Hard Ball (Stadium Series Book 1)

by S A Clayton

  “Of course not. None if this is on you, it’s all me. But I want to remind you that after that shitty game I came here, to see you. Not Angela, you.” I close my eyes and try and fight the feelings that are coursing through my body.

  When our eyes connect and I see the pain coursing through him I start to cave. Maybe it’s out of pity, or maybe it’s pure stupidity, but I step aside and motion for him to come in.

  “How the hell do you get any work done around here when it’s pitch black?” he asks cautiously, taking every step slowly to make sure he doesn’t run into anything. Without thinking, I start to laugh.

  “I’m used to it. I’ve been in this building since I was a kid, so navigating in the dark is almost second nature to me now.”

  His footsteps echo in the dark room as we head farther and farther away from the front windows.

  “That’s my office over there,” I say, pointing to the only room with light.

  As we get closer, Josh’s fingers intertwine with mine, sending warmth straight through my entire body as I take a deep breath to try and control the feelings that are coursing through me.

  “How’s the shoulder?” I ask, trying to distract myself from the feel of his hand in mine. As we step into my office, I turn and finally get a good look at his face. His tired eyes stare forward as the exhaustion washes off him and I reluctantly let go of his hand. I almost immediately regret the loss as I grab the remote off the desk and turn the TV volume down.

  “It’s fine.” His eye twitches and I know he’s lying through his teeth. He had the same expression when he told reporters the same thing. To prove my point, I turn back to the television and rewind, stopping at the beginning of his interview, where you can clearly see that it was iced.

  “I call bullshit.” A small smile crosses his face as he lets out an uneven breath.

  “Touché, Miss Stevens,” he says, making his way toward me.

  My breathing becomes shallow the closer he comes and my mind races, my skin flushing at the thought of what it would be like to just give in to everything I’ve been dreaming about. Everything I’ve wanted these past few days.

  “You know, a massage might help loosen it up…” I blurt out and automatically cringe because of course he already knows that. He has professionals around him at all times that would have already told him that. “Don’t mind me, that was a stupid thing to say. Your medical team probably already did that after the game.”

  When my eyes chance a glance at Josh, his sly grin is all I can see, and I breathe a sigh of relief. He steps closer and closer until his body is flush with mine and for a split second, I think he’s going to kiss me and for the life of me I can’t figure out a good reason not to kiss him back. But instead, he leans in, his lips against my ear as his breath cascades down my neck as my nerves go into overdrive.

  “Show me,” he demands as his lips lightly brush against the side of my neck, sending arousal coursing through my entire body.

  I know I need to step away, I know this can’t amount to anything good or helpful, but fuck, the feel of his lips against my skin is addictive. He’s like a drug and I’m a recovering addict, needing to feel that high once more. I wordlessly agree as he slowly steps away and I take a deep breath as he lifts his shirt over his head in that sexy way that men do—pulling it from behind and lifting it right off in one fluid motion.

  “What are you—” I stutter because holy. Shit. All I see are abs. His abs and his tanned skin that I knew were there hidden under his clothes, I mean, he’s a pro athlete. If he didn’t look like this, I would question him, but seriously? He has those V-shaped indents at his hips.

  Who the fuck has those in real life?

  My tongue darts out as I lick my bottom lip, savoring the view. My legs clench at the thought of what that body could do to someone like me, and what that tanned skin would feel like flush against mine…

  A groan comes from Josh’s direction as my head whips up as his eyes soak me in. I shake my head, getting myself out of my daydream and turn around.

  “You can sit there.” I motion to the chair opposite my desk.

  He sits, his back muscles flexing as he does and again, my whole body responds to the point where I have to wait a few seconds before I put my hands on him.

  His entire body tenses when my fingers lightly touch his injured shoulder. The heat coming off his skin fills my palms and it takes so much self-control not to start caressing his entire upper body like a madwoman.

