Goal Keeper_A Pearson Players novel

by Sarah Nego

  Luci groaned into my mouth as my fingers kneaded her flesh. I wanted to touch her everywhere. But more than that, I wanted to make her feel good. Like the way she made me feel by coming here and not looking at this sanctuary of art as unworthy.

  My hand moved between us and slid down to where I found her already wet. Luci let out a tiny whimper that sent all my hot blood rushing to my cock. I wanted so badly to bury my length inside her, but not right then. When I took Luci, I wanted a big bed where I could spread out and take my time tasting every inch of her before I fucked her so hard she’d still feel me inside of her the next week.

  There wasn’t room for that in the darkroom, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t give her something. I removed my hand, and Luci let out a whimper that was cut off when I spun her around so her back was flush with my chest.

  “Put your hands on the table and spread your legs.”

  To Luci’s credit, she didn’t hesitate for longer than half a second.

  I shoved her white cotton panties to her knees and then stepped back to appreciate the full sight of her naked ass, dimly lit by the yellow bulb. God, she was a work of art. Like a Greek sculpture, except instead of hard marble she was soft, supple flesh.

  My mouth watered for a taste, and I didn’t have the restraint to deny myself. I knelt down and bit at the smooth skin of her ass. Luci groaned, and her legs split wider, probably without her realizing it. My cock twitched, demanding to be let inside. I rubbed my hand over the swollen shaft and knew without a doubt I’d be jerking off later to the memory of Luci naked from the waist down and spread in front of a table.

  But first, I wanted to see her come. I needed to know exactly what she sounded like when she let go so I could have the soundtrack running on a loop in my head when I climaxed later.

  I stood up and wrapped my arms around her, squeezing her perfect breasts through her shirt before letting my hands drift lower. My palms smoothed down her torso until they hit bare skin.

  Luci dropped her head back against my chest. “Ryan.” Her voice pleaded with me to touch her, and I complied.

  I slid a finger between her wet folds and found her clit, swollen and begging to be touched. The gorgeous woman in my arms let out a deep moan as my hand made contact and swirled around the most sensitive part of her body.

  Her fingers gripped the table in front of her so tight her knuckles showed white in the darkened room. Her hips bucked against my slow exploration of her body, demanding more.

  So I gave it to her.

  I lowered my other hand and found her opening, filling her with two fingers.

  “Oh god, yes,” Luci yelled out, her sex grinding down into my hand.

  I switched from a slow study of her clit to a demanding pace, forcing her body toward the inevitable.

  “Fuck, Ryan. I’m gonna come.”

  Her muscles contracted around my fingers, confirming her words. She was right on the edge, and it was my job to send her over.

  I squeezed at the sensitive bundle of nerves at her apex and nipped at the tender skin where her neck met her shoulder.

  Luci’s knees buckled and she cried out, the words unintelligible but telling a story as old as time. Her voice as she came on my hand was the sweetest song ever written. I continued to thrust into her as her body rode the wave of pleasure, cresting over and finally coming back into equilibrium.

  “Ryan.” She sighed like a prayer that almost undid my self-control.

  I sucked in a ragged breath and knelt down, kissing a path up the back of her leg as I lifted her clothes. Luci stood in front of the table, still gripping the edge as I buttoned her back into her jeans and kissed the side of her neck.

  “I think we can make this work,” I said before I could chicken out.

  Luci drew in a shuddering breath. “What about—”

  I raked my teeth down her ear, effectively cutting off her question.

  Then, I turned Luci around, placed my hands on her cheeks, and tilted her head up so I could look into her stunning brown eyes. “She can’t possibly know everything.” I kissed her lips softly and knew it wasn’t playing fair, but I didn’t care. “I think we could be good.”

  I’d told Scooter this was just one night, but that had been a load of crap and we both knew it. Luci had gotten her hooks into me without even trying, and I wasn’t the least bit interested in removing them.

