Hail Mary (Red Zone Rivals, #4)

by Kandi Steiner

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.

Mary was curvy and soft, with thighs and hips and breasts that called to me as if she were Aphrodite reincarnated.

“Hey, uh, Mary?” a new voice said, and I closed my eyes on an internal groan because I’d know that voice anywhere — even if it had aged and deepened from when it used to fill my headset years ago. “Where does this go?” I turned toward the hallway, the rest of the crew craning their necks to do the same. At the end of it near the top of the stairs stood Leo. He was leaning against the wall, one leg crossed over the other and a casual indifference in his stance.

One hand was in the pocket of his joggers, his arm relaxed, and yet his bicep bulged like he’d just finished working out. And in his other hand… Was my fucking dildo.

“We should game sometime,” I said. She froze, only for a second, but enough for me to notice before she grabbed a container of yogurt and slid it into the back of the fridge. “Kyle told me you have a PlayStation.” “I doubt we play any of the same games.” “I could teach you.”

Hes a cutie

“I’m too tired to deal with you,” she said, turning to climb the last few stairs. “Need someone to tuck you in?” “Goodnight,” she called when she dipped out of view, and I stood there at the bottom smiling even after I heard her door click closed.

And there all three of them were — Kyle making pancakes, Braden pulling plates from the cabinet, and Leo pouring coffee. Every single one of them without a goddamn shirt.

“You look like hell, by the way.” “And you look like a snack,” I shot back. “We haven’t given you a proper tour of the house yet, have we? We could do that now, start with my bedroom…”

I flushed when their eyes landed on my legs. Braden’s eyebrows shot up. Kyle crooked an appreciative smile. Leo, on the other hand, looked like he was two seconds away from committing homicide. His jaw was set, brows a hard line over his warm eyes as he took in the sight of me. He didn’t stare too long before his glare was on his roommates, and he smacked the back of Kyle’s head.

“Did you forget pants this morning?” I hiked up my shirt, which had his eyes flaring as he took in my black boy shorts. “I have pants on.” “Those are not pants,” he argued. An unattractive snort left me as I dropped my shirt back down. “Wow. You really are going for that daddy title, aren’t you?” “I’m pretty sure Kyle has a boner right now.” “That’s unfortunate.”

“It was a good night.” I peeked back up at Leo just in time to see him swallow hard. “Did you have a date or something?”

“Then you can stay in mine,” Leo quipped back, and he crossed the kitchen into my space with a salacious grin. “My bed is the best in the house.” “And you’d be where, on the couch?” He shrugged. “I guess — until you realize you want me in there with you.” He stepped even closer. “I’m a great big spoon.” His voice lowered a bit then, his eyes raking over me inch by inch.

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.”

I had to contain my smirk and the way I fucking loved when she called me daddy — even if it was a joke. I wondered what it would be like if it wasn’t, if I had her pinned beneath me and obeying my every command to get the relief she so desperately wanted.

I made a mental note of the scents she had picked up before falling into step with her as she thanked the vendor and stepped out of the booth.

Sweetie

“I was just being nice.” “Yeah, well, it’s weird and I don’t like it. So stop.” I chuckled, and then as the crowd started to thin where we were walking, I noticed she was on the side of the path closest to the street. I slowed my step until she passed a little in front of me before I came around the back of her and she had no choice but to scoot over closer to the tents and have me between her and the street, instead.

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 A rush of heat flooded through me, my stomach lifting on the wings of a thousand butterflies.

I couldn’t explain it, but I wanted so desperately to hold her and watch all that tension melt, feel her relax in my hold and rest her head against my chest and whisper thank you. I wanted to know what it would feel like to show her a little kindness, a little care, and her actually accept it.

“Fuck, hermosa, you’ve gotta be cold in that,” Leo said, as if he just noticed I was wearing a t-shirt.

He called her beautiful

“Woman,” he seethed, cutting me off, and then his hand shot out and grabbed me by the wrist. He shoved my hand through one of the arm holes before doing the same to my other, all while I struggled to break free without flailing so much that I pitched myself off the roof. When I wouldn’t sit still, he hastily yanked the thing over my head and then grabbed the neck hole and pulled me so close I could smell the sweet, heady notes of tequila on his breath when he said, “You can either wear this sweater or I’ll use it to tie you down and warm you up with my body heat, instead.”

Lol

“Nothing, it’s just…” I bit my lip, but it didn’t stop me from spilling what I know I would have kept locked up if I were sober. “When I was younger, I used to fantasize about a guy giving me his jacket.” Leo’s smile crept up. “Really? You?”

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.”

For a moment, I was fifteen again, floating on the cloud Leo Hernandez built just for me. I was living on angst and butterflies until his name lit up my screen, dreaming about his voice, smiling every morning when I saw a text from him waiting on my phone. “It looks good on you,” Leo said, his voice all a part of the foggy haze.

“Please, just move.” Leo let out a frustrated breath, but to my surprise, he did as I asked, sliding out of the way and even offering a hand to help me inside.

The memory of her in my letterman jacket soothed me like a balm, making a smile curl on my lips when the picture came to mind.

