by K. A. Berg
Quinn’s talking with some guy, Mitch, who she just introduced me to when her father finally comes over to her.
“Nice of you to finally make it, Quinn,” he says with a condescending smile.
Giving him a slide glance, she doesn’t turn her attention from Mitch when she replies, “I’ve been here almost an hour.”
Mitch must sense the tension in the air because he bolts as quickly as he can.
“Are you going to introduce me to your friend?” her father asks in an offended tone.
Her spine stiffens against the arm I have around her waist, and her breathing has picked up. Her heartbeat speeds up as the vein that runs along her throat begins to throb.
Quinn is gauging for battle.
“Dad,” she says exhaling a deep breath. “This is Alex Conway, my boyfriend.”
Holy shit!
It’s the first time she’s referred to me as “boyfriend.”
Her father’s eyes widen, and he directs his attention to me. I can see the judgment as he takes me in. “Alex, this is my father, Louis Taylor.”
I offer my hand, which he reluctantly takes, but I don’t say a word. It’s obvious he dislikes me already, but it’s okay with me because I don’t like him either.
“I wasn’t aware you had a boyfriend,” he says to Quinn in an authoritative tone, as if it was meant as a reprimand. “This must be something new?”
“No,” I respond before Quinn gets a chance to say anything. He’s angling for something, but I don’t know what. He’s not going to go at Quinn in front of me, though. “It’s been a little over a year.” I smile.
“A year, you say?” he ponders, raising an eyebrow. “What do you do, Mr. Conway?”
“I’m an athletic trainer,” I reply, not adding anything more detailed just yet.
His forehead furrows and his nose wrinkles in disgust. Just the reaction I was expecting. “As in a trainer at the gym?” The disdain wafting off of him is comical. As if being a personal trainer at a gym is something to scoff at.
Cocking my head to the side, I shake my head at him. “No, as in the NFL.”
“Interesting,” he says unimpressed. Not that I was ever hoping for it or anything. “Why just trainer? Why not go the full distance and be a doctor?”
This I was expecting.
“I don’t want to be a doctor,” I say because I don’t. I have great respect for the team docs and all the ortho surgeons, but I don’t like their jobs. I like the hands-on stuff. The doctors fix up the injury, but I help them heal and get back to their original form.
Quinn slips her hand down into mine and squeezes. We both know her dad’s going to make some comment about me being too lazy to become a doctor or not smart enough. Her dread over what may leave his mouth next is radiating off of her. I decide to end it before he can upset her anymore today.
Isn’t She Lovely is playing, and I can’t think of anything other than having Quinn in my arms on the dance floor. “May I have this dance?” I ask with a broad smile. “I swear, this song was written with you in mind.”
I don’t acknowledge her father as I lead her to the dance floor, and neither does she.
“I’m sorry,” she says as I pull her body into mine.
“For what, angel?”
“We both know what he was trying to do.”
I smile down at her and press a kiss to her pouty lips. “I told you–nothing he could say would change anything for me. I could’ve stayed there listening to him make an ass out of himself all night. I just didn’t want to give him the opportunity to hurt you anymore today.”
“God, how I wish I had normal parents,” she confesses, and she lays her head on my shoulder as we move to the music.
“There’s no such thing as normal, baby. But you definitely could use some decent parents, that’s for sure.” I let out a small laugh.
“Was your mom a good mom before she passed away?” she questions, lifting her head back up to look at me. “I don’t think I’ve ever asked you too much about her or your father. You’ve never mentioned him.”
“Yes, she was,” I laugh. “She was great. She worked a lot because she was a single mom, but she was very supportive and always there when I needed her.”
“What about your dad?”
“Mom met my dad at Chelsea Pier during fleet week twenty-eight years ago,” I tell her. “It was supposed to be a passing fling, no numbers or last names exchanged. Mom couldn’t even contact him to tell him about me.”
I’m okay with all of this. It isn’t anything that can be changed. I’ve never faulted either one of them. Who knows? I could’ve been spared a father like Quinn’s.
“I’m sorry,” she offers, her eyes sad.
I shake my head in disagreement. “I’m not. I had a good life with a woman who did the very best she could for me. There’s nothing to be sorry about except you didn’t get the same experience from your parents.”
“You know what?” she asks. I shake my head. “I don’t want to talk about parents anymore, or jobs, or promotions. I just want to have a nice night with you.”
“Sounds like the perfect evening to me.”
Chapter Twenty
Quinn
“Thank you for dinner,” Blair says as she stands for Roger to help her into her coat.
“My pleasure,” I smile and wave as they head toward the exit of the restaurant.
I had asked her earlier this week if she and her boyfriend would be interested in dinner with Alex and me. I’ve met a lot of Alex’s friends, granted he works with most of his friends and I go to home games when I can, but I wanted to introduce him to some people outside of Ashley.
Things have been a little more serious since the Christmas party last month. Something changed inside me that night. Hearing Alex tell me he loves me and then saving me from having to deal with my father later made me feel something different inside.
