Chapter 20
JAYDEN
It feels good to be home.
Even better to be home with Eli and Finley sitting next to me on the couch while we watch last night’s game. There’s no one ogling us, and the world is firmly shut outside. I needed this time together to let everything sink in for real.
Whatever Lex is doing behind the scenes is working. Aside from a few photographers snapping shots when we drove up to our building late last night, the press has been silent.
“I can’t watch it.” Finley crawls backward, up the couch, covering her face with the copy of Dorian Gray we bought from that tiny bookshop near the hotel in Miami.
Peering over the top, she squeals when Torres slams Eli into the boards, headfirst. The sickening crack makes my stomach twist harder now than it did in the game. “I thought your neck snapped…”
“I might still get on the red-eye and snap Torres’ neck,” I grumble, watching the replay and wondering how the ref had the audacity to call that a minor. “Look at it. I mean—”
“For Christ’s sake, JJ, you can’t get mad every time I take a hit.”
Eli fast-forwards through more replays, the commentators agreeing with me because, clearly, Torres went too far.
“You know, when people realize we’re together, it’s going to be hard enough to convince them our relationship won’t interfere with our game, so—” He stops and glances between Finley and me, gaping at each other at his casual declaration. “What? Why are you staring at me like that?”
I huff out a laugh at his obliviousness. He looks between us again, frowning.
“What?” he presses, rubbing a hand over his face, then raking it through the longer strands of his hair. “What did I do?”
“Nothing,” Finley chortles, leaning forward with a grin aimed squarely at me.
How can he not see what he’s doing to me? What his words mean to me?
I’ve loved him for so long. Waited forever for him to see me this way—to love me this way. I never thought it would happen.
“What did I say?” He looks genuinely panicked now. The only thing I can do is lean forward and kiss him.
Eli melts into me instantly. My hands cradle his face as I deepen the kiss, licking into his mouth like I can taste his words straight from the source. His hand clutches my thigh, body twisting closer, a throaty sound rumbling from him.
Nothing else exists but the taste of his breath, the rough slide of his jaw against mine, and the intoxicating friction between us. I’m just starting to shift, ready to pull him closer, when the goal horn blares—so loud it startles us apart.
Eli’s face is flushed, his lips kiss-bruised. My skin tingles where he touched me, and the grin on my face refuses to fade. I’ve never felt this happy. I’m not sure it’s even possible to feel better than this.
When Eli lies back, his head finds the crook of my neck, his body fitting perfectly against mine. My arm wraps around his waist, holding him there.
My stare slowly traces the length of his body to Finley’s curled form. Wide eyes greet mine with a mix of awe and lust that makes the fire in my blood pound harder.
“What?” she croaks, eyes darting between us.
“You tell us,” I murmur past the thrum in my chest.
“Nothing…” Her lips curve as she looks at Eli. A silent understanding passes between them, soft and sure. Then, still watching him, she whispers, “I guess… I guess I love watching the two people I love also love each other.”
I was wrong. This feeling can get fuller. My chest feels like it might split from how much I love them both.
Finley’s gaze finds mine again, bright and hopeful. I reach for her, tugging her over Eli until she’s straddling his hips, her chest hovering near his face, her face close to mine. With one arm wrapped around them both, I brush my thumb across her lips and lower my mouth to hers.
Their scents mix as I breathe them in like oxygen. Her kiss tastes like heaven and fire all at once, and suddenly I’m unraveling. I need her. I need them.
I’m lost to the desperation of my unyielding need as I trail my hand down the curve of Finley’s spine to the top of her ass. Pushing my hands into the elastic band of her loose shorts, I grip the juicy globe.
“JJ,” she mewls into my mouth when I knead her flesh, inching my hand down to the back of her thigh and then round the inside. “Jayden…”
“Tell me,” I murmur, the light brush of my fingers across the apex of her thighs above Eli’s thick bulge cutting off my word supply to embellish my demand.
I freeze for a beat, waiting for him to move, but he remains, stock still. His hand tightening around Finley’s other thigh so that our fingers graze together with the thin fabric of Finley’s shorts between them.
“Say it, Lucky.”
Finley’s breath shakes. She presses her lips to my jaw, tracing them toward my ear as her fingers tangle in my hair. The air between us thickens until it’s almost too much to bear.
I’m in a trance. Completely hypnotized by her touch and Eli’s warmth.
“Fin…” I gasp her name when she nips at my earlobe, pulling it teasingly between her teeth.
“Honey,” she drags the endearment all the way to my mouth, kissing its heated sweetness into my gaping lips before she pulls back and holds my stare with hers.
That same relentless throb that has always existed between Eli and me echoes between me and her. Heavying the air so that it’s impossible to breathe.
I’m in that breathless, yearning state when she smiles at me. Her lips tremble as she pulls the words straight from her chest with a quivering breath.
“I love you.”
All the air leaves my lungs. My chest squeezes with something so pure and raw it hurts.
“I love you, JJ, with every inch of my soul.”
My hand finds her throat, guiding her closer until our mouths meet again. “I love you, Beautiful,” I whisper into her lips, each word a vow. “So fucking much, Baby.”
I swear I could die right now as the richest asshole in the world. Knowing that I have more in this moment than any other person will have in their lifetime. An abundance of love that overflows.
