Kicked (22 page)

Sliding down next to her, I got a whiff of her shampoo.
Would it be creepy for me to lean in and smell her hair? Yeah, probably.
I did it anyway.

She laughed and punched my arm. “Weirdo. You’re going to get kicked off the bus.”

“I’m surprised they let you ride with us.” I glanced around. Cordy was the only woman I could recall being allowed on the team bus. The cheerleaders and the band always rode separately, and so did Cordy—until today.

“I think it was Gabrielle’s doing.” A frown tugged at one corner of her mouth. “Wanting to make the whole ‘she’s a real team member’ thing more effective for the press.”

I was just happy I got to sit next to her for the three-hour ride. “I guess your Mav days truly are over.”

“Well.” She glanced around as if she were about to tell me a highly classified secret, then leaned over and whispered. “I still have the vagina, so I can always reprise the role if I feel like it.”

“How’s my princess doing?” Ethan’s voice sounded from the aisle. I looked up to find him grinning at Cordy.

I bristled. “Move along, asshole.”

“I would, but you’re in my seat.”

“Wildebeests have reserved seating at the rear.” Cordy grabbed my elbow. “Google it if you don’t believe me.”

I rose, ignoring Cordy’s strengthening grip on my arm. “Don’t talk to her.”

“Who’s going to stop me?” He was about four inches shorter than me, but a whole hell of a lot wider.

I’d take my chances. “I think you know who.” I flexed my fists. The fact that he thought he could even look at Cordy made my blood boil. Guys like him had to be taught a lesson about the right way to treat women, and I was more than happy to be his instructor.

“Hey, guys.” Hawthorne stood in the aisle behind Ethan. “Knock it off.”

Ethan pointed a finger in my face. “One day soon, I’m going to put you in your place, rich boy.”

I stepped closer, until we were almost nose to nose. “That’s reassuring, since my place is always far above yours.”

Some of the closer players whistled. Cordy rose behind me and gripped my elbow. “Stop it. If either of you get hurt, it hurts the team.”

Ethan ignored her. He didn’t give two shits about the team. And my need to hurt him overcame Cordy’s sound logic. His comments about her couldn’t go unanswered any longer.

“What in the hell!” Coach Sterling’s voice cut through the chatter as he barreled down the aisle. “Ethan, sit the fuck down. Hawthorne, what are you doing just standing here?”

“Coach, I was uh—”

“You were putting your ass in a seat, is what you’re doing. Go on. We’re ready to get out of this shit hole, and we won’t be back until a couple years from now when we kick their asses again!”

The team whooped and yelled at Coach’s words, and Ethan continued down the aisle with lumbering footsteps. Hawthorne followed and patted my shoulder as he walked past. He was a good guy, and I could tell he would have had my back against Ethan.

I sank down in my seat.

Cordy grabbed my hand. “Don’t let him bait you. Ignore him. That’s what I do.”

“It’s not working. He’s obsessed with you.” I considered getting up and following him to kick his ass and be done with it.

“I seem to have that effect.” She rested her head on my shoulder as the bus began to move. The interior lights dimmed until only a soft glow from the floor lights illuminated us.

I kissed her hair. “He’s not going to stop being a problem.”

“I don’t want to talk about him. I want to talk about us.”

I threw my arm over her shoulder as we settled in for the ride. “What about us?”

A movie started playing on the back of each seat, but I focused on Cordy. Her polo was unbuttoned, and I could see the swell of her breast. My cock went from fight mode to fuck mode in the time it took me to shift closer to her.

“Are we…” She nibbled her lip.

I grabbed her chin and turned her to face me. “What?”

“Are we like, together?” She stumbled over her next words, as if she couldn’t get them out fast enough. “I know it’s too early to DTR—”

“DTR?” I grinned.

“Define the relationship.” She furrowed her brow.

“Right. Well, I define it as you’re mine and I’m yours. How’s that?”

Her gaze brightened. My phone buzzed again, but I ignored it.

“Someone’s calling you.” She glanced to my pants.

“It’s my mother.”

“Oh.”

