Page 106 of Only in Your Dreams

Chapter 26

Zac

Istare down at my phone, heart hammering in my chest so hard and fast I don’t know how I’m even standing still right now.

I was terrified she wouldn’t answer my text. That she managed to fall asleep on the first night we’ve spent apart in almost a month, concluding once and for all that we’re cured of our insomnia. That she doesn’t need me anymore, that I’ve lost my excuse to hold her to me every night.

But that’s not why I came here. Not why I raced home the second the press conference ended, leaving Brooks in charge of getting the team back on the bus in the morning.

Parker’s front door wrenches open and then Melody’s there, long hair free flowing around her, wearing my high school jersey over bare legs and I swear, my vision actually flickers.

She blinks, eyes acclimating to the sight of me on Parker’s doorstep, still in my game day outfit.

And then she breaks into a wide beam, and holy fuck, she throws herself at me so hard the momentum drives us back into the hallway. She slams us into the opposite wall as I catch her, and let her wrap her legs around my waist.

“How are you here?” She’s wrapped herself so tight around me her voice is muffled in my shoulder, and I squeeze her like I’m sick of existing as two separate people. I want to consume her, soak her into me through osmosis.

“I begged an assistant coach’s wife for her car keys. I was dying to see you.” She laughs her approval against my skin before pulling back to look at me, eyes shining. I push the hair off her face, run my thumb over her cheek. “You tearing up?”

“You coached your first winning game tonight,” she explains. “And I should have been there.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “I know you’d have had to play along with Brooks, but I didn’t realize how bad I wanted you there until you weren’t.”

Her forehead falls against mine. “How do I make it up to you?”

“Show up for me, next time. Front and center, for every game nearby.”

“Deal.” Mel scrapes her fingers through my hair. “What else?”

I hold her closer. “Kiss me. Hard.”

She doesn’t. She does me one better. Mel gives me that kiss. The Clover kiss. The slow, indulgent one that feels like taking a decadent bite of chocolate and patiently letting it melt on your tongue, just savoring the way it tastes.

Tonight of all nights, that fucking kiss just sets me off.

Mel tries to pull away, but I sink my fingers into her hair. Pull her back in with a fistful and she gasps. “Did I tell you to stop?”

Her eyes go wide. Hopeful.

Greedy.

I plant my mouth on hers and there’s nothing slow about it this time. The deserted apartment hallway comes alive with us, our moans, the sounds of our hands roaming clumsily, feeling each other through our clothes. Her nails graze the back of my neck, and it takes her rolling her hips to realize that I’m painfully hard.

Fuck.

She grinds into my cock and it unleashes a hungry groan from deep in my soul. I drop my hands from her waist, fist her ass, the soft skin there barely covered by a flimsy pair of panties under my jersey.

“Please. Take me inside.”

It’s all Mel gets out before her mouth is on me again, and I cross the hall blindly, eyes closed, nibbling her lip as she moans for me. Feeling around, I find the open doorway and stumble us into Parker’s apartment.

The door snaps shut behind us, and I stagger into the dark apartment so badly I end up slamming Mel into the wall. I only have a split second to panic that I’ve hurt her before she lets out a hungry moan into my mouth. And if this is a sign that she’s into that kind of thing, getting rough, thrown around during a fuck, then goddamn, I don’t know how I’m supposed to go another minute without—

“Mel?”

Oh, fuck.

Parker’s voice is a punch to the gut, the last thing I want to hear right now. We spring apart, Mel’s eyes frantic and wide as I clamp my mouth shut to tamp down the panting.

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