Chapter 44
Connor
“Thank you for talking with me, sir. I’ll send over the details tonight.”
I hung up, standing there in a moment’s peace while my phone went dark.
I just took a big step. One I knew was the right path.
But I didn’t have time to celebrate yet.
I’d just finished a gym session with the team and needed to get back in there to cool down.
Traveling always left me a little extra stiff, and I needed to work it out. My plans would have to wait.
The lads were clustered near the bikes, stretching out hamstrings and calves, voices overlapping in that familiar post-set haze.
“So that’s it, then,” Ramirez said, leaning back against the wall. “Season’s cooked.”
Jake snorted. “We tried our best, you know.”
“We still have games left,” Nate grumbled. “You don’t stop playing until Cap says so.”
I grabbed my water bottle and joined them. “Nate’s right. We finish it properly,” I said. “Playoffs or not.”
“We owe it to the fans,” Bobby said. “And ourselves.”
It might not have been the season we all wanted, but the fact that we got it at all is a small miracle. This year had tested all of us, but my team was stronger for it.
I wondered how long that would still be true once they realized this could be the last season I’d be standing in front of them as their captain.
***
“Teddy, wait up,” I called out, pushing through the door to the hallway after her.
She stopped and turned, her braids swinging over her shoulders as she faced me. There was still a sharpness to her expression, but I swear her eyes lit up when they found mine. “You’re back.”
“I am. Are you busy right now?”
She exhaled through her nose, a tired sound. “I was going to go home and eat my feelings with ice cream.”
My brow dipped. “Wait, why are you eating your feelings?”
“I heard from my dad. He’s coming in tomorrow.” Her mouth twisted after she spoke, as though she wanted to swallow the words back down.
The instinct to hold her hand and comfort her was almost unbearable, but aside from Micah and Bobby knowing, the rest of the team didn’t know yet. “Is he okay?”
She nodded, but it was automatic. “He’s fine. I think.”
Silence settled between us, thick but not uncomfortable.
I didn’t want to smother her or make things worse; it was hard knowing the right thing to say.
Then she hooked her little finger into mine, somehow reading my mind about wanting to touch her, and I found myself blurting, “I have ice cream at my place.”
Her lips twisted as she considered my offer. “What kind?”
“Salted caramel.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Is it a coincidence that you just happen to have my favorite flavor sitting in your freezer?”
“It just so happens to be mine too.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said flatly. Our fingers were still linked, and it wasn’t lost on me that anyone could see. God, I’d missed her. My mind was a burst of sunshine—fitting, really.
“Truth,” I said, holding up a hand like I was swearing an oath. “I swear it.”
Her attention didn’t waver from me. There was something about having her attention out in the open that made my chest inflate, as well as her hand linked to mine.
I had to rein my thoughts in, because left unchecked, they’d take me straight to kissing her in these halls, pressed up against walls I’d walked past a hundred times, though that could be me getting ahead of myself here.
Her mouth curved into a genuine smile, one meant only for me. The sight of it sent a rush through my veins that made standing still feel like an act of discipline. She was devastatingly beautiful.
A pulse of heat sparked to life between us, and I knew she felt it because she trapped her bottom lip between her teeth as she looked at me. Oh, how I wanted to free that lip and taste her.
“Come home with me, sunshine,” I whispered, with promises ladened in my voice.
When she released her lip, it was wet, and my imagination took a turn that my shorts barely concealed.
She swallowed, throat working, and for a second, I thought she might say no.
“You’re trouble,” she said quietly.
“Only offering ice cream,” I replied, as every nerve in my body stayed homed in on her. “You’re the one reading into it.” I winked, and color rose to her cheeks. “You shouldn’t smile at me like that.”
Her mouth curved again, small and reluctant, like she hated how easy I made it to pull her back in. She took a step closer, just enough that her shampoo engulfed me, clean and familiar, and my hands curled at my sides again, resisting the urge to touch. “How am I smiling at you, Connor?”
I didn’t look away when I said it. “Like that smile belongs to me.”
Those lush lips pushed together, quirking at one side. “That so?”
My hands were sweating with how badly I needed her in them. I clamped my jaw tightly as I got lost in those ocean eyes. “So, what do you say, sunshine?”
She nodded slow. “Okay, we can have ice cream.”
We both knew it wasn’t just going to be ice cream.
***
By the time she stepped into my place, there was an energy thrumming between us. It stemmed from my hand on her leg the entire car journey. Her tracing patterns on my skin, only giving me quick glances.
She exhaled heavily, turning to me. “I want to shut my brain off for a little while.”
Her hands ran up my chest around my shoulders as mine found her waist, guiding her closer to me. “I thought you wanted ice cream?”
“After.”
When her lips met mine, I turned to putty in her hands. She knew exactly how to kiss me. Hands in my hair, pushing her nails against my scalp as her tongue swiped over mine. She lightly nipped my bottom lip and dove straight back in to soothe me with more soft caresses.
We moved toward my bedroom, tangled together, never breaking contact.
Our clothes flew off until we were both almost naked.
Only then did I pull back to run my hands all over her body; her skin so supple and muscles curved from hard work and years of conditioning had made her the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
“I’m never getting enough of you,” I said, nuzzling into her neck.
Pulling at my boxers, she pushed them lower until my thickening cock sprang free and hit my stomach. She immediately sank to her knees, and my body jolted forward. Then my cock was suddenly surrounded by her wet, warm mouth.
“Oh shit.”
