45. Callan
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CALLAN
“ W e need Beth in those stands every fucking week if that’s the way you’re going to play, mate!” Baird squeezed my shoulders as we strode toward the locker room. The team was hooting and whistling, vibrating with energy from the win against an opponent no one thought we could beat.
I laughed, a bit abashed. Because I couldn’t lie that even though I promised to block her from my mind, my gaze went to her throughout the game, and seeing her chanting for me, jumping up and down with Ainsley … it was the best motivation a bloke could get.
The locker room was a cacophony of good-natured name-calling and banter as we broke the game down to its pivotal parts. We shut up when the gaffer and coaches strolled in to congratulate us. “This could be a turning point, lads,” the gaffer said, visibly proud. “Now they know we mean business and we’re here to make history in Scottish football.”
We cheered, exhilarated by the realization that we might actually take the Pro League. That a club outside of Glasgow might win it for the first time since the 1980s.
To say I was buzzing by the time I showered and left the locker room with Baird and John was an understatement. Partners and family members waited for us in a VIP area near the players’ entrance.
As soon as I walked into the room, I heard my name called and turned in time to see Beth run at me. I dropped my training bag to catch her as she jumped into my arms, hers around my neck, legs around my waist. A different kind of pride filled me as I held her tight. Then she kissed me. Deep and hungry and totally fucking uncaring we had an audience.
Wolf whistles broke us apart, and I grinned at her cheeky smile as I lowered her to the floor.
“That was some greeting,” I murmured, cupping her face in my hands.
“I’m so proud of you.” She fairly vibrated with it. “You were awe-inspiring.”
“Awe-inspiring?”
Beth laughed, smacking my biceps. “Don’t let it go to your head … but aye, awe-inspiring.”
“Aye.” Baird came up behind me, slapping me on the back. “Keen might win Scottish Player of the Year again at this rate.”
“Really?” Beth’s eyes widened.
I shrugged. “Who knows.”
“He’s being modest.” Baird moved away to embrace his sister.
Beth reached for my hand as I took my training bag with the other. “Are we leaving?”
I considered her and my teammates whose stares I could still feel. “Can I introduce you to the lads you haven’t met first?”
“You want to?” She bit her lip, trying to stop a smile.
I tugged on her hand. “Never been prouder to introduce anybody in my life.”
A sheen coated her eyes, but she quickly blinked the emotion away before leaning into me. “Never been prouder to be at someone’s side.”
Fuck.
It was dizzying …
Falling this hard.
As I brushed my teeth, Beth called from the bedroom, “My parents are bugging us to come for dinner. I’ve put them off by telling them I need to talk to them alone next weekend. I’m going to tell them everything.”
I rinsed my mouth. “Good about telling them about your anxiety and that … but you know you don’t have to put them off. Maybe it’s time I meet them.”
“Really? You’re not just saying that because you want that meeting with Dad?”
I scowled at the insinuation.
“I can feel your glare from here!” she called. “Sorry!”
Then she appeared in the doorway. “I know that’s not what you want. It’s … My family is great, but they’re opinionated and overprotective, and I don’t want them to burst our wee bubble.”
“Then we don’t let them.” I wiped my mouth with the face cloth, trying not to let old insecurities build. “You want them to meet me, right?” Before she could answer, my gaze dropped down her body. Hot blood flooded south. “What are you wearing?”
Beth smirked and stepped forward but only to turn around. She gave me a sexy look over her shoulder. “I bought it at the stadium.”
I didn’t know it was possible to be so turned on you couldn’t speak. She wore nothing but a Caley United football shirt. It had KEEN and 10 on the back. The hem of the shirt barely covered her arse. She turned back around, grinning at my expression as she crossed the room. Sliding her arms around me, she pressed her cheek to my biceps, while her palms coasted over my bare abs.
“Of course, I want you to meet my parents.” She lifted her head, her fingers curling against my stomach. “Captain, I meant it earlier. I’m so proud you’re mine.”
The football shirt kind of said as much. “Good,” I answered gruffly.
One of her hands flattened against my lower stomach and coasted downward, dipping beneath my boxer briefs. My cock, like it was trained, rose to greet her. She fisted me, grip hard like I loved as she gave me an enthusiastic jerk. I grunted as my balls tightened. Beth’s gaze was hot on mine, and I arched into her touch.
“I was hot today,” she whispered, turning into me, pushing my briefs down with her other hand to free me. “You’re so intense on the pitch. It reminded me of what you’re like when you’re fucking me like there’s no tomorrow.”
I throbbed in her hand at that, enjoying the idea of her in the stands, growing wet watching me play football. Control snapped, I spun, took hold of her waist, and set her on the edge of my bathroom counter. She opened to me and I groaned at finding no underwear beneath the football shirt. Usually, I tore whatever flimsy nightwear she had on off, but I wanted to fuck her in this shirt.
Possessiveness roared through me as I took my girlfriend hard and wild, her cries of pleasure echoing off the bathroom tiles and stroking me toward a release I felt deep in my goddamn soul.
I think it started to happen as I moved inside Beth, the pleasure slowly building as I glided in and out of her perfect, wet heat. We were on the bed, the desperation from earlier soothed by the frantic fuck we’d had in the bathroom. She was naked, though the mental picture of her in my shirt still lingered.
Her knees were drawn up against my hips, her hands coasting over my back as we rocked together. We kissed as our climax built, leisurely but spectacular, and as I pulled away to watch it build in her eyes, I knew at that moment, I could happily spend the rest of my life looking only in Beth Carmichael’s eyes.
“I love you,” she suddenly gasped out, voice hoarse, quiet but filled with emotion, “I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” I confessed without hesitation.
Because it was the truth.
She smiled, a soft, sexy smile I felt tight in my gut, and I started rocking a little faster, harder, more desperate. “Say it again,” I commanded.
“I love you, Captain,” Beth gasped again, arching her hips into my thrusts, tensing for a moment and then crying out as her orgasm shuddered through her.
“I love you,” I groaned as my own release took me.
We kissed as the last trembles shook through our bodies.
Her happiness radiated from her, making me feel a hundred feet tall. Reluctantly, I got up to deal with the condom. When I got back in bed, Beth rolled into me, resting her cheek on my upper chest, her arm thrown over my waist. I put my arm around her and kissed the top of her head.
“Love you,” she whispered. “Night.”
“Love you.”
Her breathing evened out quickly, the gentle noise the only sound in the room, except for that of my own heartbeat. It seemed thunderous in my ears.
Love you .
It wasn’t Beth’s voice, though.
Love you.
Mum. My chest tightened at the memory.
Love you.
She’d waved out the car passenger window as she and Dad drove off, leaving me at my mate’s house for the day. Love you, Cal. See you in a few hours.
I’d waved back, a bit embarrassed by her telling me she loved me in front of my friend.
I could see her face, clear as day. The smile in her eyes, the love. Dad reaching past her to wave at me as they drove off.
And I never saw them again.
Grief clawed at my throat as I blinked rapidly against the tears. Beth shifted in her sleep, bringing me back to the bedroom.
I love you so much .
Beth’s voice now. Gazing up at me, adoring. Coming around me at those three wee words given to her freely.
Every day could be the last day she said those words back to me.
Suddenly … I was fucking terrified.
My arm tightened around her.
I didn’t sleep a wink that night.