38. Sarina
thirty-eight
sarina
Let The World Watch
I shuffle out of the bathroom to find my gorgeous boyfriend sitting on the edge of the bed, his face lit by the glow of the phone in his hand and a smile playing on his lips. His bare long legs are spread out in front of him while his elbows rest on his knees. His broad and beautiful shoulders make me want to kiss and lick him all over again—as if I hadn’t just done that minutes ago while he was inside me.
How the man can look so beautiful with mussed hair, wearing nothing but his boxer-briefs, I will never know.
“Did Pearl send you another video of her doing cartwheels?” I ask, stepping onto the hotel room’s plush carpet.
Troy’s attention snaps to me, his phone long forgotten. His smile transforms, taking on a lustful and wicked edge as his eyes slowly rake down my body—taking in the soft pink silk lingerie top that skims the bottom of my breasts and the barely-there bottoms I’d packed especially for him.
Like embers in a bonfire, heat flares in his hazel eyes, intensifying their color. It’s the same hunger I saw in them while we were tangled in each other’s arms, but somehow it’s already renewed. Like he’s starving again.
Good thing I tossed this lingerie in while I frantically packed for this trip.
He sets his phone on the nightstand. “Nope, just the guys. They saw us on the news. Apparently, we’ve gone viral on various platforms.”
I wince, but keep smiling. “Well, I don’t regret it.”
Troy studies me. “You sure? I know it’s not the kind of thing you enjoy.”
“It’s not, but I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Not after the way I missed him for thirteen days. Not after the way each day had felt exponentially heavier than the day before. Not when I’d finally found the courage to chase what I truly wanted—a man I was stupid enough to think I could live without.
Not when each second spent with him now makes me hate that I lost a second with him at all. And all because I couldn’t get out of my own way.
I move toward him, coming to a stop in between his legs and raking my fingertips through his hair. “Let the world watch,” I whisper, feeling the heat radiating off his skin. “Let it speculate, gossip, and stare. It’ll never pull me away from the man I love again—a man I almost lost for good.”
The world no longer has the reins to my fears, only I do. And I’ve let them go.
His hands slide up my bare thighs to settle on my ass, under my bottoms. “You could never lose me,” he murmurs, turning his head to kiss the inside of my wrist. “I was just waiting for you to come back.”
“I couldn’t . . .” I take in a rough inhale, feeling the corners of my eyes prick. “I couldn’t breathe right without you. I swear, every cell in my body revolted when I walked out of your room that day. The moment I left, I wanted to turn back around and beg you to take me back.”
“I never gave you up, sweetheart.” He leaves kisses up the inside of my arm before brushing his mouth on my bare stomach. “There was no question of taking you back.”
I tug on his hair slightly, making him look up at me. “I’m so sorry, Troy. I . . . I?—”
“Hey,” he interrupts, his hands sliding up and down the backs of my thighs. “It’s over. We’re past the apologies. Baby, I know you needed time to figure out your feelings, and honestly, I’m glad you took it, even if it meant being without you for two weeks. The way I see it, it helped us get to this moment. A moment without reservations and fear. A moment where it’s just me and you.”
“Just me and you,” I whisper back.
Troy’s hands knead my ass as his lips travel up my stomach. Using his teeth, he pinches the hem of my top and raises it over my breast, revealing my peaked nipple. A groan escapes his lips as he takes it into his mouth, sucking and teasing it lazily.
My body sways, my fingers still scraping down his head, as a pool of warmth and wetness gathers inside my tiny bottoms. I don’t have to look down to see that there’s likely a wet spot where my seam is. “Troy . . .”
He rolls my nipple around his tongue, plucking it with his teeth before moving to my other breast, sending goosebumps soaring over my skin. He gives my other nipple the same attention, licking and teasing it, knowing he’s driving me mad.
His fingers have minds of their own, pulling my bottoms down my thighs. I step out of them before his hands find the globes of my ass once more. He continues to suck my nipples as one of his hands travels down to my wet center. His pinky tests it before dipping into my entrance.
I tuck my bottom lip under my teeth, groaning when Troy replaces his pinky with the two middle fingers of his other hand. His fingers press inside me, filling me until I’m panting while he drags the wet pinky, covered in my juices, up to that unexplored, uncharted hole.
