by Claire Adams
This time, Irving had nothing to say. Wade pulled Irving’s head up and slammed it into the ground once, then got off him and shoved him away.
“Get the hell out of here,” Wade said. “And go enjoy your last few sleeps in your own bed because you're gonna be sleeping in a prison cell soon enough. I'll make sure of that, I promise you.”
Irving stumbled away, whimpering in pain and gripping his shoulder as he fled. I ran into Wade's arms, hugging him as tightly as I possibly could. He returned the hug, holding me as close as was humanly possible.
“Oh my God, Wade. I don't know how you came to be here, but you just saved my life. You saved my life.”
“I'm just relieved I was in the right place at the right time,” he whispered in my ear.
“But...how? How did you come to be here?”
“I flew out to L.A. this afternoon, and then drove up here. I had to see you. I just couldn't go on without you any longer; it was driving me crazy.”
“But how…how did you know to come out here, to this bar?”
“I didn't. I was planning on calling you tomorrow. But this cab driver in L.A. recommended I come see the band playing here tonight, so I figured I'd do that, have a beer, get an early night, and then, yeah, get hold of you tomorrow. And then when I was watching the band, I just happened to spot you in the bar.
“I assumed this jerk whose ass I just kicked was your new boyfriend, but just to be sure, I followed you guys out to the parking lot. Your body language told me you weren’t comfortable around him, so I followed you both to this alley – and the rest is history.”
I still couldn't believe it was him – that he was really here. We both stared at each other for a while, and then I hugged him tightly again and he pressed a warm kiss to my forehead. A calm spread through me.
He took my hand in his, and it felt so good, so right.
“Come on,” he said, leading me out of the alley toward the parking lot. “Let's go. I'll drive you home.”
I leaned over and kissed him on his cheek.
“Thank you, again,” I whispered. “I'm so glad you came.”
“I am, too,” he whispered. “I am, too.”
*****
Back at my apartment, I sipped slowly on my coffee and stared into Wade's eyes, and in them I saw the same love I felt for him reflected right back at me. And at this moment, it felt stronger than it ever had. I reached out with my free hand across the table, and he placed his hand on mine, caressing it softly and gently.
“God, I can’t believe you’re here. I'm so glad you came,” I said to him. “I really am.”
“Me, too. I've missed you so much, Eryn – I really have. I was going crazy without you. I felt like I was lost – like everything was lost. I’ve just been miserable.”
“I've felt the same way. I mean, I love it here in terms of the volleyball and the education I'm getting, but without you, it all feels gray, like I’m going through the motions.”
We both stared into each other's eyes and smiled, and we held each other's gaze for a long time, passing unsaid words between us.
“How's the team doing, anyway?” I asked, breaking the silence.
“They're doing well enough. I was pretty much forced to put Tammy and Kelly back on the squad, which I was unhappy about to say the least. But I haven't put them on the starting lineup – they can't make me do that.”
I nodded. “I figured Tammy would use her father's clout to do something.”
“I'm gonna quit,” he said abruptly.
I looked up at him, startled. “You're gonna quit? But...why? Because of Tammy?”
He shook his head. “No. Because of you.”
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. “You...wow, Wade, I could never, ever ask you to-”
He held up a hand to silence me.
“You didn't ask me to do anything. This is my choice entirely. I don't want to be on the other side of the country while you're out here. And, I don't want you to give up your dreams for me. You need to be here at Stanford, you need to take your abilities as far as they can go.
“So, that only leaves me with one choice, a choice I'll gladly take: I'm quitting my job at FSU and coming out here. I don't know what I'll do, but I'll find a job. I don't care what it is, as long as I get to be with you. That's the most important thing to me – you're the most important thing to me.
“It's taken me these last two months to realize this, but now I know it. I know that it's the truth. I love you, Eryn. I love you madly, deeply, and more than I have ever loved anyone else in my life. I don’t want to be without you.”
I couldn't speak for a moment; I was so overwhelmed with everything he'd just said. But what words couldn't say, actions could. I got up, walked over to him, and straddled his lap, wrapping my arms around him. I pressed my lips against his, finding his mouth warm and inviting.
A slow kiss morphed into one with a furious, mad passion that sent showers of sparks across my vision, and left us both breathless at the end of it.
“I love you, too, Wade. More than any number of words could ever try to tell you. And, I’ve missed you terribly.”
We kissed again, and desire grew with a burning heat inside me. His desire pressed against me with an increasing force as his manhood swelled. I took his hand, panting after the intensity of the kiss.
“Come...let's go to my bedroom,” I said, leading him there.
I opened the door, and then we were all over each other. All of that longing, pain and sadness that had been stewing inside each of us for the last two months, it all came out. We were both panting, gasping, and pawing at each other like wild animals.
He all but tore my clothes off me as I ripped his off of him. His hands immediately went to my bare breasts, squeezing and fondling them with an almost savage intensity as he slammed his lips onto mine and thrust his tongue into my mouth.