  “You’re tense,” I say matter-of-factly as I work his muscles beneath my palms. I’m trying to remember what I learned in school, but at this point, I don’t think that matters. I don’t think either of us are expecting what I’m doing to have any kind of lasting effect on his muscles.

  “You could say that,” he says, almost low enough that I don’t hear him. His breath hitches as my thumb grazes the side of his neck and I soak up his reaction to my touch. It feels incredibly empowering.

  “I assume you let the trainer look at this after the game?”

  He nods before wincing when I hit a nerve.

  “I did, they’re definitely not my favorite people in the organization, so I try and get out of there as fast as possible.”

  I laugh, feeling Josh’s shoulders shake beneath my fingers when he joins me. As much as I hate to admit it, I love the sound of his laugh and I mentally slap myself for wanting to hear it more and more.

  “It feels like you have a knot in your shoulders, probably from all the tension you’re holding here.” I squeeze both shoulders before walking around the front of the chair and stand in front of him. I try not to notice the bulge in his pants, but the illicit thrill that runs through me when my eyes cast down tells me I’ve failed miserably.

  “That’s the text I got from Josie, my trainer, when I left. She told me to rest it as much as possible and she’ll re-examine me before practice tomorrow.”

  I say nothing, stepping closer as his cologne invades all of my senses.

  “There’s one more thing I want to try.” I gently push him back into the chair, bending over and placing both my hands on his shoulder once more. His sharp intake of breath hits me as his eyes roam around the room, looking anywhere but me. As I work his muscle more intently, a groan erupts from his chest and when I look down, his eyes are trained on my chest. Or more importantly, my breasts.

  I follow his eyes and realize that the top button of my blouse is open, leaving him with an unobstructed view down my shirt. Thank God I wore a sexy bra today. The white lace against my pale skin looks fantastic and judging by the look in his eyes, Josh agrees. I smirk, kneading his shoulders and working the muscles as much as possible to distract myself from the fact that having his eyes on me is the hottest thing ever.

  “Fuck, that feels good,” he moans, making my thighs clench. The gravelly sound of his voice shoots straight through my body and right to my core.

  How does he turn me on with just four words?

  The more my hands work his muscles, the more sounds escape his mouth, making my nipples harden and my breath catch. His fingers lightly brush a trail up the back of my legs, making their way higher and higher. I close my eyes and stop what I’m doing because the way his fingers send tingles up and down my skin has blanketed my senses. And the moment those talented fingers of his reach the hem of my skirt, my head drops to his shoulder.

  “Jesus, Sunshine, what I wouldn’t give to have your hands on every part of me…”

  I suppress a whimper as his fingers grip the backs of my thighs, bringing me onto his lap. Once I’m straddling him, my hands grip his shoulders for dear life.

  “W-What are you doing?” I stammer, my eyes pleading for him to stop, even though all I want is for his hands to grab every inch of my body and never stop. His fingers tighten as my core rocks against his growing hardness as a whimper escapes my lips.

  “I need to hear more of those sounds coming out of your fucking mouth,” Josh whispers against the skin of my neck.
His hands begin to travel up my thighs and hold firm to the globes of my ass. “You’re the sexiest woman on the fucking planet, Harper. You have no idea what you’re doing to me with those sounds, do you?”

  He pulls me flush against his chest, his erection sitting right where I need him most as my eyes begin to roll into the back of my head. I’ve never been this turned on before and the need for his hands to be against my body is so strong that I know I need to either back away now or let this moment happen.

  “Josh…” I moan, leaving my reservations behind and fully letting this happen, damn the consequences. I can’t fight it anymore, not when he feels this good wrapped around me.

  He places his lips on my neck, licking up until his teeth lightly nibble against the lobe of my ear.

  “Fuck, Josh. This shouldn’t be happening.”

  I don’t know if I mean this shouldn’t happen here in my office, or at all, but the feel of his lips against me is something I need more of, not less. His lips curve as he smiles against my skin, licking, sucking, and biting lower and lower down the column of my throat.

