Chapter 13
When I was on the outfield, I had trained my entire life to see every single possible outcome, to be where I was needed out on the field and not miss. But nothing could have prepared me for this.
Not even close.
She knew.
I wasn’t sure how she’d found out, or fuck, how I even knew that she was on to me, but I could feel it right through to my goddamn balls and the marrow in my bones.
Sadie knew I was stalking her.
She didn’t look at me. She walked right past me like she had done so easily for the last couple of months, not even sparing a second look in my direction as I leaned against a tree in the darkness.
But I’d felt it.
This uncanny awareness of being found out. And I wasn’t ashamed to admit the thrill of the chase started to prickle to life at the back of my neck. I gave her a good distance before I pushed off the tree and started to follow her. I gave her a wider berth than I ever had while I followed her.
Sadie’s steps were sure. Steady.
But there was something off about her.
I couldn’t put my finger on it as she played whatever pop music in her headphones as she walked, carrying that damn way-too-heavy book bag on a shoulder.
There was something about the way her breathing seemed to be a little too quick, too shallow.
Something about her back being just a little too straight.
My little bird knew.
She knew she was being hunted by the big bad beast inside me.
I’d known this could be a possibility.
That one day, sooner than later, she’d figure it out.
But this soon? I shook my head, and my steps picked up speed when I noticed she passed our building.
She went through another, and I followed her.
I tried to catch up, get a little closer, but she was too fast and people were coming and going for their buildings, probably to get something to eat or head to the laundry rooms to get clothes washed.
She took a sharp right then a left, and we were back outside. That’s when I was finally able to take in my surroundings as I tore my gaze from the back of her form, and my feet immediately halted me to a complete stop.
We were at the baseball field.
The practice one.
Oh, little bird, what are you up to? I wondered. Something primal and almost ruthless started to awaken inside of me, more of the beast, who didn’t give a shit about boundaries when it came to Sadie.
The field was empty.
The grass freshly cut and watered.
I started to move again as I took it in. I had been to this field more times than I could count, sometimes up to four times a day. There was nowhere for me to hide in the shadows to lurk, not with the bright lights still turned on.
But then again, that meant there was nowhere my girl could hide from me, either.
A slight unease started to grow in the pit of my belly. What if this was too much for her? What if she sent me straight to hell once she confronted me?
And I was positive that was exactly what she was going to do.
I stepped onto the field and walked out to the pitcher’s mound to look around. I couldn’t spot her as I did, through to the bleachers and the outfield.
“I know you’re here, little bird!” I called out, but nothing happened. No movement or sound. “Sadie, let me explain.” Then I caught it. Saw her. Fuck, she was good. Sitting in the dugout, her backpack tossed on the ground, she stared at me.
“You’ve been watching me!” she called out, a slight tremble in her voice that made guilt slide into my veins.
“Yes,” I admitted. I promised Sadie no lies after all, and I would be damned if I didn’t keep my word to the girl I would one day marry.
“Why?” She stood up, and I slowly made my way over to her.
Even with the lights still on, the dugout was lower than the rest of the field, so it was darker thanks to the fence that covered most of the front and the light inside not being turned on.
When I stepped inside, she stilled. And right in her hand?
A bat. One that had probably been left out by accident.
She stood at the far end of the long bench.
“Stay there,” she ordered, pointing the bat at me like a badass. My hands rose in front of me while I slowly approached her.
“Hey, come on now. What do you think you’re going to do with that, baby—“
“Don’t cute-nickname me right now, Jason Evan Lucas,” she warned adorably.
Jesus Christ, I was messed up in the head! Her being this pissed shouldn’t be turning me on like it was, but my cock started to stir to life. Who the hell was I kidding? It was at full mast, the head of it pressing against the waistband of my boxer briefs, trying to get free from my joggers.
“I want answers.” She frowned, showing me she wasn’t going to budge. “Why?” she pressed, her tone steadier, surer of herself.
She was fucking magnificent.
Standing up for herself, demanding answers we both weren’t sure she wanted to hear.
And as I tried to think of how I could answer her, explain the situation, an odd, almost relaxed feeling started to grow inside me. That worry she would fear me, that she would call the cops or tell me to go to hell started to fade away to almost nothing.
