Reese

 

Consciousness slowly crept in as I peeled my eyes open, one by one. My hand was rubbing against something. The wall? Why was I on the right side of my bed by the wall? I always slept on the left side…

Heavy breathing sounded in my left ear.

Oh, that’s right. Because a certain studly star basketball player was currently occupying the left side of my bed. And I had to admit, he looked pretty damn good there. The room was still bathed in darkness, so I knew I hadn’t slept half the day away. I was about to reach over Cam and grab my phone off the nightstand to check the time when something in the window caught my eye.

It was the black figure of a person, a man by the looks of it.

Someone was standing on the balcony right outside my bedroom.

Oh, God. Someone was trying to get inside my room.

Without thinking, I let out a sharp scream, scrambling up the bed and pressing my back against the headboard. Cam bolted upright and ended up falling out of bed, hitting the floor with a loud thud. He shot up to his feet, his eyes flitting from me to the rest of the room and back to me.

“What?” he demanded. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

I pointed to the balcony door. “S-someone’s outs-side.”

His head swiveled in that direction. His body instantly went rigid, his eyes narrowing. “What the hell?”

He stomped across the room and just before he pulled the door open I blurted out, “Wait! What if he’s got a weapon?”

That didn’t deter him. “Fucker’s going to need one.”

He unlocked the door because I always, always kept it locked. It didn’t matter if we were on the second floor. Psychos tended to be motivated.

He whipped open the door. “Hey, ass—” His next words died on his lips.

His body was blocking my view, so I couldn’t get a good look at the guy. “Cam?”

He turned back around to me, holding a giant piece of cardboard that had been cut into the shape of a man and painted black. Looked like it’d been taped to a bucket filled with rocks, so it would stay upright.

Fucking cardboard.

Gemma and Syd.

“Oh, those two hags don’t even know what’s coming their way,” I snarled. “This isn’t just war. This is catastrophic, nuclear war. The type that no one survives.”

“You’re kind of scary, you know.”

He threw the cardboard to the floor and turned back around to shut and lock the door. At this point, there was enough illumination coming from the outside street light to provide me with a perfect view of his beautifully sculpted ass. Until that moment I’d completely forgotten we were both still naked. How I don’t know. My eyes were drawn to the subtle rippling of his muscles as he secured the lock, the flexing of his quads as he shifted back around to face me. Of course, the front side was just as fine as the backside.

He noticed my lowered gaze and grinned. “Something on your mind?”

“You know how I said we should take things slow?” I asked his cock, as if it could talk back.

“Yeah,” he said slowly.

“I change my mind. We should probably move fast. Like, warp speed fast.”

He chuckled. “Only you would make a Star Trek reference right now.”

My eyes flew up to his, surprised that he’d gotten that reference at all. “Are we going to stand here talking about Star Trek, or are we going to get down to business?”

His hand went to his shaft and he started to stroke himself, almost like he couldn’t help it. “Sweetheart, he’s never in town on business. Only pleasure.”

I dropped the sheet I was holding against myself, exposing my breasts to him. His gaze dropped and he gave one good, long pull on his length. The air sizzled around us, crackling with heated anticipation.

I tipped my chin down at his busy hand. “Show me.”

He flew to the bed and stripped the thin sheet from my body. Naked, we writhed on the mattress in a blur of unrestrained lust and desperate need, clawing at skin, sheets, whatever we could get our hands on, as our ravenous mouths connected in a frenzied kiss. I circled my legs around his back to pull him closer, but he pulled away before I could find that friction.

“What are you doing?”

“Condom,” he pushed out. “I have some in my bag.”

I pulled out the drawer of my nightstand. “There’s a box in there.”

The same box that had been in there for forever, but I wouldn’t tell him that. Though, he didn’t look too happy knowing I had a mostly full box of condoms right next to my bed. He still grabbed one, ripped it open with his teeth, and sheathed himself without hardly blinking an eye. When he lowered his hand, I felt his fingers glide over my swollen center.

