Linebacker's Second Chance (Bad Boy Ballers) (18 page)

“I’m done. I’m quitting. You know it’s the right choice, don’t you.” I say it more as a statement than as a question. “I know Kinley is verging on psychotic, and there’s no way I’ll continue this. I’ll quit before she ruins me—and I’ll be a free agent.” With every event and every press release, we’re getting deeper and deeper into this, and all I want is the woman standing in front of me. I want her more than the NFL. I want her more than this job. I want her more than the money I’m funneling to my good-for-nothing brother every month.

It’s time to make a stand.
 

“No,” she says, looking up at me. Her hair seems surrounded in starlight. Tonight there’s a breeze that seems to signify the coming of fall. Once in a blue moon, North Carolina is blessed to get a few breezes like that in August, and it seems all at once tied to Renata. With all the mistakes both of us have made, she’s been the breath of fresh air that I needed, the very thing that reminded me of who I was.
 

“I’ve decided I’m done. This preseason shindig is the last event.”

“The contract. We’ve checked into it. You can’t get out of it.” The words fall flat on both of our ears.
 

“Fine. Yes. I’ll start the season like we both promised Eddie. Then I’m ditching Kinley publicly, and I’m with you. Then I’m going to Eddie and quitting the team. For real.” The last words catch in my throat, and I step towards Renata. She’s lovelier than ever in her tight black skirt and red high heels. On any other woman, her tailored white blouse might look severe or boring, but on her it looks sultry, sensual. I can almost taste her in my mouth, and I need her, now more than ever.
 

“Mack—after all the time between us—and your family—is this a good idea?” Her brown eyes are big. I take one step closer, filling the space between us, pressing my body to hers and taking her in my arms. Instinctively, I raise my hand to the top button of her blouse and open it. There’s a hubbub going on upstairs, but we’re here on the bottom porch, removed from it all.
 

“Ren,” I say, kissing her on those cherry-red lips and not caring if I get whatever lip gloss she’s wearing right on my lips. “I love you. Those words have been on my lips since the moment you appeared on my doorstep. I loved you from the moment I met you in the sixth grade, and I haven’t stopped loving you a day since then. I made the biggest mistake of my life when my brother and father bullied me into getting away from you, and I mean to make up for that mistake every single day from here on out. That’s what happened. Your dad told my parents I wasn’t good enough for you, and that he’d extend their debt payments for however long they needed if I let you go. And then he added the real kicker—your father was going to transfer all of your mother’s credit card debt into your name and saddle you with every bit of it if I didn’t leave you alone. I wasn’t sure if he was really going to do it… but I don’t know. My brother physically fought me to keep me from going to you. By the time I came back to find you, you were gone.”

She doesn’t respond, but her body is hot against mine, breeze swirling around us. She leans against me and sobs silently. “God,” she moans. “I should have known. I should have known. My family… I can’t believe this.”
 

We stand like that for a long time, the night breeze swirling around us. “I want you, and only you, Renata. I love you,” I say again.

“I don’t know what to say—”

My hands find their way to her skirt and lift it up over her hips. She doesn’t protest, instead leaning into me and moaning softly. My cock pulses, growing hard in my jeans. I want to rip off her clothes and bury myself inside of her all at once, meeting my release as soon as possible. But instead of following my gut on this one, I pull down her panties with aching slowness. She’s neatly trimmed, and she takes in a sharp breath as the breeze blows against her bare sex.

“You don’t have to say the same, Ren. But spread your legs for me and let me show you what I mean.”
 

Without a sound, she does, leaning back against the pillar, nails clicking against the white painted wood.
 

“What if we—”

Get caught?
I know those are the next words coming, so I kneel to shut her up and press my lips to her thigh, kissing inward, listening to each panting breath she takes.

For a moment, I pause, letting my breath get hot against her skin, taking in the warm muskiness of her body. My cock is rock hard, near granite-level hard, and there’s nothing I want more than to push her down to the ground and slide into her gleaming wetness, feel how hot she is against my bare skin. But my mouth is watering just as much—it feels like centuries since I’ve tasted her.
 

Bringing one hand from her hip to her sex, I extend my fingers to find just how wet she is, sweeping them over her clit. She gasps and throws her head back, trying to keep quiet so we don’t draw attention from above. At the moment, I don’t give a single fuck about anyone at the stupid party upstairs.
 

There’s only now. There’s only her. There’s only Renata.
 

I replace my fingers with my tongue, circling it over the button of her clit, kissing her there, sucking and licking, taking in her sharp, rich essence.
 

A shiver runs through her body, which only makes me want her more. Soft moaning noises escape her lips, and I want
more
. I want to wake up to that noise every day, to her soft sweetness, my cock buried inside of her, each of us taking our pleasure as we wake in the morning. Moving forward ever so slightly, I find her entrance with my tongue, teasing her, darting in and out until she’s shaking against my face, trying to hold back her babbling, cries stuck in her throat.
 

“Mack, Mack... Oh God.” She whispers my name over and over, like she can’t figure out what to say next. She’s close to her height, and the tension inside of me is reaching a fever pitch, like I might explode if I can’t have her now. Still, I keep on, worshiping her sweet sex with my mouth, until she dissolves into incoherent groaning, spreading her legs wider and using me to hold up her weight. In the heat of the moment, I lift one of her legs, placing it over my shoulder and holding her up with one arm as I lick and suck, until she’s crying out louder and coming hard against my tongue, her high heel digging into my back as she presses against me.

This is what it feels like to be a man, making the woman you love come, standing in front of the house you built for her and only her.
 

She slumps back against the column and brings her leg back down, laughing and then covering her mouth because she’s laughing so hard, too hard to contain. Reality hits her, and she tenses again, lips pursed, her eyes looking up like someone might hear us—like someone might
care
.
 

