Hail Mary (Red Zone Rivals, #4)

by Kandi Steiner

“Hey, Stig?” “Yeah?” “Draw me something.” “What do you want me to draw?” “Anything,” he answered quickly. “Show me a part of who you are.” “Why?” A pause. “Because I like you.” My eyes widened, heart hammering so loud I couldn’t hear myself when I responded with a weak, “Okay.” “Okay,” he said. And even though I couldn’t see him, I knew he was smiling.

If you looked closely, in our hands, there was a single Xbox controller — one we held together. But Leo didn’t look closely. In fact, he barely looked at all before he ripped the book away from his cackling friends and shoved it back into my chest. “Look, I don’t know what the hell this is supposed to be, but I don’t want it.” His eyes locked on mine. And what I saw reflected in them tore me to shreds. He knew. He knew it was me. It was written in every feature — the pity in his eyes, his furrowed brows, his rigid stance and heaving chest. And right then and there, I recognized the truth. He knew it was me, and he didn’t like what he saw.

I decided right then and there that nothing and no one would ever hurt me again. That evening, when Leo logged on and tried to request for me to play with him, I unfriended him. He called me immediately after, and when I didn’t answer, he sent a text that I didn’t even bother reading. I blocked him on everything. I unplugged my Xbox and made a plan to take it and all my games to GameStop and exchange it for a PlayStation, instead.

It was an abyss created by a girl years ago, an endless hole left in the very center of who I was after the one and only person I’d ever felt a genuine connection to in my life ghosted me. And I didn’t even know her name.

Mary joined her roommate here at The Snake Pit for parties, and every time she walked through our front door, I ached with the need to touch her. I couldn’t help it. Esa gata se vé riquísima. The girl was fine.

I used to think I loved him. But that was before I hated him.

“I’m glad you took Leo up on his offer,” Giana said after a moment. “I would have forced you to sleep on mine and Clay’s couch otherwise.” I wrinkled my nose. “Yeah, no, thanks. I don’t want to know the smutty book scenes that couch has been used to reenact.”

“Where are you off to?” I asked. “I’m sorry, are you my daddy now?” “In every single one of my dreams.”

I was leaving a piece of me, of my art, on someone else. It was her first tattoo, but she handled it like a champ, and she was encouraging me the entire time rather than me having to do much comforting her. In the end, she cried not from pain, but from how much she loved the little piece on her forearm, and I saw the way Nero crooked a smile at me when the girl wrapped me in another fierce hug. I’d done it.

My ass rubbed against his hip as I passed, careful not to spill my coffee, and that became even more of a chore as Leo sucked in a groan under his breath.

“I’m going to shower,” I announced, reaching my hands up to the sky before twisting my body left and right to crack my back. Leo, who had been quiet most of the morning, stared at where my shirt rode up over my panties as I did. When I dropped my hands and the shirt fell back into place, his eyes found mine, and I smiled. “As long as it’s okay with you, Daddy.” Kyle and Braden exchanged looks, and Leo grinned. “I’ll allow it, since you’ve been such a good girl.”

As I rinsed my mug and set it in the top rack of the dishwasher, I heard Kyle say, “Maybe we should call her daddy.”

I inhaled, eyes fluttering shut on the enticing mixture of coffee, bourbon, and sandalwood. Then, my eyes shot open, and I blinked before turning to find a candle burning on top of my dresser. A candle I didn’t light. Or purchase. I stared at it for a moment like it was a figment of my imagination before crossing my room. I lifted it, careful not to grab it where it was too hot or tilt it so the wax would put out the flames. And when I read the label, when I recognized where it was from, I sat it back down in a numb sort of awareness. Did he… Did he buy this candle for me? I blinked again, and this time, I saw a brown paper bag behind the candle. I reached inside and found three more just like it — all scents that I’d been looking at when Leo found me at the market. There was also a small, folded note. To cover the stench — though I doubt it will work. Love, Leo

Why did his forearms turn me on so much? I wanted to pull one of those arms into my lap and draw all over it, wanted to tattoo it, to mark him permanently with my art.

“You can either wear this sweater or I’ll use it to tie you down and warm you up with my body heat, instead.”

I turned just in time for him to open a huge jacket and wrap it around me from behind. Not just a jacket. His letterman. I froze when the weighted fabric cloaked me, my heart pounding in my ears. “What are you doing?” I thought I heard myself ask. I glanced up at Leo, who only shrugged and tucked the jacket tighter around me. “Making dreams come true.”

It was a sight I wasn’t used to, Mary all carefree and silly like that. She was red-faced from laughing so hard, hair a wave of gold where it fanned over her shoulders, and fuck if she wasn’t an absolute knock out in a brown velvet dress that was so short, I was absolutely positive she’d show her ass if she bent over in it. Its thin straps hung loose on her shoulders, and I let my eyes rove all her exposed skin, appreciating how she could wear the simplest dress or shirt and shorts and still turn heads because of the ink and piercings that covered her from head to toe. That, and the fact that she should have to wear a sign that said dangerous curves to warn the poor suckers who walked into walls daily from gawking at her.

Her smile fell, which felt like a sucker punch right to the gut. I wasn’t a source of her joy, I was a thief of it.

