made my bones melt and my pussy throb.
Phoenix’s hands released their grip on my hips and slid to my butt, cupping the skin beneath his jersey as he forced me up onto my tiptoes.
I felt his top ride up, exposing part of my backside, but I was beyond caring.
It was as if a bolt of lightning was shooting through my body, every nerve ending standing to attention as I clutched his huge biceps to steady myself.
His tongue continued to plunder in and out of my mouth, and the blood roared in my head.
I kissed him back, meeting him thrust for thrust. The noise of the stadium and the whoops around us fell away.
In that moment, there were just the two of us; nothing else mattered.
Phoenix’s body was slightly hunched, with his legs bent to accommodate my small size. As he massaged my ass cheeks, I could feel the thick, hard steel of his cock grinding close to my pelvis, and more heat jetted through my core.
My hands slid up to the rock-hard contours of his shoulders as he angled his head, gently tugging on my bottom lip with his teeth before deepening the kiss.
The taste and scent of him filled me up as his mouth continued to move against mine, branding me his forever in front of a full stadium of people.
I didn’t even care that Ma would be watching the live stream.
I needed this. We both did. The reality of the shit storm that would undoubtedly follow was irrelevant right then.
And then it was over. Nix broke the kiss, moving his lips to the cuff of my ear. “I hope you’re ready to finish what you started, baby girl?” he husked as he dropped his hands and stepped back.
I slowly opened my eyes.
“Absolutely.”
“Good. Then I guess this means you're now my girl?” Phoenix whispered.
A wave of emotions rushed through me as I replied, “I think we both know, I’ve always been your girl, Nix.”
His smile was so infectious that I felt it everywhere.
After planting a kiss on the end of my nose, Phoenix then plucked his helmet from the ground and started to jog backward, grinning like a loon.
Our eyes remained fused as he gave me a sexy wink before turning his back.
And then he was gone, leaving me with a pleasant tingle that ran from the roots of my hair to my toes.
A horde of giggling cheerleaders surrounded me. They were firing questions, and I had no breath left to answer, Phoenix having stolen it.
My lips formed a dreamy smile as I watched Phoenix’s strong shoulders as he powered across the field, his teammates diving on his back and fist-bumping each other. It was the same show of camaraderie as when they won a game. And he had, sort of. Nix had won the girl. Me.
Phoenix Carter had asked me out, and to hell with the consequences.
Pretending to listen to the excited females twittering around me, my eyes latched onto Hudson’s. He was across the field, next to the coach, with a shit eating grin on his face. I don’t think I’d ever seen his smile so wide when he wasn’t with Molly.
The look in his eyes and the slight nod he gave me told me Nix, and I had his approval.
And, forget cloud nine. I was much higher than that!
After briefly soaking up some of the positive attention I was receiving from the girls, I did the gracious thing and then went back to where Molly was sitting.
From the look on her face, she too had seen the kiss.
“Fuck me, Harper. I’m surprised he didn’t throw you over his shoulder and take off to the locker room,” Molly said with a smile.
Before I could reply, she grabbed me for a hug. “I told you it would work,” she half-whispered in my ear. It was hard to hear with all the cheering and noise around us. The entire stand was shaking with the pounding of feet and bodies as we waited for the whistle to signal the second half.
“He said it. Told me I was his girl.”
“About time!” Molly screeched, jumping up and down in her seat and clapping her hands.
I watched Phoenix on the field in the distance as the two teams got ready for the snap. Anticipation licked through me.
“Blue 22, Blue 22, Hut!”
And they were off! Our entire stand erupted as spectators shot to their feet, me included.
The adrenaline pumping through my veins was amazing. I had never felt so happy. My attention was instantly drawn to Phoenix, my friend, my monster, and now my love, but as I watched him play, a sliver of doubt slid through me.
Nix was all over the field, and not where he needed to be. He also missed a couple of easy tackles.
Something was wrong.