Page 67 of Fair Catch
I frowned harder, biting back the urge to tell her I didn’t see it that way as much as the sting that it was the first thing that came to her mind.
“But… I feel like we’ve both been happy. We’re having fun. You know? And, I don’t know about you, but my game is on. Like, I’m feeling better than I ever have before on the field. And just from your performance this weekend alone, I think you could say the same, no?”
I nodded, but before I could say a word, she kept on.
“Here’s what I’m proposing. What if we just… didn’t complicate it.” She waved her hand with the words. “What if we could keep it like this?”
“Riley—”
“I don’t want anything more, either, okay? I promise. I’m completely fine with what we’re doing.”
Her confession slammed into my chest like a hot sword, and I nearly stumbled back from the force of it.
“But… I want you, Zeke,” she whispered, stepping into me. “And I know you want me, too.”
My cock ticked with just the thought of taking her right here, right now. And yet, my chest ached with the thought of that being all I could ever have from her.
“Right?” she asked when I didn’t respond.
I swallowed. “Don’t act like you need me to answer that.”
She smirked, trailing her fingernails down my arm. “So… why should we stop then?”
Stop.
She thought I wanted to stop.
“We just can’t tell anyone on the team,” she said before I could tell her she was dead wrong about what I wanted. “I mean, honestly, we can’t tell anyone.” She shook her head. “You know what I’m up against already. If anyone found out we were… that I was… with someone on the team… I…”
And just like that, any hope I had of telling her the truth dissipated like our hot breath into the cold evening air.
“Plus,” she added with a grin. “I’m pretty sure Gavin would kill you.”
At that, I sucked my teeth. “No way. Gavin would probably throw a party.”
She folded her arms, arching a brow. “Oh yeah? You think he’d throw a party that you’re fucking his twin sister?”
My face slackened. “Okay, maybe not a party, but—”
Riley laughed, the sound of it enough to unravel me. “Well, he doesn’t ever need to know. It’s just a little fun.” She shrugged. “It’s helping us both… relax.”
She waggled her brows at that, and I ignored the sting in my chest as I wrapped an arm around her shoulder, steering us toward the end zone to recover all the balls she’d kicked.
“And after?”
“After?” she repeated.
“After the season, when we’re no longer roommates and we’ve still got to play on the team together. When do we stop it?” I swallowed, the word stop burning my throat. “And what happens then?”
I thought I saw a flash of fear in her eyes, but it was gone in an instant, and she shrugged, eyeing me like the answer was obvious.
“It stops when one of us wants it to, when we get bored or… I don’t know, catch feelings or something.”
She laughed with that, as if the idea was preposterous.
I swallowed again.
“You don’t want anything more?” I asked tentatively, pulling her to a stop so I could look into her eyes when she answered.
Those hazel pools flared a bit, and she frowned, looking down at the grass before she met my gaze again. “What more is there?”
It was a miraculous feat of strength not to physically react to that statement, to not shake her and claim her with every piece of me.
“So… just teammates,” I tried, testing, feeling her out.
She smiled, stepping into me. “And roommates,” she added. “With a few perks.”
Riley winked, sneaking a kiss before she hopped around the end zone picking up the balls she’d kicked and tossing them into the giant duffel bag.
“You in?” she asked with a raised brow when she jogged past me.
And what else could I do?
She didn’t want more, but I couldn’t stomach the thought of not having her at all.
So if this was what she was offering…
I swallowed down any internal voice screaming otherwise and simply said. “I’m in.”
And the tightrope swayed, nearly tipping me off before I barely caught my balance again.
I wondered how long I could hold it.
Zeke
It was a feeding frenzy after that.
Gone was my restraint when it came to keeping my hands off Riley based on where we were or who was around. It felt like there was a bomb ticking just under the surface of my rib cage, and I was hell-bent on making the most of whatever time I had left before it exploded.
I pulled her into a dark supply closet one morning after practice, both of us laughing and trying to be quiet as I peeled her clothes off and fucked her against the shelves of balls and shoulder pads and cold weather gear. Riley wrapped her legs around my waist, hands gripping the shelves behind her as practice jerseys slipped out of place and onto the ground at our feet. But we didn’t stop, not until both of us caught our release and sagged into each other, smiling and kissing and planning our exit so we wouldn’t draw attention.
