by KB Winters
“Right,” I scoffed. “You’re a hot-blooded man, Cody. Tits and ass are always going to be a distraction. I’m not naive enough to think that I’m going to be enough to keep you entertained forever. I’m not a wild, alley cat, hang from the chandelier kind of girl and I never will be, no matter how much you might want that.”
“Damn it, Chelsea!” His eyes sparked with wild fury. “Listen to me, I deserve a fuckin’ chance! I haven’t done anything to break your trust. Yeah, I get it, the shit with Summer pissed you off and made me look bad. But I’ve cleared that all up. There’s no reason for you not to trust me. I’m not going through all of this to get you back just to screw you over a couple weeks or months down the line. What would be the fuckin’ point? If I wanted unlimited pussy or wild and crazy nights, I’d go do that. There would be nothing to stop me.”
“Then why don’t you?” My question was quiet, almost a whisper.
“Because I’m in love with you, Chelsea Brooks. I can’t think about anyone else. I don’t want anyone else.”
My heart skipped a few beats before sputtering back into action. Of all the things he could have said to shut me up, that was the one I hadn’t seen coming. My eyes darted wildly back and forth between his, searching for my next words. “Cody…”
“You don’t have to say anything back, Chels. That’s not what this is about. I’m not trotting out some fuckin’ I-love-you card to get you to give this a second chance. I’m in love with you and I want to be with you. No one else.”
“But what if I’m not enough? What happens when you get bored and want something that I can’t give to you? I’m not like Paris. I’m not the kind of girl who cheers her man on while he’s getting a lap dance or who wants to fuck in every public bathroom on the west side.”
Cody chuckled. “Who said I wanted that? Personally, I’ve never understood the whole fucking in a bathroom thing. Kind of makes me want to bathe in straight alcohol.”
I laughed and blinked away the tears from my eyes. “Well…Summer said—”
His eyes flashed at the sound of her name. “Summer’s a mean spirited deranged girl who doesn’t know what she’s talking about. You should know that.”
I nodded and then dropped my gaze to the asphalt between us. “Cody, I just don’t know…I don’t know what I would do if we tried and it didn’t work out.”
Cody took a step nearer, his eyes locked with mine, dark and intense. He reached out and tipped up my chin. I blinked back a wave of tears. “That’s never going to happen. I’ve never had something like this before, Chelsea, and I’m not going to fuck it up or throw it away.”
“I believe you, but Cody, sometimes things just don’t work. Staying away from you for this long has been a Herculean feat. I’ve thought about you every day, every minute, hell, every second. I’ve barely been able to breathe without wanting to cry because it hurts so much to have you and lose you. I don’t think I could do it again. I’m already too far gone.”
“Me too, baby.”
“Really?”
Cody smiled and placed his other hand on the other side of my face, framing it with both of his large palms. “I love you, baby girl. Real, crazy, can’t live or breathe without you kind of love. I’m talking some real fairy tale shit.”
I laughed, tears spilling from my eyes. “I love you too, Cody.”
He beamed down at me and brushed a soft kiss across my lips. When he parted, he kept his forehead pressed to mine, his eyes locked with mine. “Then I just need to know one more thing,” he whispered.
“What’s that?”
He grinned. “Your place or mine, gorgeous?”
We crashed through the door of his penthouse minutes later, chosen based on proximity, and before the front door was closed behind us, our clothes were flying. My sundress went over my head and fell to the floor in a billowy cloud. Cody’s t-shirt ripped at the seams as I scrambled to pull it off, over his head. He chuckled and went to work on my bra. “Damn, gorgeous, I’m not going anywhere.”
I laughed but the sound dissolved as the bra fell away and the cold air conditioned air found my nipples and made them go rock hard. I pressed into Cody; my breasts pressed against the solid wall of muscles. I traced my fingers up the hard lines in his back, reveling in every line, ridge, and firm muscle.
