Page 51 of Touchdowns and Temptations

“Why not?” she wants to know. “I'd cheer for you too.”

“Oh, I'm sure you would,” I answer, pulling her close. “The risk of me hurting myself with such nonsense is too great.”

“Oh, right,” she says and sighs, “too bad.”

“You would have liked to see that, wouldn't you?” I hiss and lean over to her. “Would I have gotten a reward?”

“Maybe,” she whispers, responding to my little game. “What do you have in mind?”

My stomach tickles and a thousand things I want to do to her go through my head. This teasing and flirting between us is great and shows me that I'm not fighting a losing battle.

These are the moments when we are just us. I'm the boy from Tennessee who has a huge crush on the girl in front of him, and she's the cute college student from Boston. Not the mega-rich daughter of a football legend.

“Hm...” I pretend to think, but I don't have to. “Maybe a kiss.”

“A kiss?” Cara asks, raising her eyebrows. “That's pretty high stakes, don't you think?”

“No,” I say. “Maybe you can give me a taste and I'll think about whether it's worth it.” I'd probably be stupid enough to sit on this animal for a kiss from her. But the risk of injury is still too high. I can't risk it and I don't want to.

“It's okay, Mr. McCarter.” Cara puts her hands on my neck and pulls me down to her. I bridge the last few inches between us and press my lips to hers. Cara immediately kisses me back and snuggles up against me.

My tongue brushes her lips and separates them. Cara opens her mouth and allows my tongue to enter. We moan as our tongues touch and my hands find their way under her shirt.

Without comment, I push her onto the bed behind us.

15

Cara

Noah didn't exaggerate when he told me about the Fall Fair. There are many booths with food and drinks, carnival rides, and booths where you can buy all kinds of trinkets. What I find most impressive is the Ferris wheel, its bright colors are shining over the fairgrounds.

“Wow,” I exclaim as Alex and I stroll through the market.

In front of me is a stage where a band is playing country songs.

“Do you like it?” asks Noah next to me.

“Absolutely,” I answer. “You weren’t exaggerating! It’s amazing.”

“I never do,” he says with a wink. My thoughts take a new turn and get stuck on last night. The fact that we had sex again was absolutely not planned. We're just friends. But somehow, we're getting deeper and deeper into it. It feels way too good with him - everything. Noah is great and so is his family. His dad finally got over the shock that I was Michael Corse's daughter and had a casual conversation with me. He also didn't ask about Dad, which I have to give him credit for. Usually, people always want to talk about my dad.

“There are the others!” Alex calls to us, pointing to a group standing together at a bar.

Noah and I follow Alex.

He greets the men with a handshake and kisses the women on the cheek.

“Noah!” one of them shouts. “You're here!”

He has short brown hair, is much slimmer than Noah, and wears a blue T-shirt and blue jeans. He makes a nice impression.

“Hey!” Noah spreads his arms.

The two of them embrace, much closer than Alex. I stand at a distance behind Noah and smile. What else can I do? I don't know anyone here except for the McCarter twins.

“Let me introduce you.” Noah turns to me and smiles. “This is Cara. A friend from Boston. Cara, this is Jamie, my best friend.”

“Hello,” I say and shake his hand. “It's a pleasure to meet you.”

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