Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
Deacon
Claudia:
I need to talk to you.
Me:
I’m at your house Doc. Where are you?
Claudia:
It’s Paul’s, and no, I will meet you there.
Me:
I can come get you.
Claudia:
Stay.
When she walks in and looks around, she doesn’t have Savannah and looks a little, off.
“Is Savannah okay?”
“Yes, of course, why? Did you—”
She stops when I grab her shoulders and look down at her, “Breathe, Claudia.”
“I need to tell you some things, lots of fucking things,” My eyebrows jump at Claudia’s use of fuck, she rarely swears.
“Tell me all the fucking things.” She sighs loudly, her shoulders relax, and she looks up at me.
“I think Emma Shaw knows Dr. Dr. Rathburn.” My lips twitch because she doubled D’d Ratburn. “I should probably lead with I spoke to Mara.”
“Yeah? And how did that go?”
She palms my face, “You got hotter.”
“The sawdust makes me hotter?” I laugh and pull her hand away.
“A little yes, but the fact that you go to therapy, that is so sexy.”
“Sexier than the fact I’m a pro athlete that has given you multiple orgasms?”
“I can’t make it make sense, but yes.”
“Noted.” I kiss her nose. “Go on.” She looks at me like she’s lost.
“Rathburn and Shaw.” I remind her.
“Yes!” She says and steps back. “They’re Tri Gam and so is Mara, sorority sisters, and I think, well, we think the lecture Rathburn gave me was some bullshit about dating an athlete in her organization because a clue, or a threat, or—.”
“We give that information to Costello and Vale, let them build on all that, and I’m going to continue to remind you that you and Savannah are in the golden year, where she is not going to have to be away from you.
” I turn her around so she can see the tape on the floor, a mock layout, and rest my chin on her shoulder.
“You need to okay this layout. But before you do that, I have to remind you that your socials were stalked by Emma, who claimed to be KET.”
“She—”
“Let’s step back into the home zone, Dr. Holloway.”
“But before we do this, I want to say this so you can remind me, I want psych evals on both of them.”
“I’m down to do the same if they throw a fit.” I turn her around.
She smiles, “That’s hot.”
“Savannah at the arena?” I ask, the words tumbling out half as a joke, half a hope for privacy. She nods. Her face is a blend of hunger and relief, the dark circles under her eyes somehow making her even more incredible.
I lift her, and her legs hook around my hips, knuckles whitening in the fabric of my sweatshirt.
“Lock the door,” she whispers, and the way she says it is part dare, part need.
I move us to the door and press her back against the wood. Her hands go under my shirt and up my back; her nails are sharp, but she’s gentle enough that it only burns a little, and I like it.
I tilt my head, and she takes it as an invitation to bite my bottom lip—a hard, deliberate bite. And I groan as her tongue flicks the spot she just bruised.
“Little feral,” I say, still pressed up against her thigh.
“I need you to fuck me so hard I can’t walk straight tomorrow, okay?”
My hands slide under her thighs, and I lift her again; and now we’re both laughing, gasping, our teeth clicking together in the dark.
“I don’t have a condom,” I say, suddenly, because we are both too smart to pretend this isn’t important.
She grabs my face in both hands and angles it until I am staring dead into her eyes, pinned by that blue-green ocean I want to get lost in. “I have access to your medical records. You’re clean, and I’m protected.”
I’m not sure I heard it right, so I repeat, “No condom?”
“History says they aren’t a hundred percent effective anyway.”
I process this in the way I want to process everything that matters: with a groan and my mouth on hers.
She laughs into my mouth. “You’re going to ruin my lipstick, and I have to go back to work.”
I pull back, wipe it with my thumb, and then smear it a little more just to prove the point. “I like you messy,” I say, and then my hands are everywhere at once. “This dress is perfect for a wall fucking.”
Savannah is asleep on my chest, and Claudia ran into the other room to answer a video call.
I hear Noelle’s voice, “Okay. You ready?”
Then Claudia replies, “Oh my God, Noelle.”
“Shut up,” Nalani says, with a smile in her voice. “That’s it. That’s the dress.”
“You look like … like you’ve been holding out on us. Your tits are amazing.” Sofie says.
Noelle laughs, “So … I should buy it?”
All three say in unison, “Buy it!”
The call ends, and she walks back out smiling. “Perfect revenge dress.”
“Okay?” I laugh as she sits down and explains that Noelle has a wedding to attend and the situation.
Apparently, her best friend from college was with Dash for a couple of years, but not with him.
When he left to play D1 for Lincoln University with Koa, this ‘twat’ went after the nerdy tech guy that Noelle had a huge crush on and is now going to their wedding.
“Why?”
“We all wonder the same thing, but Noelle needs closure. To Sofie, it’s a revenge dress; to Noelle, it’s a breakup with the bride in a way she needs to dress.
Honestly, it’s better than Lauren deserves.
She has been historically awful to her through some very difficult times.
” She leans back and hugs herself. “It’s okay to do things others don’t agree with if that’s what we need. ”
“Like hiding out and playing house when—”
She pokes a toe into my leg, “Yes.”
“I’m down.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about our friend’s personal dealings,” she says, smiling down and then looks up at me, smirking.
“You have a secret,” I note.
“So many.” She sighs dramatically.
“Keep them.”
“Do you have secrets?”
“Secrets about me? No. Do I know things I keep to myself?” I sigh just like she had. “So many.”