Mary nodded, and then snapped her mask into place and waved us off with a breath of a laugh. It was almost magic, how she hid her hurt so easily, like she had been doing it all her life and it was as second nature as breathing.

“Well, actually,” I said, stepping forward. “We were thinking you should stay.” Mary frowned. “Stay? But you just said—” “In my room.” Once again there was a long beat of silence, and then Riley barked out a laugh. “Yeah, okay. Nice try, Leo.” Giana leaned into her side like she wanted to whisper, but we still all heard her when she said, “Oh, my God. This is one of my favorite tropes. Two people who hate each other, one bed…”

“You’re sure it’s okay?” That was all the confirmation my roommates needed to celebrate a victory. Before I could answer, Braden jumped up and leapt into the air with a holler while Kyle picked Mary up like she weighed nothing, tossing her over his shoulder and spinning around while she laughed and cursed at him to let her go. She covered her ass with her hands but it was a poor attempt, considering how much of that blessed ass she had, and I had just enough decency left in me to look away and down at the floor as I hid my own victorious smile.

“You’ve been wearing my sweaters?” She shot a hand out from under the covers with her index finger pointed up. “Technically, you gave me one to wear first, so it’s in the rules that it’s okay to wear them whenever I want to now.” “Is it now?”

For a moment, we just stood there, eyes locked on one another while I held that stupid tube of eyeliner in my hand. There was a fuzzy memory in the back of my brain, one of him being in this room two weeks ago when I was drunk and half-asleep midway through Holden’s preseason game. I couldn’t remember what was said, but my body viscerally reacted to the memory, like it would always remember even if my brain never did. Shaking it off, I cleared my throat and pointed toward his closet. “Of course, go ahead.”

“Bah,” Giana said, waving me off in a huff. “Whatever it was, it’s strong enough that it’s had you in a grip all this time. And maybe Leo, too.” “I’ve never seen him date anyone seriously,” Riley added. I snorted. “Yeah, but that’s because it’s Leo. He’d rather bang anything with tits and legs than be locked down.” “You sure about that?” Riley asked, and the three of us fell silent, considering. After a moment, Giana clasped her hands together under her chin with her lashes fanning over her big eyes. “God, this is like—” “Do not start listing off your smutty book tropes,” I warned her. She pressed her lips together, face turning red like she would burst if she couldn’t get them out.

“You…” he croaked, and then shook his head, deftly blinking before his eyes found mine. “Stig?” The nickname was just above a whisper when it left him, but it felt like a knife to my chest. I swallowed. I nodded. And then I let out a gasp of a sob as he charged me and swept me into his arms.

“Come home with me,” I said, searching her glossy eyes. “I know I have a lot to prove to you, a lot of pain to heal, a lot to explain.” I swallowed. “Let me start tonight.” Mary rolled her lips together, eyes flicking between mine. Mercifully, she nodded. And when I took her hand in mine, the piece of me I’d been missing for years quietly snapped into place.

“I wish I could crawl inside your mind right now,” he said softly. I let out a breath of a laugh. “It’s not a pretty place.”

“I know you’ve been worried about your style, but I can tell you confidently that you have nothing to worry about. Because this tattoo is sick. It’s bad ass. Fucking incredible. Maravilloso,” I said as her eyes teared up a bit. “And I love it.” A victorious smile found her then. “Really?” “Really. But I hope you realize what you’ve done, because now I want you to mark every last inch of my skin.”

“Tattoos are addicting.” But as she cleaned my piece and covered it with a second skin, giving me all the aftercare instructions, I watched her with the truth vibrating through my chest. It was her who was the addiction.

“You have consumed me for months,” Leo breathed against my neck, maneuvering my head so he could kiss along the column of my throat before working his way back to my mouth. “Por años.” A bruising kiss punctuated that anguished confession before he pressed his forehead to mine, our breaths hot and frantic between us. “I couldn’t sleep one more night without making you mine.”

“Open these legs wide for me, baby.” He pushed and pushed until my hips hit their maximum, until I was completely at his disposal. “Let me see my girl.”

“Leo,” I begged, squirming. “Fuck, I love it when you say my name like that.” He rewarded me with a brief suck of my clit that made my legs quake around him. “When I let you come, that’s all I want to hear.” “You don’t own me,” I said, trying to scoff even as I writhed beneath him. “Oh, but I do, cariño,” he said, and his eyes stayed locked on mine as he swept his tongue up the length of me. “And you own me, too.”

As expert as his tongue was where he worked me, that wasn’t what drove me to the edge. It was looking down at his head buried between my legs, watching the fervor with which he delivered each pleasurable lash of his tongue. He ate my pussy like it was a goddamn privilege, and it was that vision that made me peak.

I sat upright with wide eyes, my jaw damn near hitting the floor. Because straining against the black fabric of his briefs was a thick, massive length that I was almost certain my pussy could not handle.

I was not expecting a fucking anaconda under those pants. His cock twitched a little under my stare, and my pussy fluttered as if the bitch could actually take that beast.

“See?! I haven’t read more than a page since I finished that Elsie Silver cowboy romance two weeks ago.” She pouted. “I’m ruined.”

“I don’t think my story will be as light as yours.” “So, let me sit in the darkness with you.”