She expertly swirled her tongue around my piercing, and my hands flew into her hair, hips rocking in rhythm with her. I hissed when she pushed me to the back of her throat, gagging around me. It was a fucking beautiful sight.
She bobbed once, twice…
“Wait,” I breathed as I pulled her upright, stealing the shock from her mouth and kissing her, unhooking her bra, stripping her of her satin panties that I was fucking obsessed with, and tying them around her wrists as I laid her on the bed. “Don’t fucking move, sunshine.”
She didn’t, but we both knew she wasn’t restrained because she was powerless. She was letting me see her like this because she trusted me. That, coupled with the sight of her naked and writhing for me to soothe the need in her body, would be forever imprinted in my mind.
My tongue left a wet trail down her neck, across her collarbone, teeth biting into her shoulder as she curved her legs around me, her breathy moans a symphony.
I continued moving lower, kissing trails down her stomach, to her hips, then settling exactly where I wanted to be. I parted her and swiped my tongue across her clit, and her legs spread wider for me as she whimpered.
There wasn’t any rush as I moved slowly, flicking, sucking gently, not giving her enough, yet.
“Connor,” she pleaded. “Please, I need to come.”
I smiled against her skin, because I had all the time in the world—and she knew it. “Yeah? How bad?”
I licked her once, and her back bowed off the bed. “So bad, please.”
“I like that you’re so needy for me right now, you’re dripping onto my bed,” I whispered, pushing a finger inside her, feeling her walls clamp around me, her fists grabbing the sheets.
She cried out when I added another.
My tongue flicked against her swollen nub as I kept rhythm just the way she liked it.
When her legs started to shake, showing me how close she was, I pulled away and thrust inside her in one punishing movement, desperate to feel her hold on my cock.
Our groans meshed together, filling the room, stars bursting sharp and blinding behind my closed eyes.
“Connor,” she breathed, voice wrecked. Her eyes found mine, blown wide with desire, but there was something else there too. Something that stirred an awareness just out of reach.
Her nails lightly scraped my back, and I almost collapsed at the sensation overtaking my body.
“I’m going to go slow, because I want you to feel all of it. Every inch of me fucking you,” I said, without breaking our connection. “And you’re going to take it all.”
As promised, I didn’t rush. My hands touched every part of her, lips never leaving her skin as I moved deeper and deeper.
Her breath hitched with every inch I gave her, keening sounds spilling from her mouth like she couldn’t stop them anymore.
I stayed right there with her, forehead pressed to hers, letting the pace stretch until the tension felt almost unbearable, until the space between every movement became its own kind of ache.
“That’s it,” I murmured, voice rough, coaxing rather than commanding. “Stay with me.”
Her body answered before her mouth could, hips lifting instinctively, chasing the contact as if she couldn’t help herself.
I felt it everywhere—the way she held on, the way she trusted me not to rush, not to take more than she was ready to give.
My hands skimmed over her sides, her ribs, her shoulders, grounding us both.
Learning the lines of her like I hadn’t already memorized them, my thumbs traced slow paths around her hips that made her shiver beneath me. Every reaction felt amplified at this pace—the way her breath stuttered, the way her fingers dug in a little harder, holding me tighter.
I moved with her, letting the feeling stretch until the want turned heavy and heady, until it sat low in my gut and throbbed with every quiet sound she made. She tipped her head back, throat exposed, chest rising fast now, and I knew then that this was more.
“Look at me,” I said softly. “I need to see you.”
Her eyes fluttered open and locked onto mine, darkened and glassy, and that awareness I’d felt before sharpened into something undeniable. She wasn’t just chasing release. She was letting herself feel all of it, giving me control and being fully vulnerable with me.
I kissed her slow and deep, stealing her breath, giving it back in pieces, drawing the moment out until her whole body was trembling beneath me, wound tight and aching for more. There it was, building between us, that pressure, that inevitability.
Every breath she took was mine to feel, every quiet sound threading straight through me, pulling tighter and tighter.
Her forehead pressed into my shoulder, her mouth open against my skin as if she couldn’t decide whether to breathe or say my name.
When it finally tipped, it wasn’t explosive so much as consuming—like everything she’d been holding back gave way all at once.
She clung to me, body shaking, whispering my name into my skin, and I followed her over the edge, undone by the way she trusted me enough to fall apart right there in my arms.
I stayed there, breathing her in, holding her while the last of the tremors worked their way out of her body.
When she finally loosened against me, I padded over to the bathroom and came back to clean her with gentle movements.
She watched me the whole time, and that awareness from before lingered like a presence between us.
She smiled at me, and my heart responded. “Are you ready for ice cream now?”
“Please,” she replied.
I left the room, not caring that I was stark naked, grabbed the ice cream, and padded back to her as fast as I could.
We ate it with one spoon, feeding each other. Every now and then, she nudged my knee when I stole the bigger bite than what I gave her.
It was effortless being with her. I didn’t ever want it to end.
I studied her as she talked about meeting her dad tomorrow, telling me what she was worried about, sharing more about her life growing up along the Californian coast. I devoured every word, every gesture, and she couldn’t stop. I loved it.
Whatever I’d thought intimacy was, it had never asked me to stay present like this, to be seen this way. Being with her made everything else disappear, not because it mattered less, but because she mattered more. The idea of tomorrow no longer made sense unless she was part of it.
And I knew it right then, staring at this beautiful woman in my bed, I was willing to do anything to keep her.