“You really are a piece of man candy, aren’t you?” I giggled, pulled back long enough to look into his love-drunk eyes.
Cody grinned as he captured my lips with his, and his greedy tongue invaded my mouth unapologetically. “Damn, baby. I’ve never been so fuckin’ horny!”
“Whatcha gonna do about it?” I teased, running my fingers down the smooth, ridges sections of his abs, rapidly finding my way into the waistband of his boxer briefs.
He gasped as I pushed past the soft cotton and stroked down his hard shaft.
“I’m going to get you in my bedroom, bend you over, and fuck that tight little cunt until you’re screaming my name.”
I shuddered at the thrills flashing over my body.
Cody scooped me up and I locked my legs around him. He carried me all the way up to the master bedroom in the massive penthouse. He set me down and stripped my panties off, chucking them across the room. “You won’t be needing those for a couple of days. I’m keeping you right here.”
I laughed. “We’ll see about that. Eventually, I’ll have to go home and get some work done.”
Cody shook his head. “You won’t be able to walk.” He spun me around and traced his fingers down my spine. He kissed my shoulder, working in toward the back of my neck, and I shivered at the sensations dancing over my hot skin. “I’m not letting you get away again, baby.”
I arched back and shook my hair out of my ponytail holder. It felt luxurious and sultry on my bare back. Cody breathed deeply and buried his face in the long locks before scooping them to the side and continuing his tour of kisses down my back. He dropped to his knees behind me and I gasped as his hands parted my ass cheeks, forcing my legs apart. “Bend over, baby. I need to get a taste of this sweet pussy.”
My legs shook but I did as he asked and leaned over, bracing my forearms on the massive bed. Cody slipped a finger between my lips and stroked my clit until I was moaning his name and juices were running down the insides of my thighs. He would push me to the edge and then back away, letting me breathe and get a grip, before spinning me back up again. By the time he dropped his mouth to my pussy, I was ready to explode all over his face.
Cody sucked and teased my clit from behind and just when my legs were about to give out, he slipped his thumb around my tight asshole and I saw stars dancing in front of my eyes. I yelped and crashed violently over the edge when he inserted it just enough to make me come.
“That’s right, baby. Come for me hard. Say my name.”
“Cody!” I moaned, burying my face in the covers as my body rocked.
He stood and entered me before I even finished shuddering from the first orgasm and with sure, steady thrusts, he had me right back, teetering on the edge again.
“Fuck me! Cody, fuck me hard!”
“Yes, ma’am!” He growled, thrusting hard. He wove a hand through my hair and pulled gently to get my face out of the covers. “I want to hear you, baby. Moan, scream, say my name.
I moaned loudly as he thrust back in again, deep and hard. I’d never been entered from behind and it was a whole new sensation. I clawed and scraped at the bed like a wild, feral animal, and it made Cody go harder, as though seeing me come undone got him even more excited.
If this was the kind of wild that he was looking for, I could definitely get on board with it.
He waited for me to come again and then followed after.
“Fuck!” I gasped, still breathless when he lay down on the bed and dragged me over to rest my head on his chest. “That was insane.”
His own chest was rising and falling rapidly and the sound of his heart hammering made me smile. Good, it wasn’t just me. “That was hot is what it
was. I’ve been dreaming about bending you over since we first met.”
“Why haven’t you before?” I asked, looking up at him.
He shrugged. “I guess I wanted to wait and save it for something special.”
I giggled. “Well, it was special all right. Can we go again?”
He laughed and stroked a hand over my hair as it fanned out on the bed behind me. “Five minutes, baby. I wanna give you the best.”
When we were both exhausted from round two, we lay together on the bed that was roughly the size of a small Caribbean island. Cody gathered me to him with a tug on my hips and our fronts melded together. He ran his fingers through my damp hair and then over my lips. I tasted the salt of the sweat as I kissed his finger.
