We were silent on the way home, the little guy asleep in his booster.
"Shall I take Sammy in for you?" he asked, once he'd cut the engine and the headlights highlighting the drive had faded. With the motor silenced the car had filled with an electric atmosphere. It tingled through my body, willing me to edge myself closer to him. I was sure he could feel it, a deep connection that flowed between us.
I coughed to clear my throat and my mind of the need to kiss him. “That would be great, thanks."
He scooped Sammy out of the car with minimal effort, holding him against his broad chest and I followed them down the path, my heart thrumming with every step I took, to the door which I opened with my key and shaking fingers.
I waited in the kitchen as he took Sammy up to his room.
I loved the Lion.
I stared at my kitchen counter as if thinking it within the confines of my mundane kitchen would make the sentiment less real, but it didn’t. I could visualise the Lion tucking Sammy into bed and it made me love him more, enough for my heart to palpitate and threaten to jump out of my chest.
I placed my hands on the counter and breathed in and out. Get a grip.
"Tea?" I asked when he came back. His gaze was hooded and it made my blood heat. Taking a firm step towards me his fingers rose and slid along my cheek. My throat dried and I swallowed to try to get some moisture going so I could talk. "Why did you take me to meet your dad?"
The fingers didn't stop trailing the path along my cheek, to my neck and then skimming along my collarbone in the lightest of feathery touches that made my skin scorch. "Because I can't do words, not very well, but I wanted you to understand at least part of my reasons for why I made the choices I did today."
"I think you can do words." Seriously this is what I said...Apparently, I couldn't do words.
He chuckled and his nose skimmed along mine. I breathed in, dragging that smell of fresh air that clung to him deep into my lungs. "Lyssi, until I'm too old to hold a bat in my gnarled hands I will always play. Because that's what she wanted. It's why she sent me out to the rec every day with a bat and ball because she wanted me to give my dad what he couldn't achieve himself."
"Because of his arthritis?"
He shook his head. "No, because of me." He gave a brief shrug. "Money was tight, so my dad had to work more hours and got to play less. He never lost his love for it though. I guess he just loved us more."
A hard lump formed in my throat. "Like Anthony."
He nodded. It was a slow movement and his expression softened. His voice when he spoke was achingly low, churning my insides to mush. "Yes."
I didn't have anything else to say, because in my soul, in the deep recesses of my very being, I knew I would make the same choice as Anthony, and Jonathan's dad. It was Sammy that taught me that, and the Lion himself that had shown me that my heart wasn't built to only love cricket.
I smiled; a sad little curve of my lips. "Jonathan," his name was the barest murmur. "I can't do this with you. I think I'm working out what I need in my life, and it's very different to what you want in yours."
His speckled blues held mine. "You don't know what I want."
I nodded. "Yes, I do."
His lips brushed against mine, and I caught my breath. "Lyssi," he breathed my name like it was a prayer, but I knew the only god he prayed to was that of cricket.
Resistance would have been futile, so I allowed myself to melt into his arms as they gathered tightly around my waist. The kiss changed, deepened, lengthened, darkened, as his tongue probed into my mouth and danced against mine. A burning tingle settled in the pit of my stomach, making me spread my legs. His hand slid along my waist, soothing over my ribs and gently rubbing along a breast that responded with a hardened nipple as I groaned and shifted closer against him. With strong hands he lifted me and I wrapped my legs around his waist, his mouth never breaking contact with mine as his tongue ducked and dived between my teeth. His breath was warm, filling my mouth with the sweetness of him and the hint of sugary tea.
He didn't head to the guest room. He went for mine. The whole way I thought of a million reasons why I should stop him, but just like letting go of balloons at the park, I allowed them to escape.
He placed me with a tenderness I wouldn't have expected on to the bed, lowering his body and covering mine as he pulled me into a deep kiss. The skin beneath his clothes burned through to mine, and I wanted our clothes off. I want all barriers to be removed, just once. I yanked at the hem of his T-shirt and breaking contact with my mouth he pulled it over his head before capturing me up tight to his chest. "Too many clothes,” he mumbled into my mouth, and in a deft move, he dragged my shirt off my body. I think some buttons didn't survive. I didn't care.
Skin on skin, it was blistering. My hands trailed his smooth shoulders as he inched my bra down and sucked a nipple into his mouth, sucking on it with an intensity that caused my body to arch off the bed, lifting me closer to his touch.
