Fair Catch

by Kandi Steiner

She was still spread out on her bed, cheeks a lovely shade of just-climaxed red and hair an absolute disaster as she watched me with sated eyes. I licked my bottom lip, hand jetting out to stop her knees from closing. “Ah-ah,” was all I said, and she bit her lip against a smile, letting those knees fall open again.

I groaned at the sight, rolling the condom over my shaft as I appreciated that swollen, slick pussy I knew would be the death of me. I’d felt how it tightened around my fingers when she came, heard Riley’s moans of pleasure when I wasn’t even inside her yet. I was done for, and I knew it. But I fell willingly to my demise.

“Come here,” I whispered, reaching for her. She let me take her hands and guide her up off the bed until I took her place, my back against the headboard, and I helped her into my lap.

“You’re in control,” I told her, kissing her long and deep as I waited.

Riley swallowed, nodding as she pressed her forehead to mine. Her eyes dipped between us as she lowered down just a centimeter. Fucking Christ.

It was a slow, beautiful torture as she rose and descended, her legs shaking as she took just a little bit more each time. Every breath was like a shallow sip of smoke, and when she finally sat all the way down, taking me deep, her nails biting into my flesh — I let out the deepest, most guttural groan of my life. “Fuck, Riley,” I breathed, squeezing her hips hard enough to bruise. “Are you okay?” She nodded,

“I think I kind of love when you hate me,” I teased, arching a brow. Riley laughed, leaning forward and kissing me hard. “Shut up and do that again,” she breathed, already starting to ride me. And by some wicked magic, I began to harden inside her even though I was already spent.

“Nice game, Mighty Mouse.”

“Yeah, you did alright. For a kick returner.”

“Just alright? I had two returns for more than forty yards each.” “Yeah,” I said, stepping into him as I lowered my voice. “But… you didn’t score.” A wicked gleam found his eyes. “Yet.”

Clay stood close, barely touching the spot between my shoulders from time to time just to let me know he was there. And in the middle of all my teammates, I realized I felt… safe. Taken care of.

I hadn’t realized it, not until that very moment, how much anger and stress and pressure I’d been holding onto. Not even like I’d been drowning under the weight of it, but like I’d been clinging to it as if it were the lifeline keeping me afloat. It was like I had to be angry, to be focused, to have my guard up every second of every day — otherwise, I’d go under. But tonight, I felt as if I were floating on the surface, the waves cradling me and taking me with the current. And I wasn’t scared. I was liberated.

“It’s kind of fun, you know.”

“What’s that?” I managed,

Until Zeke whispered, “Exhibitionism.”

“It’s a sort of… rush,” he continued, his lips moving against my neck, voice a breath of heat in my ear. “Knowing you’re surrounded by people, that at any moment they could see you, catch you…” His fingers dipped below the band of my jeans, barely a centimeter, but enough to make my next breath lodge in my throat as he whispered, “Watch you.”

“Do you trust me?” he whispered next, pressing a featherlight kiss to the back of my neck. I swallowed, turning a bit in his arms so I could find his eyes in the darkness. No. That was what I should have said. It was what I felt down to the very core just days ago. Or was it? I’d loathed him. Or had I? I searched my innermost soul for that hatred I had for him, for all the reasons this was wrong. But everything was so far from my mind — Gavin, football, the accident… My singular focus lived where Zeke’s hand slipped into mine, and he silently guided me through the crowd.

He paused his kissing, lips hovering against mine as he unfastened the button of my jeans, slowly unzipping them while I tried not to pass out. “Breathe,” he commanded against the shell of my ear, but he traced his tongue along that same space next, and I let out a moan without any prayer of being able to stop it.

“Let go,” he commanded. And I did.

“You’re going to make me come if you don’t stop,” he hissed, but he still flexed into my hand, like as much as he knew he couldn’t get off here, he didn’t want to stop trying. No condom, no place to safely release… Except… I caught his mouth in a heavy kiss, stroking him in long, smooth strokes that made him tremble and pant. “Riley,” he warned, but before he could pull away, I dropped to my knees.

Almost a week had passed in the most exhilarating blur since I threw sense to the wind and gave in to what I felt for Riley. I couldn’t stop myself that day when I barged through her door and ripped that fucking creep off her. I couldn’t find reason in my one-track brain.

All I could think about was how she was mine, whether she knew it or not.

One moment I was inside her, savoring every touch and breath and kiss like I’d never have it again. The next, I was pretending to be normal with her around the team, trying to tease her without looking too long, without letting my touch linger. Then, I was mad with jealousy, watching my teammates flirt with her just like they always had. It was normal before, something I managed to stomach. But now that I’d had her? It was like they were dancing in front of a ravenous bear with fresh salmon strapped to every piece of their body.

And just when it was too much, when I felt inches away from ripping one of my teammates to shreds or saying something I’d regret, Riley would calm a storm she didn’t even know was raging. All it took was a look, a bashful smile, a gentle touch as she passed me, and the clouds would clear, along with my head. I’d be okay again. Until I wasn’t.

My appetite was shot unless I was with her, and I didn’t sleep until I heard her fast asleep in my bed or hers — wherever we ended up that night.

