Chapter Twenty-Nine
America
After our shower, he picks me up and carries me to his bed. He’s back between my thighs before I can catch my breath. The man likes his pussy, but that’s all right, because I love the way his lips feel on my skin.
I love the way he looks at me while he eats me. The way he plays with the metal pierced through my nipple as he drives his tongue inside me again and again. The vibration of his deep growly voice as he calls me his dirty sweet girl.
Covered in sweat, I crash back to earth as he lays beside me. His palm splays across my belly. Everything about him that screams overprotective and possessive is also what makes me feel safe. And taken care of.
His eyelids flutter closed on those blues I love staring into so much. All the things my best friend didn’t love about him are the things that I can’t bear the idea of living without. But I bite my tongue on my feelings as always. Because my feelings have always been too much and definitely too soon.
“What are you thinking?” he murmurs.
“Nothing.” He knows I have feelings, but not the depths of them. And I am not ready to freak him out.
“You’re always thinking something.” His lips curve up.
I love his smile. It used to quietly light up my chest. Now that bliss is because of me and I am the glowworm of happiness. Crawling over him, I kiss his curved mouth. Slither down his body. “I’m thinking I want to blow you.”
“Hang on.” He shoves himself up on his elbows. “I don’t want to miss the view.”
Ass in the air, I settle between his thighs and bring my mouth level with his cock. His eyes widen when I grab the base of it and stick my tongue out to taste the pre cum shining on top. He groans when I wrap my lips around him.
Stroking the shaft, I lick and suck the satiny head.
“Fuck.” He groans as he thrusts into my mouth.
He tries to keep his thrusts shallow, but I want him undone. I massage his balls as I suck. Then move my fingers to the sensitive area between them and his ass.
“Holy… fucking… hell.” He grows harder if that’s possible. Pushes to the back of my throat. His fingers curl around the sheet. “Rica, God.”
I smile and hum around him. I like that I’m capable of testing his control. I move my fingers lower until they push against his asshole.
The strangled, incoherent noises that come out of him while he fucks my mouth have my thighs slick. I can’t get enough of him.
He pumps streamers of salty cum on my tongue, and I swallow them down while he watches me.
He groans. “That’s fucking sexy.”
I barely have time to grin and wipe the corners of my mouth before I’m flat on my back. He nudges my legs apart with his hand and then settles two fingers inside me.
He doesn’t pump them, just leaves them inside me so that I know he’s claiming my pussy as his. A fresh hit of arousal burns through me. I clench around him.
He growls and kisses my cheek. “If I wasn’t so deflated I would fuck you right now. I seriously don’t think you could turn me on any harder than you just did. As soon as I can, I’ll be inside you. I plan on staying here…” he flexes the two digits buried inside me, “…all night.”
All night… the last time we attempted that everything went to hell. He hadn’t been able to sleep, and then he’d asked me to lie to Everett. And I would be lying if I wasn’t a little nervous about finally sleeping over.
A phone’s muffled ring starts somewhere in the room. Actually, it’s mine and it’s in my bag which is under Gray’s jacket that I was wearing earlier.
He removes his hand from between my legs so that I can fetch it. It’s my parents. I swallow around the clog in my throat as I answer. “Hey.”
“What’s this about you withdrawing from school?” My father’s bewildered voice makes me want to curl up in a ball. “I got an email—”
“I’m sorry. I should have told you.” I perch on the edge of the mattress while I pick my words. My parents don’t need to know everything. They don’t need a blow-by-blow about why I reported my professor.
“Was this an impulsive decision, America?” He asks in that tone which tells me he doesn’t understand how I can be so responsible in some areas of my life and a complete trainwreck in others.
He loves me, but he doesn’t get me. He’s always taken his time to weigh all the information that goes into a decision. My quitting school no doubt seems like it’s come out of nowhere. Especially since I didn’t tell him myself like I should have. But I knew he’d be disappointed, and I didn’t want to have to lie to him about Alfie. Because that’s not the type of thing I could ever unload on my parents.
