Page 33 of Stealing Home

Putting my phone down, I give Taylor a pointed look. “I thought we talked about parties at the house?”

“C’mon, I didn’t think we meant after games,” Taylor complains.

“It’s Sunday, we don’t want to have a party,” Max adds.

“What is your deal all of a sudden, Scott? A few months ago you ate this shit up, and now you’re suddenly too mature to party? Do you have a hot date you’re trying to impress?” Taylor asks me. His eyes are hard as he regards me. He’s suspicious because he knows the only woman that has caught my interest lately is Harlow.

Marco brays like the jackass he is. “Scott, have a date? He doesn’t need to put in effort to bag chicks.”

I bring my hands up and massage my temples. “I don’t bag chicks.”

He cackles again. “Whatever, big man. We all saw you the other night with Katrina, but be an asshole and don’t share your secrets. I thought you were whipped when you were with that chick, always avoiding parties, turning down easy pussy left and right. But when you kicked her to the curb you got fun. Now you expect us to believe you’re going to give up the jersey chasers? I don’t buy it.”

“You saw me kick her out of my bed after she snuck in and assaulted me in my sleep. That is not bagging chicks, dumbass,” I snap at Marco.

Of course he thinks I’m hooking up with some girl in private. He’s not exactly wrong, but it’s not what Marco thinks. I should have pushed back harder when they started gossiping and calling me the hookup king. Granted, they’ve seen many girls leaving my room over the last year since I broke up with my high school girlfriend, Mara. At the time I was too devastated to care what they were saying about me.

Mara was supposed to be my first, my only. We’d been together for three years, and I was devastated when I caught her in bed with another guy. Her betrayal cut me so deep it felt like I would bleed to death. Each breath I took hurt, and I needed the pain to go away.

It was so easy for her to throw away everything we had. Years of love and devotion gone for a fleeting orgasm. For a while I thought if she could do it, maybe I should too. Find a willing body to lose myself in, and erase her from my life once and for all.

Girls threw themselves at me, and I thought it would be simple. All I had to do was accept what was being offered. Mara didn’t wait, so why should I? After all, I’d only remained a virgin because she had a romantic notion that we should be each other’s first and last. I was last alright, as in the last person she thought about when she gave away what she promised would be only for me.

For months I tried to let it all go. The girls wanted to use me, all I had to do was let them. It didn’t matter that they didn’t care about me. The feeling was mutual. They only wanted to brag they’d hooked up with the star pitcher. Some of them probably thought I’d take them along with me to the MLB, but that’s only because they don’t know I had no intention of going pro. No one would be hurt, and I could finally move on. Even the playing field and leave Mara in the past.

We’d throw a party, and a girl would let me know she was interested. At a certain point we’d go up to my room and start fooling around. Arousal was never the problem. I love women. The way they’re shaped, their smell, the feel of a woman’s curves against me. God how I wanted to shut off my mind and lose myself in the moment, but something always ended up holding me back. Mara was gone, and yet my romantic notions remained. I still wanted to be consumed by love and passion.

At the last moment, I always lost my nerve. I’m not a saint though. There I was with a raging hard on, and a willing woman, so I did what most men would do. I pushed them to their knees, and let them relieve at least one of my problems. I’m not selfish. They always left satisfied, even if I remained a virgin.

For a while Katrina was my steady hook up. She’s been the most determined of the girls who hang out with us, still is if you judge by her actions Wednesday night. I didn’t have feelings for her, and I feel bad she thought that would change. I was always honest with her, but she thought she’d change my mind.

If I feel guilty for anything, it’s that I didn’t end things when she started being possessive of me around the other girls. We had an agreement not to hook up with other people, but I told her time and again that it didn’t mean my feelings changed. She more than any of the others knows I don’t deserve the reputation the guys have given me. I thought maybe if I tried with one woman for long enough I could get over my hang up, but she got tired of waiting. She thought she could make me jealous by hooking up with Campbell, and I took that opportunity to do what I should have done after the first time, end it.

It’s been months since I even toyed with the idea of hooking up with a girl to see if I could finally move on. I’ve come to be grateful that Mara and I never crossed that line. Waiting for sex might have started because she wanted to, but it has come to mean something more for me. I want something like what my parents have. Passion without love seems empty to me, and I want the real thing. For the first time in a year I’m excited to see a woman instead of wondering how I can extract myself as quickly as possible. I know Harlow insists we’re just going to be friends, but the way she looks at me lets me know she’s interested in more.

When the bus pulls into the parking lot at the athletic center where we all parked, I stand up and start pushing my way through the aisle. Some of the guys call out to me, but I’m in too big of a hurry to get to Harlow to deal with them.

I stop in the parking lot to talk to Max and Will. I feel guilty that I’m leaving them to deal with another bullshit party. “Do you need me to come back to the house and help you put a stop to the party?”

Max shakes his head. “Nah, I can handle it. Looks like our talk to Taylor didn’t work though. Will thinks maybe we should find our own place.”

“We’ve got three months until graduation,” I remind him.

“Yeah, I know Will and I will be gone at the end of the semester, but you could find different roommates next year,” Max rationalizes.

“I’ll think about it,” I tell him. There’s so much I’m hiding from my teammates. I don’t know why I haven’t told them I’m graduating at the end of this year too, or about my trust fund, but I do know why I haven’t told any of them I’m a virgin.

It’s not that I’m embarrassed about my decision to wait to have sex. Sure, I don’t really want them to hassle me. Locker room hazing is a real thing, and these assholes think their manhood is tied to the amount of pussy they’ve shoved their dicks into. They all seem to lack the understanding that having lots of random sexual partners doesn’t make them good at fucking.

They never stick around long enough to learn what women actually like, because they’re more interested in blowing their load and finding a new conquest. The only thing they really gain from it is a reputation as a two pump chump and a case of the clap. I’m sure they’ve heard the same rumors I have. The girls that hang around the team aren’t exactly discreet.

Once I’m in my truck I pull up the address Harlow texted me Friday night. Knowing we need to keep anything that happens between us a secret, I pull around to the back of the garage and take the stairs up to her apartment like she texted me to do.

She’s waiting at the door when I make it to the top of the stairs. “Hey, hotshot.”

There’s a lightness about her that hasn’t been there since I met her. I don’t know if it’s because she’s finally away from her husband, but I hope it’s because I’m here. I want her to be as excited to see me as I am to see her. “Hello, gorgeous. Are you going to show me the rest of your place, or did you want to spend the night hanging out on the porch?”

“Spend the night?” she squeaks.

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