There he was, Holden Moore, jogging out for his first play as an NFL quarterback. “I’ll be fucking damned,” Clay said in soft admiration. I had to clear my throat to swallow down the emotion that overwhelmed me in that moment. I was so fucking proud of my friend, I felt like I could burst.

I caught her and my balance before we both tumbled back onto the bed, my hands finding her now-bare waist. I swallowed, running my knuckles down the smooth skin of her back on a groan I hoped she didn’t hear. “Uh, maybe I should go get Giana.” The words burned my throat as I said them. “Noooo,” she whined, letting her head fall back against my chest.

She struggled with the covers for a moment before she was buried underneath them, and I watched her thrash around for a minute until suddenly her bra went flying over my shoulder. Fuck. Me. Now, Mary was topless, in nothing but a lacy scrap of underwear, wrapped up in my sheets with her emerald, glazed eyes and lazy smile peeking over the covers.

“God, they smell so good. And your sweaters, too.” “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?” “Uh-huh.”

Cute

But seeing her in that dress tonight, watching the way she took me in, how her skin tinged pink… it had wired me up tight enough to combust. I had to have her. At the very least, I had to shoot my shot, to tell her that I wanted her and not back down.

But with Mary, I didn’t have the control to play the game any longer, to act unaffected by her. I was completely fucking feral.

“Look, what happens to me is none of your business.” “What if I want it to be?”

“I can’t fucking do this, Mary!” His breaths shook through the words. “I want you. I know you know it, too.” My heart shuddered to a stop. It was one thing to assume it, but to hear him say it… “I didn’t—” “Don’t lie,” he said, his voice calmer now, softer. He took another step toward me. “You know it. You can feel it. You want me, too, but for some reason you keep playing this fucking game.”

“I’m mad about you!” Leo gripped his hair again before his hands stretched out toward me. “Can’t you see that?”

“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.

I never wanted to let her go. I never would let her go. I’d already decided, my arms tightening around her, chest swelling with that possession that had built before I even knew who she was.

“I never would have hurt you on purpose,” I swore, and I prayed she felt it, that she believed me. “But I’m sorry I did. I’m sorry, Mary. I’m so, so fucking sorry.”

I pulled her into my chest, squeezing my eyes shut as the overpowering feeling of having found her settled over me. She was stiff in my arms at first, but then she melted, her hands fisting in my shirt. I squeezed her tighter, wanting so badly to kiss the crown of her head, but refraining only because I knew I had a long way to go to earn back her trust.

And when I took her hand in mine, the piece of me I’d been missing for years quietly snapped into place.

The coffee had hazelnut creamer in it. “I hope you like that flavor,” he said. “I remembered you mentioned that you missed the creamer your dad always had at home, but I couldn’t remember what it was.” “Toffee,” I said. “But this is wonderful. Thank you.” My heart squeezed at the thought of him waking up early and going to the store to get creamer for my coffee.

His body pressed against mine, his hold on me so comfortable and confident, like he’d done it a million times, like I belonged nowhere if not in his arms. I swallowed when he brushed my hair out of my eyes, tucking it behind one ear. “Is it okay that I call you that?” My heart skipped a beat before picking up double time. All I could do was nod, because all my awareness was zeroed in on where one of his hands held my waist, the other cradling my jaw.

Leo lifted his hand. He stretched it out, toward me, his eyes following the movement until his fingers found my t-shirt. He caught it right above my hips, and we both stopped breathing with that one singular touch. Then, he twisted his fist in the fabric and pulled me into him, catching me as we collided in a kiss that shattered time.

“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.”

I do love him

“Sweet, perfect fucking pussy,” he praised. “Wet and ready for me. I should just turn you around and fuck you against this wall right now. I’d slide inside you so easy, fill you to the fucking brim.” “Yes,” I said, the word a breath and a plea. Leo smiled against my lips, but then his hand withdrew, and I shuddered at the loss.

He held me sturdy with one arm wrapped around me, and it had pulled up my t-shirt just enough to expose the bottom half of my ass. Leo’s lips curled up again as he reared back and laid his palm against the exposed skin with a slap. “I’ve played by your rules all summer,” he growled. “Tonight — you play by mine.”

Then, he leaned back on his knees, grabbed my t-shirt in a fist again, and pulled me up until he could peel the fabric up and over my head. He tossed it somewhere behind him and then wrapped his hand around my neck, gently guiding me down until I was splayed naked in the sheets under him. He squeezed, just a little, enough to make my toes curl before he dragged his palm flat down my neck, sternum, stomach, and just the top of where I ached for him before he sat back on his heels again.

Hot. He's so hot

“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.” His words were like little prods of electricity, so filthy and yet so hot I couldn’t help but squirm with need beneath him.

His eyes snagged on my breasts, and he groaned, bending until he was leaning over me again. “These fucking tits,” he swore, balancing on one palm while the other cupped my right breast. “Tan perfecta.” He tested the weight of it, another growl of appreciation at how it wouldn’t all fit in his hand.

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.

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’d seen the outline of him through his sweatpants and shorts around the house. I knew he was packing, but I thought it was in the normal way, in the that’s a nice dick kind of way. I was not expecting a fucking anaconda under those pants.