  “Okay,” she said, pulling me a little tighter.

  I kissed her soft and slow because since she was mine I didn’t have to rush.

  Twenty-Four

  Luci

  Monday

  Calculus

  Intro to Art

  Speech

  Practice

  Rehearse persuasive speech

  Read art chapters

  By the time I got to practice on Monday, I was seriously dragging ass. We had two games coming up, so I’d spent all of Sunday studying and getting ahead on my homework. Or at least I’d tried. It was hard to focus on calculus when my brain wanted to relive the hottest orgasm of my life.

  Ryan and I were playing a dangerous game. We hadn’t discussed any more dates, and I certainly hadn’t put a name on what we were doing, but every day this thing between us felt a little more real. A little more like something that was going somewhere. That alone should have sent me running, but I couldn’t seem to stay away from him.

  I chucked my bag at the bench and plopped down by Sam and Avery, flopping onto my back and stretching out on the warm grass.

  “I know that look,” Sam said, nudging my arm with her foot.

  “What?” I sat up and extended my legs to the sides so I could at least look like I was stretching.

  Sam waggled her eyebrows at me. “What’s his name?”

  “What’s whose name?” Avery asked, straightening from her own stretch.

  “The guy that has Luci smiling like the world is made of sunshine and rainbows.”

  Sam pointed at my face, and I slapped a hand over my mouth. I tried to straighten my lips into a neutral line, but it was impossible. How could I not smile when everything in my life seemed to be going so well?

  I dropped my hand and stretched my arms behind my back. “Can’t a girl just be happy?”

  “No,” Avery and Sam said together.

  I looked over at their eager faces. I wanted to tell them. Hell, it would be so much easier if I could tell them that Ryan and I were ... something, and that he made me feel like it was okay to be a little out of control. But then I’d have to quit the team, because there was no way Vanessa would let me live if she had any idea.

  “Change of subject.” I scooted closer to the girls. “The soccer guys want to throw a secret party for the team.”

  Avery whipped her head around the field, probably looking for Vanessa. Our captain was busy talking to Coach Taylor. Avery turned back to me. “How do you know this?”

  Normal face, normal face, normal face.

  “Ryan and I are partners in Spanish class, and he told me while we were working on our project last week.” Which was partially true. We were partners, but the conversation about the secret party had been late last night when we were texting instead of sleeping.

  Sam’s mouth wrinkled. “Wait, you’re partners with Ryan VanKamp?” she whispered.

  I glanced around, checking that Vanessa hadn’t snuck up on us. “What? She can dictate our social life, but she can’t stop me from doing class assignments.”

  Sam made a face that said she wasn’t so sure about that. “It’s not about what she can and can’t do. Vanessa is vindictive and power hungry, and she lives by her own set of rules. It’s more about what she’s willing to do to stop you.”

  “We’re supposed to stay away from all the guys,” Avery said, leaning over one leg, “but Ryan is definitely the most off-limits guy on the team.”

  A cold shiver ran down my back, and whatever was left of lunch rolled around in my stomach.

  Avery reached over and set a hand on my arm. “Ju
st be careful. It would be better if our terrifying leader didn’t know about your study sessions.” Avery lifted one eyebrow and drew her mouth into a thin line.

  She knew. The look said it all. I let out a slow breath. Avery would never rat me out. She hated Vanessa as much as I did. But if she could figure it out with one short conversation, how long could we really expect to keep this, whatever it was, a secret?

  Vanessa could never know. I didn’t know what she would do, but I knew it would be bad. Sam and Avery had made it clear that Vanessa wouldn’t shed a single tear over hurting me or even getting me kicked off the team. Coach Taylor wouldn’t have made her captain if he didn’t value her opinion.

  I shook out my arms. That meant we had to be even more careful. I’d tell Ryan that night. No contact on campus outside of class, no talking about each other to anyone, and any future dates needed to happen way outside of town. We could do it. We had to make it through the end of soccer season, and then Coach would pick a new captain for next year and the dumb no-dating rule would disappear.

