Stars (Penmore #1)

by Malorie Verdant

Who, immediately after throwing a gorgeous Hail Mary pass, looks to the stands, straight at me, and poses as Spiderman, sitting on a skyscraper shooting web strings from his wrist.

  It was the photo the media would capture and put on every television for weeks to come.

  No one having the faintest clue why Grayson Waters, superstar quarterback for the Penmore Herons, would strike a pose rather than watch to see if his team won the college football championship.

  No one even considers that after he got to throw that glorious pass, all he would want to do is make the girl—the one who made it possible for him to play in the championship game in the way he wanted to play—to smile bigger than she had ever done so before.

  PARKER

  We were back at the frat house, where I’d first laid eyes on Grayson at Penmore.

  Except rather than hiding under the stairs, Gray had dragged me outside toward the small fire pit.

  Most of the players with girlfriends were huddled around it already; some were making out while others stared quietly into the flames.

  Gray sat us on the closest patch of grass, near enough to feel the warmth of the embers floating into the air but far enough for us to be in our own cocoon of privacy.

  He plants me between his legs and leans me in to his chest. Wrapping me in his glorious scent and much-needed body heat.

  I can’t imagine I’ll be able to sit like this for very long, however, without wanting to drag him to the closest bedroom and have my way with him.

  As he shifts his legs further apart to make more room for me to stretch out, I breathe in the scent that is all Gray and I’m suddenly determined.

  One drink and then I’m taking advantage of him.

  “Babe, I know you probably want to dance, or drink or even rush off. But I just need a moment. I just need it to be us for a second. You, me, under the stars,” he whispers as he rests his chin on my head.

  I twist around for a moment then reach up to brush my lips softly against his.

  “I’m good with that.”

  He exhales softly against my cheek.

  As I’m about to shift back into my original position, I catch sight of Gray’s tattoo. It never fails to make me laugh.

  “I still can’t believe you all decided to get these permanently marked on your skin at the beginning of the season,” I mutter as I peek at the duck hockey mask visible underneath the edge of his T-shirt sleeve.

  “Hey The Mighty Ducks is the best. Just like us. Quack!” he replies, his blue eyes lighting with humor.

  “You know you don’t play hockey, right?” I ask, giggling.

  “Babe, it’s about more than just hockey. It’s about being a team. Plus, it was my favorite movie growing up. Didn’t you have a favorite movie or show growing up?” he teases, his hands slowly wrapping around my waist as I go back to sitting between his legs, my back to his chest.

  I can’t help but feel the heat rise to my cheeks.

  “I had a favorite show all right. And my leading man was much cuter than Joshua Jackson,” I whisper softly as I rest my hands on his thighs.

  “Cuter than Joshua Jackson, huh?” He laughs. “D, did you know my girl thinks I’m better than Charlie from The Mighty Ducks?” he yells to Andy, on the other side of the victory party.

  That’s it, I’m now having two drinks and he’ll have to take advantage of me.

  “She wearing her contacts?” D yells back.

  Nope. I am having three drinks.

  GRAYSON

  She was pulling me upstairs.

  Dragging me into the bathroom on the right with the bad fluorescent lighting and unseemly white tiles.

  If this were anyone else, I’d know without a doubt what was about to happen.

  “I just want you to stand there,” she tells me as she slowly gets to her knees in front of me.

  Jesus Christ, the view I have down her shirt makes every part of my body flood with desire.

  The band the boys hired to celebrate our championship victory begin their cover of the Beatles “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” but all I can hear is my panting. I focus on the feel of her soft fingers trailing up my legs and reaching the buttons of my jeans.

  When she has every button unfastened, I quickly pause and turn around to lock the door.

  “Don’t,” she whispers.

  “Huh?”

  “A while ago, a shy girl stumbled into a bathroom like this,” she whispers, a grin tugging at her lips. “Saw something very similar going on.”

  “Is that so?” I say, struggling to keep my voice level as I feel her hands slowly slide back up my legs and begin to pull my pants down.

  “Yep, and she thought she would never be lucky enough, confident enough or pretty enough to catch the attention of the hottest guy in the room,” she murmurs, moving her mouth closely to where the tip of my cock is pushing against my boxers.

