Fair Catch

by Kandi Steiner

“What about you? Going to tell Novo you love her by the end of the season or what?”

Her hums died altogether, and it was as if she was standing completely still in the shower, the water making the same sound repeatedly instead of a chaotic rhythm like it did when she was washing herself. I frowned, wondering if maybe she’d heard me or something when suddenly… A moan. It was soft, delicate, almost like a gasp more than anything, but it struck me like a rod of lightning, my spine going stiff.

The water pattern started to change, and there was a soft thunk before I heard her hiss, a little whimper sneaking out next. Fucking hell… She’s touching herself.

And then, my hand traveled down, diving under the band of my shorts and my briefs at the same time to grab my aching cock.

it was so fucking sexy to hear her untamed.

I was in a relationship with football. I didn’t need a boyfriend.

more so confused by her being on a fucking dating app. And maybe a little bothered by it, too.

Yeah, sure, that’s why you’re mad. Because she might get hurt. Not because you can’t stomach the thought of someone touching her.

“If I win, you start treating me like an actual fucking teammate instead of a girl who doesn’t deserve to be here.” She paused. “And you have to do a dare on your Instagram Live. Whatever me and the rest of the team come up with.” That made some of the guys chuckle and nudge each other, giddy with the possibilities. Kyle made a face. “And if I win?” Riley shrugged. “I’ll have sex with you.”

“I can’t wait to find out if your pussy is as tight as the rest of that little bod,” he murmured under his breath, eyes roaming down the length of me.

“And I can’t wait for all of Instagram to see your baby pencil dick.”

It was a brawl. Kyle held the ball victoriously, claiming he’d won, while Holden, Leo, and Clay threatened him within an inch of his life and called him out for a dirty pass interference. “I barely touched her!” “You shoved her so hard she hit the ground, you fucking douche,” Clay argued, snatching the ball out of Kyle’s hands. “She’s not wearing pads. You could have really hurt her.” It was then that I realized I was warm and cradled, and my eyelids fluttered as I looked up at who was holding me. Zeke.

“I told you I had it,” I teased when he released me. His hands stayed on my hips, though — palms warm where they wrapped fully around me. He just shook his head. “If you didn’t, I would have gone to jail tonight.”

I was proud of her — though on the night of the competition it was more rage than pride scorching through my chest. I’d never come so close to murdering someone in my entire life than when I saw Kyle shove Riley to the ground. The image haunted me for a few nights after, how she went sideways, her body angling in an unnatural way until it slammed against the turf. I saw her hair splayed out around her, her body limp and lifeless as I sprinted toward her with the commotion of all the other players dulled in the background. I’d never felt my heart beat like that before, never felt that… possessive.

“You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for.

But then I glanced up and found Zeke’s eyes blazing a trail from my collarbone down to my hip bone. All humor had left him, his eyes hooded as they slowly skated across my skin. It was the same look he’d given me on the field when Kyle had knocked me to the ground, when I’d come to and found myself cradled in his arms. He swallowed, the muscle in his jaw popping with the motion. And then his eyes snapped to mine.

The breath he loosened was deep and long, his eyes burning a path from my ankles all the way up to the gap between my thighs. He wet his lips, running a hand over his face that muffled whatever slipped from his mouth next. When his eyes met mine, he swallowed. And then he whispered my name. That’s all it was, a slight, husky, “Riley,” that sent another wave of goosebumps parading over my skin. I shivered, eyelids fluttering at the sound, at how it felt to have him watch me like that.

Like he thought I was beautiful. Like he couldn’t tear his gaze away. Like he wanted to touch me.

“It would drive me mad, too,” he said, arms swinging in time at his sides. “Living with her, pretending like she’s just your teammate.” “She is just my teammate.” “Right. But that’s not all you want.”

“I think, even through the hate… there’s a part of me that feels comfortable to her.” “Like home,” Clay finished for me. I nodded, throat tight,

“When did you realize you wanted her?” I released a long breath from my chest. “Honestly? I think I’ve always known. Somewhere deep down, maybe ever since we were freshmen in high school. I could tell she had a crush on me, too. But then everything happened, and this wedge was driven between us, and I couldn’t even think about anything past my promise to her brother.”

“That I’d prote...

“Man, if you don’t see the way that girl looks at you, the way she reacts when you so much as breathe in her vicinity, let alone touch her?” He shook his head. “Then you’ve got bigger problems.”

And then, Chance Hughes kissed me. It was… nice, that kiss. He cradled my neck still, free hand wrapping around my waist and pulling me into him as he groaned and deepened the pressure against my lips. My eyes were still open, but his were closed, so I closed mine, too, and tried to mimic his noise, to moan like I was really into the kiss, too. Fake it until you make it, right?