A worried gasp falls from my lips mixed with a lustful moan when the tip of his pinky circles my puckered hole. I want him to, but I’m anxious. “Troy . . . I?—”
“Shh,” he murmurs against my nipple, gently plucking it between his teeth and making me groan. “I promise I’ll be gentle. Just relax for me.”
My stomach tightens despite his coercion, but relaxes when I feel his two middle fingers slide out and then back into my entrance. He continues to pump them into me while rubbing my clit with his thumb.
My body responds eagerly to each touch, revving up like he’s just placed a key in its ignition. Heat blooms inside me, spreading warmth over my skin and making my heart beat erratically. My pussy clenches around his middle two fingers while I undulate on his hand, riding a wave that’s building slowly but most assuredly.
“That’s it, sweetheart,” he husks, his voice both gravel and velvet. “Fuck, I love the way my fingers feel inside you. You’re dripping down my wrist, baby.”
And to what should have me feeling embarrassed, but only unfurls another pang of lust inside me, I note that I am indeed dripping down his wrist. My body grinds over him faster as Troy circles and curls his fingers inside me, tapping that spot he knows will have me falling.
I squeeze my eyes shut as a flush cascades over my skin. My breathing becomes labored, soft gasps and whimpers escaping my lips as Troy fucks me with his fingers. And right when he feels my walls flutter around his digits, he presses his pinky into my puckered hole.
“You’re so beautiful when you melt for me like this,” he murmurs, kissing my skin while his fingers plunge deeper into my body. “I’m going to come just from the sounds you make for me.”
I cry out Troy’s name as my body contracts and my vision blurs. A part of me wants to reject the forbidden intrusion while the other rejoices at the orgasm pulling me under, a tremor turning into a full-blown earthquake.
Throwing my head back, I clamp my fingers around his shoulders, my fingernails burrowing into his skin as I roll my hips over his hand, taking and releasing.
It’s all too much, but God, I never want it to end.
And it doesn’t.
Because before I even have a chance to get my bearings, Troy has me laying on my back while he crawls up my body, fully naked.
I’m still panting from my previous out-of-body experience when he pulls my thighs apart and gives my swollen slit an open-mouthed kiss. A sound escapes me—half affirmation and half gasp—torn between needing a moment to recover and wanting him to continue.
God, he scrambles my brain.
He seems to get the hint when I squirm beneath him. His tongue travels in a determined path—dragging over my hip bone, trailing up my stomach, then between my breasts, before his lips find my neck, alternating between wet kisses and gentle bites. His soft beard scrapes deliciously over my skin, sending renewed jolts of electricity through my limbs. His thick shaft nuzzles into my seam as our chests heave together in unison.
“I have something to tell you,” he murmurs against my skin.
My hands frame his face and he lifts to find my gaze, his autumn-colored eyes shimmering with desire and affection.
“I made a decision.” His voice rumbles between us as he traces my bottom lip with his thumb. “I’m retiring from the MLB after this season.”
My breath catches, my brows coming together as his words sink in. “What?”
“The reason I wanted to come back wasn’t so I could stay indefinitely—that was never going to be a possibility, anyway. I wanted to prove to myself that I could come back, better, stronger. And I did. And now I want to leave on my own terms. Not because of an injury, but because I found something that fulfills me more than baseball ever could.”
I’m still not sure I’m quite grasping the weight of his decision. It feels too enormous to comprehend at the moment. “But Troy?—”
“I informed the Blazers’ management, and it seems word has already spread to the owners of the team, including Dev. I’ve had a lot of time to think this past year, Rina. About what matters most and what I want my life to look like.” He swallows and the previously sex-drunk shimmer in his eyes takes on something different, more tender. “I’ve stood on that mound hundreds of times, but not one of those moments compares to this one right here. Nothing feels as right as being with you, Pearl, and Rome.”
“Are you . . . are you sure? You love playing. What about your team, your fans?”
“I’ll always love baseball.” His voice is steady with conviction. His fingers trace my collarbone as I loop my arms around his back, holding him to me. “But I’m also done choosing it over the most important people in my life.”
