Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
“Fuck, I missed you.”
“I missed you too, boo.” His crooked smile grew. “Seems silly, eh? Suddenly a week of not talking is hard.”
“It’s not silly. We went from straight up walking on sunshine to being cold-turkey cut off from each other.”
“Does that mean you were suffering from Boudreaux withdrawal?”
“Yeah. It does. Sex aside, I missed you, dude. I never expected you to be at the top of my favorites, but you’re the one I want to text or call anytime anything hap—”
Simeon crossed the distance between us in one step and pushed me up against the door. My lips eased into a grin, hands going up to his shoulders. All the darkness in this storage closet was swept away by the power of him softly brushing our mouths together. It was barely anything, but I moaned against him with shaking hands and a galloping heart.
I flicked my tongue out, coaxing his to slide against mine, and gladly lost my mind to the feel of him exploring my mouth. He leaned into me harder, causing the door to slam in the frame. It was hard to care with his crotch pressing against mine as his hands slid down to grip my ass while I tangled my fingers in his hair.
There was so much I wanted to do to him before this day ended. Our last time at the Center together. Our last reason to spend time alone together. But all I could do was worship his mouth and wish for unattainable nonsense.
“You’re making this so hard, Bravo.”
I tilted my head against the door, breathing hard as he mouthed kisses along my jaw and down my neck. “What?”
“Trying not to catch feelings.”
“I thought we agreed it was too late for that.”
Simeon’s laugh rumbled in my ears. “You said it was too late. I was still trying to play myself like this was just us fucking, and it would be okay to say bye-bye.”
I grabbed a handful of his hair and jerked his face back to mine. He instantly leaned in for another kiss, and I was too weak to dodge it. We needed to have words, but right now I couldn’t handle not having his taste in my mouth and his hands on my body. The desperate sound I released when he pulled away would have been shameful if I had any shame about how badly I wanted him.
“Kids are gonna be here soon,” he panted against me. “And I’m really fucking hard, so maybe we should stop.”
“Will you come over after the scrimmage?”
Simeon’s eyes flicked down. I gripped him tighter.
“Please? I can’t—I just . . . I just need to extend this a little bit longer.”
“It’s not a good idea,” he whispered.
“I don’t give a fuck. I need you, Simeon. I dream about you. Just let me have this before you cut me off.”
His gaze snapped up to me again. He opened his mouth to speak, but his lower lip trembled and no sound came out. I kissed him again, hard.
“Okay,” he breathed. “I’ll come over.”
It took every ounce of self-control I had to drag myself away from him, and all the thoughts of what I wanted to do to him, and prepare for the game.
To the kids’ credits, they all acted completely normal, except for Brayden, who couldn’t quite meet my eyes. I refused to discuss the situation with a kid, or to pull him aside and tell him that what he did was okay, so I settled for treating him the same as always. Pointers on the game peppered in with wise-cracks about his less-frequent-than-usual wisecracks until everything seemed normal.
And what do you fucking know? Our kids won.
“So, I guess we’re never gonna see you guys again,” Delilah said bluntly.
They’d celebrated hard for thirty minutes as the photographers captured everything, and we were now huddled together in a circle. Most of them were still grinning their excitement, and their celebrity status, since their win would be all over the news and YouTube in a while since it was our last day of coaching, but Delilah and Brayden were visibly bummed.
“Nope,” Simeon said. “This has been a real trip, us coaching y’all, and this won’t be the last time we’re face-to-face.”
“You’re probably just saying that,” Delilah said. “So we won’t act dumb.”
Simeon wagged a finger at her. “Look here, young lady, you’re blowing our temporary farewell.”
“And he’s not lying,” I piped up. “We already talked about coming back and planning an event for the Center after the season.”
The kids began asking simultaneous questions, but Simeon held up his hands. “Relax, get yourselves a cool drink, and you’ll hear all about it in time. Right now, just focus on all that teamwork that helped you win.”
We all said the last of our temporary good-byes before Simeon and me played our usual game of dodge-the-photogs and dove into separate cars before meeting back at my place a while later. It was barely an hour, but it was long enough for my desire for him to turn into a live thing—churning and churning inside of me restlessly until I was jittery and pacing.