“I don’t want anything more, either, okay? I promise. I’m completely fine with what we’re doing.” Her confession slammed into my chest like a hot sword, and I nearly stumbled back from the force of it. “But… I want you, Zeke,” she whispered, stepping into me. “And I know you want me, too.”

“Right?” she asked when I didn’t respond. I swallowed. “Don’t act like you need me to answer that.” She smirked, trailing her fingernails down my arm. “So… why should we stop then?” Stop. She thought I wanted to stop.

His sweats, then mine. His briefs, then my panties. And then I wore only his hands as they pulled me into him, guiding us back down, my legs straddling him on the couch.

“I do forgive you,” I whispered, and that stilled him, too — his hands holding my waist steady as he pulled back to look me in the eyes. “I forgive you. I believe you.” I rolled against him again, making his eyelids flutter. “And I trust you.” He swallowed. “Riley…” “I want to feel it, even if it’s just once,” I said, those words a kiss and a plea against his lips. “I want to know what it’s like to have you inside me with nothing between us.”

“We both know this won’t last forever.” I swallowed, fighting back the emotion that truth lurched to life inside me as Zeke frowned like the words killed him, too. “So just… let me feel you right now.”

“You feel…” He helped me move, another short, hot breath expelling from his lips. “Fucking incredible, Riley.”

“Speaking of art…” I teased, arching a brow at him as I turned to face him again. He smirked. “Happy birthday.”

“There are no words for how crucial those kicks were, and how crucial Novo is to this team,” I said, somehow managing to tear my eyes off Riley and meet the stare of the reporter. “We wouldn’t have made it this far without her.”

“And you two went to high school together, right? Childhood friends? What does it mean to play on the same team together?” I swallowed down another lurch of my heart. “It means everything,” I answered honestly.

“I can’t wait to see the AP rankings after this weekend.” I wanted to chime in, wanted to have something witty or smart or even stupid to say, but I could only smile back at her as I realized in that very moment something that I could no longer deny. I didn’t want casual. I never did. And I had to tell her — even if it meant losing it all.

“What’s wr—” I didn’t get the question out before Zeke’s mouth was on mine, his arms pulling me into the sheets, into him, a heavy, trembling sigh leaving him as we melted together. He was almost… shaking as his fingers tangled in my hair, as one of his legs slid between mine and he tightened his grip like he couldn’t get close enough. Everything about that kiss was new… different. I couldn’t name it, couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was, but I knew one thing for sure. He needed me.

There was so much pain in those eyes, so much worry etched in the brows above them. He traced every line of my face like it might be the last time he had the chance to, his fingertips playing idly in my hair splayed out on the pillows. “What is it?” I dared, reaching up to smooth my thumb over the line between his brows. Zeke inhaled at the touch, his eyes shutting before he angled his head to catch my palm with a kiss. When his eyes found mine again, I saw the fear intensify, his nose flaring before he finally spoke. “I want more.”

“I don’t want casual,” he continued. “I don’t want to pretend that I’m not yours in every way there is to belong to someone, that I don’t yearn for you to be mine in the same way. I don’t want to hide. I don’t want to keep having my heart fucking demolished at the thought of this all ending at any minute.”

“I want more, Riley. And I understand if you can’t give it to me, but I can’t…” He stopped, licking his lips with another shot of pain rolling through him, his brow furrowing against mine. “I can’t stay in this in-between anymore. So if you don’t feel the same, I understand. I can…” He swallowed again. “I can walk away now if that’s what you need. But if you want me, too… if even a small part of you feels like—” “I do.” The words were a breath, a longing, heartbreaking sigh that made Zeke lift his head so he could look me in the eyes. “You… do?”

Right now, Zeke wanted me, and I wanted him, and I didn’t want to think about anything that might stand in the way of us having each other simply for those two facts alone.

In my mind, nothing could stop us now. And I rode that high until reality came crashing in to show me just how wrong I was.

The stack on top was recognizable — the first page of Zeke’s economics essay, complete with his name and email at the top of it. But when Coach tilted it to the side to reveal my essay from last semester beneath it, I just shook my head.

“Professor Marks delivered these to me this morning,” Coach calmly explained. “He regretted to inform me that my star receiver, Zeke Collins, had plagiarized a teammate’s paper.” His eyes snapped to mine then. “Our kicker — Riley Novo.”

I never thought Zeke would do this. I never thought he would copy my paper, that he’d put both our spots on the team and our scholarships in jeopardy. I never thought he’d betray me.

He wasn’t who I thought he was.

I broke her trust. I betrayed her. And the truth of the matter was simple. I’d blown my second chance. I knew without asking that I wouldn’t get a third.

Every cell in my traitorous body lurched forward, begging me to go to him, to collapse into him, to feel his warmth wrap around me and his lips against my hair as he whispered everything will be okay.

Now, life was a blur in a completely different way, in the way it had been for nearly a year after the accident that paralyzed Gavin. It was a blur of guilt, of suffering, of wishing I was in a nightmare I could wake up from.

“I hate school. And I’m a terrible student. You’ve known this about me for years.” “You’re not a terrible student. You have a learning disorder,” Gavin argued. “There’s a difference.”

My sister has been in love with you since we were kids, you idiot,”