Page 28 of The C*ck Down the Block

“Peanut?” I asked, holding the bag up to Trix.

Her mouth was still full of hot dog, but she nodded and made happy, yumming sounds at me. Fuck. It took all I had in me to drag my eyes away from her mouth. I deftly shelled a peanut and offered it to her. “A gentleman always provides his lady with only the best nuts.”

She laughed and pressed her fingers to her mouth, holding in the food she hadn’t yet swallowed. I was lucky I hadn’t been sprayed with half-chewed hot dog. After she shook her head at me and swallowed... something I watched rapt, she took the snack from my fingers. “Is that so?”

Once again, I couldn’t tear my eyes from her mouth as she popped the nuts in. “Uh, yeah. Definitely. Absolutely. Call on me for all your nut needs.”

I’d chastise myself for that truly awful line later, but I got caught up in how the stadium lights made her eyes sparkle and forgot about the peanuts, the game, and how this was a fake date. All I wanted to do was lean in and kiss her. I wanted to pull her into my arms and taste every last inch of her. I wanted all of her.

Not yet. I wasn’t going to scare her away.

Touchdown Jesus, I was in so much trouble. I’d buried my feelings for her for so long, and now that I was this close to having her in my arms, I was losing all control. Keep it together, man. This is the long game plan. I wanted her forever, not just right now.

The next couple of innings flew by, partly because the Mountaineers’ new pitcher was a ringer and we went three up, three down two innings in a row. Didn’t make for an overly exciting game, but it did get us a whole hell of a lot closer to the sixth inning. And the kiss cam.

We cheered for the Mountaineers and booed the opposing team, we played along with the silly games the mascot and the stadium media team put on during the lulls in the action. And I counted down the innings. At the bottom of the fifth, Declan, Everett, and Hayes quietly slipped into their seats. They were dressed asinconspicuouslyas I was, and no one, including Trixie, noticed their arrival.

When the kiss cam started, Trixie was cheering on the couples on the screen just like the rest of the fans, completely unaware of what was about to happen.

“And look at them,” she laughed and pointed to the giant screen across from us. “They didn’t see that coming. She was so cute and shy. I think we just watched their first kiss. Adorable.”

I turned to Trixie, fairly sure my heart was going to go careening out of my chest with each next beat. “If we’re going to be a convincing couple, we should probably practice... that too, don’t you think?” I tried to keep my voice steady.

She looked up at me and blinked a few times, the most innocent of looks on her face. her brow furrowing, before realization dawned on her face. “Kissing?”

I put my arm on the back of her seat and dragged my teeth across my lower lip. I was staring at her mouth again and this time, I couldn’t fucking help it. “Exactly.”

Right on cue, the camera found us. “Well lookie here, folks, looks like we’ve got Denver’s own Chris Kingman and his pretty lady in the stands. Think we can get them to lock lips on the kiss cam?”

Trixie’s eyes went wide, and she looked out to where we were dead center focused on the big screen.

“Looks like we’re up,” I said, my voice calm but my heart racing.

My brothers erupted into cheers behind us, good-naturedly urging us to kiss for the camera. “Come on, QB, don’t be shy.”

“Show her how it’s done,” someone else who wasn’t a Kingman chimed in.

I barely heard them. Was I aware 50,300 and some people were watching and cheering on my first kiss with Trixie? Yeah. But I was good at tuning out a stadium full of people. Trixie didn’t like being in the spotlight and I hoped she wasn’t about to murder me on camera.

Without the entire world watching us, would she ever let me kiss her though?

The way she was looking at me right now said I should have tried, because I think she would have said yes. Her smile was a mix of shock and delight as she leaned in closer to me, and I scrambled to turn my hat around so the brim wouldn’t be in the way.

“I think you’d better kiss me, Chris Kingman.” Her voice was breathy, and she licked her lips.

“Yeah, I think I have to.” I really, really had to.

The first connection of our lips was hesitant, and I thought for a second this was just going to be a quick peck. If that’s all she wanted, that’s what we’d do. But then something shifted. Trixie closed her eyes and she leaned in.

I cupped her cheek and parted her lips with my tongue, deepening the kiss. It became something real and unexpected, and so perfect, I got lost in the moment with her. I was finally kissing Beatrix Moore and she was kissing me back.

She finally broke the kiss, and the stadium was a mix of cheers and good-natured jeers. Trixie was blushing, her eyes twinkled dark with desire and then went wide with surprise. She touched her lips and then smiled, but looked away in the most adorable shy way, that I couldn’t take it.

I pulled her back and kissed her again. Putting every bit of longing I had into just one more spine-tingling moment with her.

When we pulled away the second time, the stadium was filled with cheers, the people all around us, including my brothers, leading the applause.

“I didn’t see that coming,” she admitted, her voice a little breathless.

---