29. Ball Security
TWENTY-NINE
“Forty-five minutesuntil we both have to be in class,” he said, pulling her into a light jog. “Ten minutes out and ten minutes back, and twenty-five minutes in bed with you.”
“Greedy, needy boy.”
“And I’m not ashamed.” He grinned. “This is what you get for saying we have to keep it under wraps for a little while. I have to get you alone and behind closed doors as much as I can.”
“Wait, so when we do tell people, you’ll be less greedy and needy? Because we’re never telling anyone, if that’s the case.”
“It’s just my excuse right now. Sometime over the next couple of weeks, I’ll come up with another one.”
Red and orange leaves fluttered down with every breeze as they rounded a corner to her residence hall. “I like the way your mind works. And I like that you already have my roommate’s class schedule memorized so you know where to take me and when.”
He stopped and grabbed her waist, pulling her close for a kiss. “I’ll take you anywhere I can, Avery,” he murmured. “You captivate me. You inspire me. And you are getting me uncomfortably hard right now.”
“Say no more.”
Before the door latched behind them in her dorm room, he had her shirt halfway over her head. “Let me get that,” she said, tugging her shirt. “It ties in the back. Hang on.”
“I’ll do it.”
He pulled at a ribbon and the knot at the base of her neck loosened, and he slipped the shirt over her head. “Goddammit, Avery,” he breathed, taking in the black lace balconette bra. “Why are you wearing sexy lingerie to class?”
“In case my needy, greedy boyfriend wants to play in one of the supply closets one day. But I suppose this will do.”
Her breasts, pushed high by the black lace and ribbons, rounded like offerings to his hands and mouth. He wanted to fling it to the floor and at the same time never take it off her. “What do you think we’ll be doing in one of the supply closets?” he asked, tracing her curves as he slid his hands down from her shoulders. “I love your brilliant mind. Tell me every daydream.”
Whatever she wanted, he’d give. Weeks of reining in his feelings exploded into a cataclysm of need, desire, and adoration. The blaze in her blue eyes when she sketched sent his heart leaping. Even the slightest brush of her hand on his when they drew football helmets in perspective exercises was torturous foreplay.
She knelt before him.
He stared down at her, unable to muster words as she dropped his pants to his ankles and leaned close, blowing a long, warm breath across his skin and not moving her hands up past his knees.
“Is it really uncomfortably hard?” she asked.
“It’s a little better now.” He caught his breath when she brushed her lips against his thighs. “And even better.”
She slid over him, grazing her teeth along his length as she stretched her mouth wide to take him in. Cam twisted his hands in her hair and pulled her forward for a few seconds, then let go so she could pull back, gasping.
“I like that,” he moaned, cupping her cheeks in his hands. “Avery, I like making you take every inch.”
“I like your hands in my hair when you tell me what you want.” She licked up and down, swirling her tongue with long strokes as she circled her fingers around his base.
“You know what I want,” he whispered.
“Tell me.”
“I want you to get me off.” Cam shifted his weight and drove into her until her throat tightened. “I could just hold you wherever I want to,” he reminded her, pressing his hands to the sides of her head. “I could hold you right here and take you until I come.”
She pulled back with a little gasp. “I love that you’re strong enough to take what you want. But you shouldn’t distract me.”
“Distract you?”
Taking just his head back into her mouth, Avery slid a hand up his inner thigh and began to tickle him, one finger at a time. The light drag of her nails across his skin shot fire through his veins as his ankles wobbled, and he looked for the bed or desk, anything to steady himself so he could give in to her lips and hands without worrying about technicalities like standing upright. His pants locked his ankles like shackles, and he grabbed a handful of her hair and tightened his fist.
“I won’t distract you,” he said, groaning as she sucked him deep. “Play with me. Do whatever you want. Avery, you are so?—”
The jangle of keys in the lock turned the heat in his blood to ice, and he froze. Behind him, a backpack fell to the floor, water bottle clinking against the end of the bed as the door swung shut.
Avery squirmed in his grasp and he looked down, only to realize that in his panic, his reaction had been to hold her as close as he could—still halfway down her throat, it felt like, flushing her cheeks bright pink. She shook off his grip and pulled back, lips glistening as he fell from her mouth.
“Hi, Tash,” she said weakly, peering around him. “I thought you had class.”
“The professor was sick.”
His chest burned. He knew his face must be practically purple with embarrassment, and he couldn’t turn to meet the interloper’s eyes. Bending over to retrieve his pants would give her more of a show, but not as much as turning around now that Avery had pulled away. He managed to twitch his fingers in her hair and point down.
“I guess this is Cameron,” the girl said as Avery nudged the waistband of his pants into his hand. “From what I can see, it sure looks like him.”
Hayden
Why is it always on us?
Marshall
Why is what?
Hayden
Everything. Every stupid little thing.
I execute a play as designed, but when my WR doesn’t run fast enough, I’m the guy who overthrew it.
I’m the punter who gave us lousy field position and the kicker who missed the extra point and the edge rusher who hasn’t had a sack all season. All me, boys.
