Page 116 of Beneath the Stands (Sugarlake 2)

“I’m sorry, Eli. I’m so damn sorry for hurtin’ you. I could go into all the reasons why, but they don’t matter. Not really. They’re nothin’ more than excuses to try and keep my guilt at bay.”

I grit my teeth, gulping around the lump in my throat. “What if I want your excuses?”

She shakes her head, a tear slipping from the corner of her eye and trailing down her cheek, her makeup melting away to showcase those perfect freckles underneath. “You deserve better. And even if I tried to give you reasons, they don’t change a thing. I made a mistake. The worst…” She blows out a breath, her eyes squeezing shut as she swallows. “The worst mistake I think I’ve ever made in my life, and I’m still strugglin’ to gather all my pieces and accept I was the one who broke them.” She wipes her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I’m not the woman you deserve, Eli. I never was.”

My heart slingshots off my ribs, my chest pulling tight at her admission. At her show of emotion.

At her heartbreak.

She backs up, the cool air slicing through my shirt, sending goose bumps scaling down my arms. My hand snaps forward and grips her wrist tight, yanking her back into me.

The basketball drops from her hands, the rhythmic bouncing an echo of the way my heart stutters in my chest.

“I broke it off with Sarah.”

The words are gruff as they sail through the air. I’m not sure why I said it at this particular moment, other than the delicate thread holding me together is fraying at the seams, and all I can think about is how badly I need her to know.

“What?” she gasps, her eyes widening. “When? Was it after—”

“It was before the party,” I interrupt. “Right after we left the meeting with you, actually.”

“Oh,” she whispers.

“Yeah. Oh. And do you know why, Rebecca?”

Her chest heaves against mine, the fabric of my shirt scratching against my skin with each of her breaths.

I lean in, my mouth grazing the shell of her ear. “Because it doesn’t matter if she’s the woman I deserve, when you’re the only one I see.”

She pants out a breath and I catch it with my lips, groaning at the explosion of her taste on my tongue.

Her moans vibrate through my body, her fingers diving in the strands of my hair and twisting, the sting just enough to make my cock pulse with want. I grip her arms and pull her closer, plastering her body to mine, lost in the blaze.

50

Becca

I’m weak.

There’s nothing I can say to defend how easily I give in, but when it comes to Eli, he demands my submission without saying a word.

When he tells me he’s not with Sarah—that I’m the only one he sees—I’m lost in what he’s offering. Drowning in everything he is and all the ways I crave him.

His tongue skims across my mouth, parting my lips, diving in and twisting with mine, sending sparks of his flavor across my taste buds. My fingers tangle in his hair and pull him closer. He slides his palms up from where they grip my shoulders until they wrap around my neck, his thumbs brushing my jaw, making my skin prickle with heat.

The kiss changes, his teeth pulling on my lower lip until it splits, the sting making me moan into his mouth. He growls, licking along the cut and diving back in, the tang of my blood mixing with the sweetness of his breath.

He walks us backward, his mouth never leaving mine. I stumble in my heels, but he doesn’t miss a beat, gripping an ass cheek in each hand and lifting me, bunching my skirt until my legs are wrapped around him. His hip bones cut against my inner thighs, and my center presses against the rigid outline of his dick. I moan, grinding myself against him, my pussy clenching at the memory of what he felt like inside me.

“Goddamn, baby girl,” he growls, slamming me against the end rails of the bleachers. The metal frame presses into my back. His fingers dig into the meat of my ass and he pulls my lower half into him, dragging me along the length of his cock. Even through his basketball shorts, I can feel it pulsing against my clit.

His mouth nips down my neck and my legs tremble from the torture of having him dangle me off the edge of euphoria.

“Eli, please. Do somethin’,” I breathe.

He chuckles, his face skimming between my cleavage. “What exactly would you like me to do, Rebecca?”

His right hand moves from behind and trails up my thigh until he’s cupping me through my soaked panties.

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