Second hand embarrassment

It slammed against the wall, and I broke the kiss with Chance, looking over his shoulder to find Zeke towering in my doorway. “What the—” I didn’t have time to get the next word out before Chance was ripped off me — literally ripped off me by the collar of his shirt from behind. It choked him, and he coughed against it as Zeke flung him into the wall, nearly causing one of my paintings to fall in the process.

“Get your hands off her,” he warned.

But he wasn’t looking at me. And when Chance’s grip on my waist tightened, Zeke gritted his teeth. Then, he flew across the room. I barely broke contact with Chance before Zeke pushed him into our front door, his back hitting it so hard that it shook the whole dorm. Zeke towered over him, and any fight Chance had in him faded in an instant.

I shook my head, roaring as I stormed toward him. “What the hell is wrong with—” But before I could finish the sentence, Zeke rushed me in equal measure, closing the distance between us. Shock washed over me like an earthquake, sudden and unexpected, and the words died on my lips as I watched him descend on me. His heavy footsteps echoed in the chambers of my heart. His hot breath silenced any attempt of me telling him to stop. His hands slipped into my hair, tugging tight and tilting my chin up. And then his mouth claimed mine in a kiss of thunder that beckoned the storm inside me to rage.

His lips were warm but firm, demanding as they captured my own and stole any hope of my next breath. Time stopped, teetering on the edge of an abyss as every nerve in my body went up in a blusterous cloud of flames. I melted into him on a whimpering sigh, and he swallowed it up, his fingertips curling in my hair, thumbs gripping my jaw tight enough to bruise as he kissed me harder.

I waited for the words to come to me, for the reasons why I should be angry with him to fly off my tongue. I waited and waited for awareness to hit, for me to remember why I hated him, to remember why the last thing I should want was for him to kiss me like that again. But nothing came.

Without rhyme or reason or a single prayer that I could stop myself, I closed the space between us with three long strides, launching myself into his arms. And he caught me with another kiss that stole any argument left hanging on.

Gripping my throat as he kissed me harder, like he didn’t know if he wanted to choke me or worship me.

“I wanted to kill him,” he seethed, his next breath rippling over his taut chest, his ribs, the mountains and valleys of muscles lining his abdomen. He kissed me again, hand wrapping around my throat and tilting my jaw up until I whimpered into his mouth. “I wanted to fucking murder him, Riley.”

“Why?” I breathed. He shook his head, his forehead against mine as he licked his lips. “Because I am scarred by the fire you started in me. Because you have reduced me to fucking ashes.”

“Because I ache for you,” he breathed against my lips next. “And I’ll end anyone who touches what’s mine.”

“I’m not yours,” I managed on a breath as he kissed his way across my shoulders. He laughed — not in a humorous way, but in a dark, terrifying manner that made me shiver as he stripped my sports bra off me next.

“That so?” he murmured in my ear, tongue skating over the lobe before everything trailed down.

“So… you want me to stop?”

“You want me to stop touching you?”

“You want me to stop… tasting you?”

“You want me to leave?” he husked, and he peeled my panties off slowly, taking his time as he guided the fabric over my ass, down my thighs, to my knees before he let them drop to join my shorts.

“Tell me,” he challenged, and just the sound of his voice, of his breath in the shell of my ear had me shivering and panting and arching so I could feel him against me once more. “Tell me you hate me, Riley.”

“I hate you,” I whispered, but still, I ground my ass against him, biting my lip when he held back a groan of his own at the feel of me against his hard-on. “You do?” he teased, sucking my earlobe between his teeth as his hand slid down the length of me, and I whimpered when that hand slipped between my legs, his warm finger gliding along my wet, throbbing center.

“I do,” I answered, glancing over my shoulder to meet his gaze. His eyes were focused on my lips as I said, “But I don’t want you to stop touching me.”

He slid another finger inside to join the first, and my sharp inhale at the sensation was cut short when his other hand came up to wrap around my throat. My eyes flew open, heart pounding not because I felt like I was in any sort of danger… but because I loved it. I loved the way he choked me, the slight pressure he put on my next breath, and the way a smile curled on his lips when he realized it.

Stars. I saw stars, bright and electric as I all but fell into him from the overwhelming pleasure that little movement elicited. He grinned against my neck, catching me before he released his hold on me everywhere, spinning me in his arms. “Mmm,” he mused, kissing me softly as he guided me back to my bed. “So that’s the spot.”

“Let me see you,” he demanded,

Then, he spanked the side of my ass. I lurched back up, frowning and ready to curse him out when his tongue dragged across me again and I lost the will to do anything but sigh. “Watch,” was all he commanded, and then he went to work.

This was a man touching me like my body was his, like he had a map detailing every sensitive spot that would make me come undone.

It was only a minute, maybe not even a full sixty seconds, but it was too long to be separated from Riley as I dashed to my room to get a condom.