With his right hand, he kept on squeezing my breast, pinching my rapidly hardening nipple between his forefinger and thumb, which sent ripples of pleasure scuttling across my nerve endings. With his left hand, he pulled down my panties and reached for the slit between my legs, which was already hot with desire and dripping with wetness.
I gasped as his finger slipped inside me, and with my own, desperate hands I unbuttoned his jeans and yanked them down so that his stiff, steel-hard manhood emerged.
I wrapped my eager fingers around it as he started moving his fingers in and out of me with a delectable pace while simultaneously working my clit with smooth, rhythmic pressure with his thumb.
I gasped and moaned; I clamped my mouth onto his, kissing him with a furious passion as my hips started to move themselves to the rhythm of his motion between my thighs. I increased the pressure and speed with which I was stroking his manhood, and felt him shudder with pleasure as I did.
As he increased the vigor and intensity of the pressure and rhythm with which he was handling me between my legs, I felt the force of an orgasm coming on. It was a culmination of everything I'd needed to release over the past two months, and it really was coming on rapidly.
I started crying out, panting and shivering as it built up to explosion point, and then cried out his name as the orgasm burst, shooting its waves of bliss through me.
“Wade! Oh, God, Wade!” I cried, feeling my legs turning to jelly beneath me as the orgasm tore through me.
“I need you right now, I can't wait any longer,” he gasped, and he threw me onto the bed and opened my legs, spreading them apart. I was ready for him, more ready than I'd ever been. I let out a long, drawn out moan as he climbed on top of me and slipped himself into me, feeding his glorious length into me, inch by exquisite inch, until we were fully connected.
“God, I've missed this,” he gasped, “I've missed this so much.”
“I have, too,” I gasped. “I've missed it – I've missed you.”
He started moving, slowly at first, letting me feel every inch of him as he moved in and out of me. Soon, though, our hu
ngry desire and the months of pent-up feelings took hold of him, possessing him with a fury and a madness, and he started thrusting with more and more ferocity, with each intense thrust boosting more and more intense waves of bliss through me.
His face glowed with the intensity of the pleasure he was feeling as he rammed himself into me again and again and again. He was grunting and moaning and gasping, and I could tell his orgasm was on the way. I was already on the edge of my second.
With every plunge, a more intense burst of pleasure rippled through me from the epicenter at the meeting of my thighs, and I urged him on, begging him to go faster and harder.
He began pounding away at a furious, manic speed, and I cried out as my second orgasm was unleashed. Then, just as the waves of bliss tore through every fiber of my body, I felt him pulsating inside me as his own orgasm hit and he roared like a wild beast as the force blasted through him.
He then collapsed onto me, wrapping his arms around me tightly, and we held each other like that, one hot, sweaty mess, for a few moments. When he’d caught his breath a bit, he pulled himself out of me and rolled over to the side, still breathing hard.
“I love you, Eryn,” he whispered as he kissed me. “I love you so much.”
“That’s a two-way street,” I replied. “And, I never want to be without you again. Never, ever again.”
We kissed slowly and passionately, and after much quiet bliss, we fell asleep in each other's arms.
EPILOGUE
Two Years Later
I was sweating heavily, and every breath was short and shallow; it just didn't feel like my lungs could take in any more air, as desperately as I wanted them to. It felt like my throat and indeed the entire insides of my chest was on fire – but that didn't matter.
I had to push on.
This was a deciding moment in my life – indeed, perhaps one of the greatest moments of my life. And what I did in the next few minutes would determine whether I would forever remember it as one of my greatest triumphs, or one of my greatest disappointments.
The other team served, and I jumped to intercept the ball as it came sailing over the net, but it was too high, and it passed over my outstretched fingers and dropped abruptly. One of our players dove to try save it, but it hit the floor just inside our line.
The referee blew the whistle, and shouted out, “Point for China! Team China 23, Team USA 22!”
I glanced across at Wade, who was sitting in the stands. His hands were clasped together in front of his face, and he wore an expression that shouted out worry in loud silence, but he fired me an encouraging smile as soon as his eyes met mine.
“You can do it, Eryn!” he shouted out, his voice ringing out loud and clear over the clamor of the huge crowd.
Our captain asked the referee for a quick timeout. We hurried to get together in a huddle while Team China did the same thing on the other side of the net.
“Listen, girls, this is it,” she said. “We're two games to two, this is the decider right here. We've made it this far – and I know it's been tough. I know that you're all exhausted. Hell, I am, too. But do y'all want to go home with Olympic silver or Olympic gold?!”
“Gold!” we all screamed out in unison.
“That's what I thought!” she shouted in response. “Come on, girls, we can do this; we can do this! Bring home that gold, bring it home!”
The Chinese had been destroying us the last three games with their killer server. We had won the first two games – only just, though – with scores of 25 to 21, and 25 to 20.
Since this new girl had come onto the court, she'd been dropping ace after ace with her unusual serving technique, which seemed to involve putting a crazy amount of backspin on the ball and combining it with a height that wasn't usually used in volleyball.
I'd been studying her technique for the last half hour, and suddenly, an idea hit.
“Harriet,” I said to our team captain, “if we can win this next point, give me the serve.”
