The Curve Ball (Indianapolis Lightning Book 2) Page 8

  I slip my hand down my abs until I’m pushing my boxers over my cock and down my hips. I wrap my palm around the base of my cock and give it one long stroke, circling the crown before dropping my palm back down until the edge of my hand hits against my pubic bone. I allow my mind to wander, thinking what it would be like to sink inside her untouched pussy. How fucking tight it must be. I’m not sure she’d be able to take all of me. I’m not saying I’ve got the biggest cock out there, but I know I’m on the larger size of the ordinary in both length and girth.

  “Fuckkk,” I moan as my fist moves up and down my shaft, gaining speed as my orgasm builds within my body. I fling the sheets off of me with my free hand and kick my boxers entirely off my body. I don’t want to make a mess of them and have to change the sheets before I can go to sleep tonight. Once they’re off of my body, I kick them to the bottom of the bed and spread out. My hand works my cock, and before I know what’s hit me, my orgasm barrels out of me, hot cum spurting out, covering my abs in my own release.

  I suck in a few deep breaths as my body goes limp after the intensity of my release. All the testosterone flooding my system has me ready to pass the fuck out. I allow myself a few moments to bask in the fogginess before I reach over to my bedside table for a few tissues to clean up my stomach. With most of the mess cleaned off of me, I head for the shower to rinse off quickly.

  Before sliding back into bed, I right the sheets, finding my boxers balled up within them. I toss them into my laundry basket before I settle into bed for the night. As soon as my head hits the pillow, exhaustion from the day hits me. I make sure my phone is plugged in and roll over, allowing sleep to claim me.

  “How was your game?” Riley asks as I drop my bag on the floor and set my wallet, keys, and phone on the counter.

  “It was good. We won five to two.”

  “Awesome. Did Derek pitch tonight?”

  “Nope, he wasn’t up in the rotation today. He’ll be back up later this week. How’d things go around here?” I ask, looking around for any signs of Evie.

  “Pretty good. I put Evie down about an hour ago. She was a little fussy this evening. I think she’s about to cut that first tooth. I also noticed she was tugging at one of her ears; if that continues, it might be wise to get her in for a check-up. Teething can sometimes cause ear troubles and or an ear infection.”

  “Will she be okay tonight? Is it something that we need to find a doctor that can see her now?” I ask, starting to panic internally.

  “She should be fine tonight, no need for an emergency room. If I notice she’s still tugging at it tomorrow morning, we can call her pediatrician and get her in. Did Erica leave you any information on who that is?” she asks.

  “I think that information was in the diaper bag. Maybe on the shot record card?” I tell her, trying to remember what information I do have. Erica didn’t leave much, that’s for damn sure.

  “I’ll look through everything and see if I can figure it out. If not, I’m sure Jillian can get us the name of the doctor that she takes the girls to and see if they can get Evie in for a new patient appointment.”

  “Whatever works. Even if we do find out who Erica took her to, if they’re located far away, it might make more sense to move her to the office Jillian takes the girls to anyways,” I suggest.

  “That’s true. I’ll look tonight before I go to bed, and you can make that decision in the morning,” Riley says.

  “Sounds good.” I pick my bag back up and turn to take it to my room. I empty the few things out of it, putting them away before I strip out of the clothes I wore home from the game. Unlike some professional sports like hockey, we’re not required to dress in a suit going and coming from games. I’d hate that shit, not that I don’t dress nicely, but not suit and tie nice day in and day out.

  I slip on some clean sweats, forgoing a shirt, as I make my way back out to the living room. Riley has moved from the kitchen to the living room. I have a few seconds to take her in, curled up on my couch as she watches TV. Her hair is piled on top of her head in a messy bun; she’s got an oversized hoodie sweatshirt paired with a pair of way to fucking short shorts. They show off her legs and tight ass.

  “Whatcha watching?” I ask, taking a seat on the opposite end of the couch.

  “Nothing specific, I was just scrolling through the options,” she tells me, tossing the remote to me. “Not much is on tonight.”

  “That’s the problem with the spring and summer months. All the regular shows have ended, but none of the summer shows have started yet.”

  “Yep,” she agrees with me quickly. I leave the TV on the channel she’d stopped on. I flick my eyes to the screen and watch as some contestants on the cooking show all plate their food for the judges. I only keep them there for a few seconds before my eyes back on Riley, or as much of it as I can without her thinking I’m a creeper or some shit like that. I watch her from my peripheral vision and take notice as she relaxes into the couch just a little bit more.

  I shift on the couch so I can take her in easier. Her natural beauty about knocks me on my ass. The gentle curve of her neck, the way she’s got her hair piled up on the top of her head in a messy bun, makes me want to reach out and tug that band out of it, allowing it to cascade down her back. I’d run my fingers through it, wrapping it around my fist as I took a handful, allowing me to guide her right where I want her. I can envision reaching up and grabbing a fistful as I slide into her from behind. That thought has my cock hardening in my sweats, hard enough that I’m going to be tenting them any second now if I’m not careful. I reach over to the chair and snag the throw pillow off of it and place it on my lap, so I don’t scare the poor girl with what she does to me.