He hovers over me, resting on his elbows as his warm breath fans my lips. “The team will find another starting pitcher to replace me, and the fans will find another pitcher to root for. But you, Pearl, and Rome? The moments I want to be a part of every day? You’re irreplaceable.”
I brush the tips of my fingers along his beard. “But we’ll always be here, waiting for you. I don’t want you to give up what you love most for us, Troy.”
He shakes his head, turning to place a kiss on the inside of my palm. “For a long time, baseball gave me everything I thought I wanted. But you?” He dips down to pepper kisses along my jaw and behind my ears, and my toes curl in reaction to his touch. “You give me everything I need. I wouldn’t be giving it up for you; I’d be giving it up for me. I don’t want to be on the road anymore. I don’t want to miss dinners with my family or wake up without you next to me. I’ll do it until the end of this season, but then I want to be done.”
“So what will you do after?”
He nips my earlobe. “You mean, I can’t help you out at the salon? Learn to cut hair or something?”
I laugh softly, my fingers threading through his hair. “Considering you almost took off your thumb using scissors while helping Rome with his science project that one afternoon, I think you’d be a liability for us.”
He chuckles and I smile up at him, marveling at how beautiful he is, both inside and out. This man who’s now mine, forever. A man I still feel like I don’t deserve, but a man I’ll love and cherish with every beat of my heart from this day forward.
“Dad’s been wanting to take Mom traveling more. And I had so much fun and a sense of purpose while I coached The Tremors.” He shrugs. “Maybe I’ll take over for him.”
I grab his face, forcing him to look into my eyes. “I love you, Troy Winters. An entire lifetime wouldn’t be enough to show you how much.”
Raw emotion passes over Troy’s features, a muscle in his jaw clenching as he absorbs my words. But something relaxes in his whole body, too, like a man who finally found his home after trudging down a hundred futile paths.
“Baby, I’ll give you every lifetime if it means I get to spend it with you.”
Troy’s mouth meets mine in a searing kiss. Our tongues tangle as I spread my legs around his hips, letting him feel how wet I am for him again. How ready and needy. There’s no one like this man, not in the entire universe. And there will never be one who compares.
My wet center slides against his velvety shaft as I moan into his mouth. “I want you inside me. Please, just get inside me.”
Troy disconnects our mouths for only a second before shifting his weight to one arm. Using his hand to guide the tip of his cock to my entrance, he hovers over me again on both elbows before pressing home.
I clench around him instinctively, whimpering at the feel of his thickness inside me. It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve had him there—he’d fucked me not even an hour ago after we got to the hotel—but I’m not sure when my body will ever get used to his size.
Troy breathes through his nose, burying his face in my neck. “I’ll never get tired of fucking you.”
“Well, that’s a relief, because you’re not allowed to fuck anyone else.”
He chuckles, his lips brushing against my neck. “Baby, I’ve been yours since day one. And I plan to stay that way forever.”
Troy withdraws himself from inside me before thrusting in again, the sound so slick and carnal, a new pool of my want rushes to coat his dick. I gasp at his urgent strokes, the way he melds us together, no longer fucking me but making love to me.
He lifts, pressing his forehead against mine as he pumps inside me, our pants intermingling between us. At first his eyes are shut tight, like it’s taking everything he has to control himself, but when they open, there’s a need so visceral, it takes my breath away.
I arch my back off the bed, meeting him thrust for thrust and feeling him lodged deep inside me. Every drag of his erection through me makes my body tense, like I’m a bowstring ready to snap.
We’re coated in sweat, yet relentlessly chasing the same end.
“Fuck, Rina, I’m coming,” Troy growls, a trench forming between his brows. His jaw clenches as he pummels me through his release. “God, I’m coming like . . . like I never have.”
“Me, too,” I pant as lightning strikes behind my eyelids. My body convulses with my release as my pussy spasms around him. “Oh, God!”
And when we’re both spent, our slick bodies wrapped around each other as we draw in long gulps of air to refill our lungs, a realization settles over me with sublime clarity. He’s not the only one who found his home after wandering through countless fruitless paths . . .
I have, too.
In him. With him.
And this journey to get to him—this moment, this man who I love so much—was worth every step taken.