Page 21 of SCRUMptious

Chapter8

L A U R EN

Donal droppedhis crutches to the ground, and we stumbled through the narrow hallway of my minuscule apartment toward my bedroom, our lips locked and our hands tugging at each other’s clothes. I pulled Donal’s shirt over his head and sucked in a surprised gasp. I'd known his body was tight--he was a professional athlete after all--but this was next level stuff. He made Marky Mark’s Calvin Klein ad look like Homer Simpson on a bad day. Donal had lines and grooves where I didn’t know lines and grooves could exist. I stared at him in hungry amazement, and with his chest sawing in and out and his eyes black with desire, rubbed my fingers over those rippling waves.

As my hand made contact with his torso, Donal sucked in a breath of his own. “Fuck,” he groaned, pressing my palm to his heated flesh. “I can’t wait to have your hands all overme.”

I raised my eyes from an eight pack I’d only ever seen carved in marble. “You’re beautiful,” I whispered, my voice awed. I’d been with a couple of very handsome men in my time, but they paled in comparison to the one standing shirtless in front of menow.

Donal snaked his hands through my hair and pulled me close. Our lips nearly touching, he said, “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve everseen.”

I felt the color rising in my cheeks and knew my chest would be a blotchy mess of embarrassment if I looked down. I was passably pretty in a natural, girl-next-door kind of way, but there was no denying Donal was way out of my league. Instead of basking in the compliment he’d just given me, I felt unworthy of it. I shook my head, our lips brushing together as Idid.

“Don’t you dare say no,” he admonished me, pulling back to stare into my eyes. With his large hands cradling my head, he asked, “Do you know what I see when I look at you?” I shook my head. “I see a woman whose sparkling eyes and wide, bright smile took my breath away from the very first moment I saw it. I look at you and I’m amazed at your effortless beauty, how comfortable you are in your ownskin.”

I felt tears welling up in my eyes and tried to bite them back with several deep breaths through my nose. Javier had told me I was beautiful too—at first. I should have known something was off with our relationship when he changed his tune ... when he started asking me to wear different clothes, do my makeup more dramatically, shove my feet into five-inch heels. But I didn’t want to think about Javier anymore. Not while I was being worshipped and adored by a man like Donal. He might be ten years my junior, but I knew in my soul that he was more of a man that Javier ever would be. And I’d wanted to marry theguy.

“But more than that,” he continued, “I see someone so fucking good that I don’t know if I’ll ever be worthy of you. Nothing stops you, nothing keeps you from your dreams.”

A fat tear slipped down my cheek. “My dad’s death did,” I remindedhim.

“No,” he said, swiping the tear away with the pad of his thumb. “You found a new dream, a better dream. And you’re chasing it with a single-minded purpose that is inspiring.”

My gut sank when he said that. Donal had had a dream too and mere hours ago, it’d been taken away from him. Because ofme.

I leaned into him and rested my cheek against his bare skin. “I’m sorry.”

“Forwhat?”

“I ruined your dream,” I said, wrapping my arms tight around his middle and never wanting to let go. “If it weren't for me, you’d be weeks away from making your comeback.”

“Ah, baby … no. This injury was always going to happen. I’d bet you anything in the world, my first scrum back, the same thing would have happened. I hadn’t said anything to anyone, but I’ve been expectingthis.”

“What are you going to do now?” I asked, remembering how lost I’d felt when I had to drop out of Harvard.

Donal chuckled and I felt the rumble of his chest under my cheek. Sliding his hands down my body to rest at the base of my spine, he pulled me tighter. Dropping his head forward, he whispered in my ear, “Now, Lauren, I’m going to take you into your bedroom and you’re going to make a man ofme.”

I smiled, and slowly led Donal the rest of the way down the hall and into my bedroom, which was the size of my closet in my house back in Los Feliz. This apartment had come fully furnished—if you could even call it that—but I’d insisted on supplying my own mattress when I’d moved in. It had seemed like an indulgence at the time, but now I silently thanked for forethought.

Dropping Donal’s hand, I flipped on the bedside lamp—so much better than the harsh overhead light for hiding my flaws and casting shadows where I wouldn’t want them—and did a quick inventory of the room. I hadn’t brought many belongings with me when I’d moved here; just a framed picture of my family before my dad had died, a small abstract painting that was done by my friend Will, and a vintage silk scarf I’d hung over my headboard to bring some color to the otherwise stark room. Briefly, I wondered what Donal saw when he looked at it. This apartment wasn’t the home of a successful 32-year-old woman. It should be occupied by a girl who’d just graduated college and was striking out on her own for the very firsttime.

I turned to him, suddenly shy. “So …”

“So,” he answered, his voice gruff, as he took a lumbering step toward me and linked our fingers together, his thumb drawing patterns on my skin. “Youokay?”

Am I? I asked myself, giving serious thought to the question. I was about to make love … err, have sex … with the most handsome man I’d ever met, someone who was kind and funny and charming and … a man who wanted me. All things considered, I was better than okay. I was good. Sure, this wasn’t the life I’d imagined for myself, but then again, who actually got that? Certainly not Donal. Not unless you counted what was happening between us now, because if he was to be believed—and I very much thought he was—he was about to get everything he’d wanted from the first moment our eyes had met and locked.

I nodded. “I’m great.” Unclasping our hands and pulling his head down, I tried to convey just how much I wantedthis.

He slowed our kiss and brushed my hair back from my face. “I can’t promise this is going to be great for you,” he whispered, “but I plan on making up for it all night long if you’ll letme.”

I traced the slope of his trapezius and goose bumps broke out along his skin. He shivered beneath my touch, his whole body shaking. “It’ll be great,” I told him, “because it’s withyou.”

I dropped my head forward and kissed an open-mouthed path across his chest. God, I was obsessed with his body. We had so little time left together, I wanted to lick and touch it and play with it until I boarded my plane back home in a couple of weeks. When I reached his nipple, I circled it with my tongue and Donal let out a long, deepmoan.

He grabbed my ass and pulled me in tight, rolling his hips. “If you keep doing that, I’m going to come before I get anywhere near your pussy.”

I paused and flicked my eyes up to find him staring down at me, his jaw clenched. With wicked intent, I circled my lips over the tight little nub and sucked.

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