Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
THANE
Ican’t think straight.
My head’s been a fucking mess all week since the night in the solarium.
And now my body is pumped with adrenaline after seeing one of my players put his unwanted limbs on Marlow.
Marlow may have stopped me from doing more damage but in my mind? I’ve roughed him up and successfully found a way to kick him off the team.
Hank was never a problem player for me, but now he’s on my shit list.
I’ll never be okay with a man touching a woman unconsented.
Fuck him.
Since I didn’t get to beat the bastard to a pulp, come Monday morning, I’m going to make his life hell.
Marlow wants me to drop my vendetta. Right before I usher her into the passenger side of my truck, she says, “Please, don’t do anything rash. It’s not worth it.”
She’s worried for my safety and job. I’m not. Which is why I grate, “You’re worth it,” before closing her door and rounding my truck to slip into the driver’s seat.
Now the tension in the air is thick as I drive down the dark street, laced with my anger and Marlow’s nervousness.
She’s been fiddling with her phone for the last two minutes, probably texting Michaela and Addie that she left.
She mentioned a moment ago that the girls weren’t ready to leave since they were having fun, so she was going to hail a taxi.
The thought of Marlow getting into a random car alone at this hour of the night makes me sick.
I blow out a breath and clench my fists around my steering wheel, barely stopping myself from glancing at Marlow.
I can’t believe she’s here. In my truck. Sitting inches away from me.
God, she looks amazing in that short pink number, her hair cascading down her back in loose waves.
Her floral and bubble gum scent fills the cab and every time she crosses and uncrosses her legs, I resist the urge to pull over, pull down her panties, and pull open her thighs to remind her what I can do between them.
I want to kiss her lips. I want to play with her pussy again. But this time? I want to put my mouth on her too, taste her arousal straight from the source. I’ve been losing my sanity these last few days imagining what eating her out would be like, along with finally fucking her.
After a singular taste of Marlow, I’m addicted. The toughest thing I’ve ever done was keep my distance from her all week. It gnawed at my bones. I wanted to knock on her bedroom door, fall down to my knees, apologize for agreeing to ‘Just one night,’ and beg her to give me more.
By some miracle, I held back from doing that.
I had to constantly remind myself that she was forbidden. I couldn’t have her the way I wanted to: for keeps.
I’d hoped that some distance would do me good but all it did was increase my longing and sexual frustration.
My mind is running on a broken loop of I want her, I want her, I want her.
I’m parched with thirst and my body aches with the need to fuck this tight little cheerleader and make good on all her kinks and fantasies.
“Thane.” God, the soft way she whispers my name has everything below my belt clenching. “You’ve been so quiet…What are you thinking?”
I almost let out a humorless laugh. Telling her that my mind is enacting all sorts of dirty fantasies isn’t a good idea. It would be the excuse we need to cross a line and goddammit, I’m already hanging by a thread.
Based on the way Marlow stares at me, bottom lip caught between her teeth, brown eyes running over my body in a way that claims she appreciates all my ink and muscles, she’s also hanging by a single thread too.
“Nothing, baby.”
“It’s not nothing. You’re angry and your knuckles are nearly white from how hard you’re gripping the steering wheel.”
“Why was Hank bothering you?”
Marlow chews her bottom lip and I glance away, jaw hard. I have to focus on the road, otherwise I risk us getting into an accident, and not on the fact that I’m dying to kiss her.
The highway is empty at this time of the night, but it’s getting harder to see as rain starts to pelt down, my wipers working fast.
If this continues, I may actually have to pull over.
“Marlow?” I urge again, when the only noise in my truck remains a slow, rock’n’roll song and not her melodious voice. “Tell me.”
She sighs like she lost a battle with herself.
“They were playing spin the bottle at the party, which is a lame game if you ask me, but I decided to participate under peer-pressure. The bottle eventually landed on Hank and me but I didn’t want to kiss him.
So I got up to leave. He must have been following me because after I said bye to Michaela and stepped out…
he was right behind me. Hank was mad that I rejected him and he… ”
“Was trying to take something that you didn’t want to give,” I finish for her, my voice flat and my heart feeling like a solid mass inside my chest. “I’m going to ruin him, Marlow. He’s going to wish he never laid a single finger on you.”
It’s quiet in the cab for a moment. The rain beats down harder. I can’t keep driving like this. We’re going to have to park somewhere and let the storm calm down.
