Chapter 18
JAYDEN
The fact that we held a draw all the way through to a shootout is immense. Winning the shootout three penalty shots to one has adrenaline pumping hard as hell as we get on the bus back to the hotel.
“Fuck, yeah, assholes,” Matheo cheers when Coach starts the debrief. “That’s how you fucking do it!”
Andersen and Reinhardt add to his chorus, making it impossible for Coach to talk. I don’t think he cares, given how amped up the team is. After the last few games where we’ve struggled with our momentum, it feels damn good to be back in tune with each other.
“Tired?” I ask Eli as he sinks further into his seat, a Fury-branded travel cushion around his neck, looking set to pass out.
“Yeah,” he replies with a groan. “Torres got me good.”
My teeth grind at his statement. I knew he was downplaying it when he saw me get into it with the fucker, and I should’ve followed through with the beating he deserved.
“How good?” I look him over, clocking the way he’s keeping his neck straight.
“Nothing some Motrin and a few stretches won’t fix.” Eli slowly turns his neck, giving me a tender smile. “I’m good, JJ.”
“Promise.”
“Cross my heart,” he croons, leaning closer and whispering, “Sunshine.”
Stunned, I watch him relax back into his seat again, putting in noise-control earplugs as he closes his eyes, like he’s been using the endearment forever, and this is how we’ve always been.
Fuck, I’m smiling so big it hurts when Matheo hands me the rocket for man of the match, nodding at Eli.
“He earned it,” he tells me, holding out his fist.
“Yeah, he fucking did.” I bump it, reveling in the overwhelming pride filling my chest as I clutch the stuffed rocket tighter.
Swear to God I’m going to burst any second with all the emotions vibrating inside me as I sit back and watch Eli snooze, perfectly peacefully, while we wait for the bus to leave the Fury’s arena.
We’re on the road to the hotel, lights dim, chatter rising and falling in pockets, when Eli’s hand pushes into mine beneath the rocket. Warm fingers lace with mine, and as I turn my face to him, I’m met with a closed-eye, super-happy-with-himself grin that makes my brain fall to pieces.
Holy fuck, he’s going to be the death of me, and I don’t mind one single bit.
***
The hotel bar is empty when we get back. We don’t often celebrate road wins with drinks, but tonight, it’s needed.
The team’s vibe is electric when I grip Eli’s wrist and tug him along with me, behind Matheo.
Momma and Dad left right after the game and drove Fin and Christina back to the hotel. It’s always bittersweet when they come to watch me play and then leave. Normally, a pang of sadness lives in my chest for days.
Not tonight.
Tonight, my chest is filled with a relentless throb to set eyes on Fin. To hold her and share every ounce of adrenaline and pride pounding through my veins.
“What are you doing?” Eli asks when I guide him to the booth where Dylan and Auguste are already seated and pull out my phone.
“Texting our girl.”
JJ
At the bar. Come join?
His pursed grin says he likes my reply more than he wants to let on.
The win did him good. It eased more of the heaviness from the last twenty-four hours. Playing Florida forces our heads out of our asses. They’re so damn physical that all our energy is required to push back.
“For the man of the match,” Matheo announces, placing a large drink in front of Eli. “Club soda, ice, and lime. I got it right…?”
Eli nods. “Thanks.”
I don’t know what’s up between them, but Matheo has been so mild around Eli since this morning that it’s starting to get awkward.
Erik and Ansel join us with a couple of stools scrounged from nearby tables and another tray of drinks.
“All righty,” Erik announces, “we got lights all round.”
“Except you,” Ansel says, placing a tall glass of soda in front of me.
“Figured you wouldn’t want anything else tonight,” Matheo tells me when I glance at him.
He’s right. After last night and what Eli told me this morning, I’m not sure I can stomach liquor. The smell from the beers turns my stomach when Eli adjusts beside me, pressing his thigh to mine.
It doesn’t matter that I already know he’s there—that the heat of his body is burrowed into my bones. The contact, the feel of him seeking me out, is everything I need to ground me.
Then our girl walks in, and my world steadies. Finally.
Christina clings to her arm as they amble through the dim-lit space to the bar, where they perch on stools with their backs to us. I’ve got the best fucking view in the place—Fin’s tight, round ass in skin-tight leggings that emphasize her svelte waist.
Holy fuck. My hands tighten around my drink when she shakes out her hair and leans to read the menu the bartender places between her and Christina.