“Fuck, you’re ready for it. You want my cock, sweetheart?”

I lifted my hips, seeking out the member in question. If he wasn’t going to put it in me, I sure as hell would.

“You know I do.”

“I want to hear you say it.”

I looked him straight in the eye as I reached down and grasped his cock. He hissed in a breath but maintained eye contact. “I want this inside me. I want you pushing into me until you’ve got me so full I can hardly breathe.”

His eyes drifted shut as he swallowed thickly. “Then put me inside you, baby.”

I pulled him to me, guiding him until his tip touched my opening. Then he was pushing inside, sliding in easily through my wetness. He paused when he bottomed out, both of us releasing mutual groans at the intense contact.

“Goddamn, baby. You’re so tight. Feels fucking amazing.”

“I need more.”

He was having a hard time controlling his breathing. “I know, I’m working on it. I don’t want this to be over too quickly.”

With another deep breath, he started to move. After a few slow drives, we found a rhythm and he started to thrust hard, pounding me into the headboard. Rocking his hips back and forth had the frame of my bed creaking. The sound, along with our ragged breathing, filled the silence of the room.

His hands found mine, pinning them to the pillow, right beside my head. He never once looked away from me as he drove in harder and harder, bringing both of us to the brink of pleasure. The way he felt inside me was intense enough. As per my request, his engorged shaft filled me so full, I could feel him everywhere. But the way he stayed locked on me, as if afraid of severing the connection we’d just formed, hit me on an even deeper level. One I’d never expected to feel with him.

This was supposed to be just sex. At least, I thought it was.

But this felt like much more than that.

To my own disbelief, I found myself…not hating the idea.

Part of me couldn’t believe that after all this time, I was here with him like this. The other part recognized the fact that this was the most right I’d ever felt with another person in all my life.

That had to mean something.

I just didn’t know what. Or was too afraid to admit it.

His shaft pulsed inside me. “Baby, I can’t hold off much longer. You going to come with me?”

I felt it right there, but not necessarily within my reach. “Almost…almost.”

One hand let go of mine, and his fingers found my clit. With just enough pressure I had stars exploding behind my eyelids. “Yes, yes, I’m coming. Cam…yes!”

My channel clamped down around him, squeezing him and pulling him further inside. “Oh, God,” he cried. “I can’t…I can’t. It’s too good.”

After three more wild thrusts, he came with a muttered “fuck”, still aware that we weren’t the only ones in the apartment. With the light spilling over him I could see the bulging veins in his neck as he rode out the rest of his release, gradually slowing his movements. He collapsed on top of me and rested his forehead against mine, our hands once again intertwined, our lower halves still connected. Our chests rose and fell together as we tried to speak.

“Wow,” he said breathlessly. “That was…”

“Intense.” That was the best word for it.

“Insanely intense,” he corrected. “I’ve never… It’s never been that way for me before. And I swear I’m not just saying that.”

I believed him. I ran my fingers through his hair. “I know. Same for me.”

“I should probably get off before I crush your tiny body.” He carefully pulled out and rolled off me.

I looked at him, flabbergasted. “I am not tiny. Have you seen my ass?”

As if to make a point, he pushed me over slightly and smacked me on the butt. “Sweetheart, your ass is one of your best features. And yes, you are tiny. Small bone structure, thin wrists, angled hipbones. I love that you’re this tiny, yet aren’t afraid to take on guys more than double your size. That mouth of yours was one of the things that first attracted me to you.”

Masking how deeply that affected me, I smiled and ran my hand down his egg carton abs. “Eh, not going to lie. Mine was the six-pack.”

He let out a mock sigh. “I knew it. You were just after my cock the whole time. I should have seen this coming.”

After he disposed of the condom he climbed back into bed and spooned against me. I glanced at my phone and saw that it was six forty-five, so we had a little time to kill before we both had to get up and around for our morning classes. We’d see each other again at the afternoon practice, but that already seemed so far away.

