Page 59 of Off Camera
“How were we allowed to watch that movie as children?”
“What are you talking about? I watched it last week.”
I hold back a laugh and shift on top of him, wiggling my hips and trying to find steady ground. He closes his eyes again, a breath coming out in a strangled huff.
“What?” I ask hurriedly. “Are you in pain? Do you need a doctor? Should we do the concussion protocol?”
“I’m fine. Just—” His throat bobs, and his hold on me eases. “When you dothat, I can… I can feel you. And my memory is too good to forget the last time you were on top of me so soon.”
“Oh.Oh.” My cheeks flame. I can feel him too, between my legs, close to the spot he slotted in days ago. Slightly hard, his long length presses against the inside of my thigh, and I shouldn’t like it as much as I do. “Right. That, uh, did happen.”
“I’d like for you to get off.”
“In front of everyone? Seems a little presumptuous. I’d probably be kicked out of the game. Might lose my job, too. Is that your end goal here?”
“Off me,” he mumbles, and it’s laced with embarrassment. “But not yet. I know people are watching.”
I glance over my shoulder, and our teams are starting to head our way. “Yup. They’re definitely watching.”
“We’ll just tell them you’re obsessed with me. It would be the truth,” Reid says. “Could you, ah, stay there for a second longer? So I don’t look like a total creep? I do know how to control myself, believe it or not, and I’m mortified to be in this position. I just?—”
“I know you do,” I say, and the tension on his face lessens. “I’m flattered, honestly. Not many girls can say they can turn a guy on by knocking the wind out of him. Are you reciting the alphabet backward?”
“I’m listing gaming systems from oldest to newest. It’s working.”
“What are you up to?”
“Nintendo 64. 1996. God, I lovedThe Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. I need to play it again.”
I giggle. I can’t help it. My shoulders shake, and soon he’s laughing too.
“Permission to pause the feud?” I ask.
“Pretty sure it paused fifteen seconds ago when my dick got hard, Avery.”
“Do you need more time to… cool down?”
“Christ.” Reid laughs again. “No, but I do need some time to move away and change my name. I’m putting this under the newly created list of Things We Can Never Talk About Again. Once there, it’s not allowed to be brought up.”
“Only if we can add me publicly praising your sex skills to it too.”
“That worked in my favor, though,” he says, and when I give him a look, he drops his head against the grass. The tendons in his neck strain, and I see the faint remnants of a hickey I left behind earlier this week, the light purple still branded on his skin. “Fine. It’s added.”
“I can’t get off you until you let me go,” I say. “You’re, uh, holding me pretty tightly, so let me know when you’re ready.”
He props up on an elbow and glances at where we’re joined. His arms around my waist, locking me in. My hands on his chest, bracing myself from collapsing totally onto him. It’s a position from the bedroom we’re mimicking in real life, but this is more intimate. Sensual, almost, in the way his thumb runs along the waistband of my athletic shorts. In the way it almost feels like he lifts his hips, wanting to be closer to me.
I’m not sure he realizes he’s doing it.
“This cannot get any more humiliating.” Reid takes a deep breath. “I did that so you wouldn’t get hurt in the fall. I wasn’t trying to cop a feel or anything like that. I wouldn’t?—”
“You’re more of a drop-to-his-knees-in-the-hallway kind of guy,” I tell him, and the pink on his face turns crimson. “This is so not your usual play.”
Before he can say anything else, we’re swarmed by a group of our teammates. A dozen questions get lobbed our way, and our private interlude is interrupted.
“Are you both okay?” Erin asks, squatting down and checking us for injuries. “That was a hard fall.”
“I think we’re fine,” I say. “I was making sure Reid didn’t have a concussion. All is right in his head.”
