I woke up the next morning pissed at myself and the world – mostly because I woke up harder than I’d ever been in my life, and even in my dreams, I wasn’t allowed to fuck Evie.

You idiot, Maddox. I really wasn’t sure what was I thinking when I agreed to this shit. I hadn’t thought it through. I’d gone in blind and banked on the fact that I wanted a championship more than anything in the world. Anything pitted up against my need to win would lose. No sex for three months? It wouldn’t be easy but I could do it for sure.

At least that was what I had thought.

But that was before yesterday’s “date” with Evie. It was before I heard her breathy little fuck-me voice as she rubbed my chest and called me baby. It was before I got to rub her naked thigh in front of her idiot ex and feel every little twitch of her arousal right under my palm. And it was definitely before I saw those perfect tits bounce damned near out of her dress as she marched out of the restaurant, all hot and breathless as she told me to do whatever I wanted to her.

Fuck, if she said those words to me now she’d be on my floor with her ripped panties in my fist and my cock balls-deep in her pussy.

Do something. Whatever you want, just do it now.

I relived the exact words she murmured to me because it was easily the hottest thing I’d ever heard in my life. And definitely a hell of a surprise.

I’d thought this whole thing was going to be a process. I was pretty damned sure that she was too hung up over that Matt asshole to get that into the act. But she proved me more than wrong, and now I was paying for it because this was morning wood like I’d never felt it before. It felt like a fucking weight on my abs once I freed it from my boxers, and it was so stiff I hardly had to touch it to feel sensation tingling from tip to root.

Fuck me.

If just the hard-ons Evie gave me felt this good then I needed to know what it was like to be inside her. I needed to feel her all wet and warm and stretched tight around my cock. I had already felt the heat of her pussy near my fingertips yesterday when I was squeezing her ass – and considering the pure torture that had been, I didn’t know why I was reliving the moment on repeat this morning. Though if it wasn’t that, it was the cute little look on her face when she stared at my hard-on like she’d never seen a dick before in her life.

Long story short, I wanted to fuck her over every surface of my house, and I seriously couldn’t imagine having to goddamned live with her soon. Just the thought of waking up this hard and knowing she was in some nightie down the hall made me want to quit this whole deal on the spot.

Of course, just thinking the word “quit” made the fucking Nike brain kick in and instantly hammer a million motivational quotes into my head. Never quit. No pain, no gain. You are your own limit.

So I jacked off.

I replayed the image of the sun beaming through her skirt and showing me the shape of her thighs. I remembered the softness of her skin as I was squeezing her knee. I pictured those perky tits bouncing in my face as she rode the hell out of my cock. I wound up coming faster than I probably ever had, but even after that, I was wound tight.

Still thinking of her.

You’re a fucking madman.

I was convinced I’d be fine if she was just some knockout I met at a bar on the road. I could force myself to forget her. But I was stuck with Evie for the next three months, and it made me irrationally annoyed with her. I was legitimately bitter and pissed at her as I lay in bed fantasizing about what she looked like in her hotel room right now.

I imagined that tight body sleeping naked on a big bed. I imagined that tanned skin glowing against the white sheets she was probably tangled in.

The second I started fantasizing about that pussy again, I grabbed my phone.

I sent the text to Iain before thinking it through. I didn’t have the ability to think anyway. The blood was taking its time to return to my head.

We were delving into subject matter I generally avoided or flat-out ignored when brought up, but I went for it today. At least it was making my dick go down.

Fuck. I tossed my phone aside at the mention of Tim Lillard. There was my limit.

I couldn’t think about Tim or any of the Lillards right now. It was a sore subject on a regular basis but my fight against L.A was still fresh in my mind, and it had started because of Cody Bryce taunting me about skipping Pattie’s funeral.

Breathe, I told myself. Staring at the ceiling, I inhaled, exhaled and tried my best to remember all the shit Diaz said when he tried teaching me meditation.

It didn’t work but on the bright side, I’d officially gone soft.

So there was that.

There was also the fact that I was three days from my next start. That meant that I had a bullpen session today with my pitching coach Lou Dickerson, and anytime I was on the mound, I wasn’t thinking about anything but my delivery.

So I focused on that.

I got to the stadium and managed to clear my mind during stretches, which was followed by some good throwing in the bullpen, then shagging flies during BP. By the time the game started, I felt like myself again. I had some actual peace of mind, and it was a huge fucking relief.

Of course, that relief didn’t last long because somewhere between the fifth and sixth innings, the sidewalk dick pics from yesterday’s date hit the Internet.

I knew something was up when a couple of drunk girls sitting over the dugout got booted for yelling at me to fuck them with that big dick. Just minutes after that, Ty pointed at the curvy blonde along the first base line that all the guys had been staring at all game. Apparently she had written a new message on the back of her sign. Originally, it had been “MARRY ME MADDOX.” Now it was “WOW DREW!!! SHOW ME THAT BIG BAT!”

Since phones were banned in the dugout, the guys took turns disappearing into the clubhouse to look at the pictures and headlines about my giant fucking cock, because there was nothing homoerotic about that.

They thought they were being slick, but even if Ty didn’t tell me, I’d have noticed. And since I did, I chose not to tune everyone out like I usually did during the game. As much as I knew I’d regret it, I listened to every fucking word the guys muttered under the breaths about Evie. I thought I’d find their stupid comments at least vaguely amusing. That was generally what I felt when they ranked and rated all my conquests like a bunch of middle school girls.