I am face down and feasting on her pussy when her phone chimes on the nightstand.
She reaches for it, and I growl, “Don’t you dare.”
“It’s Nalani,” she pulls away. “I have to.”
“Are you being serious right now?” I ask, rolling to my back.
“Uh-huh,” she says, heading to the bathroom where I hear her answer, gasp, and say, “No way.”
I don’t mean to listen in, but I really want to know what is more important than my face between her legs, and Nalani is talking loud enough that I can hear her.
“Some model Dash was doing a commercial shoot, ran into her, trying to get the perfect selfie to blast on her socials. He saw it and took her to his dry cleaners; fingers crossed, it works out.”
“She looked absolutely stunning. I mean, she always does,” Claudia sounds like she’s personally hurt. “But this was the one time I’ve seen her light up like that. Like she actually saw herself the way everyone else does.”
“Koa took my phone away when I was looking up Laurens’ contact info to tell her it was a C-U-N-T, move to invite her to a wedding that she was marrying the guy Noelle, ‘her best friend’, had a crush on when she’s been nothing but a T-W-A-T to her since.
Claudia, the way she treated her after her Dad died. ”
“Criminal,” Claudia finishes for her.
When she finally comes out, she looks down at my very sad dick, “Well, that’s a situation I need to resolve.”
Slowly, she crawls onto the bed and starts trailing kisses down my chest, teasing each nipple with her tongue before continuing downward. She reaches my now semi-erect cock and takes it in her hand, giving it a firm stroke as it hardens under her touch.
She opens her mouth wide and envelops my now fully erect and much happier dick with her warm, wet lips and begins to bob up and down my length with an expert rhythm. I can hardly contain my moans of pleasure. Her tongue swirls around the head as she sucks gently but insistently.
Her eyes sparkle as they lock onto mine while she works me, the intensity of our connection growing stroke by stroke, lick after lick.
My hands find their way to the back of her head, threading through her hair as I desperately try to control my urge to thrust deeper into her throat.
But she doesn't seem to mind; instead, she matches my movements, allowing me to take control.
Until cum bursts out of me and she swallows every fucking drop.
We won on the road in Toronto and at home against Calgary and Ottawa. We won in St. Louis and tonight in Dallas. Away games are rough, but knowing she’s with her friends and that they have her back is some comfort.
I also know Hugo is making progress, since he contacted me and said that Miss Holloway would like to add me as a temporary guardian if something were to happen to her.
“Yeah, of course,” I answer with more emotion than I have the ability to hide.
“So, it’s you and Paul Bronksi.”
“So it is,” I laugh.
I immediately called her and said, “Thank you.”
“She adores you.”
“That’s good because I love her.”
“I know.” And there is silence. “Did you hear?”
“Maybe, but I thought we weren’t sharing secrets.” I chuckle.
“Let’s let them have the spotlight they deserve.”
Koa and Nalani left the Dallas game to fly to Maui to get married in a small wedding with family, but they plan to have a big reception on the Island in the Spring, after the season ends.
“How’s Noelle?” I ask, wanting to see if she’s seeing what I am.
“She’s good? Why?”
I laugh, “Just wondering how the three of you are managing without Nalani.”
“Why do I feel like you’re hiding something?”
The hotel room is quiet except for the hum of the heater and the faint thrum of traffic below. I have my own room. Dash and Koa are sharing the others, which works because Claudia and I replayed our first time together over the phone.
It’s even hotter now because I know how she feels and how she tastes, and it’s a damn good substitute for the real thing, yet never enough.
I hear Koa, “Noelle’s dress is fucked?”
Then Dash. “Didn’t mean to wake you, man. I’ll figure it out.”
Then silence for a long stretch, and then Koa. “I got one. Nalani screen recorded this.”
“Why do you have it?” Dash says in a less-than-enthusiastic tone. Followed by, “Whatever,” and him barking orders to someone on what I think is over the phone.
He wants a dress, shoes, a handbag, and said whatever it takes.
Then I hear Koa, “Shopping for your girlfriend?”
And Dash snarls, “She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Make sure you don’t put her in the position to think she is then,” Koa warns him.
I lay there with a stupid smile on my face, listening to them and trying not to laugh, and then Kilovac and Faulker enter the mix.
Aleks asks, “Holy shit. Are you dress shopping?”
Lenzin chirps in, “Sterling’s looking at gowns? What is this—prom?”
Koa butts in, “Not prom. Wedding. He’s finding the perfect dress for Noelle Pembrooke.”
Aleks lets out a low whistle. “The book girl? The one you overlooked in college?”
“I didn’t overlook her. She introduced me to her best friend,” Dash snaps.
“She did.” Koa chuckles
Aleks laughs. “Damn. Pembrooke in red? That’s … yeah. That’s dangerous.”
Lenzin starts giving him shit, “Better keep her close, Sterling, or the whole team’s gonna notice she’s wearing our color, try to put their number on her. You know how many guys dream about a girl who reads instead of scrolling all night for their next fix?”
Aleks continues delivering blows, “And one who’ll look like that in silk? Man, she’s out of your league.”
I lay there for a solid twenty minutes, listening to them before I get up and take a piss, then lean out and see them all shoulder-to-shoulder, in bed, talking dresses.
I take a picture and send it to Claudia, “These four need extra sessions.”
The score: Brooklyn 1 - Utah 0.