  “Shit…” I whimper as he sucks the skin in just the right spot that sends arousal straight to my heat, which sends my hips searching for purchase.

  I grip his hair, my hips grinding faster and faster as I pull him close, his fingers deftly undoing the rest of my blouse. With every light stroke of his fingers against my exposed chest, my back arches, trying desperately to get as close to him as possible. Eyes closed, I savor the way his hands feel on my skin until all movement stops. My eyes open to find him staring at my chest.

  “You are… amazing,” he groans, his gaze never leaving the slit in my shirt. Before I have time to savor his eyes on me, his hands are off my ass and on my breasts. “You’re fucking unreal…” he groans again between kissing my neck and making his way down toward my chest. “You taste so fucking good; I knew you would but…”

  The words penetrate my fog of lust and a small smile curves at the corner of my lips. Hearing that you drive someone to the brink, isn’t something I ever wanted to hear, but from the way my body reacts to his words? I love it.

  “Josh…” I moan, my hips grinding in circles, his hands making their way back to my ass as he pulls me even closer. He starts to grind back into me, my groans catching in my throat as I start to shudder in pleasure. Fuck, he’s good at this.

  “I wonder if you taste this good everywhere…” His lips travel down the hollow of my throat and down between my breasts. The feeling sends my whole body leaning back as his arms circle my waist, making sure I don’t fall.

  I never knew it could feel like this.

  13

  Josh

  Harper’s hands find their way into my hair as she pulls me closer. She’s spent the last few weeks fighting against this, fighting against what it would feel like once I showed her the reality of us. And now that it’s finally happening, when she’s finally giving in to her primal urges, I want more, so much more.

  My lips suck her breasts through the sexy white lace bra that’s peeking out from under her shirt. I try with all my might to get that shirt off her body, but it’s tucked into her skirt and I refuse to stop kissing her to fix it. Her hands grasp the back of my head, tugging my lips farther and farther down her chest as a whimper escapes those gorgeous lips. That sound will always send me to my knees and if she weren’t grinding against me right now, I would be on the ground in front of her, begging her to tell me exactly what she wants me to do to her.

  “Patience, Sunshine,” I whisper against her skin, loving the pink color that dusts over her chest and down her arms. “What I want to do to you will take hours.”

  The images in my head of her spread out in front of me are causing my cock to swell against the seam of my pants, and it’s taking everything for me not to blow my load while she moves against me. Her little whimpers show me exactly how close she is, almost at that cusp of ecstasy that I know will send her flying over the edge. So I pull my lips away from her chest and grasp her hair, pulling her head down to mine. My forehead rests against hers, my lips inches from the ones I’ve been dreaming about for weeks.

  “Josh… please,” she begs as I close my eyes, loving the sounds coming from her lips.

  Craving the sound of her begging for her own pleasure because it’s incredibly sexy and I want to hear it all the fucking time.

  “What do you want? Tell me,” I ask, leaning in and hoping to take those lips like I’ve dreamed of, but just as my mouth grazes hers, a loud blaring ringtone shatters the silence. I curse under my breath, hoping she stays in the moment, but as her body tenses under my touch, I know it’s ruined. The moment is gone.

  “I have to get that.”

  I say nothing, trying to breathe through the idea that I was seconds away from coming in my pants and now I’m left to sit here and watch as Harper grabs her phone off her desk and answers it.

  “Hi Mom,” she mutters, turning her back to me as she leans against the edge of the desk.

  I don’t blame her for stopping to answer her phone, but I silently curse her mother for having horrible timing. Harper listens to something her mother says as she turns to give me an apologetic smile when her eyes catch my chest and widen. When I look down and see the scratch marks that were not there ten minutes ago, I give her a cocky smirk, loving the fact that she was so in the moment that she did something so unexpected. My fingers trace the marks, imagining if she would do the same thing once I was inside her.

