Watching Pax play in a football game from my couch, the announcers singing his praises on TV, brought me back to my college days.

Only this time, when he scored a touchdown, he did the funny dance move he told me he would perform in this game especially for me. It looked like a bad imitation of Michael Jackson, and each time he did it, for the three touchdowns he scored, I giggled.

They were playing away for the championship game that would secure their place in the Super Bowl, and I was upset I couldn’t go, but we were fulfilling an extra special wish this weekend that I didn’t want to miss.

One of the cases we’d been working on for a while, granting the dream of a teenage girl with Lupus, had finally come to fruition. She wanted to meet one of Hollywood’s It Girl actresses, the same one who was the star of those tween movies about vampires that netted millions at the box office.

I had worked tirelessly to not only make the hang out happen, but it just so happened that a part of the next movie was being filmed in a remote location just outside of Charlotte. I’d scored her an entire day on set, watching and hanging out with the It Girl while she filmed.

And if I was being honest, I loved the movies too and wanted to be there all day to watch her dream come true and get a little inside information on the next installment.

Paxton understood, but he was upset his lucky charm wasn’t going to be there. So, he’d taken a pair of my underwear, sprayed in my perfume, for good luck. I had tried to wrestle them away from him, embarrassed that they would be sitting in his suitcase, but he had insisted.

“Our dirty little secret.” He’d winked as he said it, and I had flushed but let him keep them.

I patted Maya on the head as she slept in my lap, all seventy pounds of her, and took a sip of chamomile tea. As much as I missed Pax, it was nice to have a single girl’s night by myself. I’d been spending so much time with him, since we were practically living together now, that I missed some of my alone time.

Life was immeasurably better now that Pax was back in it, but I missed being able to sit around in my ugliest, but comfiest, sweatpants, eating pickles wrapped in turkey, or a whole plate of Pillsbury cinnamon buns with no one looking. I missed binge watching Downton Abbey marathons, or staying up until four in the morning finishing a good book without someone rolling over and telling me it would be a good idea to go to bed.

And this weekend, I had gotten to do all of those things. It filled my weird single person behavior tank for a while so that I could go on being in a committed relationship without feeling like climbing the walls.

The game ended, the sound of the whistle and a bunch of fans cheering coming from the speakers in my TV. I clapped too, so freaking excited that the Cheetahs won and that Pax would be going to the Super Bowl. He deserved this, to go out on the highest note possible.

An hour and a half later, my phone rang, Pax’s picture and number flashing on the screen. I’d shamelessly set his photo in my contacts as a shirtless one from a spread in a sports magazine from a couple of years ago. Sure, it might be awkward if it ever rang in a business meeting, but damn did it make me drool while I was in private.

“Are you excited we’re going to the Bowl?” Pax sounded so excited.

“Well, I’m more excited that Demi Lovato will be performing the halftime show …” I teased him.

“Oh, stop! You know you can’t wait to wear my jersey and kiss me as I raise that Lombardi trophy.” I could hear the wind whip past the speaker of his phone as he walked outside somewhere.

“You played so great, babe. I especially loved the horrible dance moves.” I curled my feet under me, getting more comfortable to talk to him for a while.

I missed him.

“You liked that, huh? The press sure did, trying to ask where that little bit of spontaneity came from. I miss you, gorgeous.” He spoke my inner thoughts.

“I loved it. I love you. I’m so excited! So is Maya, although she slept through the second half of the game. But she sends her love.” I look at the dog snoring on the other end of the couch.

“Kiss her for me. I’m back at the hotel now, how about you just fly out and be on the bed when I open the door?” I hear the ding of an elevator in the background.

As much as I had enjoyed being home alone, I was done now. I wanted to be in bed with him, too. “Oh, how I wish. But we can stay on the phone all night. And you’ll be home in the morning.”

I hear the automatic lock of a hotel room door, and then the closing of one. “But I’m alone in my hotel room and I’m horny.”

My thighs suddenly felt like I needed to rub them together, like tingles were moving through my core that I had to alleviate. “Oh, are you?”

“I am. Getting undressed all alone. In the dark. No one to rub my aching body.” I hear Pax unbuckle his belt, the shuffling noise of clothes coming off.

I lean back into the couch, my breasts suddenly aching for his touch. “So, pretend I’m there. Naked, in bed waiting for you.”

We’ve both silently agreed to play this game. It feels a little dirty, a little explicit, and oh so good.

“I’m sliding into bed now, God, Demi, I’m so hard for you.”

I’m fully reclined on the couch now, my hand resting on my stomach, quivering there. “Do you want me to touch myself for you?”

“Fuck yes. Put that hand down your pants, baby. Finger yourself and think of me stroking myself here to the sounds of you getting off.”

Oh lord, could that man set my skin on fire. I breached the waistband of my pants, gliding my hand down until I felt my slick center.

“Pax,” I moan, stroking through my folds the way I know feels good. “Talk to me. What do you want to do to me?”

I hear his sharp intake of breath. “I want to lie you down on the bed, completely naked in the moonlight so that I can see all of that beautiful skin. Your nipples, so hard and ready for me to suck. The scent of your arousal, God, I’d stick my tongue right in there.”

My breaths are so shallow, my hand working my swollen nub over and over in a circular motion. “You’re making me feel so good, Pax.”

“I want you to come for me, baby.” His breathing is ragged in my ear. “I’m stroking so hard for you, I’m so close to squirting all of this cum out for you. Just imagine me buried deep inside of you, pounding your pussy—”

His use of that dirty word puts me over the edge, my climax bursting through me like an unfiltered beam of light. Blinding and fast, roaring through my system. The sounds I make are inhuman, not of conscious thought.

As I wind down, I’m acutely aware of Paxton grunting loudly over and over into the phone. After a minute or two of us catching our breath, he speaks first.

“If our phone sex can be that hot, I can’t wait to get home to you tomorrow.”

I chuckle. “Well, Maya got a hell of a show, that’s for sure.”

I can hear Pax’s smile through the phone. “That’s why we always lock her out of our room, can’t have the dog cockblocking us.”