Chapter 24 #2
Of course, there are layers of clothes between us, but this close? It wouldn’t be difficult to feel my growing bulge.
Backing my lower body off her and creating space, I try to cover for the whole incident.
“So that should be a better stance.” Damn it, am I blushing?
She keeps her face forward, but I’m pretty sure I hear a trace of playfulness in her voice. “Thanks, let me try it.”
While she rolls her ball, I will my dick to get over itself, and try to focus on what we’re doing here.
“Woohoo, two pins. Better than nothing,” she says after her ball makes contact at the end of the lane.
Not terrible for a rusty beginner. “Good job. I’m going to sit down for your second roll.”
She looks at me pointedly. “Do you need to?”
Is that question based on my previous predicament? “I think it’s for the best.”
She grins. Okay, yeah, she knows how she affected me.
I head to the bench in our section while she gutter-balls her second roll.
“Oh well,” she says as she comes back to the bench. “Guess I still needed your help.”
I’m a little surprised she sounds so unbothered by the poor play, new or not at bowling. Most top tier athletes are terrible at losing.
“It doesn’t annoy you when you get beaten at sports?”
She shakes her head. “Not really, at least for something like this. It’s just for fun.”
“Yeah, totally.” I appreciate that attitude, in truth.
“Thank you for teaching me though. I’ll probably get more competitive once I know what I’m doing.”
“So I should keep you ignorant?”
She huffs out a laugh. “Yeah, that’s your best strategy.”
She takes a seat right next to me on the bench, brushing her arm against mine, and suddenly I’m conscious of our proximity again.
All I can think about is her body flush against mine earlier, and I probably should keep my mouth shut, but instead I blurt out—
“I’m sorry about what…happened out there.” I gesture to my crotch, like an idiot.
She glances down at the zipper of my cargo shorts.
“You mean…?”
“I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
She looks up, and I earn an eyebrow raise. “I wasn’t uncomfortable.”
Oh.
“And I expect it might happen again.”
I half-chuckle. “Probably.”
“Hopefully.” She winks. “Maybe not at the bowling place anymore though, all right?”
I’m at a loss for words. The women I’ve been into previously have never been this direct with me. It always felt like I was chasing them while they played hard-to-get. Keeping me guessing, and not necessarily in a good way.
In contrast, I’m not hating this at all. I can feel my confidence growing in what’s happening between us.
And yeah, it may be based on a physical pull to each other more than anything, but I’m down.
Very down.
She doesn’t wait for me to answer. “Your turn again, right?”
“Yup, me.” I go and take my ball, and for the rest of the round, we keep the conversation PG rated, having fun giving each other grief.
She’s definitely not as good as me, but I’m hardly doing great either. I pull together a couple of spares, but otherwise only knock down eight or less pins total.
“I clearly need more practice,” I joke as I walk back to our bench, shaking my head at my last roll of the first round.
Instead of worrying about our skills though, she suggests other things once her turn is done.
“Chicken finger and selfie break?” she asks.
“Sounds good.”
We scoff down the food that Cindy dropped off, not exactly training-level cuisine, but neither of us raises that point. Probably out of hunger.
“Picture time?” I ask once all the chicken fingers are gone.
“Yeah, let’s make Taylor happy.” She reaches for her phone. “Come closer.”
She wraps her left arm around my shoulders and dangles her left hand in front of my chest.
“Smile,” she says. It’s our mantra at this point.
We both cheese it up for the camera and she drops her arm, swiping through the pics. “Yeah, there’s some good ones here.”
After another couple of minutes, we start a second game of bowling. Our play isn’t much better this time around. We go back and forth, mediocre throws by me, followed by even worse results for her.
“Yeah, this may be our last time bowling, I’m afraid,” she says. “I can see the attraction as a date activity, but I think we can do better.”
“Okay, final frame for this round,” I say as I stand up for my turn. “And then we can take off if you want.”
She weighs my words, and then her eyes shift, looking… mischievous?
“How about another wager?” she asks.
I’m bowling better than her, so I already like where this is headed.
“What kind?”
“If you roll a strike…”
“Yes?”
After glancing over at Caleb to make sure he’s not close enough to hear, she leans toward me and whispers six words I never expect. “You get to taste me. Tonight.”
I swallow as I collect my wits. I wasn’t sure how fast things would move, and I’m here for this clarity from Avery.
“Okay?” I choke out. “And if I don’t roll a strike?”
She lifts her lips slowly.
“Then I get to taste you.” Her eyes dip to my dick.
Holy shit.
“So I win either way?”
“We both do.”
You can say that again.
“Okay, not sure I’m going to be focusing well with this bet on the line. Plus you cheated, because unless a miracle happens, you’re winning.” I haven’t been close to rolling a strike all night.
“As I planned.” She smiles smugly. “Go give it your best, Rook.”
“Always do.”
I grab my ball and get in position in the lane. Turning my head back, Avery’s eyes catch mine, and she nods impatiently. Glad to know she’s eager to see how this turns out too.
I refocus on my lane and get myself in the flow of my normal roll. Pull my arm back, step forward, and let the ball drop—here goes nothing.
I immediately can tell I nailed the backspin. The ball leans out to the right gutter for the first third of the lane, but then I see it even out.
Come on, come on, come on.
The ball starts turning back, ever so slowly.
Come on, come on, come on.
And then it clips into the center of the lane, and hits the lead pin.
Come on, come on, come on.
The pings of pins falling fills the air and when the sounds stop…
All ten are down…
A strike.
“FUCK YES,” I say way too loud in a family environment, immediately covering my hand over my mouth and peering around.
Only a couple of people are paying attention to me, and Avery looks amused. I drop my hand and come to where she’s watching.
“I won.”
“You did.”
Jesus, I want to kiss that smirk right off her face. “Do you want to get out of here?”
“Let’s go.”