Alex hasn’t pushed me to say the words back. The words also haven’t changed the way he acts around me. Everything is just the same as it was before, and it means a lot to me.
“Ready, angel?” Alex asks, pushing up from his chair. He grabs my coat off the back of my chair and shrugs it up onto my shoulders.
“Thank you,” I whisper before turning my face to his to kiss him.
He threads his fingers through mine, and we head outside.
“Hey, didn’t you introduce me to that guy and his wife over there at your holiday party?” Alex asks as he discreetly points to a table near the front door.
“Yeah, that’s Mitch,” I confirm continuing to the exit.
I don’t get very far since Alex is rooted in his spot and still holding my hand.
“What?” I ask, confused.
His brow furrows and he asks, “Don’t you want to say hello?”
“Umm, no.”
“Why not? They’re your colleagues.”
“Because I’m not too friendly with him, and he’s eating dinner,” I explain.
“But you’re friendly with his wife, right? It’s kind of rude not to say hello,” he counters nodding to the table where he’s sitting.
“The woman whose skirt his hand is currently up isn’t his wife,” I finally tell him since he’s adamant about being social.
“Seriously?” he questions as he throws daggers in their direction.
“Let’s go before this gets more awkward please,” I plead, tugging him into motion again.
Once we’re seated inside the car, Alex starts his inquisition again. “What are you going to tell her?”
“Tell who what?” I ask, not clearly understanding.
“His wife,” he stresses, snapping his head toward me. “What are you going to tell her when you see her at work?”
My forehead wrinkles and my eyebrow go up, “Nothing…”
“Nothing?” he sneers. “You’re not going to tell her you just saw her husband fingering some woman at a restaurant?”
“It’s not my business, Alex.” You
think he’d be used to this type of behavior. “Do you tell every wife of every player who has a side piece on the road?”
“I’m not friends with them.”
“I’m really not friends with her; we work together. We’ve only gotten together a time or two.” This is ridiculous. I can’t believe we’re arguing over this.
He shakes his head at me and lets out an ironic laugh. “That’s fucked up, you know? I can’t believe you’re not going to give the woman the courtesy of letting her know.”
“Trust me, Alex, it’s not worth it,” I sigh. “I’ve done it before. I’ve told someone her husband was sleeping around on her. She didn’t care. Said it was just the way it is. She made it seem like I was the one doing something wrong in pointing it out. They know. But it doesn’t mean they want to know.”
I remember the look on said woman’s face. She made me feel stupid for pointing it out. Like I was breaking some kind of societal woman’s code. She knew and chose not to care. And resented me for bringing it up. “It’s your call, I guess,” he finally gives up and starts the car. “I just think it’s fucked up he’s getting away with doing it. It’s not cool.”
Inside I feel a flood of relief at his words. I know words are just words and they don’t mean anything. But it’s nice to hear a man say as much. I knew my instincts about him weren’t wrong.
Chapter Twenty-One
Quinn
“Tell me again why we’re heading to the sex toy store?” Alex asks as we pull into the parking lot of the adult store I dragged him too.
“Ashley’s bachelorette party,” I remind him.
His brow furrows and he give me a puzzled look. “That’s where I’m confused. They aren’t doing bachelor/bachelorette parties.”
“They aren’t,” I concur with an evil smile. “But just because she doesn’t want to have a party doesn’t mean I’m not going to do something fun before they get married. It's tradition.”
“You’re going to throw a party with sex toys for her and Tanner’s sisters? That should go over well.” He shakes his head laughing.
Smacking him on the arm, I clarify my plans. “I’m not throwing a party. I’m going to decorate the condo in dick, hire a stripper, and give her a box filled with outrageous sex toys. I’m not inviting anyone. It’s just her and me. I’ll respect her wishes not to have some dirty party with Tanner’s family. But she’s getting married, there will be dick. It’s my job as her maid of honor to make sure she has one big shebang before she’s a taken woman.”
“You’re something else,” he smiles, pulling me in for a kiss. “You know Tanner is going to kill you for this, right?” he asks in between kisses. “We’ve all been given a firm order not to hire him any strippers or throw him a party.”
“Well, sucks for him you guys are too scared to throw him one,” I say, breaking away and opening my car door to get out.
As we walk into the store, my eyes start scanning the place for the party section. Every sex store has one. I spot what I’m looking for and pull Alex over to the wall of novelty items.
“Good Lord,” Alex gasps. “I mean, I knew they had all kinds of dick items for parties and shit, but I never imagined they had this much variety.”
The wall is covered in dick-shaped everything. I can’t help but laugh at the faces Alex is making. “And they say guys are the ones who constantly think about sex,” he shakes his head chuckling.
“If you only knew the amount of time women actually think about sex and dick, you’d be shocked,” I inform him. I know I personally think about sex more than most men.
“What are you looking to get?” he asks, still taking in the giant wall of dick-themed items.