Then she glances over her shoulder with a bright-eyed, teasing smile, and I’m done watching.
I shift to go to her when Eli’s hand grips my thigh beneath the table.
“Stay,” he says, squeezing harder as I freeze mid-rise. “Sit.” I glance at him, and his gaze narrows on mine as he instructs, “Watch.”
Watch?
That kind of torture is his thing. I’m not a watcher. I don’t have that kind of control.
Fuck.
My ass collapses back onto the green leather under the gravity of his command.
What in the fuck is happening to me? A thrill shoots through me at the approving caress of his hand on my thigh. A wordless ‘good boy’ that somersaults in my stomach.
Nobody has ever praised me so silently, and yet, my entire being recognizes it. I’m buzzing from head to toe.
“Relax, JJ,” he murmurs beneath the burst of laughter from the guys, leaning a smidge closer to add, “Our girl likes it when we watch her... give her what she wants.”
He grins when I glance at him. Fucking beams at me with a teasing expression that sets my pulse blazing. Galloping hard and fast so that it’s all I hear when our girl adjusts her cropped sweater and the sleeve slips off her shoulder.
Goddamn.
A green cartoon T. rex adorns her skin.
I look back at Eli. Motherfucker. The corner of his mouth twitches, fighting the smirk twisting his lips.
Oh man, I’m so screwed.
They’ve got me in a visehold between them. A slave to this unrelenting pull. I’m dying when Finley presses a kiss to her shoulder, right above my dinosaur.
I want to kiss her so damn bad my lips burn for it—for her. For the velvet of her skin. The warmth of her sweet taste.
“She’s so goddamn beautiful with you branded on her,” Eli whispers behind his drink. “And she loves it, you know? Having you etched on her.”
The pounding of my pulse makes it impossible to swallow the water brimming in my mouth. A physical need to taste our girl.
Eli releases a long breath and licks his lips. His stare is fixed on Fin. The yearning on his face is so ripe I can smell the overwhelming sweetness. A sickly desperation that flows from him to me.
Is this how it feels when he watches us—Finley and me—together?
My muscles twist around my bones so tightly that it hurts all the way to the core. To the marrow. The bruising rhythm of my pulse pulverizes my insides into liquid want. A longing that steals my breath.
I am nothing but sensation. I ache and ache and ache. Endlessly. Simply watching him pine for her.
It’s a pain I’ve never felt. Like every cell of my being is coming alive for the first time with this all-consuming compulsion to give him what he’s yearning for. What he’s literally hurting for.
Finley.
There’s no way I can sit here any longer, holding myself together while I feel every raw need and emotion blazing in Eli’s blood.
My hands are too fucking desperate to touch Fin for me to hold back. The same way my heart is frantically keening to make him happy.
Pushing to my feet, I edge past Ansel, ignoring every comment and remark thrown at me by the guys as I head straight for mine and Eli’s girl.
“Let’s go,” I say, wrapping my arm around her waist and guiding her off the stool while Christina blows a low whistle.
She picks up her martini glass and meanders away with a waggle of her brows.
Finley giggles—a breathless sound that wafts the flames licking at my insides higher. Hotter. “I haven’t finished my drink, Hotshot.”
I have no idea what it is, but I suck down what’s left of the lime-and-mint concoction. “Looks pretty finished to me.”
“Hmm…” Finley grins. “I suppose it does.”
Gripping her hand, I tug her into me. For a beat, my lips hover over hers. The pull is magnetic. An astronomical force that fists my chest.
“Jayden.”
“Let’s. Go.”
Finley turns. Her back skims my front as we beeline for the elevators.
Thank fuck. The doors ping open as we reach them. A couple steps out; we step in.
Finley’s hand tightens in mine as she spins to face me, and I press the button for our floor. Her back hits the mirrored wall. Her front pushes flush against mine.
My dick is so goddamn hard it has a pulse of its own. Screaming to fill her. To have her.
The doors start to close, and I crush my mouth to hers. That first hit of her sweetness lights my taste buds. Mint, lime…
“Have you had alcohol tonight?”
Finley shakes her head.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. Why?”
I inhale her shaky breath. “Because I want you sober. I want you all here with me and Eli.”
“And Eli?” Her big, baby blues widen on my hazel stare. “You and Eli?”