I reversed my position so our fronts were pressed together. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yes, you can keep the shrine up,” he quipped. “You might need something to look at when you’re getting yourself off to the memory of what we just did here.”

I punched his side, making him belt out a laugh. “No, you idiot. Although that tool you’re packing does deserve special recognition.”

His brow rose as if to say I told you so. “That’s what I’ve been saying for years.”

I propped my head in my hand. “No, I wanted to ask you about your beef with Trey.” His body stilled, the smile disappearing from his face. “What happened between you two?”

He seemed reluctant but he eventually gave in. “I guess it’s only fair for me to tell you since you opened up last night, which I know wasn’t easy for you.” My confession from last night must have echoed in his mind because he spat, “That prick.”

I waited as he rolled onto his back, adjusting the pillows behind his head.

“It started with our fathers, I guess,” he began. “This was when we all lived up in Rockwood.” I knew Cam wasn’t originally from here. Rockwood was a town about seventy miles north of Calhoun. “Kent Warren was my dad’s investment banker for years, and they ended up becoming good friends. Trey and I have known each other since we were in diapers, and we were best friends for a long time. Inseparable. We did everything together, including playing basketball. Our families were as close as could be for a while there.”

I was finding it difficult to wrap my mind around that. “So, what happened?”

His face hardened, his blue eyes swimming with memories. “According to my dad, Kent started making bad business decisions, and everything went downhill from there. Made some bad investments, lost a lot of money, even some of my parents’. My dad tried to help him by loaning him some money, but he wouldn’t learn from his mistakes and ended up losing that, too. Kent was always kind of a hard ass, but he got even worse once his money problems started. He started drinking a lot, bought shit he couldn’t afford, and even cheated on his wife.”

“That’s terrible.”

He nodded while his finger absently ran circles on my stomach. “Yeah, he was a bastard. After Trey’s mom divorced his dad and didn’t take Trey with her when she left, Trey started to change, too. I think he just gave up hope on things ever going back to normal. He was mad all the time and started hanging out with kids who were bad news. Of course, I tried to pull him out of his spiral but he only resented me more for it. He started saying stuff like, I had ‘the perfect family’, and what would I know about what he was going through?

“He got worse and for a while I took his angry jabs on the chin, figuring he just needed to work through things. I thought he’d eventually come to his senses and we’d be best friends again.” He laughed bitterly. “I was so naïve back then. When my dad found out how deep Kent’s problems ran and that he was essentially committing fraud, he severed his business relationship with him, along with their friendship. Kent eventually went bankrupt, and they had to sell their house and move somewhere where his reputation didn’t follow him.”

“Blue Lake.” Where I grew up.

“Blue Lake,” he repeated. “I tried staying in touch with Trey for a while, but he’d become a completely different person. The first time our schools met when we both got on the basketball teams, it felt like I never really knew him at all. We’d always competed against each other when we were growing up, but it was in a friendly way, you know? Like, we made each other better by trying to one-up each other. But he’d taken that competition to a whole other level by that point. It didn’t help that Kent had always been hard on him, pushing him to always be better, convincing him he’d never be as good as me.”

Disgust made my lip curl. “I’ll never understand parents like that.”

His expression was almost sad now. “Me either. You could tell after his mom left, Trey was really getting the full force of his dad’s ire. I tried not to hold any of that against him… But then my dad was diagnosed with cancer.” He blew out a heavy breath. “Now, my family was going through something terrible and I never even thought of Trey never contacting me. I just assumed that after everything we’d been through, he would at least have had the decency to be there for me like I’d tried to be for him.”

“And he wasn’t?”

