Page 19 of Play Hard
She looked different than she had back then and not just her hair. Her face was a little fuller, her breasts and ass definitely rounder and softer. Even her voice had seemed throatier. But her scent was the same, her pussy—praise all that was holy and just in this world—felt the same. The grip on my heart she’d always possessed was the same.
“Yes.” Her voice cracked with the word. “I’m not proud of it but I’m also not going to deny it. I’ve worked too hard to finally stand in my truth to deny my mistakes. I believed he and my father would work to harm you and your future endeavors, so Igave them what they wanted. I knew you wouldn’t commit to a long-term relationship, and I knew why.”
Because I’d told her about my mother, about that awful day that set the trajectory for my adult life.
“I knew I wasn’t enough to make you change your mind.” She jutted her chin forward.
“Did you want me to change my mind?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her. “What would you have done if I’d agreed to give you what you wanted? How would you have dealt with your meddling and controlling family then, Serra?”
She held my glare and opened her mouth to respond, but the loud knock on the door halted her words.
“Zip up your pants and get your ass out here, Noah! We’ve got unexpected company,” Jeret yelled through the door, irritation clear in his tone.
Standing, I sighed and cursed, hating the interruption as much as I hated all this shit Serra had just dumped in my lap. A part of me wanted to know what she was going to say in her defense but another part just didn’t care.
“Look,” I said. “It’s really busy tonight so I gotta get out there and help out.”
She pressed her hands to her cheeks and sucked in a breath. “Right. I know you’re busy. I just wanted to stop by since I didn’t make it last night.”
When I took a step toward her, she turned and made her way to the door. In that moment, I recalled Traneeka saying she saw Serra in a Mercedes crying. “Why did you stand me up last night?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, reaching for the doorknob. “I came tonight, said what needed to be said and now I’ll go.” She opened the door and all the sounds from the bar came flooding into the office.
I didn’t know if I’d said all I needed to say, but then again, I wasn’t sure there were any more words that could be said. “Thanks for coming back tonight,” I told her.
She tossed a quick look over her shoulder that made me want to scoop her up and carry her back to my place for the rest of the night. “Thanks for…ah—everything tonight,” she replied, then quickly walked away.
I stood there for a few more minutes just staring at the crowd she’d disappeared into because shit, I didn’t know what else to do. Until Kasey walked past holding a tray of drinks in one hand and sporting a scowl on her face.
“Jeret’s in the kitchen calling you everything but a child of God, and whoever came up with karaoke night needs to be gut-checked and strangled. This crowd is insane.”
The ire in her voice and the tired look on her face, both of which were contradictory to the normally upbeat and professional college student, pulled me back to reality. I left my thoughts about seeing and touching Serra again, in the office while I went to work.
CHAPTER 9
Noah
TWO WEEKS LATER
“Iknow you’re not giving up on me,” I shouted. “Come on! Go harder!”
Serra shot me a heated glare and I returned it with a knowing grin. “Oh, you like it hard, I know you do,” I taunted. “I’m just giving you what you like!”
“You’re giving—” she huffed the words, “me another…reason…to…put your ass in a headlock.”
She rolled her eyes and wait, …was that a snarl?
I chuckled. “You can wrap your legs around my neck and squeeze anytime you want, sweetness.”
Her eyes narrowed and she made another sound that this time I was positive was a snarl. I laughed again but grasped the bar just as she clenched her teeth and breathed through her last rep in the set of ten lifts of the eighty-pound weights. When it was just a few inches away from connecting I took over the weight, set the bar in the rack and stared down at her.
She immediately dropped her arms until they hung off the sides of the bench where she lay and closed her eyes. The only other time I’d seen Serra look as utterly breathtaking as she didat this moment was when she was riding me. Of course, that was eleven years ago, but that visual had and would always remain with me.
Today, this winded, tired as hell, sweaty look was doing something for me too. If we weren’t in the very public, but at this time of morning, mostly empty gym on the lower level of the Lofts, I might be tempted to rid her of the fitted shorts and tank top she was wearing and lick every inch of her.
Shit, who the hell was I kidding, I was still tempted to do just that.
“You’re an asshole, Jordan,” she quipped as she opened her eyes to stare up at me.