  “I have a feeling she didn’t look in the mirror enough,” I manage to cough out as she slowly runs her tongue up the length of my boxers-covered shaft. “Because she’s fucking beautiful.”

  “You might be right. But she got lucky and all her dreams came true. Now she doesn’t care who sees her or who else might dream about landing the hottest guy in the room, because she isn’t the shy one anymore,” she tells me softly before she frees me and takes me deep into her mouth. When she releases me with a pop, Parker looks into my eyes and says, “And she knows that she’s his dream come true as well.”

  “Hell yeah,” I agree, looking into her eyes with a smug grin moments before she focuses all of her attention on my cock.

  I need to grip the side of the sink so she doesn’t literally bring me to my knees, because with the way she takes all of me, moving up, down, in and out with her fucking talented tongue constantly licking and sucking me, I’m lost to her. I lose control when I’m with her.

  When she has sucked every last drop, she collapses on her back and looks up at me smiling. Giggling as if she has a secret or knows that she very nearly brought me to my knees. Her chocolate locks are spread out across the tiles, her heart-shaped face pink from exertion, and her eyes are clouded with desire.

  She looks exactly like how I first saw her laid out before me on the stairs in our sociology class. Or at least how I wanted her to look.

  “Move in with me,” I rasp.

  “What?” she asks, still giggling.

  “Move in with me for good. If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s that life is too fucking short. And I want the chance to look at you every morning and every night. I want the chance to wake up with you. Go to bed with you. Move in with me tomorrow and let me start watching you for the rest of our lives.”

  “You want to watch me?”

  “Yes.”

  GRAYSON

  Thirteen Years Later

  I open the front door quietly and leave my worn suitcase on the floor near the entrance. I normally can’t help but yell out when I step through the door, but the plane got delayed and I’m arriving later than usual. It’s definitely bedtime or possibly story time, so instead I decide to prowl around the house looking for my family.

  It wasn’t a big house. I could have bought something much grander, and once I was signed I initially looked at buying the biggest and the best for Stars. But after hours of discussions, we decided that, with her spending so much time at the hospital and my training schedule, we didn’t need a home that meant if we were both in it we had to spend more time cleaning than enjoying each other.

  As I move through our one-story Californian bungalow filled with black and white photos of our wedding and birthdays, colorful rugs and bright cushions, the tension from travelling finally eases.

  It has been a dream playing for the Dallas Cowboys and when we travel, beating other teams in their home stadiums is always sweet, but coming home to my family is sweeter.

  As I lean against the doorway of the room I just knew they would both be in, with lavender walls decorated in vintage Spiderman posters,
my heart beats faster than when I play in any Super Bowl game.

  “Daddy’s home,” whispers Ellie as she looks from her mother’s smiling face to mine.

  I move across the room and kiss my beautiful angel’s sleepy head. Her blue eyes, identical to mine, try to remain open but fall heavy with sleep. Her thick, glossy brown hair is spread across her princess pillowcase.

  “She has tried so hard to stay up, but she had a big day today,” Parker tells me softly.

  “It’s all good,” I reply, brushing my lips across my wife’s as I help her tuck our sleepy angel in her bed. I notice my children’s picture book The Nymph Princess on her side table.

  “I’m so glad you’re home, Babe.”

  “Me too. Next away game, I’m taking you both with me. I hate playing when you guys aren’t in the stands,” I say as I grab the book and return it to the shelves with my other stories.

  “And I hate watching you get sacked on television. It feels like you’re miles away and I won’t be able to help if you need it,” Parker complains as we slowly turn off the light and creep out to the lounge room.

  “Stars, I’m perfectly okay,” I reply as I settle into our comfy couch and pull her onto my lap.

  “Yeah, yeah. So, did you want to know what made our day so busy?”

  “Sure. What did my super-hero princess get up to?” I chuckle, preparing myself for her usual crazy antics.

  “We met our new neighbors,” she tells me with a soft laugh.

  “Really? I was wondering when that place was going to sell. What are they like?”

  “Lovely, their names are Max and Jenna. They also have the two cutest little twin boys the same age as Elliot.”

  “No.”

  “What?”

  “No. Not happening. Does Ellie have windows?” I say, shifting Parker off my lap and getting to my feet.