“I want to get a bunch of this shit to throw around the apartment,” I tell him, and start looking for what I want.
I grab the giant dick lollipop first. It was number one on my list. I also plan to make Ashley eat it and take a picture of her doing it. Then I plan to send it to Tanner and watch him have a shit-fit.
Alex grabs a headband with cock antennae and places it on my head. “Aww. You look adorable with little sparkly penis horns,” he laughs.
“How mortified do you think Ash would be if she had this on her head when the stripper arrives?” I chuckle while grabbing a blow-up cock ring-toss game.
“I think you may just give her a heart attack,” he deadpans. "You sure this isn’t going to backfire on you?”
“The only thing she may get pissed about is the stripper, but once she sees the fine specimen I picked out for her, she’ll get over it.”
I grab a few other things, including dick shot glasses, penis candies, a dick cup, and a bachelorette sash. “Want the tablecloth covered in cocks too?” Alex is asking, holding it up.
“Ohh, yes,” I exclaim. “I missed that.”
“Please don’t tell Tanner I helped you plan this party. I don’t want to hear his bitching about it,” he says, adding the tablecloth to the basket he went and grabbed for me.
“Now what?” he says, taking the items from my hand and tossing them into the basket.
“Now we buy some more embarrassing stuff for her in the form of sex toys,” I smile devilishly as we cross the store to the other side where all the real toys are.
“Are you going to buy her the butt plug?” he snickers.
“Oh my God, yes!!” I agree. “That’s perfect.”
“Maybe we should get you one?” he suggests, wiggling his eyebrows at me.
I quirk an eyebrow of my own at him and smirk. “You trying to get my ass, babe?”
“Umm….yes…no…I don’t know,” he stops and stutters. “I kind of feel like this is one of those times where no matter what I say, it's going to be the wrong answer.”
“If you want to fuck my ass, all you have to do is ask,” I assure him. I saw this meme once on social media that fit me to a T: “I’m a tri-sexual. I’ll try anything once.” Except for playing with shit. I’m definitely not into that kink.
“That easy, huh?” he comments in a skeptical tone. “I’m taking it you enjoy anal?”
I grab an enormous, completely unrealistically sized dildo off the wall and toss it into the basket before replying. “I think I would like it,” I answer honestly. “I mean, I love anal play. I like when you stick your fingers in there and your tongue, but I’ve never had a dick in my ass before, so I can’t know for sure.”
“Wait, you mean…” His eyes light up brightly at the thought of me having a virgin ass. I can’t say I blame him for his surprise. It's comical to think of the word “virgin” associated with me.
“Nope, never let anyone in there. It’s a level of trust I never had with anyone where I felt comfortable with something this big,” I confirm for him. “What about you?” I return the question while grabbing a butt plug for Ashley.
“Nope, never done it before.”
I grab another plug from the rack and toss it in the basket with a smile.
“Please tell me we’re almost done?” He starts fidgeting. “My dick is rock hard right now thinking about your ass, and I’m standing in the middle of a sex store. People are going to think I’m some weirdo getting off in the back room of this place.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s the reason you’re all of a sudden in a rush to get home,” I laugh. At least, he tried to play it off as if he wasn’t dying to get home to plow into my ass.
“I’m a guy. You said I could put it in your ass. Sue me for getting a little excited.”
I grab some edible panties, fuzzy handcuffs, and a feather tickler before telling him I’m ready.
As we head to the register to pay, we pass a display of lubes. I stop in front of it and grab a bottle of anal lube and toss it to Alex. “We’re going to need this.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Quinn
Alex practically dragged me out of the store after I tossed him the anal lube. The lady at the counter found his fidgeting amusing. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t too.
> “Aren’t you going to at least feed me first?” I joke as we pull out of the parking lot.
“If I must,” he mock sighs. “But you might as well wait because you’re going to need some sustenance after I’m through with you.”
“Your excitement is adorable.”
“You just gave me permission to do every guy’s dream,” he defends himself. “It’s not like I get the offer every day.”
“It’s not like you’ve asked before,” I point out.
“Honestly,” he starts his explanation, “I always kind of thought women didn’t really care for it outside of the world of porn, and who knows if their enjoyment is real?”
“That’s a pretty generalized statement, babe. You’d be surprised what goes on behind closed doors. Like I said before, all you had to do was ask,” I say, leaning over the center console, stroking my hand over the bulge in his pants.
“Angel…” he warns. “I’m already ready to go. There’s no need for that.”
“So, I guess you don’t want me to do this then either,” I ask as I slide the zipper down and shove my hand through the hole. I work my fingers into the slit in his boxers and wrap my fingers around his steel shaft.
Groaning, he says, “Oh, I want you to do that, angel, and much more, but I want to make sure we get home in one piece.”
“Well, I guess you better concentrate on the road then,” I instruct him, not removing my hand from his pants.
I continue to stroke him gently and teasingly until we reach my place. I’m not entirely sure the car technically stops before Alex throws it into park.