“I just couldn’t keep up with my studies and lectures after Indy got sick. I haven’t caught up. And I’ve been thinking that my time might be better spent elsewhere.”
Gray touches my back. His eyes ask if I need him.
I shake my head.
“You’re coming home then,” my dad says.
“I’m not sure.” I study the polish on my toes while Gray pulls on slate colored sweatpants and takes his phone out to the living area. He probably has a million calls of his own to return after that resignation email. Who knows who Everett’s talked to by now.
“It’s not a question, Sprite.”
I wish I was home so he could engulf me in a big bear hug, but I’m not ready to pack up my life and move back home. That will only concrete my failure. And I want to see where this thing with Gray goes. I can’t do that at my parents’. “I have the job at Beans for now while I work out my next move. I have this handled, Dad.”
He sighs. “You have enough to get by? You’re doing okay with your flatmate?”
“Yes, Dad. Everything is fine. I promise.”
“And the meds? Your mom wants to know if you’re still taking them.”
I hear her in the background. She’s much louder than my dad. “Of course.”
“We just want you to be happy.” My father’s voice is gruff with emotion. He’s not good at showing his feelings, so he always struggled with how big and loud mine can be.
“I am happy,” I admit as I watch Gray prowl back and forth past the bedroom door. “I think I could be really happy.”
We talk for a little while longer, then he hands the phone to my mom. I spend the next ten minutes having exactly the same conversation. Only she’s more emotional than my dad, and it takes more to convince her that I’m capable of staying abroad while I figure out my life.
When I disconnect with my parents, Gray’s still on the phone. “No problem. Make my resignation effective immediately. But, Harold, understand when I say the man is a prick. He doesn’t understand consent. What he did tonight was not fucking appropriate. Send Crew to sign him if he’s that important to you, but I’m telling you the agency will regret it.”
Spotting me watching him, he hangs up without saying goodbye.
Leaving his phone on the table, he picks me up and presses my back to the wall while he kisses me. One of his big hands wraps around my wrists and pins them above my head. “Mmm. I like the way you taste like me.”
I like the way he picks me up like I’m not a big girl. I like the way his tongue slides against mine. My heart beats for him.
“I ordered pizza,” he says. “I’d take you for kebabs, but your Turkish hitmen scare the shit out of me.”
“You’re scared of Emmad and Asaf?” I tease.
“No. I just really did not want to have to leave the hotel where I have you all to myself.” He kisses me again as he carries me to the sofa and sits with me straddling his lap. “You can hold the pie while I fill you like a cream pie.”
I choke on my laughter. But the idea of him filling me… His cock is hard again so I push down the soft elastic waist of his sweats until he juts out.
Wrapping my hand around it, I guide his cock to my entrance and sink down on it. His grip on me is gentle. He explores my mouth while we kiss then moves on to my breasts as I rise and fall over him again and again.
He wraps his lips around a nipple and uses his tongue to toy with my piercing. He leaves warm rosy circles to match the ones on my hips before moving to the other breast.
“Come for me, Rica.” He bites my nipple.
The sensation tugs at my core and makes me clench. That makes him groan and the vibration on my skin increases my tempo as I rock on him.
The orgasm is a lovely, achy thing. It’s a warmth that spreads through my belly to my toes.
“That’s my good girl.” He shifts his hips faster, driving up into me until he fills me.
I rest my head on his shoulder.
“I’m never going to get enough of you,” he tells me a scant moment before there is a knock on the door.
“Pizza.” I crack my neck, focusing on the door. Now that my need for an orgasm is temporarily sated and the promise and aroma of food is right outside I climb from his lap like a woman on a mission.
His cum drips down my thigh as I race into the bedroom for panties. I keep a spare pair in my purse these days. Grabbing his shirt I put it on and latch a couple of buttons.
The door to the suite shuts. My panties are flooded by the time I join him.
I drop into a seat while he flips open the lid of the pizza box.