Just as I take the next exit, Marlow finally speaks up.
“Why?” she challenges, tone tinged with defiance. “Why do you care that Hank touched me? I’m no one to you.”
You’re starting to feel like everything to me, Marlow.
“How can you ask me that?” I growl, shaking my head as I drive us to safer grounds.
“Fine.” She blows out a frustrated breath. “I’m your sister’s best friend and temporary tenant.”
I swallow roughly. “You’re more than that, baby, and you know it.”
Doesn’t she understand how difficult it was for me to stay away from her—for her own good? Didn’t she realize how altering that one encounter was for me? I felt like she rearranged my insides in a way where my entire heart was overtaken by her, scribbles of Marlow etched in every line.
The tension heightens in my truck as Marlow peers at me with so much softness and hope that fuck…I finally see it.
Hurt.
Over how I’ve ignored her. Over how I’ve probably let her believe that she means nothing to me.
“So why have you avoided me like the plague, Thane?”
I jerk my truck senselessly into the first vacant parking lot, my only thought on sheltering from the storm.
I realized my mistake three seconds later.
We’re in the parking lot of a dingy motel that looks like it hasn’t seen a single renovation since the 90s and is used specifically for hourly-rate activities.
Fuck.
Marlow realizes it at the same time, her glossy lips parting in surprise when she sees the half-lit neon sign with MOTEL written in capital. A blush smatters her cheeks, but she’s filled with renewed vigor. “Answer my question, Thane.”
God help me. I love her bratty side. It makes me want to put her across my lap and slap her tight ass to reddened perfection, before touching her pussy to see if being spanked gets her wet.
I plough my fingers through my hair frustratedly and tug at the roots, grateful for pain elsewhere than in my fucking heart. “Because we said just for tonight,” I rasp. “And I was trying to do the right thing by staying away when all I wanted…”
“When all you wanted?” she eggs on softly.
I turn to stare at her with resignation and so much need. “When all I wanted was to knock on your door and ask you for more,” I confess. “One time wasn’t enough, little cheerleader, and yet I’m already ruined by you. I want more. So much more.”
My admission rings in the air with the quality of a final nail being pounded into a coffin. It’s the greenlight we needed to cross several more lines.
Marlow inhales slowly and admits, “Me too, Thane. I want more. So much more.”
Something inside of me cracks—my resolve, no doubt. My breathing turns heavy and we watch each other with electrifyingly charged energy.
The rain beats faster against my truck until everything is a blur, everything but the beautiful woman sitting less than a foot away. The music shifts to something darker and sexier and our pulses rock to the same tempo.
This feels like the moment before the tipping point, right when all chaos breaks loose.
Without tearing her eyes away from me, Marlow unbuckles her seatbelt and twists her body to the side, her long lays splaying across the seat and her high-heeled feet coming to rest on my lap.
Instinctively, I clasp her ankle and dig my fingers into her skin like a predator trapping its prey.
“You’ve got two choices,” Marlow’s is low and seductive.
“We can stay here, just like this, and brave the storm.” Her slim hands dance from her upper-thighs to the hem of her too-short dress, gripping the fabric.
“Or we can do what we’ve both been wanting to since the moment I arrived on your doorstep. ”
There’s a ringing in my ears and my breaths rattle in my chest. The thread I’m hanging by is about to snap any second. “And what’s that?”
“Fuck each other like there’s no tomorrow, Thane.”
A strangled noise escapes me and my hold on her tightens.
Marlow eyes me with the same restraint I’m lacking, her delicate neck working with a swallow.
I’d like to collar her throat. Give it a few hickeys.
Rough up her barbie doll perfection until she looks thoroughly mine with all my markings.
“We’re in the parking lot of a motel. Whether you meant to bring us here or not, it doesn’t change the fact that we are.
So make a choice, Thane. But make the right one. Please.”
“If we do this, there’s no going back, baby,” I rasp.
Marlow watches me with ardor. Later down the line, I’m going to wonder how a perfect college co-ed like her could want a reclusive, loner coach like myself. But right now, I’m putting those insecurities on pause and forcing myself to be in the moment with her.
“No going back,” she vows.
And just like that, our decision is made.
I unbuckle my seatbelt and angle my body towards her, my hands massaging up her strong calves. The song playing in the background is raunchy and mirrors this exact moment in a cosmic manner.