She raised an eyebrow, obviously feeling unsure about this. “Are you sure, Eryn?” she asked. “I mean, you're strongest up at the net. That's where we need you most.”
“We're in a tough spot right now, Harriet. I've been watching their server very closely, and I think I've got her technique down. If you give me that ball, we can use the same technique they're using to break us against them.”
She breathed in a deep breath as she considered this. Eventually, she nodded.
“My arm's real tired anyway,” she said. “I don't think I've got it in me to serve another one. All right. If we win the next point, you and I will switch positions.”
I nodded. “We'll get this point; trust me.”
We broke up the huddle and all went back to our respective positions. The referee blew her whistle to indicate that the game was back on, and the Chinese team member took up the ball again to serve. This time, I glanced back over my shoulder and saw our captain, Harriet, subtly moving back; she knew what was coming, and was getting prepared to receive it effectively.
Once again, the ball sailed over the net, and once again, the unusual serve almost tricked us with its height and trajectory, but Harriet made a spectacular dive to save it. Then another teammate set up a perfect spike for me, which I smashed over the net with every ounce of force that remained in my body.
The Chinese players made a valiant effort to block it, but my spike was on target. It smacked the floor of the court with an explosive punch, and triumph blitzed through my veins as the referee blew the whistle.
“Point to Team USA! Team USA 23, Team China 23! Team USA has the serve!”
Harriet nodded to me, then passed me the ball as we swapped positions. I could feel a tingle of nerves as I made my way to the back of the court and prepared to serve. I'd been watching their best server and analyzing her technique for the last half hour, but watching and doing were two entirely different things. Even if I felt totally certain that I knew exactly how to do something. Which I didn’t.
One thing I had noticed was that as she tossed the ball up to serve it, she put a lot of front spin on it, which was very unusual and probably what contributed to the exceptional amount of backspin she was able to get. It wasn't how I usually served, and it wasn't anything I'd ever tried or even thought of trying in a game.
I couldn't help chuckling. What better time to try out a technique that you've never used in a game before than the deciding game of an Olympic final?
Still, it was this or lose. We had to pull some sort of ace out of our sleeve, and it was about the only thing we had left: using their own secret weapon against them.
I breathed in deeply as the referee blew the whistle to give me the go ahead to serve. I focused all my thoughts on the ball and the exact spot I wanted it to land, drowning out everything else around me.
Everything vanished into a blur – the roar of the crowd, the colors of the stands, and the vastness of the indoor stadium. All I could see in this tunnel vision I had induced was the ball and where I wanted it to go. I heard Leena in my head, reminding me how the technique worked.
I tossed it up and, like I'd seen the Chinese girl do, put a lot of front spin on the ball. And then I hit it in the same way I'd seen her hit it, the same way Leena had tried to teach me once before – giving it a ton of backspin.
It worked.
The ball sailed high over the net, and the Chinese girls were totally unprepared for it. They'd expected a standard serve, and this was about as far off standard as you could get. The player nearest to where it dropped made a desperate dive, but just couldn't reach it.
Again, triumph tore through me as I heard the pop of the ball hitting the floor and the shrill blast of the referee's whistle.
“Point to Team USA!” she shouted. “Team USA 24, Team China 23. Game point and match point! Team USA has the serve!”
The crowd was going totally nuts now, and there was so much cheering going on that it felt like I was at a rock concert. This was it. This
next moment could be either the greatest triumph of my life, or the biggest disappointment.
I looked up into the stands to where Wade was sitting, and the look in his eyes boosted a last, fiery jolt of energy and strength through my tired limbs. It was a look of pride, pure and intense. I felt like I could do anything with him by my side – like I could actually win Olympic gold.
Harriet tossed the ball to me, and all of the players' eyes were on me.
“Come on, Eryn,” she said, and my teammates all echoed her words with their own phrases of enthusiasm and encouragement.
“Let's go, Eryn!”
“Kill 'em, Eryn, kill 'em!”
“One more ace, girl, one more ace!”
“You got this, Eryn! You got it! Make us proud.”
I looked once more at Wade, and the words he mouthed at me meant more than any words of encouragement from my team mates.
“I love you.”
That simple phrase was enough. I felt like I was ready to take on the world.
The Chinese team now knew what was coming, and realized that I had discovered the secret of their star server, and they moved into position accordingly. Once again, I drew in a deep, long breath, doing my best to focus completely and cut out every distraction from around me.
I focused again on the ball, and exactly where I wanted it to go, and with that I breathed in one final breath, tossed it up in the air with plenty of front spin, and then served.
It was a bad serve.
It veered right, looking like it was heading out of bounds, but thankfully the amount of backspin I'd put on it kept it in – only just though. It also made it very easy for the Chinese team to block and attack, and they sent it back over the net with speed. We defended well, and sent it back to them.
The crowd was roaring madly with each volley that we sent over, the tension was becoming unbearable. And then, I saw with horror, Harriet sending the ball over the net with a fumble, setting up a perfect spiking opportunity for the Chinese.
I didn't even think, or wait for them to do it. I just reacted, praying that I could make it in time.