  Harper’s gaze meets mine once again and I can tell by the faraway look in her eyes that she’s not listening to what her mother is saying. So, when she says, “Sorry, what did you say?”

  I give her a wink and get up to go pick up my shirt that is lying discarded on the floor. As much as I wish we could pick up where we left off, I know that’s not going to happen.

  Her mother obviously says something she doesn’t like because Harper’s eyes narrow and then roll into the back of her head. From what I can tell from Henry’s passing remarks and the fact that Harper doesn’t talk about her mother at all, it makes me believe that their relationship isn’t the best.

  “I’m fine, just finishing up work.” Her small smile gives me a shred of hope that whatever happened between us tonight won’t end with just tonight.

  I take my seat once more, trying not to remember what she looked like grinding against me as she sits down in her chair and tilts her head back to look up at the ceiling.

  “Yes, I still work at Dad’s gym,” she whispers and I can see the tension rising in her shoulders.

  It takes all my self-control not to go over there and rip the phone out of her hand and hang up, because I know whatever her mother is telling her right now is causing too much stress for a girl that has already gone through too much.

  “Mom, please, I really don’t want to talk about this right now.” Her voice is clipped, and I can tell she’s trying to put on a brave face for me.

  I wonder if I should leave, give her some privacy but she doesn’t look upset that I’m still here, and to be honest, the more time I can spend with her, I will.

  I can hear her mother’s muffled voice, she says something about Harper working at an awful place as she sinks back into her chair, looking defeated. There’s a new kind of pain in her eyes, one I’ve never seen before and my fists clench at the fact that I can’t do anything to take that pain away. Not yet anyway.

  “I work here because it’s where I want to be,” she whispers, almost in tears. All of a sudden, she gets up, pacing back and forth, anger seeping out of every pore. “I don’t care what you think, Mom,” she starts. “Yes, I know you don’t approve of me working here, but I love it and it makes me feel closer to—” Her mother cuts her off and it’s not long before Harper is full-on yelling. “Say his name, Mom! For fuck’s sake it’s been fifteen years, why can’t you say his fucking name!” Her tears fall silently as she rests against the back wall, her head against the picture frame behind her.<
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  “I know you miss him. You think I don’t?”

  She’s so fucking strong and even though I don’t know exactly what’s going on between her and her mother, I’m proud of her. I’m proud that for her, grieving isn’t a singular moment in her life, but a revolving door of emotions that meld together to create memories instead of perpetual sadness.

  Her mother says something that makes her eyes roll, a small smile crossing her lips, then all of a sudden everything changes. Her entire body goes rigid as I sit up straight in my chair.

  “Seriously? What the hell is he doing calling you?” she yells before she pinches the bridge of her nose and lowers her head. “And to that point, what are you doing answering his calls?”

  She starts pacing again as I sit there, trying to figure out if I should step in. At this point I don’t care what anyone says, I’m staying until I know she’s okay.

  “I told you we’re not seeing each other anymore.”

  Now I know exactly who she is talking about and it makes me want to punch a wall. The idea of that man-child laying a hand on her makes me livid.

  “Oh my god,” she groans, rubbing her forehead in frustration. “He cheated on me, there is no way I’m getting back together with him, even if you do think we were a great couple and he’s such a sweet boy.”

  I chuckle at that last part as her eyes dart to mine.

  “You know what, Mom? I don’t have time for this right now. I’ll talk to you later.” She hangs up without waiting for a reply and we are again in blissful silence.

  She mutters a curse as she sets her phone down on the desk as she looks up and our eyes meet. She takes a breath, her eyes flaring, and I know she feels this connection as much as I do, but right now all I can think about is making sure she’s okay.

  I get up out of my chair, making my way around the desk so I’m standing right in front of her. It takes all my willpower to carefully take each and every button of her blouse and do them up one by one. Her breath catches every time my fingers brush against her skin, making me hard all over again.