  “Does our four-year-old have windows in her bedroom? Well, seeing as we don’t keep her locked in the dungeon, I’m thinking she does.” Stars giggles from her relaxed position on the couch.

  “Super-gluing them closed first thing tomorrow,” I snap.

  “Babe, I think you’re being dramatic.”

  “Okay. Wooden boards would be more efficient anyway. Those little punks are not falling in love with my princess.”

  “Babe, I doubt everyone falls in love with their neighbor at the age of five,” Stars tells me as she stands and wraps her arms around my waist.

  “Not everyone looks like Ellie,” I tell her, completely serious.

  “And there are two of them,” she teases.

  “Exactly, taking no chances,” I say before trying to recall where I last left my hammer.

  “Okay, big guy, I think we need to head to bed. Maybe that sacking also needs to be checked over by the doctor before you go to sleep,” she suggests, pulling me toward our bedroom.

  It’s been a long fucking trip without my wife, and I figure I could probably pick up steel sheets over wooden boards from Home Depot tomorrow anyway. Protecting Ellie could wait twelve hours.

  “You know, I think you’re right. I definitely need Dr. Waters to check me over. Probably best to do it naked though and have me lie down, so you can make a real thorough examination,” I say as I finally close our bedroom door.

  Both of us, of course, forget to close our curtains.

  Always too busy watching each other.

  STARS PLAYLIST

  “Fire and the Flood” - Vance Joy

  “Here” - Alessia Cara

  “Beyond the Blue” - Beth Nielsen Chapman

  “You Belong With Me” - Taylor Swift

  “How Deep Is Your Love” - Calvin Harris & Disciples

  “Like a Star” - Corinne Bailey Rae

  “The Fire” - The Roots & John Legend

  “How” – Lisa Loeb

  “My Body Is a Cage” - Arcade Fire

  “Please Forgive Me” – Bryan Adams

  “Water Under the Bridge” – Adele

  “Every Breath You Take” – The Police

  “Answer” - Sarah McLachlan

  “I Want You (Shes So Heavy)” – The Beatles

  “Stars” – Alessia Cara

  CONNECT WITH MALORIE

  If you would like to keep up-to-date with all things #Penmore please follow me on:

  Facebook Author Page:

  www.facebook.com/malorieverdant.author/

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  www.instagram.com/malorieverdant.author/

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  www.goodreads.com/author/show/14819550.Malorie_Verdant

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  There are so many people I need to thank for making this possible. I’ll try and keep it to a page.

  First and foremost: Taryn and Kirra. If they weren’t unbelievably excited for me to try my luck at writing and lavishing me with compliments like, ‘I wouldn’t get angry for spending money on it if I bought it from Amazon’ or ‘I’ve read worse’, there is no way this book would have been written. They have been my loudest cheerleaders and I will be forever grateful for everything they have done.

  Chantal Fernando, thank you for being you! An amazing inspiration, a fantastic friend and someone I knew I could turn to with all my questions (and I had a lot).

  Stephanie Knowles, Lauren Bille, Teneale Zamarini, Claire Hielscher and Maxime Saltmarsh, my beta readers, who weren’t afraid to tell me what needed improving and what they felt I clearly forgot to explain for everyone else.

  Regina Wamba for my wonderful cover and Yuli! I can’t thank you enough for putting up with all of my emails.

  The team at Hot Tree Editing! I feel honored to have worked with such talented individuals!

  The amazing girls at FMR Book Grind! Thank you for everything you have done to help me!

  My mum, the queen of sharing motivational memes. Whenever I was worried I was crazy for starting this journey, those memes would light a spark that would have me writing another chapter or silencing the doubts in my head. I love you so much.

  My dad, I’m sorry I decided to self-publish and robbed you of the ability to walk into a store and buy every copy. Thank you for being proud of me when I told you I wanted to write romance- and for only ever reading this page.

  Taylor, for the small amount of times we get to spend together (mostly at the movies) that doesn’t make me feel like I live miles away.

  Current contemporary authors who have kept me wanting more: Tillie Cole, Abbi Glines, Nora Roberts, T.M Frazer, Tijan, Jennifer Crusie and many MANY more. I have become so addicted to your brilliant stories, I needed to write my own to keep up with my love for hot fictional men.

  And you! For buying a book by an author you haven’t read and taking a chance on a story that maybe sounded a little strange.