I’d told Cordy about the difficulties I had with my mom, but I didn’t go into the details of how much acrimony our relationship would stir up. Mom had no doubt seen the press conference. She would know. Mom always knew. She was waiting for me to pick up the phone so she could load me down with Carlotta’s tears, my family’s legacy, and the bright future she thought I was throwing away. Future Trent could deal with it later.

I leaned close to Cordy’s ear. “Put your jacket on your lap.”

She turned to me, a wary look on her heart-shaped face. “Why?”

“It’s cold.”

“Not really.”

“You’re trembling.”

She arched a brow. “Not because I’m cold.”

“Then why?”

“Because you—” She seemed to rethink her answer and, instead of responding, pulled her jacket into her lap as I’d requested.

“Good. My hands are cold.” I slid my palm along her thigh beneath the jacket.

She jumped and looked at me with a scandalized expression. “Trent!” She hissed through clenched teeth.

“What?” I pressed my fingers higher until I reached the top of her thighs, then I eased my hand between her legs.

“We can’t do this here.” She glanced around, but no one could see any details in the dark, and if anyone was looking, all they’d see was us sitting together and Cordy’s jacket in her lap.

I rubbed my index finger along the seam of her jeans over her clit. “We can.”

She gripped my wrist, but I didn’t stop. Her breathing grew faster as I stroked her. My cock demanded reciprocity, but it would have to wait. I wanted to pleasure her more than anything. When her lips parted, I knew I had her.

I pressed my lips to her ear. “Unbutton your jeans and unzip them.”

She tilted her hips forward and did as I’d said.

“You’ll have to be quiet.” I ran my fingers along her quivering stomach and she let out a small sound.

“Shhh.” I slid my hand into her panties and through her slick folds. “So wet.”

She pressed her lips into a small line as I circled her clit in slow strokes. I nuzzled closer and licked along the shell of her ear. She let out a breath and then placed one hand over her mouth.

The bus hit the interstate, the sound of the engine a constant background hum. I stroked faster, my fingers playing her clit as she worked her hips against me in small movements. Delving lower, I pushed a finger inside her tight pussy, and she moaned into her hand. I added a second finger and curled them to find her spot. Her hips moved faster as I massaged the little ridge inside her.

I slid my fingers out and went back to her clit while I kissed her neck. My back was broad enough to block the view, and the bus had grown even darker once we’d gotten past the city lights. Squeezing her clit between my index and middle finger, I rubbed up and down. Her eyes rolled back, and she came, her body quaking. She caught her quiet moans in her hand as I sucked her neck and kept pleasuring her with my fingers.

When she relaxed into the seat, I pulled my hand from her panties and licked her taste from my fingers. My cock was hard enough to fuck a hole through a sheet of plywood as I settled back into my chair. Cordy let her hand fall from her mouth and panted, her gaze fixed on me.

“You’re bad. That was bad. You are bad.” She kept whisper-babbling, and it was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.

I claimed her mouth with a kiss, sharing her own taste with her, then rested my forehead against hers. “Baby, I’m just getting started.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

C
ORDY

E
LLIE TRIED TO SNEAK
in while I was asleep. She’d been absent from our room more and more frequently. Then again, so had I. Over the month since I started seeing Trent, I’d spent the night at his place at least half the time.

Landon hadn’t returned my calls or my texts. When I’d gone to visit his dorm, no one came to the door. I even tried waiting outside his classes for him, but he wasn’t much for attendance, so that was a bust. He’d ghosted on me.

I missed him and wished he’d at least talk to me. I still went to brunch at the caf every Sunday morning and waited for him to show up. He never did, and I sat alone and full to bursting with all sorts of things I wanted to talk with him about—how well my father was doing, how we hadn’t lost a game since I’d become first-string, how Trent wasn’t the bad guy we thought he was.

Asking Ellie about Landon was a lost cause, and I suspected she was sleeping at his place when she wasn’t at the dorm. She’d remained tight-lipped during our few interactions since they’d caught Trent in bed with me.

That night, she eased into our room at about one in the morning. After creeping around in the bathroom, she climbed into her bed.

“Ellie.”

“You’re awake.” I heard her turning over to face me.

