Page 109 of Delayed Offsides

“Take your clothes off,” she demands.

I don’t have to be asked twice to get naked. I strip down like my clothes are on fire and then she’s doing the same.

“That’s better,” she says, straddling my hips and begins to move against me. With no clothing between us, it’s easy for her. I’m throbbing, hard, swollen, fucking dying to be inside her. Turning her over, my body slides intimately over hers. I want to watch her fall apart and give me every breathy moan for the rest of our lives.

“Marry me,” I whisper, rocking against her.

You notice that it wasn’t a question?

There’s no open-ended statement here. It isn’t up for discussion. It’s a demand.

Her brow arches. “What’s with you? You ask me to move in after sex, and now you ask me to marry you while we’re having sex?”

Our lips brush, and then I bury my face in her neck, breathing slowly as I bring my body over hers. “It doesn’t matter how we started…” My lips move softly over hers. “This is us. Passion, desire… love…. This is what we do, and there’s nothing wrong with that. We created something so beautiful from this heat. I just want to be with you for the rest of my life.”

Her back arches, and her head falls back into the pillows, a gasp escaping her parted lips, her palms pressing against my back, urging me forward. “Talk to me after.”

I smile. “What?”

“We’ll talk later,” she says again, wrapping her legs around my waist. “Now do your damn job and get me off.”

I like a challenge.

She watches me moving above her, her eyes never leaving mine. I can’t look away either. There’s something about the way she’s holding our connection.

She was going to say yes.

And then she does.

“Yes…,” she breathes against my lips, giving me those same featherlight touches.

I smile, pulling back to watch her reaction. “She said yes… and the crowd goes wild,” I tease, chuckling.

Callie grins, shaking her head. “And I thought Evan was going to be the one proposing tonight.”

I wink. “Who’s to say he didn’t?”

Callie grins, her face lighting up. “I hope he did. Ami deserves forever.”

I kiss her gently, slowly, giving her a piece of me I haven’t before. All of me. “So do you.”

And here I thought there wouldn’t be anything better than winning the playoffs tonight, until right now. My girl is going to be mine forever. I’d just scored the winning goal for us.

* * *

Metropolitan Correctional Center

December

I never intendedto go see Dave again. For some reason, I felt I needed to. Remember when I said it doesn’t matter if people forgive you for things you’ve done or said in the past. Well, maybe that’s why I see him again.

“I hate you,” I say, watching his reaction. “And I know that probably doesn’t mean anything to a guy like you, so willing to just take what you need from others. But I don’t hate anyone. Not even my piece-of-shit dad. But I hate you because you took something from someone special to me.” I hold up the photograph of Callie and me holding Caleb hours after he was born. He doesn’t deserve to see that picture of my son, and I’ll admit, I’m hesitant to show him. Especially after what he did.

Will showing him give him a reason to seek revenge on me?

Here’s some advice for you. Never underestimate the vindictive side of anyone. Ever. I know that, but I still show him. I want him to see that despite what he’s done, we moved on.

“But you made me realize something I don’t think I would have realized had this not happened.”

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