  How in the hell had I gone so quickly from staying away from every guy on campus to planning a whole semester of dates with the most out-of-bounds one there?

  “So, tell me more about this party.” Sam folded her legs into a butterfly stretch.

  Thankful for a change of subject, I copied her so we could talk without Vanessa yelling at us. “I don’t have any details yet. Just that they want to do it and figure out a way to let everyone know without Vanessa hearing about it.”

  Sam’s face broke out into a grin. “No problem. I can make that happen. Tell the guys to set a date, and we’ll be there.”

  I nodded, and that easily, I became some sort of an ambassador between the two soccer teams.

  “All right, ladies,” Vanessa yelled out over the field. “Line up in front of the bench and take two laps around to warm up.”

  I followed Sam and Avery over to the sideline, keeping my head down as we passed Vanessa. Nerves sizzled in my stomach. She’d been busy talking to Coach since I got to practice, but she suddenly became focused on the team. If she’d somehow heard about my date with Ryan, I was about to find out.

  Vanessa waited until everyone was lined up and then jogged to the front of the line and led us around the field in a warm-up run. She sneered at me as she jogged past, but she gave the same look to everyone all the time. The look that said none of us were good enough.

  We finished the first lap, and Vanessa picked up the pace, going faster for the second time around. I focused on my breathing, fighting back the urge to throw up. The whole situation would be easier if I could ask her if she’d heard anything. Of course, that wasn’t an option.

  The team reached the end of the second lap, and Vanessa led our line out on to the field. She stood with the rest of us, and Coach Taylor walked out and started explaining the drill he wanted us working on.

  I watched Vanessa out of the sides of my eyes. She was focused on Coach’s instructions.

  The burning lump I’d carried around the field disappeared. She didn’t know. If she had somehow heard about my date with Ryan, there was no way she’d let me go through practice without saying something. She’d called out Katee for dating John within the first few minutes of practice. Holy shit. Maybe Ryan was right, and we could actually make things work.

  I turned my attention back to Coach and tried to focus on his words, but my mind was already racing ahead to that evening when I could talk to Ryan again.

  Twenty-Five

  Ryan

  Monday

  I stuck my headphones in and leaned my head back against the stiff vinyl bench. The team bus was uncomfortable, and it smelled like sweaty socks, but the drive back to campus was only a few hours. I thumbed through my playlist for something that would drown out all the yelling going on around me. We’d won our game against our longtime rivals, and the team sounded like it was going to celebrate the whole drive home.

  My phone dinged with an incoming text from Luci, and I couldn’t stop the grin that spread across my face.

  How did your game go?

  I rolled my eyes as some guys at the front of the bus broke out into a sad performance of a popular rap song.

  We won. Wish you could have been there.

  Which was crazy. It was risky enough for either of us to watch home games. There was no way Luci could travel to an away game. She might as well wear a big flashing sign that read: I’m dating Ryan.

  I swallowed. Was that what we were doing? We’d only really gone on one date, but I’d made it clear I didn’t want it to be our last. I closed my eyes and thought about it. If it wasn’t for Vanessa and her vindictive rules, I’d have taken Luci out a bunch of times and made it abundantly clear to every guy on campus that she was my girl. Luci was the kind of girl you didn’t mess around with. She was too much of a straight shooter to play pretend.

  My phone dinged with another text.

  Me too but practice was good today.

  An image of Luci popped into my head. She was standing on the sidelines wearing one of her cheeky t-shirts and cheering for me. Totally not going to happen, but a guy could daydream.

  What happened?

  Luci responded in record time. Nothing. Vanessa didn’t say anything about our date. Of course she didn’t. Because I’d made sure we were way outside of her network of eyes.

  Hate to say it but I told you so.

  Luci responded a few seconds later. I bow before your perfection.