She had come here for a reason.
She wanted us to have this little tête-à-tête not because she was going to end this as quickly as it had started, but because my little bird wanted the truth to come out under the moonlight before the beast inside me captured her for good.
I stepped closer, and she swallowed hard, slowly setting the bat down at her side.
“Why?” she repeated, the steadiness in her voice slipping.
“Because the moment I saw you, I knew.” Her brows furrowed, like she wasn’t sure what to believe. “I walked into the Blue Bird coffee shop, and you were sitting there. Reading. Studying. And when you looked up, you looked right though me.”
“I didn’t notice you until Friday. I didn’t even know we lived in the same building.”
“I know,” I rasped, daring to take a step closer. Her hold on the bat loosened, but it was still in her hand. “I told Jeremy you were the girl I was going to marry, and he thought I was crazy.”
“You what?”
“That was two months ago. I couldn’t…” I swallowed. My Adam’s apple bobbed almost painfully. “I couldn’t get myself to approach you.”
“Why?”
“This thing…” I tapped the middle of my chest. “This thing inside me came to life, and he wanted you more than you could ever imagine.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” she muttered, shaking her head, but it was her eyes that gave her away. She knew because she’d felt it, too. She might not have noticed my existence until two months later, but she’d felt it as instantly as I had when she did.
“Love doesn’t make sense.” I closed the space between us. The metal baseball bat clanged against the concrete floor under our feet, but her gaze never wavered from mine.
“Love?” she repeated, and I nodded.
“I know that for you it’s fast. I’ve been in this for two months now, learning, watching you, falling fucking madly, deeply in love with you,” I rasped, “I don’t expect the words back, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know where I’m at.”
“This is crazy.” She shook her head. “You’ve been following me?” I nodded, not trusting my voice as I forced myself to stay where I was.
Sadie stared at me. Not like I was some kind of monster or with fear but with… confusion?
“Me?” She pointed at herself. “Why me? I’m just… I’m just me.”
“You’re everything,” I rasped, and she blinked. Her pretty mouth opened then shut before she swayed closer.
“I should run away from you.” Her eyes darted to the open doorway of the dugout.
She’d have to run past me, and we both knew there was no way she would be faster than me.
“You should.”
“Report you.”
“Agreed.” I swallowed. The thing inside of me was asking what the hell I was doing, goading on exactly what we didn’t want.
“What else did you do?” she blurted, not bothering to blink. “Was it just following me around like some creep?” This was where that promise I’d made her came back to bite me in the ass like I knew it would.
“No,” I answered honestly, and her expression changed. I hadn’t seen this one yet. She was always so damn easy to read, but fuck, in that moment, I couldn’t make it out at all.
“What did you do?” she asked calmly. Too calmly. The beast inside me stilled, looking at her, worried about what that unreadable expression could mean but not afraid of scaring her away for some damn reason.
“You really want to open that Pandora’s box, Sadie?” I took a step forward, done with the space between us. She took one back, and I matched it like a predator playing with its prey. “You really want to know exactly how fucking crazy you drove me?”
We kept moving deeper and deeper into the dugout. Her stepping back and me moving forward. “The idea of you overwhelming every single one of my senses?” Her back touched the wall, and she tilted her head up.
“Jason—" she whispered, her throat muscles working. My eyes dipped lower, and there was no denying her nipples were beaded up under that sweet little sundress she’d put on today.
“You want to know that truth?” I goaded her, challenging her.
“Yes. I want to know.” Her cute little chin pointing upward with a delicious stubbornness had the tip of my cock weeping.
“You want to know how I snuck into your place at night? Watched you sleep? Nightly? How I stole cute little panties from your hamper?”
“What? You did—"
“How I got back to my room and put those hot pink, heaven-scented panties up to my face while I jerked off to the thought of you? Smelling your scent until it was all that was in my head?”
“What?” Her hand rose and pressed against the center of my chest. But she didn’t push me away. No, her little hand fisted the material of my hoodie.
“How I sat in the corner of your bedroom all summer long and watched you sleep? Fuck, you’re beautiful when you sleep, little bird.”
“Jason.” My name had never sounded sweeter as she licked her lips, leaving them glossy for me.