He shook his head. “We went through months and months of rounds of chemo and multiple hospital stays, and he never once even called me. And when my dad died, neither Trey nor Kent came to the funeral. That’s when I knew I’d really lost my friend. I decided at that point that if he wanted to hate me, well, then I’d hate him, too. Even when we saw each other after that, he never said anything about my dad. He was just a prick to me from then on. He even stole my girlfriend when I was in high school.”

The spike of jealousy that surged through me at the mention of his ex was so irrational and absurd, I wanted to laugh at myself.

“I mean, it wasn’t serious and I wasn’t in love with her or anything. But the fact that he only did it to try and hurt me just solidified our rivalry. We started having words in public when we played one another and pretty soon, everyone knew about how we detested each other. When we both became two of the top-ranked high school players in the country, the media picked up on the rivalry and it only evolved from there. I’ve never talked about how far back our family history goes and neither has Trey. We let people think what they want because frankly, I don’t care.”

I rubbed his chest in an effort to comfort him. His muscles had tensed, his body no longer relaxed. “I’m so sorry, about all of it. I can’t imagine losing your best friend and your father all at the same time.”

“You know the messed up part?” he asked, though I knew it was rhetorical. “I never did anything to him. He developed this hatred for me, but I never once wronged him. I assume Kent was filling his head with a lot of bullshit about my dad and that eventually transferred to me. I guess it’s pointless to think about how everything happened now. It’s just… I don’t know. It is what it is.”

But it still hurts. I knew him well enough to know that part of the little boy inside him sometimes missed his old friend and probably thought about what if things had been different.

“I’m sorry that I’ve made this worse for you.”

His finger stilled on my stomach, and he slowly turned his head to me. “Made what worse for me?”

“Everything with Trey. Me being in the picture has only made things more complicated, and it’s distracting you. I mean, you almost got into a fight at the BelV game, and—”

He put his fingers to my lips, hushing me. “Reese, stop. You haven’t made anything more complicated. The BelV game was me being a dumbass and not controlling my reactions. This is just another example of Trey being an asshole, but none of it is in any way your fault.”

I tucked my face into the crook of his neck. “Still. I’m sorry for it.”

He wrapped his arms around me. “Stop, sweetheart. There’s nothing to be sorry for, I promise. I’m sure as hell not sorry you joined this team. It’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”

My head shot up, revealing precisely how shocked I was to hear that admission. “Really?”

He rolled his eyes. “If you think I’m like this with every girl I’ve ever been photographed with, you really do have a low opinion of me.”

I poked his rib cage, drawing a chuckle from him. “I just like hearing it, that’s all.”

“And what about you?”

I glanced up at him, pursing my lips, as if I was considering my answer. “I guess you’re okay. You know, if you like that whole tall, blonde, and handsome thing.”

With a growl, he rolled on top of me and pinned my arms to the mattress. It was a struggle to bite back my laughter.

“And do you?” he grated out.

I lifted my hips, making my intentions obvious. “Oh, yes, Your Highness. I worship at the king’s feet.”

I expected to see a smile, not a frown. “You know, every king needs a queen.”

My pulse jumped. “Is that so?”

He tilted his head. “You want to be my queen, sweetheart?”

That was his round-about way of asking me to be his girlfriend. Holy hell. My instinctual reaction was to scream out “yes!”, but then I remembered we’d still have to keep this a secret. Whether or not he called me his girlfriend in private, the rest of the world wouldn’t know about it.

That didn’t diminish my excitement. I wouldn’t let it. I wasn’t going to make it too easy on him, though.

“A lot of kings have mistresses,” I said pointedly.

He understood what I was getting at. “Not this king, baby. Only one woman is allowed to ride the royal scepter, and that woman is you.”

I laughed in spite of myself. “Well, in that case, let’s continue with my coronation ceremony.”

His grin was the last thing I saw before he lowered his head and drowned me in kisses. If we could have stayed there in that bed together forever, luxuriating in nothing but each other, I would have been blissfully happy. If only we could have stayed locked away.

It was when the outside world got involved that things got messy.

Because everyone else sucked.