TIME OUT
Lucas
MY CONTRACT WITH the Bears was now official.
As a first round drafted rookie, I received a four-year contract, with a fifth year option. My projected salary over those five years was somewhere around thirty million, including my signing bonus.
It was surreal.
Every time I thought about that much money, it blew my mind. I could still remember times when Nick and I didn’t even have thirty dollars.
The signing bonus was due to be deposited in my bank account first thing Monday morning. Although this wasn’t the first time in my life I didn’t have to worry about money, it was the first time I could spend money and not feel guilty about it.
When you grow up with nothing and then suddenly everything changes, your world turns a little upside down. After Nick started earning a decent salary, he gave me whatever I needed without hesitation.
The thing was, I wasn’t his responsibility and I hated taking from him, so I only took what I absolutely needed. Which wasn’t much. Only what I needed to play football.
Whatever I could do for him now, whatever I could buy him, it would never be enough to pay him back.
Light reflected on the water from the headlights of a car coming down the driveway. As I turned around to see if it was her, my bare toes sank into the sand. When the truck drove past me, I drew in a thick, soggy breath.
I was both nervous and excited to see her. I don’t think I ever felt this way before, and I wasn’t sure I cared for the feeling.
Lifting my face to the stars, I thought about how far I’d come, and took another deep breath.
Even as the eleventh hour approached, the night air still held the heavy humidity of the day, but I didn’t give a fuck how hot it was.
I was outside, and not playing ball.
And I needed this.
I drew in another breath. Blew it out. Let my toes sink even further into the sand as the water rippled around my ankles. Unfortunately, the cold river water wasn’t nearly enough to cool my heated body.
The sound and smell, the pull and push of the waves, it was so much like that of Lake Michigan, and yet so incredibly different.
Here at the inlet, the surroundings were much more quiet and peaceful. The scent that surrounded me was the same though, the feel of the water on my skin was the same, and the air identical. I loved being around the water.
Don’t get me wrong, I knew it wasn’t the warm waters of the Bahamas, or the rippling tides of the Gulf of Mexico, nor was it the blue depths of the Pacific, that was for sure. Still, it was a patch of water with a small sandy beach, which was far enough away from training camp that Gillian and I could be together without worry.
This small indentation of land in the shoreline led to what was more than likely a pond, but called a lagoon by the bed and breakfast owner. Five small cottages plus one large house surrounded this lagoon. The one all the way on the far side would be Gillian’s and mine for the weekend.
Tess had found this place online and taken care to reserve it for me, along with making sure it was stocked with what was needed.
That woman was the only one I had ever let in my life . . . until Gillian . . . and she spoiled me rotten. We’d forged a relationship over the past few years that I found invaluable. My sister-in-law had become someone for me to confide in, seek advice from, talk to, and discuss the few things I couldn’t talk about with my brother.
I found myself doing those very same things with Gillian more and more with each passing day.
Two more weeks was all we had left together. I wasn’t going to lie, it was going to be strange not seeing her every day. At the same time, I knew once the season started, I’d be busy with games and she’d be busy with school, and it wouldn’t be long for all to be forgotten.
Wasn’t that the way it worked?
I threw a stone into the water and watched how it skipped across the surface. I’d turned a few of the lights on in the cottage across the way, but now I wondered if I shouldn’t have lit the candles I’d seen scattered throughout the place.
Perhaps I’d go back.
The rumble of tires on gravel alerted me to the arrival of another vehicle. This time when I turned, I knew the candle lighting would have to wait.
Gillian was here.
Barefoot, I ran to the top of the grassy hill and waited near the edge of the circular driveway for the Uber to come to a stop. The main house was the first to come into view. The owners must have already been in bed because the house was dark.
Opening the car door, I extended my hand to first take her bag, and then settling the strap over my shoulder, I took her hand. “Hey, you made it,” I grinned.
Her eyes were wide as she glanced around. “What is this place? It looks amazing.”
After greeting the driver, I closed the door and then slipped an arm around her waist. “Don’t laugh, but it’s called the Blue Lagoon.”
She wrapped her arm around my waist, and together we started walking down the path that led to the cottage. “I’m not laughing. I love it. It’s . . . magical,” she sighed, her eyes darting around everywhere.
“Good, because we’re staying over there.” I pointed to the yellow cottage with the deck. All we could see from here was the back of it, but it was enough for Gillian to understand we would have privacy.
“It’s perfect. More than perfect. How did you ever find this place?” she asked.
My eyes were on her. On the thin white top she wore with something lacey covering her breasts beneath it. On the gray knee-length skirt she had on, which slit up the side to expose the soft skin of her thigh. On her.
She stopped for a moment and looked up at me.
I glanced down, mesmerized by her features in the moonlight. I licked my lips at the sight of her. “Can’t give away all of my secrets.”
She started to walk again, and as she took her first step, her fingers pinched my side. It was meant as a punishment for not answering her question, but it was anything but. I wanted to feel that again, but next time under the fabric of my shirt instead of over it, with her nails digging into me. “Seriously, when did you have time to do this?”