“Mmm. Careful, baby. You’ll go filling my head with all kinds of ideas if you keep that up.”
I sucked the tip of his finger into my mouth, my eyes locked with him. “Like what?” I asked, feigning innocence as I let him go.
His eyes flashed and his cock went hard against my thigh. He pulled my leg over his hip and rolled us so that I was straddling him. I worked my way down his body, pressing hot, open-mouthed kisses down his slick chest.
I paused when I reached his navel and looked up at him.
“Whatcha thinkin’ about down there, gorgeous?”
I smiled at him. “We’re really doing this? We’re giving it a shot?”
Cody smiled and traced his fingers down the side of my face. “I’m game if you are, baby.”
“I’m game,” I replied, smiling one last time before ducking under the sheets.
30
Chelsea
“Welcome to the Warriors Family and Friends Night Out!” The PA system boomed to life with a louder than normal version of Take Me Out to the Ballgame and the entire crowd joined in. I was running late and still making my way to the seats Cody had been given. Each player got a hundred tickets to pass out to family and friends, or friends of friends, and many players ended up booking additional seats. The place was packed. Laughter, cheers, and happy faces surrounded me as I scuttled down the stairs. I stopped short of my row and glanced down the narrow aisle to catch my breath.
The last few weeks had whizzed by with so many highs and lows that walking into family and friend’s night at the Warriors’ stadium felt like disembarking from a crazy rollercoaster and I hadn’t quite got my legs set underneath me yet. Cody and I had been nearly inseparable since the night in the sushi lot parking lot. He was going above and beyond to make me feel included in his life and doing a damn good job. Summer Pratt had been fired from her PR job with the team and from what Paris had gleaned, her relationship with the team’s owner had also fizzled. Cody’s reputation was safe as was his place on the team.
The low part of the past weeks was that my new game, Lucky Plays Fishball had opened to crickets, despite the promises from my investment firm that they were dumping money into the release. I wasn’t hunched over a computer day in and day out to distract myself, instead focusing on interviews with podcasters and online magazines to talk about the game. But it didn’t seem to help much.
After a rough conversation with my investors, I’d changed into Cody’s authentic issued shirt and hurried to the stadium. The words of the call were still bouncing around my mind and ruining my best efforts to put on a happy face. I wanted to move on to the next game, mostly to have something to throw myself into, but the investors wanted another three months of promotion for the Fishball game before they would even open the possibility of funding another game. And if they decided to opt out…well, then I’d be screwed. A washed up developer before I even hit my mid-twenties.
Cody kept telling me it would turn around. I appreciated his confidence, but in the end, he knew baseball. Not the tech world. Things move at a faster clip when technology is involved. If the investors passed on my next pitch, there would be hundreds of other young, hungry developers standing behind me, prepared to take my place. The investors wouldn’t even miss me. But my life would be a mess. I refused to bank my future on being with Cody and using his money—although he’d offered on more than one occasion to help me out.
I had to figure it out. Myself.
Three people in Wright shirts were getting to their feet as the PA guy announced Cody was taking to the mound. I snapped myself out of my anxiety, shoving all thoughts of Fishball to the back of my mind to obsess over after the game. I plastered a big smile on my face and tried not to let my hands shake as I approached the trio who I knew would be Cody’s parents and his younger brother, Jordan. They had flown in this morning and since Cody had all day practice leading up to the big game, we hadn’t been able to do a meet and greet before the game started. It was odd to formally meet his family without him present, but he had included me in a video call a few days ago, so they knew who to expect.
It was a big step for Cody and me, and I knew it was essential that we all get along. He’d confessed that they’d never officially met anyone before. In high school, he had been a self-proclaimed player who bounced between girls too fast for his parents to really pin down which one he was with. In college, with Summer, she’d begged to meet his parents but he’d purposefully kept them apart. He didn’t want to give her any more fuel for her grand plan of marrying a pro ballplayer.