Reaching over, I pry the closest piece away from the others. The cheese grows stringy and snaps as I lift it free. Resting my feet on the edge of his seat, I pick the bell pepper off and pop it in my mouth first. Then a mushroom. Then a piece of pepperoni.
“You always dissect your food, don’t you?” He smiles at me indulgently before taking a proper bite.
I shrug.
His sandy hair is ruffled. It makes him look relaxed. Sexy. “I always thought you did that to be cute.”
That’s not why, but hey… “You think it’s cute?”
“Well…” His lips curve. “Yeah.”
He thought I was being cute. “That’s practically the same as thinking I was cute.”
His cheeks turn pinkish. “Uh.”
“I’m teasing.” I grin at him.
He grins back, looking more carefree than he has in a long time.
He doesn’t look like a man who just set fire to his career for me. It’s so good to see him smile. Even if he must be stressing about his future. “I’m so sorry that I cost you your job.”
“You didn’t cost me my job. It wasn’t your fault. I was an idiot for making it such a big deal.”
“But it is a big deal.” I quit going to school months ago and I’m still worried and have no idea what I want to do now. His career was important to him. He was good, no, great at it.
“No. It isn’t.” He takes my hand and draws on my palm with his pointer finger while he works out what he wants to say. “I realized I was trying to hold onto a semblance of who I used to be before…well, before Indy pulled the rug out from under me.”
I remember the look on his face when he left the hospital the day Indy collapsed. The utter devastation when she said yes to marrying Theo. A shattered man walked out of that hospital room and out of our lives. I hated seeing him like that, but Indy was my priority then.
“After that everything else about me felt broken. The one thing that was salvageable was my career.” He chews something over as he stares at my palm. It makes him seem so serious. “Tonight it became abundantly clear that I don’t want to hold onto that person I was with her. I tried so hard to be exactly who I thought she needed that I missed the mark by a mile. When I’m with you I am a mess. I have no patience. And no control…”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” I like the way he takes control.
“Okay, then I act impulsively. You once asked me if I would ever be like that, and I told you that I never would. That only assholes act like that. That only people who don’t care about hurting other people act out their feelings like that.”
I squeeze his shoulder. “It doesn’t make you a bad person, Gray.”
“I know that now. I was hurting when I said that. But I also didn’t know what it felt like to want someone so damn much that it’s impossible to stay away. I told myself that I came looking for you because we were friends. Or that I needed to make amends for prior actions. But it was always because I couldn’t stay away. And when I couldn’t lie to myself anymore, I clung to the things that I have always been able to control.” He grabs my waist and plucks me from my seat, placing me on his lap. “I hurt you instead of admitting that the person I used to be wasn’t happy. I’m so sorry. I want to be the person that I am when I’m with you. But I can’t be him and continue to work for All-Star. Any company that still wants that prick is no company I want to represent.”
“So what are you going to do now?” I grab the other slice of pizza off his plate and hold the tip out for him to bite.
He chews on it thoughtfully. “I used to have this dream of starting my own agency.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I needed experience. And then it didn’t make sense to make that kind of gamble with the future all planned out.”
His future with Indy. “You should do it now.”
“There’s a lot of paperwork. I’ll need to register as an LLC. And figure out the commission. Sort out insurance. Lawyers. But I have money left from the sale of my condo that I can use to support the business until it turns a profit. And years of experience. Hell, I only went back to All-Star because that’s where I started.” His shoulders sink. “All my clients are signed to them.”
“That means they keep them all, right?” Which means I cost him everything. All of those relationships he’d built over the years. All gone. “Because of me.”
“It’s not your fault. And I’m not going to regret it.” He sucks a kiss into my shoulder. “There are other athletes out there who need an agent. There’s this kid in Portugal who plays basketball like he has wings on his feet. I was planning to approach him, see if I can get him to sign with All-Star.”
“You should sign him. Could you do that?”