That magnetic pull between us was so strong and I felt it more than ever when I leaned in to whisper,” I already told you, I can’t give away all of my secrets. Besides, if I did that it would take all the fun out of seeing that brain of yours working in overdrive. And I’d hate to ruin my fun.”
“No, I wouldn’t want to do that to you, Lucas,” she said in a husky voice that sent shivers down my spine. That voice alone could seduce me in a matter of seconds.
And there it was. My name on her lips. It hit me deep, filling me with inexplicable satisfaction. Despite my euphoria, I still raised a brow at her. “Are you mocking me?”
Both her brows popped and her shoulders lifted. “I don’t know. You tell me.”
I narrowed my stare. “I think you are, and I also think it’s time you learned there are consequences for teasing. I hope you don’t mind a little midnight dip,” I taunted.
Just as I was about to scoop her up and toss her over my shoulder, she took off, running as fast as she could in her flip-flops.
I tore after her. She was fast though and because I wasn’t wearing shoes, I had to stay on the grass. I also had her bag on my shoulder, which wasn’t exactly light. She, on the other hand, veered onto the more direct path, which was covered in gravel. It looped around to the front of the cottage, and I lost sight of her.
There were two rocking chairs on the porch, and she was sitting in one rocking away when I circled the cottage from the back. “Took you long enough.” She smiled as I climbed the steps.
Dropping the bag near the door, I stalked over to her and put my hands on either side of the chair as I leaned in. “Paybacks are a bitch, Strawberry Fields, just remember that.”
She gave me a perfect, puppy-like look.
I shook my head and leaned even closer. “Not going to work, baby, you’re so going in.”
This time she bit her lip and let the tip of her pink tongue sneak out. “What if I make it up to you instead?”
The pulse at the base of my throat leapt in excitement. “Depends on what exactly it is you have in mind.”
She reached for the button of my jeans. “I could suck your dick. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“You on your knees in front of me. Hell, yes, I’d like that.”
Her eyes flared with heat. “How about you ask nice.”
“How about I don’t,” I growled.
She pulled her mouth to the side in contemplation, but her fingers remained still. “You could beg.”
I roared with laughter. “I don’t beg.”
“Okay, your choice,” she said and started to undo my pants.
With that settled, I scooped her out of the chair. She melted against me, wrapping her legs around my waist and burying her face in my neck as I carried her inside. I dimmed the lights, and it was strange, but everything around us was so quiet.
We were alone.
Really alone.
And it felt fucking good.
Slamming the door shut behind me with my bare foot, I set her down on her feet. But I wasn’t going to give her time to admire the surroundings. There would be time for that later.
Those green eyes of hers twinkled when she looked up at me.
I smirked at her and then whispered in her ear, “I want to fuck that smart mouth of yours so bad.”
Her lips parted on a huge sigh. “Is that all you want?”
The grin I wore was for a dozen different reasons. Her smart mouth, her wicked ways, the inexplicable urge that came over me whenever I was near her, and then there was the electrifying spark I felt every time she touched me.
Something this volatile, this consuming was going to be hard to extinguish. It was going to sting like hell, I thought. Or more than likely burn.
When she took me by my shirt and forcefully pushed me against the wall, I let all of that go.
Focusing on this moment, I was determined not to look past the present, which was pretty damn easy considering how turned on I was.
As soon as my back hit the paneling, I pulled her top up and over her head. I had to see what she was teasing me with beneath it. Before I could even focus on the skimpy lace, she was on her knees in front of me.
Holy fuck.
Without fumbling she yanked my zipper down to expose my straining cock, which had pushed out the front of my boxer briefs. I was in her fist before I even had a chance to make a sound.
Gillian used one knee to nudge my legs farther apart as she pulled my jeans down to my thighs. My boxer briefs, too. I was mostly naked for her in half a minute.
My cock pulsed against her palm as she skimmed her hand upward. She was barely brushing my head, but it was enough that my hips jerked forward in excitement. As soon as they did, she gripped my shaft, keeping me in place.
Oh, fuck.
I flattened my palms against the wall and held on. I had never been at a woman’s mercy like this. Sure, I’d been blown a million times, but never had I not been the one in control. And never had I wanted it as much as I did right now.
I looked down at her, my gaze darkening with an unbelievable amount of lust. When her eyes drifted up, I saw in them the same need and want. The same maddening desire. And in that single moment that our stares locked, she opened her mouth and let her hot breath seep over my hotter flesh.
It made me shiver.
With a smile on her face, she brushed my cock against her cheek, close, so close, and yet my tip was not quite close enough to be inside her mouth.
Lower.
Lower.
A little lower.
Not low enough.
Shit.
Teasing me, she breathed against my cock as her hand worked me.
I smoothed a hand down the side of her hair, staring down into her eyes awash with eagerness.
When she nipped at the skin of my thigh, I cried out. I wanted to reach down and push her head so her mouth was right there, right on my cock, but I didn’t.
I was giving her this.
Letting her control this.
