Page 102 of Once Upon a Fake Date

“Yeah.” She hummed.

I brushed a strand of her blonde hair over her ear. “You can go hang out with your friends, you know. I’m okay here.” When had we become that couple who was too busy canoodling in the corner to talk to anyone else?

Audrey sighed, resting her forehead against my chest. “It’s okay. I see them plenty in class, anyway. I hate that you have an away game next weekend. I wanted to spend some time with just the two of us.” She bit her lip. “You know…”

“I know.” I smoothed my hand over her hair. “But I won’t be gone that long. And the season is almost over, which means everything is going to calm down soon.” Though we were in the runnings for the playoffs, and if we won, we’d be going to the championship, and that would mean a lot more games left to play. For the team, I wanted to win, but selfishly, I wanted to have more time to just relax with her.

She sighed. “The semester’s almost over, though. And then…”

“Then what?” I finished her thought.

Audrey nodded. “Exactly.”

“I wanted to do something special next weekend,” I admitted. “Take you out to dinner. Arealdate. The whole nine yards.”

“You’ve already done that for me, Parker,” she whispered against my lips.

But it was different. Because before, this hadn’t been real. I ran my hands up her thighs. “Still. Wanted to make sure we did it all right.”

She giggled. “You’re just a big softie, Parker Phillip.”

“Mmm.” I brushed my lips over hers.

“Get a room, you two,” Ella remarked, walking by and smirking at us.

Audrey stuck her tongue out at her big sister.

“We could, you know,” I rasped against her ear.

“What?” She blinked.

I swallowed roughly. “Get a room.” Sure, my bed was comfortable, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know that my teammates were on the other side of the wall the first time we had sex.

Not to mention, I just knew I wouldn’t last long once I got inside of her. These days, it felt like all it took was bringing up the image of her naked, those pretty pink nipples hard and wet from my mouth, and I was coming two pumps later in the shower.

There was no way I wanted to embarrass myself like that.

“If you want…”

Audrey cupped both of my cheeks. “Parker…” Her voice was soft as she kissed each of my cheeks before dropping one against my lips. “I hope you know I don’t need anything special or fancy. I just want you, okay?”

I nodded. “Next weekend?” I squeezed her thigh.

She bit her lip, a little moan slipping free. “Yes.”

A few days later,my duffel bag stowed under the bus and backpack in hand, I loaded the bus for one of our last away games of the academic year. The playoffs didn’t start until mid-May, so we’d be focusing on finals along with the last few games we had for the rest of the semester.

Grabbing my earphones, I got ready to stick them in so I could listen to my new fantasy audiobook as soon as we got going.

Samuel stuck out his hand for a fist bump. “How are you feeling, Maxwell?”

I bumped him back with my fist. “Good. A lot less stressful since the musical is over.”

“That’s right! Damn dude, that was amazing. You were really great up there. Didn’t know you could sing so well.” He slid into the row across from me, and I knew I wouldn’t get any relaxing done on this road trip. Damn. It was better when I’d been running late from rehearsals all the time.

Taylor popped up from the row in front of me. “You could seriously make a career out of it.”

Chuckling, I shook my head. “That was a one time thing. Just for Audrey.”

---