  “Before time gets away from us, can we go over your schedule?” Riley asks, pulling me out of my daydreaming about fucking her. “I want to make sure I have everything on my calendar.”

  I clear my throat, knowing that if I don’t, it will more than likely give away that my mind was not in the present. “Yeah, sure,” I tell her, grabbing my phone. I watch as Riley stands and heads into the kitchen, returning with a calendar, pen, and her phone.

  “I picked up a planner, plus will put things into my phone, that way, I can easily see when you’ll be here and gone,” she says, sitting back down on the couch, this time with her legs crossed and facing me. She opens the planner to the current month and pulls out a few colored pens from a package I didn’t notice at first.

  “Color coding things?” I ask.

  “Yep. I love planners and making them look cute,” she tells me, flashing the sweetest smile that has my heart fluttering a thousand beats a minute.

  “All right. Do you want me to go day by day? Start with practices? Home games? Road trips? You tell me how you want to do this.”

  “Ummm… hold on, I’ll be right back,” she says, setting everything down as she jumps up and disappears down the hall, returning this time with a notebook of paper. She sits back down, legs once again folded like they were before, and facing me. “Okay, start with tomorrow, and I’ll write everything down, then I can transfer it all to my planner once I figure out my color-coordinating plan.”

  I chuckle at her excitement over organizing my schedule. “Okay, crazy girl,” I say, shaking my head as I laugh at her. I open my calendar app and start rattling off my schedule for the next few weeks to her. Since we’re doing this as a trial run for the next few weeks, we only go over that amount of time, for now.

  “Okay, I’ll use red for when you’ll be out of town, that way those days stick out to me as being the entire time, home games in blue and home practices in green,” she murmurs as she marks things down in her notebook.

  I watch as she starts to write things in her actual planner, marking everything down in one color before she moves to the next. “All right, all done!” she says about ten minutes later. She holds up the planner and shows it to me. The smile that lights up her face shows me just how proud of herself she is, and it’s ado
rable.

  “Seeing it like that makes me tired just thinking about it.”

  “It is quite a crazy schedule. I always wondered how Derek kept up with it when he first went pro. Now when I see it written out like this, it makes me think that the wives and girlfriends almost have it worse. Lots of times during the season that they’re practically single parents.”

  “I never thought of it that way,” I tell her honestly. My focus has always been on the game first and partying second. Each city we visit, I know all the hot spots to hit up after our games if we’re not wheels up right away. Those places are usually crawling with cleat chasers, ones that I’ve definitely taken what they’ve been offering in the past without a care in the world. Funny how a kid being dropped on your doorstep has you second-guessing partaking in that kind of thing again. “I know this arrangement is asking a lot of you, so thank you again for stepping in to help me out. I’d seriously be lost without you.”

  “I’m happy to help,” she says, the honesty in her words evident, especially in the way that she looks at me. She sets the planner and pens down on the coffee table and looks back at me. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be,” she says, sucking her bottom lip in between her teeth, biting it slightly before releasing it. “Plus, that little girl in there has already gotten her little hands around my heart and pulled me in. She’s kind of addicting,” she tells me as a smile breaks out on those lips. Lips that would be so easy to lean forward and capture with my own.

  “She is pretty damn cute,” I muse, agreeing with her about my daughter. “She’s grabbed me by the heart, as well,” I confess.

  “You’re doing a great job with her so far,” Riley assures me.

  “You think so?”

  “Absolutely. You’re going to be a great dad, Justin. Don’t let anyone tell you anything different.”

  “Thanks,” I tell her as we make eye contact. I see something flash in her eyes just as I feel the air between us shift. She sucks that damn lip back between her teeth, and my eyes drop and focus in on where her teeth are biting hard on her lip. Before I know what I’m even doing, I reach out and slowly slide my thumb along her lip, pulling it from her teeth. “You bite any harder, and you’re going to break the skin,” I tell her, my words coming out gruffly. I clear my throat, attempting to remove the grit away before I continue. “You keep it up, and I’ll have to kiss it all better.”

  I flick my eyes back up to hers and watch as her pupils dilate. She wants me just as bad as I want her, I can see it. I watch as her eyes drop ever so slightly to my lips. My tongue darts out, wetting my lips, and her eyes track it as I do so. I can’t help from smirking at how zoned in she is on my every movement.

  I slide my full hand along her cheek and back until I’m cupping her neck. I pull her forward as I move in her direction at that same time, closing the distance between the two of us. Once we’re a hairs breadth apart, I bring my other hand up to cup her cheek, swiping my thumb across her bottom lip once again. “Tell me to stop if you don’t want me to kiss you, Riley,” I whisper between the two of us. I give her a few seconds to tell me no or to stop before I cover her lips with my own. I don’t go in full force; I ease into this kiss. Her lips taste like berries and are the softest lips mine have ever kissed. I pull her closer until she’s on my lap. My hands sink into that hair, allowing me to angle her head so I can deepen the kiss. I swipe my tongue along the seam of her lips, and she opens for me. I lick my way inside her mouth. The moment our tongues collide, I swear fucking fireworks start to explode.

