CHAPTER 7
“I haven’t heard you mention Cate for a while,” Jean said to Sinead at Sunday dinner. “You two haven’t had a falling out, have you?”
Kian stabbed at his steak with his fork. He couldn’t even have dinner with his family without hearing her name.
“Nah,” Sinead shrugged. “We’re cool. I’ve just been spending a lot of time with Jake, that’s all.”
“Well, just make sure that you don’t neglect your friends.”
“Mum,” Sinead pouted. “It’s totally fine. Cate’s got her own life as well, you know. I think she might be seeing someone.”
Kian’s head jerked up. “Oh?”
“Mm, she’s being really secretive about it but when we were out shopping yesterday, I think she bought a Valentine’s Day card.”
“Well, good for her,” Jean said.
Eamon kicked Kian under the table. “What?” he mouthed when Jean and Sinead weren’t looking.
“Outside,” Eamon mouthed back.
“Son, what are you doing?” Eamon asked. He quickly checked that he was out of sight of the kitchen before lighting up a cigarette.
Kian scuffed his trainer against the side of the house. He couldn’t look at his Dad. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing,” Eamon said angrily. “She bought you a Valentine’s Day card. The poor girl thinks you’re her boyfriend.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Kian snapped.
“You’re my son and I love you to bits but you’re not the right guy for Cate. You treat women like shite. I know you’re going to tell me that you’re always honest with them about your lack of intentions and true, some of them seem fine with it. I know you’ve stayed friends with a couple of them but Cate’s not like them. She’s a good, sweet girl. If you get involved with her, you’ll break her heart.”
Kian wanted to defend himself, to say that he wasn’t that bad but he couldn’t.
A week ago, Kian had been driving back from the match, replaying it over in his head. It had been a damn near perfect day; Rovers had won, he’d scored one of the best goals of his career and been voted Man of the Match.
In the changing room afterwards, he’d sounded out some of his team-mates to see if any of them were up for a few drinks in town but they’d all declined, they had families waiting for them upstairs in the players’ lounge. The gaffer made it known that he liked his players settled down with steady girlfriends or wives and kids. Even Kian’s old partner in crime, Jack “Yoakey” Yoakam had got married the previous summer.
Kian parked up outside his house and grabbed the bottle of champagne from the boot of his car. Maybe he could sweet-talk Ben and Erin into letting him crash whatever plans they had this evening. But when he looked across the courtyard at their little house, all the lights were off. Shit, they weren’t home. He’d forgotten that they’d gone to Ireland for the week to see her parents and do wedding stuff.
Grumpy and alone, Kian let himself inside the house and Erin’s dog Monty came bounding towards him.
“Sorry mate,” Kian said, ruffling the top of the dog’s head. “You’re great and all but I want to talk to another human being not a bloody dog.”
He chucked his stuff on the floor and flopped down on the couch. Most of the time he liked living in the middle of nowhere but not tonight. He was Man of the Match for fuck’s sake and all alone. The adrenaline was still coursing through his veins and he was horny as hell. He hadn’t had sex for two months. Not since before he’d kissed Cate on Christmas Eve.
Cate. Ugh, she was terrorising him. Being around her made his balls so blue they nearly matched the Rovers navy-blue home kit.
He needed something or someone to distract him. He pulled out his phone and scrolled through the names. Alice was still on tour in the Far East. Anya had sold a story on him; she’d said the sex was fantastic but his Mum had seen the story and hadn’t spoken to him for a week. Delete. He didn’t remember asking Bella for her number; she must have put it in his phone while he was asleep. Delete. He quickly skipped past Cate, not tonight. Frankie was crazy. Delete. Georgia was married. Delete. Fuck, his little black book was looking punier and punier.
He scrolled through the names again but kept coming back to Cate. No, she couldn’t give him what he wanted, not tonight.
He threw his phone down in disgust; it was abundantly clear that he wasn’t going to get laid tonight. He put a bowl of food down for Monty and went upstairs to take a really long, really cold shower. When his cock was sufficiently shrivelled and pathetic, he got dressed and went downstairs. Monty had finished eating so he picked him up and carried him out to the car. He figured he’d spend the night at the ‘rents house. His Mum would make his dinner and he could watch the match highlights with his Dad.
But when he got to the end of their road, he remembered that his Dad was allergic to dogs. He looked in the rear-view mirror at Monty on the backseat, his wet nose pressed against the glass watching where they were going.