My fingers strayed for his belt, the metal clasp dug into the flesh between my legs, and I knew if I shifted against it I would get some release, but then I also knew that if I undid the belt, I would get what I wanted more than anything. Releasing the leather, I slid my fingers into the tight waistband of his jeans, and shifted my hand along his length. He groaned, his lips trailed to my throat, peppering kisses and nibbling with gentle teeth, making me want to combust. "Lyssi," he grunted as I slid my hand up and down with more grip and faster movements, but I ignored him and wiggled out from under his body.
"Lie down," I instructed with more determination than I was expecting my shaking voice to make. A small twitch lifted his lips, but he complied with my demand, and as soon as he was flat on his back, I unbuttoned his fly and lowered his jeans down over his hips. When I'd dragged them off his ankles, my actions like a woman deranged, I released his dick from his jocks. It rebounded with a bounce. I caught it in my hand and tightened my grip along the base as I worked the flesh before leaning forward and lifting the tip into my mouth, my tongue grazing around the smooth head. He groaned, deeper, more guttural and his hips rotated towards my touch. Pulling my mouth away, I pumped him harder and harder before replacing my lips and taking him fully into my mouth, swallowing him down deep. "Shit," the word spluttered from him in astonishment, and I knew he was close to losing it. I wanted him too. Grabbing my shoulder, he heaved me away, and I watched as his stomach lifted with his laboured breath. "That's not how this works." He pushed me onto the bed grabbing at my jeans and flicking the button open before sliding them from my legs, his hands smoothing down my skin, his thumbs massaging my calves as they worked their way towards my thighs. I thrashed onto the bed covers as his hands teased around my heat. I was aching for him. Just one last time, if I could have him one last time then I could take whatever came next.
"Please," I begged him, straining my face towards his to try to kiss his mouth.
"I haven't done anything yet."
"I don't care." I grabbed his hips trying to guide his dick towards my legs as I spread them in preparation. "I just want to feel you."
Grasping my thigh, he ran his tip along my sensitive folds, brushing my clit, before pushing himself deep inside me, his shoulders shuddering. It felt like nothing else. He was the perfect fit as he filled me until there was no space left between us and then pushed further still until I wondered if I would explode. I shifted my hips, rocking them under him and he picked up my rhythm as I tried to push him deeper and deeper. With deep slow thrusts, he teased me, harder and slower until I was whimpering into his shoulder with the need for him to move quicker, to get me there. But he didn't, he just maintained the steady movements until I was a bumbling wreck. When I'd been suspended on the verge of coming for more time than I thought possible, he reared away and then slammed back into me, grinding faster and faster until his movements were driven by his own pleasure. Clinging onto the shreds of my resolve I tried to wait for him but the dark, deep, lick was too much. As I called his name, he watched me, absorbing my orgasm as I focused internally, riding it out, and then he shouted, his hips moving faster and faster until with one final pump he spilt inside me.
Lowering a sweat covered body flat onto mine, he groaned into my shoulder. 'Shit, Lyssi."
"As good as holding the Ashes cup in your hand?"
He planted a kiss on my collarbone, and it made me shudder. "Yes."
I knew that would be the greatest praise I would ever hear.
Rolling out from under him I snuggled into his chest. I knew this would be the last time I would do this. The Lion and I would never be more than this moment. I could have felt sad, but inside me I had a bubble of excitement that flourished when I considered the prospects I had in front of me, prospects that I had only discovered since he walked into my life and changed everything about it.
His fingers stroked my face, lingering by my eyebrow as I sank into a satisfied slumber. "How did you get that scar, Lyssi?"
I tried not to stiffen at the question as it dragged me back from sleep. "I got hit by a ball when I was sixteen."
His fingers continued their path until finally, he said, "I thought so."
He didn't stay. It wouldn't have been appropriate with my nephew sleeping down the hall. We'd laid and cuddled, words not needed between us, and then he'd gotten up and pulled on his clothes. I'd drunk in the sight of the Lancashire Lion naked for the last time.
"Thank you for coming to meet my dad," he said as we walked down the stairs.
"You're welcome," I'd replied but what I'd wanted to say was thank you to him, thank you for letting me into that private place he was so protective of, even if it was just for a couple of hours. I understood him so much better now.
"We are going to win aren't we, Rivers?" His nose skimmed my cheek as he turned to say goodbye. "This will be worth it?"
I flashed him a grin. "It's cricket. It's always worth it."
For the last time, the Lion pulled me in and kissed me until I wanted to never breathe again and then he pulled away and walked to his car.
I closed the door and then cried because in truth I knew that cricket would never mean that much to me ever again.