But as they talked about Evie, all I felt was my blood boiling in my veins.

“I say the tits are real. And she’s gotta have a magic pussy to have Maddox carrying shopping bags.”

“Magic mouth too. You saw those lips?”

“Yeah. Imagine what they look like after sucking dick for a good ten, fifteen – ”

“Watch it,” I barked, on my feet before I knew it. Diaz was in front of me in no time, wordlessly walking me back to my seat as I glared over his shoulder at Watt and Brewer. Watt held his hands up in surrender.

“Fuck. D, I didn’t mean any disrespect. I’m sorry.”

“Same. I didn’t know you could hear.”

“I can hear everything and if I hear my girl’s name out of your dirty fucking mouth again I’m going to put you both on the DL.”

Every head in the dugout was turned at this point, and annoyingly, I saw Diaz signal to our manager that everything was fine. Like he was my keeper or something.

It was a briefly heated moment, but dugout or clubhouse, they happened. Tempers flared but eventually, things got squashed and it was no different this time around. Watt and Brewer came by to apologize separately, normalcy was restored and I told myself I had just been putting on a damned good show just now.

And that was it.

Because once my blood simmered, the idea of getting that fired up over some girl I barely knew was disturbing, and I didn’t want to believe that it happened. I needed to know that I could keep the focus I had every day at the stadium, especially during a game. Even when I wasn’t starting, I was usually watching every at-bat and every delivery on every damned pitch. But today, I’d barely paid attention to shit and I was ready to give up, because the second I got my mind off Evie again, Diaz came around.

“You serious? You’re seeing someone?” he asked. He could barely hide the fact that he was fucking glowing. I looked at him then back at the field. Technically not an answer but he still gave me a pat on the back. “Proud of you, brother. Can’t let that L.A shit hang over you forever.”

Then he left before I could respond, which I was grateful for because while I wasn’t mad at Diaz, I really didn’t need him mentioning L.A. I was already completely on edge and wound up tight over this Evie situation. I just needed a fucking break from my own brain.

It was for that reason that I was actually relieved when, an inning later, Ty came loping over with a big, dumb grin on his face. At least I knew he never had anything important to talk about.

“Yo.” He plopped his ass down next to me. “I take it since you’re finally wifed up, I can call dibs on your tittalicious blonde down the third base line,” he said, nodding at the girl with the “show me your big bat” sign.

“Go nuts,” I said.

“Nice. So you coming out tonight? Or is your crazy ass banned from nightlife now that you got a nice girl at home?”

I leaned my elbows on my knees as I stared out at the game. Ty was joking but I technically was banned from nightlife. Iain made me swear it off, save for “a few special occasions,” and while he probably didn’t count day two of the contract as a special occasion, I did because I suddenly felt the urgent need to blow off steam. I answered Ty the second he gave up on getting a response from me and started leaving.

“Yeah, I’m coming out,” I said.

He spun right around.

“Yeah?” He pumped his fist. “Hell yes, dude. It’s gonna be fuckin’ tight. I can feel it in my bones, brother!”

He said that literally every time we went out, or any time we were about to eat at a new restaurant for that matter, but I prayed he was particularly right tonight. I sincerely hoped that wherever we went tonight and whatever we got into, it would be a deserving last hurrah for me.

Because if I was about to risk getting pictures taken of me doing all the shit the Empires didn’t want me to do, then it had better be worth it.

* * *

As it turned out, it wasn’t worth it.

I had stood barely a minute outside the club with Ty before finding myself mobbed by the girl with the “big bat” sign and all her screechy friends. From what I could tell, they were wasted and there were already cameras flashing as they basically rubbed up on me, posing on my body like I was a fucking stripper pole.

Goddammit. It was too early for this shit, and it was giving me nothing but anxiety so it wasn’t long before I was peeling women off my body and ducking back into my car. Once I had the door shut, I texted Evie to come meet me. It took about five minutes but she eventually replied that she’d need “a minute” to get ready and find a dress.

I thought nothing of it because I thought a minute meant a minute. But apparently, it meant damned near an hour-and-a-half.

Any texts after that went ignored and I wound up sitting in the back of the car for another twenty minutes, killing time by checking scores around the league. But just as my patience ran up again and I whipped out my phone, she texted me first.

“Finally,” I groaned, climbing out of the car. I stretched my shoulders and massaged the back of my neck as I stepped onto the sidewalk, and just as a large group passed in front of me, I spotted Evie.

She was turned around, talking to the bouncer and as my eyes took her in, I felt my jaw drop.

Fuck. Me.

My hand slid slowly off the back of my neck as I soaked in the sight of her wearing a black dress, a lace choker and a ponytail so high and bouncy I wanted to wrap it around my hand while I spanked her all night. She deserved it for the way she stood all cute – hip cocked and skirt stretched all tight skirt over that gorgeous ass. Christ. That ass. There was no way in hell she was wearing panties under there. I’d bet anyone my entire fucking apartment that she wasn’t.

Suddenly, I forgot about the hour-and-a-half wait it took to get to this point because the view in front of me now was something I could stare at all night. I was pretty sure it didn’t get better than this.

But then she turned around.