Shit, Kian slammed his fist against the steering wheel. He didn’t want to go back to his big, empty house, not tonight. He parked the car at the side of the canal and got out to get some air. Monty was going berserk inside the car because he thought Kian was going to take him for a walk, he’d already got the handle of the lead in his mouth.
“Fine,” Kian stormed. He yanked open the car door and reached for Monty’s collar. It’s not like he had anything better to do. They walked along the canal and Kian found himself by the gate at the bottom of Cate’s garden. His phone felt heavy in his pocket. Call her. What the hell, he thought. He wasn’t going to get laid anyway.
Cate answered on the 2nd ring. “Hey, what’s up?” Just the sweet sound of her voice made all the tension lift from his shoulders.
They chatted for a few minutes and he tried to ask discreetly if anybody else was home. “Mum’s gone to Ireland with Ben and Erin and Liv’s staying over at Ryan’s tonight.”
“Can I come over?” Kian asked.
Suddenly Monty barked at something. “Shush,” Kian said, pulling on the lead.
“Where are you?” Cate asked. She must have heard Monty from inside the house.
“I’m kind of outside,” Kian said. “By the gate at the bottom of the garden.”
“I’ll meet you at the basement door,” Cate laughed and hung up.
They sat on the sofa and watched TV, waiting for Match of the Day. Cate snuggled up to him and rested her head on his chest. He stroked his fingers through her glossy, black hair. Shit, this was a bad idea. He could feel himself getting hard. Not now, he cursed. He looked down to see if she’d noticed but she was still watching the TV. Ugh, he could see the edge of her bra down the front of her t-shirt. All he could think about was how it would feel to slip his hand inside, to feel that soft, warm flesh against the palm of his hand.
Match of the Day started and he tried to concentrate but his eyes kept drifting down to her bra.
“I don’t get it,” Cate said and Kian snapped his head back up guiltily.
“Don’t get what?” He looked quickly at the TV trying to work out what she was talking about.
“I don’t get how Jankovic could get so badly injured; it wasn’t much of a tackle.” The TV cameras showed the tackle again and you could hear the loud snap as his ankle bent back on itself. Kian winced; he’d always been lucky with injuries, touch wood.
“His studs must have got caught in the turf,” Kian tried to explain.
“Show me,” Cate got up from the sofa. “Pretend I’m Jankovic.”
Kian smiled, “I’m not going to do a sliding tackle on my girlfriend.”
Shit, as soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. He didn’t do girlfriends. He waited for Cate to say something but either she hadn’t heard him or she was choosing to ignore what he’d just said.
“Please,” Cate said, her eyes still staring at the screen so he couldn’t see what she was really thinking. She had the worst poker face.
“Go on then,” He got up and put a hand on her leg. “This foot’s stuck in the turf.”
“Okay,” he tried to recreate the tackle without hurting her. He pressed his foot against the slender bone of her ankle and she nodded, “oh I get it now.”
As he tried to get up, his other foot slid on the carpet and he grabbed hold of her to stop him from falling but ended up pulling her down with him. They collapsed on the floor, him on top of her and her black eyes burned into him. She was offering everything he wanted but he couldn’t take it, could he?
He planted his hands on the carpet on either side of her head, allowing himself a little distance. She was right there, right where he wanted her. He looked down at her lips, they were so goddamn tempting, he had to kiss them. He could just kiss her, couldn’t he?
He kissed her and she tasted so good. He knew his cock was hard and pressing against her hip but she wasn’t pulling away. She lifted his shirt out of his trousers and ran her hands over his back, scratching him just a little with her nails. Oh, that felt good. He kissed the side of her neck, behind her ear and she whimpered a little. He needed to see more of her.
He inched up her t-shirt, exposing her navel, and peppered her stomach with tiny, butterfly kisses. She arched her back towards him, trying to get as close to him as possible. This was getting dangerous but it was like the brakes had failed and he couldn’t stop. He kissed each of her ribs up to the edge of her bra. She sat up a little and pulled her t-shirt up and over her head and he did the same. He laid her back on the carpet and pressed his skin against hers. She was warm and soft and he was in trouble.
Suddenly Cate started giggling and Kian looked down to find Monty licking her arm. Kian didn’t know if he wanted to kill or thank the stupid dog. Whatever, the moment had been broken. He quickly pulled on his t-shirt and Cate did the same.
“I’d better go,” Kian said, getting up from the floor.
“Yeah,” Cate said. She looked shy, like she regretted showing him that much of herself. He kicked himself again for starting all of this. What was I thinking? He thought as he snapped Monty’s lead back on to his collar. What the fuck was I thinking?