She ran her tongue along the underside of my cock, stopping just before she reached the tip. Arousal splintered hard and fierce through my body until I could feel my dick swelling even bigger, threatening to burst if she didn’t hurry up. I closed my eyes and forced my head to drop back. “You drive me crazy,” I blurted out.
“I’m okay with that,” she said as she flicked out her tongue, circling my broad head and teasing the sensitive underside.
The long, tortured cry that escaped my throat when she did wasn’t a sound I’d ever made. Oh, fuck, she was using her teeth and my body was shaking in a way that I couldn’t stop. “Jesus,” I breathed. “I’ve never felt anything better than your mouth wrapped around my cock.”
And it was the truth.
She shivered and I knew it was because of what I’d said. Soon her hands were moving up and down, up and down, and then a little higher to graze my cock head—that’s when I couldn’t wait another minute and pumped my hips, needing to be in her mouth, needing to fuck her mouth.
“I’ve spent the day imagining you in so many ways,” I said in a strained voice. “Under me, on top of me. Me eating your sweet pussy while you suck my dick. You name it, I imagined it.”
She tore her mouth away from my cock. I opened my eyes and looked down. Her body had gone still. “I can’t believe you think about me that way,” she said, almost astonished.
“Gillian, I think about you in every way.” Perhaps it was an admission that shouldn’t have been said, but in the throes of passion, I couldn’t stop what was coming out of my mouth. I also wanted more of her mouth on me, so I thrust forward. “And right now all I can think about is how good your mouth feels around my dick.”
Nothing more was said because she was back at it. With quick flicks of her tongue, she slid it up my cock from my base to just below my head, and then up a little higher to let the wet, hot abyss of her mouth hover over my tip.
I looked down.
Again she had gone still.
I licked my lips.
Blinked.
Waited.
Waited some more.
Still, she did nothing, but then she smirked, and I got it.
Holy fuck, she wanted me to beg.
No way. No way. No way.
But I couldn’t take it.
So I begged. “Please, Gillian, please.”
At last she engulfed me, took me down the back of her throat. Tasted me. Sucked me. Devoured me.
That’s it.
Oh, fuck.
That’s it.
Greedy, she sucked me hard, concentrating on my head, while her hand, slick with her saliva, stroked up my shaft. Unable to control myself, I slid my fingers into the back of her hair and anchored her there. When I gave a little tug, she gasped.
This made her fuck me with her mouth faster, harder. She was all mouth and teeth and tongue.
Shards of pleasure spiked in my every nerve as I sank deeper into her mouth. I twitched at the back of her throat before sliding out, enjoying the rasp of her tongue over the sensitive underside of my dick with the withdrawal.
Pleasure coiled tight and hard, low in my belly and balls. I fucked her mouth harder, faster, and I groaned, or maybe roared, it was that loud. I couldn’t stop myself. I fucked her mouth with an urgency I’d never felt before.
My fingers twisted and tangled in her hair. “Gillian,” I groaned.
She smiled around my cock.
“Shit,” I said, “oh, shit, this feels so good . . . I’m going to come, Gillian, I’m going to come.”
She didn’t pull away.
I prepared myself to pull out of the blissful cavern that was her mouth, but she didn’t let me.
“Fuck. Yes.”
My thighs shook as my body started to surge toward an explosion. Muscles tensing and nerves rapid-fire releasing, getting ready to come.
And then it happened.
I groaned.
Wordless.
Desperate.
And I was coming. Coming. Coming so hard.
Gillian took everything I gave her, sucking until I was spent and softening in her mouth. Even then she wasn’t done. She placed small, tender kisses in the most sensitive places. And then her mouth was on my balls, licking, touching, driving me crazy and sending bolts of energy racing through me.
Never wanting this feeling to end, I watched her take everything I had, and I knew I had never felt like this before.
Not ever.
Moved in a way so unlike me, I tugged her to her feet so I could tell her something I never should have. But like always, I spoke before thinking. “Fuck, Gillian,” I muttered, “I think I could fall in love with you.”
She swallowed. Stared at me, but only long enough to gauge my sincerity. I got it. It was the barrier that we needed to keep up. “I feel the same way,” she finally said, quiet, as if someone might here. “But—”
I hushed her with my finger over her lips. “No buts, and no more talking about it, okay?”
She nodded knowing it was for the best.
My hair was damp with sweat, my body ablaze like it had never been before, and the fire in my eyes was the only thing she needed to see to know that what was said was a secret we had to keep.
I slumped back against the wall. What were we doing? How was this going to end? Not well, was all I knew.
She leaned closer and our bodies were touching.
That’s when I figured since I couldn’t go back and undo what had been said, the only thing I could do was move forward.
I swooped her into my arms and found her mouth. When I tasted myself on her lips, I smiled. “Just so we’re clear,” I started “that is the one and only time I will ever beg.”
Eyes half-lidded and super sexy, she looked at me. “Don’t count on it.”
And fuck, she was probably right.
If she kept looking at me like she was right now, I might be begging—a lot—this weekend.
And what the hell did it matter . . . time was running out.