17. Jeff
JEFF
A mber hadn’t moved an inch from her face-down position and her incredible ass remained in clear view. The sight had me smiling like an idiot and I put on some loose sweats before sitting on the edge of the bed. “Are you alive?”
“Maybe?”
“This is doing wonders for my ego, by the way.” I patted her ass and loved how it wiggled. It was so full and I made plans to spend way more time on it next time. Because there will be a next time, soon. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No.” She pushed herself up onto her elbows with the groan of someone three times her age, and she slid me a coy look.
It was a sight to see—Amber Henderson naked in my bed with her perfect small tits, crazy sex hair and bite marks on her chest from me.
She saw the direction of my stare and red splotches appeared over her neck and face. “I guess I’ll go put my dress back on.”
“Do the bite marks bother you?” I traced one around her pink nipple and I considered it a good sign when she shivered at my touch.
“No. I really enjoyed getting them. More than I thought.” She looked at the ground and hurried around the room to pick up her dress. She frowned at it before sighing.
“If you want something more comfortable, I can give you a sweatshirt or a T-shirt.” I stood and opened my dresser drawer, pulling out a long-sleeved shirt. “You want to borrow it?”
“For a little, yeah. I can’t walk downstairs in that . They’ll all know.” Her eyes got wide and I shrugged off her comment.
“They’ll mind their business.”
“If you say so.” She took the shirt from me and slipped it over her head, not bothering with her bra, and I found the thought of her chest bare against my clothes real appealing. “Wow. It’s been a while since I slept with anyone and damn, I forgot how wobbly my legs can get.”
“Excuse me, I blame your two orgasms for the weak legs.” I gave her a pointed look and she rolled her eyes. “Are you denying it? We had a bet, Henderson.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. You want me to wear stockings.” She stepped into her cute little boy-shorts and jumped back onto the bed and moved the covers so they were over her legs. “Shit… is this cool? Do you want me to sit at your desk when we talk about the investigation or…?”
“Stay there. It’s warmer.” I ignored her uncertainty and grabbed my phone and notepad with all the information I had. “Move over though. I’m joining you.”
She scooted so she was against the headboard and wall, letting me have the edge, and it struck me how odd it was to not have the urge to get her the hell out of there.
Most of the time I either rushed to get home, or, I’d make some excuse for them to leave.
I think maybe once…or twice I’d hung around longer than an hour.
It wasn’t because I was an asshole. There was just nothing to talk about.
She looked at me expectantly and made her eyes get all big. “Tell me the news, Jeff! While I know what we just did was fun, I really did come over because you said you had news to share.”
“It was more than just fun,” I teased. “But check out the last text I got.” I handed her my phone and waited as she scrolled to find the one I was referring to. It took about thirty seconds before she gasped.
“What the hell? Someone threatened you? When did this happen?” She threw my device onto the foot of the bed and gave me a panicked look. “We were careful.”
“I know. It freaked me out, too. I got it this afternoon. I haven’t done anything with it besides read it. It’s not like we can trace an unknown number.”
She had a thoughtful look and ran her fingers over the collar of my shirt before saying, “It means we’re getting closer. Someone’s worried.”
“I thought the same thing.” Do I tell her I’m freaked out? Act cool about it?
She did what I dubbed her thinking face—where she had half her lip sucked into her mouth and one of her eyebrows raised—and I swore I could hear the wheels spinning in her brain. “How easy would it be to find your number?”
A dull twinge of embarrassment hit me when I admitted, “Not hard. A lot of girls have my number and anyone could’ve gotten it from them.”
She didn’t look put off. If anything, she nodded, then clapped her hands in excitement.
“Duh! The entire baseball coaching staff has access to your information. They had to block the number just in case someone recognized it. I would bet thousands of dollars it came from them. It would be weird to have a grown man ask a college girl for your number. That would draw attention.”