Since Kinley’s already been with at least two other men on the team, I’m not at all concerned about her caring.
 

“Don’t look up there, sweet pea. I’ll give you something else to look at,” I whisper, voice hoarse and needy. Her eyes meet mine as I stroke myself through my jeans. “I’ve only come inside you once, and that’s not nearly enough. I want it again. I want you to wake up in my bed so I can have you when I want you, so I can make you come for me every morning and again every night.”

With one hand, I unbuckle myself, sighing with relief as I free my cock from my jeans. There’s already a pearly bead of precum forming at its tip. Lowering my hand to the base, I grasp my thickness and stroke myself, somehow becoming harder with each movement.
 

Renata remains silent, but I can read her face, and there’s more pleasure in her body, just waiting for release.
 

I stand and pick her up, wrapping her legs around my waist so that my cock touches the burning heat of her sweet, delicate folds. I take her over to the teak lounge chair, sitting and keeping her dark wetness pressed against me. Deftly, my fingers move over the buttons of her blouse, exposing the sheer white lace of her bra, her deep brown nipples already stiff, pressing against the fabric. She whimpers softly, throwing her arms around my neck, letting go of the inhibitions that have been binding her. I take one breast in my hand, rolling then nipple between my thumb and forefinger. My mouth finds the other, sucking its stiffness through the sheer fabric.

Moaning, desperate, she lifts herself and finds the head of my cock.
 

Like I taught her last time, she lets just the head slide into her entrance, fingers flicking over her clit as she holds herself there, preparing to take my full thickness and length.
 

“God,” she sighs. “God, it’s so big.”
 

“You’re in control this time, baby. Take it all the way, as slow as you want it.” I shift on the chair so she’s right over me, lowering herself an inch at a time, gasping as she reaches the base of my shaft. Renata shudders as she takes me in fully, completely filling herself, encasing me, gripping me with her impossible tightness. In all the times I’d imagined her, all the many nights I stroked myself thinking about fucking her, this is far and away better than anything I could have imagined. The walls of her pussy clench against me as she begins to ride my cock, impaling herself each time she raises and lowers her hips again.
 

She’d told me I was far too big the first time. And now my girl is riding me like she was made for it.

Instinctively, my hands go to her hips, but she guides herself, bouncing, making me feel like I’m going to come all at once. I thank the universe for my experience holding myself back for other women because Renata makes me feel like I might come all at once. I don’t want to do that, not before I’ve seen her face again as she comes, not before I feel her shake and shudder against me again, her body and mine melding into one. She falls into a rhythm, hitting her clit against me with each motion. The coil inside of me tightens until I want to explode.
 

Still, I hold back, until she’s riding me with wild abandon, her conservative white shirt fluttering in the night breeze. She slows, her muscles beginning to tighten and tense. And then I feel her, bearing down against me, and I know she’s letting go again.

“I’m coming,” she cries out, voice raspy with desire. I urge her on now, thrusting hard and riding her through her orgasm from beneath. She clenches tight around me, heat rising through her body. She comes hard, moaning long and loud, her skin glowing with the release, with fulfilled need.
 

I groan, thrusting hard as I release inside of her, shivers running up and down my spine as I meet my climax. “So good,” I sigh. “My love.”

Looking into her eyes, I brush a stray lock of hair back over her ear. She sighs and leans her cheek against my hand. We’re still locked together, in the dance of love I dreamed about for all the years I wasn’t with her.

“Mack,” she whispers, bringing her hands to my hair and running her fingers through it. The feeling of her nails against my scalp as I’m still inside of her is almost transcendental, like I might melt right here, right now.
 

Macklin Pride doesn’t usually feel this way, not about a woman. About football, maybe. But I remind myself that this here is Renata, and she’s not just
any
woman. She’s
the
woman, and she has been since the very first moment I laid eyes on her so many years ago.
 

“Hm?” I respond after some time has gone by.

“I...” Her voice trails off, and I pull her in tight. She can take her time saying what she needs to say, but after a spell, she opens her mouth again. “I love you too.”

“I’m glad that’s settled, Ren. I was getting worried there for a minute—not while you were going to town on my—”

She playfully smacks my shoulder and disengages from my body, stumbling up and slipping her panties back on. “Like I was saying, before you took it to that place—I love you. I never stopped. I can get over the fact that you hurt me for the sake of your family, but what I can’t do is go about behind everyone’s back anymore.”

I cock my head to one side and watch her as she buttons up her blouse. It’s a sad thing to see her breasts go back to that prison, but I reckon I can handle it if we can only do this again. And again.
 

“I know it, Ren. I don’t want to either, and I know it’s been me who’s doing the sneaking around and convincing you to sleep with me. Even though you didn’t really need that much convincing this time...” I raise an eyebrow, and she stifles another laugh.

“No, I didn’t. Which is why I think I ought to go back to California while you start the season off. You’re smart enough to get the season started, and I’m a phone call away if you need me. We both need time to think, and I’m not going to stand around and help you ruin your career. That’s not who I am. That’s not who
we
are.”

Slowly, I nod, getting to my feet and pulling up my jeans. Even looking at her right now, I want her again. I want to kick everyone out of my damn house and throw them to the wind while I take Renata to bed with me where she belongs.
 

“No,” I say simply. “I’m not playing these games anymore. Not while I know that we love each other—”

“I don’t want you to quit,” she says, cutting me off. “But you are, aren’t you? You’re determined to.” There’s a hint of sadness glimmering behind her eyes. This isn’t just the life I love. It’s the life she loved. It’s the life we both wanted. Football was always where I was headed. But when I think about it, it all pales in comparison to her.