  I laughed. I was so far from perfection we didn’t even exist in the same universe. But Luci was pretty darn close. There was no denying she was sexy as hell and probably the smartest person I knew. Plus she was probably the only freshman I’d ever met who had their whole life planned out. Sure, she was a little high strung at times, but that was part of the charm that made her who she was.

  Crash slid on to the bench next to me and grabbed one of the buds out of my ear. He held it up to his own ear and made a face. “You aren’t even listening to anything. Why are you up here grinning like a kid on Christmas?”

  He reached for my phone, but I held it up and away so he couldn’t grab it. My phone ripped out of my hands ,and I spun around to find Scooter in the seat behind us staring at the screen.

  His eyes got huge, and he stared at me. “Seriously man, do you have a death wish?”

  Crash got up on his knees and turned to Scooter. “What’s he done now?”

  Scooter handed our roommate my phone while I sat by helpless to stop it.

  Crash scrolled though the screen with all my text messages from Luci. “Is this the girl who came over last week? I thought you guys were working on a project?”

  I grabbed my phone back and turned off the screen. “We were.”

  Crash pointed at the phone. “That’s not what that looked like.”

  “That’s the girl you took out on Saturday.” Scooter leaned against the back of the seat and stared down at me, his face unreadable. “The date you told us was with some girl we didn’t know.”

  The time for denying it was long past. Besides, I wanted Luci and me to be together. And that meant having her at the house. The guys weren’t going to believe we had Spanish projects to work on every week.

  “Yes, Luci is who I went out with on Saturday.”

  Scooter scratched his chin. “And just to be clear, this is the same Luci that’s on the soccer team. The soccer team that’s under explicit orders not to have anything to do with us.”

  I nodded. What else was there to say?

  “So she has a death wish, too.”

  I sat up a little straighter. “It’s not going to happen. I mean, look, we went out this weekend, and my own roommates didn’t even know.”

  Crash drummed his fingers against the seat. “How do you know someone else didn’t see you? All it takes is one person talking to the wrong person.”

  “No one saw us,” I said, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

  Scooter tappe
d the top of my head. “But how can you be sure?”

  I sighed. “Because I took her to Abilene.”

  Scooter groaned. “You drove over an hour outside of town to take this girl on a date.”

  Crash stared at me, his mouth hanging open.

  I nodded.

  “I hope she’s worth it.” Scooter’s face drew up, and I could tell he thought I was crazy.

  But I wasn’t crazy. I’d drive halfway across the state if that was the only way I could spend time with Luci.

  My gut did a somersault. Jesus. When had that happened? When had Luci gone from someone I wanted to get to know better to the girl I wanted to spend all my time with?”

  “Shit, look at his face,” Crash said, pulling my attention away from my swirling thoughts. “He looks like he’s going to be sick.”

  Scooter rolled his eyes. “So much for not jumping into a new relationship.”

  Crash laughed, but I didn’t even have it in me to tell him to shut it. My brain was still trying to wrap my head around this new realization. I was falling for Luci. Hard.

  “Don’t worry, lover boy.” Crash clasped my shoulder and gave it a shake. “Your secret is safe with us. But I definitely think this means we need to put operation secret party into motion. Let’s do it Saturday.”

  Scooter grunted his consent, and I nodded mutely.

  A party was perfect. Everyone would be there, and hopefully I could get Luci alone and find out if she was ready to go all in, because apparently I was already there.

  Twenty-Six

  Luci

  Saturday

  Cardio conditioning

  Laundry

  Calculus problem sets

  Review history outline

  Party at Ryan’s

  I took another sip of lukewarm beer and set my plastic cup down on the plastic crate turned upside down to make a table. Across the room, Ryan caught my eye and held his cup up, giving it a little shake while pointing at my cup, silently asking if I wanted another. I gave him a slight smile and shook my head. I’d been nursing the same half-full cup of beer for the last hour to give my hands something to do. But I didn’t need more alcohol.