Again, she thought differently than I did and I was impressed. “It makes more sense and solidifies my coach being involved, even though it sucks.”
“Are you worried?” She scrunched her nose and her eyes softened on the sides.
“I’m freaked out and it wasn’t even sent to me.
Fuck! Do you think…do you think my uncle knows I’m involved?
” Her voice rose an octave and her words blurred together as she exclaimed them in a hurry.
I didn’t even think about it before putting my hand on her knee.
“It was sent to me. You have no reason to be worried.” I squeezed her leg and let it linger for a second before saying, “If anything, I’m glad it was my number.
I can handle anything thrown my way and that can help keep attention off you—the person who’s going to write this article and expose all these assholes. ”
“I don’t know, Jeff. This seems so much more real now.
People know you’re asking around.” She rubbed the center of her forehead with two fingers and grabbed my notebook from my hand.
“We need to wrap this thing up as fast as we can. If anyone of them knows someone’s onto their actions, they could start taking actions to cover their tracks. ”
She flipped the page and started jotting down a timeline and I leaned closer to her so I could see what she was writing.
-Athletes involved
-Coaches/administration involved
-Martin Rhett
-Where is the money?
-Sports involved
“I’m going to start drafting an outline.” She bit down on the end of my pen and starting chewing before she realized it and stopped. “Shit, I’m sorry. This is yours. It’s a habit.”
“Not worried about it.” I scanned her list and something was missing.
I couldn’t figure out what and while I understood her motivation to get a head start, the fear of someone catching us wasn’t enough to get ahead of ourselves.
“I know the text freaked us both out, but I don’t want to rush this.
We both have people who matter to us involved in this and we can’t half-ass it. ”
“I understand.” She narrowed her eyes at me and tapped the pen against her teeth, not biting it this time. “We’ve focused on baseball the majority of our questions. We need to switch it up.”
“Agreed.”
She let out a sigh and shook her head. “Photos. Documents. Evidence. We can speculate as much as we want but for anyone to take this accusation seriously, we need some hard evidence.”
“There’s no fucking way we’ll get our hands on that.” I balled my fist and hit the side of my bed in frustration. “Shit, I never thought about the lack of that. Who’s going to believe two college kids?”
She made a dismissive sound with her tongue and grinned real wide.
“Evidence can be as simple as rosters from previous years that proves that some names on these lists don’t have a shred of evidence they played the sport in high school.
Max assured me that my fake sister didn’t need to have any athletic experience.
Said that these guys have all the tools to cover it up.
I’ll have to check my notes I wrote down after I got home that night, but he said something along the lines of never touching a baseball in his life, but this dude could make it happen. ”
“Okay,” I responded, nodding more to myself than her. That’s more manageable. We don’t only need proof of payments or anything serious.”
“We’d never get access unless we…” She tapped that pen against her front teeth again and had a crazy gleam in her eye. “Unless we got access to your coach’s or my uncle’s phone. We could search emails with the names of the guys we know.”
“We can’t chance that, Amber. It’s too risky.” The thought of trying to sneak through my coach’s phone was so fucked up. I couldn’t risk it—not with my scholarship and the season. The weight of letting my team down was too strong. “There’s no way I could pull that off. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t feel bad. I could probably do it the next time I see my uncle but there’s no guarantee either I’ll find anything we could use or he won’t catch on.
I’ve admired my uncle most of my life for his quick wit and how he handles my mom.
He’s intelligent and if he really is a huge part of this scandal, well, he’ll make sure he’s covering every track. ”
“Not every one. Look how much we know.”
We shared a brief look of pride, I’d like to think.
These assholes were taking real sports on athletic teams away from people who needed them, like Jaime Smith, and we were uncovering small pieces that hopefully added up to their exposure.
Amber leaned back against the headboard and closed her eyes.
“I’m going to have to talk to my uncle at some point about all of this, but I want to make sure we have every angle we can think of…
Have you thought about what happens when your coach finds out? ”
Have I ?