“Yeah. Can we please talk?”

“About what?”

“Landon.”

She sighed. “Look, I’m tired. I want to sleep.”

“Please? I just want to know if he’s okay.” I wanted more, but I’d settle for that if I had to.

“He’s fine. Just nursing a broken heart.” Bitterness laced her words.

“I didn’t break his heart.”

“Could have fooled me.” She huffed and flopped down on her back.

“Why are you mad at me?”

“I’m not mad at you.” She yanked her blanket up. “I take that back. I’m mad, but it’s not all at you.”

I propped up on my elbow. “Why?”

“Landon. I thought I just had a stupid crush on him, but then when we started getting together…”

I knew the feeling. “There was more than you bargained for?”

“Yeah. I didn’t expect it. It just sort of hit me. But I can’t do anything about it because he won’t shut up about you. And, no offense, but I’m so fucking tired of hearing how perfect you are. I mean, he clearly doesn’t have to live with you. Otherwise, he’d know that you leave toothpaste gobs in the sink and haven’t cleaned out your hairbrush in months.”

“You got me on the toothpaste, but I do clean my hairbrush.”

“Then you shed like a sasquatch.”

“Accurate.” I stared at her in the dark, trying to figure out a way forward with Landon for both of us.

“I don’t understand it. He’s known you for years, never made a move, and now he just
has
to have you. It makes zero sense.” She pummeled her mattress with her fist. “It sucks.”

“If you could get him to talk to me—”

“No way. I’m not wading into this any further than I already am.”

“Please, Ellie. It’s the only way for me to fix it. If you want a chance with Landon, I have to talk to him first. We need to solve the problem between us. And more than that, I miss my best friend, okay? I need him.” I sank down onto my pillow and fell silent as Ellie shook her head.

“I don’t know how well that would go.”

“I don’t care. I have to talk to him. Trent isn’t a bad guy. We thought he was, but we were wrong. Maybe if I can explain that, things will be better.”

She let out an exasperated sigh. “You aren’t listening to me. He doesn’t care what sort of man Trent is. He won’t be happy as long as Trent is in the picture. Landon isn’t going to stop wanting you just because you say, ‘Oh, hey, Trent’s great and here is a detailed list of why.’ Hearts don’t work like that.” Her voice thickened toward the end, as if tears threatened.

“Just tell him I need to talk to him, and ask him to honor our brunch on Sunday. After that, if he doesn’t want to see me again, he doesn’t have to. But I think I deserve at least a chance to talk to him. Ask him, please.”

She rolled over, faced away from me, and sniffled. “I’ll tell him. But I’m not making any promises.”

“That’s all I ask. Thank you.” I wanted to hug her, but I learned long ago that Ellie wasn’t the hugging sort. She was like a cat. If she wanted you to touch her, she’d let you know.

Instead, I pulled my phone out and texted Trent.

You asleep?

My phone blinked with a response in record time.

No. You’re not here, so it’s hard to fall asleep.

I smiled in the dark.

I just don’t want to rush us into anything. You know I love spending the night.

I’ll come get you.

My smile grew bigger.

No. Go to sleep. We need to rest. It’s going to be cold at practice tomorrow.

I’ll warm you up after.

Promise?

Always. I want you here.

I sighed.

Tomorrow night.

And every night after that.

I shook my head.

Go to sleep. I’ll see you bright and early. Have my seat warmer on.

Of course. What am I? A barbarian?

I stifled my giggle.

Good night.

I love you. Sleep well.

My fingers hovered over the keys. I wanted to tell him I loved him, but I held back. When he would say it to me, I felt it. I wanted to return the words to him, but I ended up hugging him or kissing him instead. He would sigh, and I hated the thought of causing him pain.

Even so, I wasn’t ready. My heart had healed from two years ago. But now that he was so entwined with me, taking up my thoughts and all my spare time… If things went bad again, my heart couldn’t take it. Saying those three words would somehow leave me open to that sort of pain, and I shied away from it. It was probably foolish. Just because I didn’t say it didn’t erase the fact that I
felt
it. All the same, I set my phone back on my bedside table, and left his last text unanswered.