“You—” I lick across her bottom lip. “—me—” I suck it into my mouth and bite down with a hard pull. “—and our man.”
A wispy breath pushes past her swollen, trembling lip. “Our man.”
“Yes. Do you want that, Baby?”
“God, yes,” she blusters back, tugging at my shirt, pulling it out of my pants as the doors ping open on our floor. “Where is he? He’s not...”
“Trust me,” I say, nipping her lip. “He’s following.”
You can’t ache this deep, this savagely, and not seek a reprieve. Not give in to the pull. I don’t care how much control Eli has—this… us—we’re beyond it.
We’re beyond any limits. Any lines. Or boundaries.
We all know it. A certainty we can’t escape or ignore.
With Finley’s arms wrapped around my shoulders, I guide us to our suite. My hands fumble in my slacks for the key card between urgent kisses.
What the… I come up empty.
“Fuck… can’t…” The frisson of heated pain from Fin’s bite on my lip scrambles my words. “Fucking… key… the—”
“I got it.” Eli’s low gravel vibrates through me, wracking Finley deeper into me as the door gives behind her.
I move her inside, keeping myself outside of the threshold, even though my hand is still fisted in the waistband of her leggings. I don’t step into the room.
I won’t force anything on him.
Whatever happens now has to be his choice.
I’m giving him the control he needs to know he’s safe. With me. With Fin.
With a trembling hand to the small of my back, he takes it.
Coaxing me into the room ahead of him, Eli locks the door behind us. A soft click leaves us in silent anticipation. Crowded in the snug entry’s white walls. Completely encapsulated by our need.
“What now, Sweetheart?”
Eli’s dark stare flashes to mine. He’s breathless, chest heaving like he ran a marathon to get to Finley and me.
With a shrug, he fists my shirt, urging me closer with the lightest tug as his other hand reaches for our girl. He looks a little lost. Like he knows what he wants, just not how to start.
I remember that feeling. Like my natural instinct somehow wasn’t right or enough to guide me. I feel it now—the whisper of it—percolating like nostalgia through my limbs as I step forward and bring our girl to us the instant she takes his hand.
Carefully turning Finley in my arms, I angle us to face Eli.
Finley’s sandwiched between us. Her chest to my front as his hand slides to my hip, and he steps into us.
It’s like the jet all over again—except this time, all three of us are as nervous as each other.
The urgency is cutting all logic from our brains.
Then, Eli kisses Finley’s shoulder. Right where my dinosaur is. And that’s it. Every thread holding me together snaps.
My mouth falls inches from Eli’s, and I taste his breath. Feel the hot trail of his slick lips on her skin as he peppers kisses from her shoulder to her nape. The tip of his nose skims mine when I nip at the edge of her jaw.
I don’t know how it happens, but the instant his mouth ghosts mine at her ear, I don’t hold back. I can’t. Pulling his sulky lip into my mouth, I tug Finley completely flush to me.
“Jayden,” she mewls, grinding her stomach into my groin.
My cock throbs at the friction. The delicious heat of her body permeates to my core. I swear I’m losing my mind when Eli’s tongue dips into my mouth—tentative at first. Slow. Seeking.
Like his mouth and her body are in sync. In cahoots to fucking obliterate me with his taste and her feel.
My head swims with Finley’s nips to my chest as Eli’s tongue licks over mine—swirling, exploring…
Fuck.
The drumming of my pulse echoes in my ears. Nothing’s ever felt so good. So perfect as the two of them loving on me.
Eli trails his lips from my mouth to my jaw, depositing the same yearning kisses he laid on our girl’s shoulder and nape. His hand tightens on my hip as Fin’s head falls back to his shoulder. Her legs part, slotting her hot pussy over my thigh.
“Fin,” Eli groans over her jaw as she undulates over me, her ass grinding into his groin while she cranes her mouth to his.
She’s so fucking sexy, seeking what she needs from him. When she licks his lip, he answers with a guttural growl. A sound so raw and hungry it rakes through me, lighting up every pore with an electric buzz while he devours her pleas for more.
We’re so fucking close. So damn hot.
I am mesmerized by them together—his mouth caressing her face with languid, open-mouthed kisses, breathless whispers, bedraggled whimpers. I’ve never seen anything so perfect in my life.
I know this is it.
I’m done.
Finished.
Ruined for anyone else.
They are my Roman Empire, and there is no way I can ever be without them again.