“I’d have to make some calls, get on a flight as soon as possible, but I could technically sign him as a sole proprietor. EJ could probably have a contract prepared for me in a day or two.”
I finally have him to myself and he’s going to leave again. It isn’t fair. “When will you go?”
“Now that I’ve quit, they’ll send one of the other agents as soon as they can. I need to sign him before they do.” He holds me tighter with one arm while he scours flight apps on his phone. “I’ll book a ticket for the earliest flight tomorrow.”
“Oh.”
“Leaving you isn’t what I want to do.” He presses his lips to the side of my neck.
“You need to do this.” Encouraging the man I love to leave me so soon is not how I thought I would end my night. “How long will you be gone?”
“I don’t know,” he says when he finishes buying his one-way ticket. “There are a couple of other players I wanted to check out too. If I can get a couple of athletes to sign with me this trip I’ll have a real shot at starting my own agency. What do you think of the name Frontline Sports?”
“It’s not terrible.”
“It might need some finessing,” he says.
“I think it’s great. You know who you are and what you want to do.” I wrap my arms around his neck. “I wish I knew what I wanted to do.”
He makes it all seem so easy. And that certainty brings me something that feels a lot like stability.
“It’s okay to need time to find your passion.” He nibbles on my lip. “And you will find it, Rica. I have every confidence that you’ll find the place where your passions and your skills connect.”
“I’m pretty sure that place is in your bed.” I smile coyly.
“I would not complain if that was the case.” He chuckles as he stands with me in his arms. “But we both know you’re skilled in ways that the rest of us will never be capable of. Your ability to speak a bazillion languages… that’s incredible.”
He puts me down feet first on the bed, so that I tower over him. Places his hand between my thighs and strokes a finger along my panty covered slit. “You’ve leaked my cum all over your pretty panties.”
A fresh wave of arousal only adds to the dampness.
He smiles as he hooks his fingers around the waist and drags them down. I lift my feet one at a time so that he can remove my panties before we settle on the bed.
Pulling my back to his chest, his hard cock slides between my ass cheeks until it pushes at my entrance. “Would you let me sleep inside you, Rica? Can I stay all night?”
God. That’s hot. I push back on him until he’s seated deep inside me. “Yes.”
He’s hard as rock, but he doesn’t move. He snuggles his face into my hair. Tightens his arms around my waist. “You feel so good. I never want to leave.”
I want that too.
I wake up in the middle of the night to his cock twitching inside me. Every time it does, it sends a wave of sensation through me that makes me clench around him. Which makes him twitch more.
“Gray?” I’m so aroused that I can barely keep from pushing back on him, but his breathing is so even that he can’t possibly be awake.
His hips shift forward, pushing him deeper into me. Creating more twitches and clenches. I whimper. “Gray, are you awake?”
“Mmm.” He starts to rouse. Again he scrapes deeper inside me.
“Cavolo.” My eyes roll back in my head. My back arches. “You’re fucking me in your sleep.”
“Rica? Huh?” His voice is dirty with sleep, confused. “Oh.” The sleepy sound falls away. “Should I pull out?”
“Nooo.” I wrap my arms around his. “I want more.”
He moans in my ear as he thrusts into me. Languorous strokes become urgent, and he reaches between my legs to rub my clit until I come for him. His own climax is triggered by my orgasm, and we fuck our way through it until we’re both spent.
His lips graze my sweat dampened nape. “You should come with me.”
“Oh, I definitely did.”
“No.” He tugs me around until I’m facing him. “You should come with me to Portugal. And to wherever else in Europe that I need to go. It’ll give you time to work out what you want to do.”
“But my job. And my rent. I have responsibilities.” And yet the idea of traveling around Europe with Gray is very appealing.
“I’ll hire you as my assistant. I’ll pay your rent and expenses while we are abroad.” He tips my chin and kisses me. “I don’t want to be apart from you. Not now.”
I don’t want to be away from him either. I was already dreading it. And I could use the time to work out my next move now that I’m truly done with school.
“Okay.”