Which left me wondering what exactly his intended message was by having me meet them. Surely, we weren’t anywhere near a formal commitment like an engagement or marriage. I didn’t go to each game waiting for the scoreboard to light up with the all-important question. I actually would want to kick him if he proposed that way. If the time ever came, I wanted that moment to be as far removed from baseball as possible. It didn’t matter, at least not yet. I knew that wasn’t where Cody’s head was at. He was working his angles to try and get me to agree to move in with him but I was holding back on that step a little while longer.
First, I had to meet his family. With my smile fixed, I scuttled down the narrow aisle and tapped his mom on the shoulder. Paula Wright turned to me and her smile lit up like Christmas lights on the front porch for the first time of the season. She was about my height, with a full face of makeup, shoulder length sandy brown hair that was obviously colored and highlighted. She wore a simple pair of diamond studs—no doubt real—and a casual pair of jeans with her Wright jersey.
“Chelsea! Darling, we’d started to wonder if you were ever going to get here! It’s so good to meet you in person, honey.” She wrapped me in a bone-crushing embrace before I could get a word out. Over her shoulder, James and Jordan smiled. They’d been expecting this reaction. “I told Cody that this was too much. Us meeting without him here.”
She released me but kept one hand on my shoulder. “No, not at all. I was on a work call and it ran over.”
“Oh, he told us that too,” Paula said, smiling sweetly.
“What?”
“That you work too damn much,” James filled in, leaning past his son to offer me a hand. “James Wright.”
“Hello, James,” I said, smiling politely. James was a head taller than his wife. He probably had a couple of inches on Cody. His face was lined with years of being in the sun and his build was nearly identical to Cody’s despite his added years. He looked like he could take the field and fit right in with the other players. He had sparkling blue eyes that were sharp and crafty. Cody had warned me that his dad could be a stickler but that he was a marshmallow on the inside. He was the one that I was most nervous about. I wanted him to like me as I knew that his opinion weighed on Cody the most. Regardless of what Cody would say. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Jordan,” his brother said, adding his two cents. We shook hands too.
“Nice to meet you too, Jordan.” He was nineteen and the polar opposite of Cody and James. He was still tall, though not as tall as Cody or his father. His build was lankier and the way he dressed reminded me of something from a punk band. His hair was jet black and flopped over his forehead. He wore a long sleeved black
shirt under his Wright shirt despite the warm day. As soon as we said our introductions, he dropped his attention back to the device in his hands. Some kind of superhero game flashed and buzzed and he was lost within minutes. “Is that the new Klang Brothers game?” I asked, focusing in on the game.
Jordan looked up at me, his eyes bright. “Yeah. How did you know?”
I laughed. “It’s what I do. I’m an app developer. I make games just like that…well…except my ideal player is about half your age. I do kids games.”
“You do?”
Paula laughed. “Oh, well now you’re speaking Jordan’s language. I swear, I can’t get him off this thing.” She gestured at the phone in Jordan’s hands and gave a slight eye roll. Her smile was still in place, but a twinge of annoyance flashed in her eyes. “He wants to try his hand at programming too.”
“That’s cool. I can point you in the right direction if you want,” I offered.
Jordan nodded. “That would be great. Can I see your game?”
Paula, sensing she’d lost the conversation, shifted to the side to let Jordan and I sit together in the middle. The game was on a break and she excused herself to go get drinks for all of us. I got Jordan set up with the Fishball game and went through the basics for him to play.
“Obviously, it’s a little young but I wanted it to be educational. So when you choose your team there are math problems to solve to unlock new players and even things like team colors.”
“That’s so cool!” Jordan exclaimed. I watched him take to it like a duck to water and smiled with a sense of pride as he went about constructing his team of little animated fish.
By the time Paula returned with the drink carrier, he was totally lost in the game.
“Thank you,” I said, taking the soda cup she offered me. “For some reason I always want a root beer when I’m at the game.”