Bringing us closer, her hand slides to the back of my neck, the other winding into Eli’s hair. He’s beneath her now, kissing along her skin, his hands tracing her thighs. The sound of her breath catches—half moan, half sigh—and my pulse slams in my throat.
Eli lifts the hem of Finley’s loose shirt, burying his face in her tits while his hand on her thigh edges higher, meeting mine at the apex of her thighs. I’m desperate to feel his calloused skin on mine when he works his hand beneath her shorts.
I swallow hard at the sensation of his rough fingertips guiding mine across the hot seam of her covered pussy. Once, twice, pressing my touch deeper.
“Oh, Jesus…” Finley bucks over Eli’s hips as she bears down on my fingers.
“Is our girl wet, JJ?” Eli asks, his deep and graveled voice muffled by her flesh.
Fuck me. I’ve lost the ability to speak or think. I barely manage a grunt before her tongue spears into my mouth, and he’s pulling her panties to the side beneath my touch.
“Eli,” Finley whimpers into my mouth, her body shuddering at the loud, wet pop of his mouth from her skin as her pussy becomes slicker with a tight clench that squeezes the tip of my fingers. “Again. Do it again… Please.”
Eli’s touch molds over mine, and as he audibly sucks her tit into his mouth, he pushes our fingers inside her hot cunt.
All the way to the last knuckle in one firm thrust that hits exactly where Fin needs as she bites down on my lip.
So hard that a metallic tang floods my mouth.
The hand in my hair tunnels higher to the longer strands, tugging and pulling wildly while she rides our fingers.
“Eyes on me,” I demand when her pussy clenches around us again, wetter, hotter, and so fucking tight that, with each squeeze of pleasure, it sucks mine and Eli’s tangled digits deeper.
Finley’s so close, her whole body tenses, jagging her rhythm while Eli and I finger fuck her pussy in deep, even strokes. And I don’t know what he’s doing to her tits, but she’s losing her mind.
The tortured pants have a guttural rasp that’s got my cock throbbing. Aching to own her tight cunt to the sound of her screams.
Another pop of Eli’s mouth from her flesh, and her eyes roll to the back of her head. As soon as her eyes screw shut, a pang hits me square in my chest—I want to see her orgasm crash over her. Scratch that, I need to see it while she takes me and Eli at the same time.
Fuck, I might come from the feeling alone. The sensation of his fingers stroking mine with her arousal slick on our skin… the pulse of her walls clamping around us tighter and tighter.
“Open your eyes.” With a growl, I squeeze my grip around her throat while I pull my mouth fully from hers. “I said eyes on me, Fin.”
Her eyes are heavy-lidded and hazed as she obeys my command. Totally blown by lust, her pupils are so fucking big that her stare is black when I touch my forehead to hers and suck in her ragged, pleading breaths.
“That’s it, Baby, come all over our fingers.” Eli punctuates my words with a long, deep stroke of our fingers, curling them into that spot that unravels her. “Give it to us.”
“Oh my! Oh-my… ohmyg—fuck, JJ,” she cries over my lips with a jumble of words that crash and break with every wave of pleasure that wracks through her writhing body. “Eli… Eli… Please… I can’t… ohmygod…”
Tears spring to her eyes, sluicing down her face with a scream that is as pained as it is blissful when Eli drags our curled fingers out of her clenched cunt. Rubbing the sensitive flesh in hurried circles as her orgasm crests again and her body thrashes and shakes.
It’s only when Finley’s limp over him that he guides our fingers out slowly, gently to her spent mewl.
“Good girl,” he praises, peppering wet kisses across her breasts as he slowly pushes to his feet, holding Finley tight to his chest. “Gonna clean you up now, Angel,” he says when I stand and follow him through to my bedroom.
My fingers are still wet and throbbing from how hard her pussy choked them while I watch him deposit Finley on the bathroom vanity. Holding her face in his hands, he kisses the tip of her nose before asking, “You okay?”
When she hums affirmatively, I flip the shower on and close the bathroom door to stop the heat from escaping while Eli undresses her.
Pride threatens to split my chest open while I watch him take care of our girl. I can’t imagine how hard this intimacy must be for him. But he just keeps soldiering on. Fighting for his happiness. And fuck, I couldn’t love him more if I tried.
“I’m so sleepy,” Finley whines as he strips off her oversized shirt. “Do you think a sex coma is a thing?”
Eli chuckles in reply with a playful boop to her nose.
It’s only when he crouches to thread her shorts down her legs that I see the marks on her left breast. Deep, purpling bites that paint her pale skin around her rosy nipple and speckle all over like a love letter. Right where her heart lives.
My fingers brush my own chest, as though I can feel the bites burning on my skin. Etching all the way down to my rampant heart.
Eli catches my stare in the mirror and smirks, a wicked, self-satisfied curve of his mouth. His T-shirt and shorts cling to him, soaked. Not just damp—drenched. And somehow, the sight of him like that, flushed and unashamed, makes me dizzy with want.
He strips without hesitation, the motion confident and easy. When he turns toward the shower, he throws me a look over his shoulder—dark eyes gleaming, lips curved.
“You just going to stand there, or are you coming?” He asks, pausing beside me.
Goddamn, I thought I knew every layer of this man. Every side. But. Fuck. Me. Cocky Eli is the hottest fucking thing, and before he’s under the spray, I’m naked and following behind him.