Cory
My dad says his best boss was a former Marine who made it clear he would take any and all heat directed at his team. That’s how they’re trained.
That’s not easy, Hayden. It takes a mindset, and you’ll get there.
Marshall
I don’t know how Army and Navy can’t field a decent football team, but their leadership sure isn’t the problem.
Cameron
Maybe their boys aren’t chunky enough to come at us.
Marshall
Down with fitness exams! Your coach isn’t pushing the heat on you, is he, Hammy?
Hayden
No. He sounds like all the speeches. We, we, we.
Cameron
So who’s talking trash?
Hayden
Students. Alumni. Anyone looking at the news saying I’m not the guy because I can’t win every game with a team that lost a quarter of its starters at the last minute this summer.
Cory
I know our fan bases have century-old beef, but in all honesty, and without any bias, in my entirely objective opinion, speaking as a friend, YOUR FANS ARE FERAL.
Marshall
Hammy, you can’t let the noise get to you. They don’t mean it personally. They just want to win.
In a really unhealthy and frankly scary way.
Hayden
They’re just reading what’s out there. I could lob a pass to myself and catch it in the end zone and not even make the highlights unless we won.
Cory
You need to stop reading the sports news. Blogs, social media, all of it. It’s unhealthy, win or lose. It doesn’t help any of us to be called hero or villain.
Hayden
How do you know how we all played every week if you don’t read anything?
Cory
Limited social media, sorry. I have an account I use only to follow official school accounts, because none of those will be doomsayers. No pundits or analysts, no fan sites.
I know we bash our P.R. sometimes, but they never bash us, even on our bad days.
Marshall
Dang. I should send them a card.
Cameron
Someone please give me my P.R. spin for this. Avery’s roommate is one of the OMG tHe QuaRteRbAck!1!! girls, and she walked in on us.
Cory
Time out.
Cameron
The girl has thoughts about how I look in football pants. And out of them. That’s all I’ll say.
Marshall
Private lives are different, if you keep them private.
Cameron
We were in Avery’s room.
Marshall
Then there’s no P.R. spin needed. On your own time, in a private space, you’re a normal guy. Roommate accidents happen.
Oh no.
Hammy. Is this about that thing on SportsEye?
Hayden
I thought we were talking about Cam getting some. Good job, Cam. Tell us all about it.
Marshall
Oh buddy, that’s why you don’t like what you hear this week.
Hayden
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Cameron
Paging @DaleGellar, you were waiting for this, Chipperoni.
Dale sent him the link two days before, and Cam’s temples pulsed with annoyance every time he thought about the unflattering photos and the damning article that accompanied them. If that was the comparison, he was obviously on the right side of things. Hayden had a right to a private life as much as he did, but the parallels diverged when that private life splashed on a college sports gossip site looked as self-indulgent as Hayden himself.
Dale
Is it true?
Hayden
Beats me. I’m taking Cory’s excellent advice and not reading anything on the internet anymore.
Cory
What’s on SportsEye?
Marshall
link>
Cameron
Avert your eyes. His shirt’s about three sizes too small.
Cory
Doggone it, Hayden. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?
Hayden
Thanks for telling Dad, you guys.
Dale
He’s the best one to give you the lecture. Marsh will get nasty, Cam will project his insecurities, Ethan’s at physical therapy, and I’m only here to stir up more drama. So unless someone can page Tom Brady for you, Cory is the lone straight-shooter.
Cameron
The picture isn’t great, and that shirt was a choice, but before you get lectured, is any of what they wrote true? The where and when and who?
Cory
Hayden?
Hayden
It’s somewhat true. Mostly true. She’s not my French tutor, she’s my Spanish tutor. I think the French thing was something they made up to go with the picture.
Dale
You look like you’re trying to eat her face. That’s not French kissing.
Cameron
That’s a French flag on the bottle, though. Vous avez bon go?t en matière de cognac, connard.
Hayden
Look, it was 1 a.m. Yes, we were at a club, at a table with bottle service, and yes, I’m underage. And yes, it was the night before a game that we lost.
And NO, the loss was not my fault.
Let me have it.
Marshall
I’m going to bet your tutors are paid by the athletic department, so you probably just got that girl fired. They’ll say she’s a bad influence on their poor boy.
Cory
You want to play professionally, don’t you?
Hayden
Of course I do.
Cory
Do you remember that rockstar kid from Texas who won a Heisman, then got cut because he missed a game while he was partying in Vegas?
Hayden
That’s not even remotely like this.
Cory
It starts like this.
Every guy who’s ever been in this group had to fight like hell to win his job. We had to fight to even get in line to do this. I know you did.
Everybody remembers Johnny. Choices like his will cost you everything you worked for.
This game has a long memory. Don’t make them think of him when they think of you. That’s all.
Dale
For a moral lecture, that was a little anticlimactic. I expected Bible-thumping.
Marshall
I liked it. Short, but vaguely menacing.
Cameron
Doesn’t need to be long to pack a punch.
Hammy, we’re waiting.
Hayden
You guys suck. I can’t even say it.
Cameron
It was a joke.