“No. But I need to start thinking about it, soon.”
I avoided it at all costs and the thought of confronting him had my gut filling with acid.
There could possibly be an investigation, suspension, our final season on the team without our coach.
Can I do that to the rest of the guys? What will they do if they know I had a part in it?
The uncertainty and anger crept into the momentary content I had exploring Amber’s body.
It was the same rage I’d had when I had stormed to her house and accused her of having a part in it all.
It struck me I’d never officially apologized for it.
She had proven herself countless times since then and a ball of shame also took shape in my gut.
I’m just a pathetic glass case of emotion, aren’t I?
“Amber,” I said, pulling her attention away from wherever she escaped in her mind. “I’m sorry I accused you of being a part of this entire thing. You clearly aren’t and I don’t have any excuse.”
“Thank you for saying it.” She gave me a half-smile, her full lips curving up on one side of her cute face. “It’s crazy that was only a couple of weeks ago.”
I could’ve agreed with her, changed the subject, kissed her, hell, I could’ve done any of those but instead, I asked, “Do you forgive me?”
“Hm,” she said, twisting her lips to the other side of her mouth. “Maybe. Answer one question for me.”
“Anything.” The need for her to forgive was essential and I had no idea why. Her saying maybe wasn’t enough. “Ask me anything.”
“Be honest, okay? Why did you jump so quickly to the conclusion I was involved in it?” She dropped her gaze to a piece of fuzz on my bed and picked at it with her fingers.
Her shoulders slumped and she guarded her face—as though she expected my answer before I said it.
I felt like the world’s biggest asshole when I thought about why it had been so easy to blame her and point all my anger at her.
Was it because it was easier than accepting the truth?
“Look, I judged you without knowing you and that’s all on me.
We had a class together freshman year and you skipped all the time, then the whole drug thing spread pretty fast among the freshmen.
It was easier for me to blame you the second I learned Martin Rhett was your uncle. ”
“Yeah,” she mumbled, still not looking at me. The pressure in my chest built to the point of pain and I hated how defeated she looked.
“I’m in the wrong here, not you. You don’t get to be sad when I’m the asshole.
Okay? You’re incredible and I’m pissed at myself I didn’t get to know you sooner.
” I waited for her to smile or show some sign of relief at my words, but nothing came.
I reached for her chin and tilted her face up to mine.
Her large eyes held a little sadness and something I couldn’t decipher.
“You are fucking awesome and I hate that I played any part in you thinking you’re not. ”
She smiled shyly and a spark returned to her eyes. “Well, thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Stand up for yourself sometimes, Henderson. I’m appreciative that you gave me a chance after I was such a dick.” Is it because she has it bad for me? Could that still play a part? Do I want her to have a thing for me?
Woah. Not the time for those thoughts when Amber clearly had a confidence issue that I’d played a part in sustaining. Support her. Be her friend.
She let out a small chuckle and pointed her finger at my chest. “The only reason I gave you a chance was to prove you wrong. I’m untalented at anything athletic but apparently I’m super-competitive.
You made me so mad that day, I wanted to punch or kick you.
” She trailed off and gave me a dorky smile that showcased all her teeth.
“And to think I had a huge crush on you.”
Had?
Past tense?
“Have, you mean?”
“Had,” she fired back with a teasing glint in her eye. “You ruined the illusion of Jeff Maddow that day you told me I was unremarkable.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry?—”
“You’re forgiven now.” She patted my face this time and slid out of the bed, moving to put on her tights. “Plus, after sleeping with you, I know I wasn’t missing anything.”
“You take that back.” I jumped from the bed and within a second had my arms around her, preventing her from leaving. “Are you trying to rile me up right now? Because it’s working. I’m competitive too, babe, and I will show you what you were missing.”
Her answer was to lean into me and have her lips linger an inch away from mine. “I need to head out, but rain check.”