  We finally break the kiss, both sucking in lungs full of air. Riley drops her forehead to my shoulder, her hands resting against my bare abs. I feel her tense in my lap at the same moment her fingers still from tracing the ridges of my abs. She pulls back, sitting up straight and moving off of my lap and standing up quickly. She almost trips over my feet, so I reach out, grasping her hips to help steady her. I don’t need her falling and getting hurt.

  “Riley,” I say her name. It comes out in a half growl, half plea. “Look at me, please,” I ask, tugging on her hand. She sucks in a deep breath before turning around to face me. I can see the confused look on her face. The one that tells me she wants more but also is confused about what just happened between the two of us. “Talk to me.”

  “Wh-what are we doing? That can’t happen again, JJ,” she whispers, and brings her other hand up until her fingertips rest on her lips. I can still feel her lips against my own, so I can only imagine that she feels mine.

  “We were being two consenting adults exploring this spark between the two of us. One that I’m pretty sure you can feel just as much as I can.”

  “We can’t,” she states, not very convincingly.

  “Why not?”

  “For so many reasons, JJ,” she tells me, pulling her hand from my grip. “You’re my brother's best friend. Your life just got turned upside down. You don’t do relationships, and I’m not about to indulge in a one-night stand. And most of all, you’re my boss, JJ. We just can’t.”

  Before I can reply, Riley pivots and runs from the room. I sit there a bit stunned, a bit pissed, but most of all I’m fired up. I’m ready to toss all of Riley’s reasons out the fucking door and show her that if there's something real between the two of us, that none of those reasons matter and we can make something work if it's meant to be.

  Game fucking on.

  Ten

  Riley

  I close the door to my bedroom, flicking the lock on the knob. Not because I think that JJ will try and come in here after me, but because I’m afraid that I’ll run right back out into the living room and tell him to take me to bed right now. I can’t believe that he kissed me just now. The feel of his lips against my own, the way his hands caressed my skin was more than I could have ever thought that it could be like. I’ve only ever dreamed of being kissed like that by a man. The few guys I’ve kissed and made out with were nowhere near as experienced as JJ was just now.

  The reality as to why JJ was so much more experienced hits me like a bucket of ice water. He’s a manwhore to the core. Hell, the night that Derek and I came over here when Evie was dropped off, he’d been initially on his way out to go party it up, and I’m sure that one of the things he’d planned to do that night was find some random chick to fuck.

  I scrub my hands over my face and groan into them. Why didn’t I tell him no or to stop when he gave me the out? I think I was just so shell-shocked that he was touching me, seeing me in that kind of light, that I just froze. When he walked back out without a shirt on, I’m surprised my chin didn’t literally hit the floor. The man has more abs than I knew existed, and my traitorous mind went right to what it would be like to trace all those ridges with my tongue. What it would feel like to have all that skin against my own.

  It’s not fair, really. I’m so sexually frustrated, and I’m trapped in this house with a god of a man. One that I can’t touch. I push away from the door and head for the bathroom. If I can’t give in to my desires with JJ, I can for sure use that kiss as fodder to get myself off in the bath.

  I plug the tub and start filling it, grabbing some bath salts from my toiletries bag. They were part of a gift set that Jillian and Derek got me for Christmas. I add the salts to the water and then grab a towel from the closet. Before I slide into the water, I go back into the room and grab my vibrator from the bedside drawer that I stashed it in. I might not have ever had sex with a man, but that doesn’t mean I’ve never taken care of myself. I’m twenty-two for Christ's sake. There’s no real reason behind the fact that I’m still a virgin. I haven’t been saving myself for marriage or anything like that. It just hasn’t happened. I never had a serious boyfriend that I felt like we were ready to take that step. I’ve done my fair share of fooling around, but I’ve never had sex or had a guy go down on me. I’ve given my fair share of blow jobs, but that’s the extent of my sexual experience.

  I grab the baby monitor, making sure it is turned on, but at the
lowest setting. I set it on the counter where I can still see it from the bath, then turn on some music on my phone. I slip into the hot water and feel my muscles relax as I sit back. The bath salts add a very calming scent to the air, helping me to relax even more. I lay my head back, closing my eyes, and sink another inch down in the water. My mind goes right back to the couch, and that kiss. My pulse kicks right back up as my center clenches. There was no avoiding just how hard Justin was underneath me, and I’m not talking about his abs. He was definitely aroused and hard in his sweats. The thought that I did that to him makes me pause for a second. The fact that he’d possibly want me is baffling. He can have any woman he wants, probably has had every woman he’s ever wanted, yet he kissed me tonight and was hard for me.

  I cup my breasts, rolling my nipples before one of my hands slides down my body. I circle my clit with my fingertips, wishing like hell that it were JJ touching me. My body is still strung tight from our short make-out session. I grab my vibrator from the edge of the tub and bring it down to my entrance. I turn it on the first setting and slide it inside my pussy. The vibrations are a welcome intrusion. I increase the intensity as I slide it in deeper. It hits my g-spot at the same time as the external vibrations hit my clit. With both areas being stimulated at the same time, I come hard. My body convulses around the toy, and I bite my lip to keep from yelling out as I come.