He smiles at me, saying, “Practice. If you want to help me practice the moves, I’m all up for it.”
I roll my eyes again, grab the folder from his hands, and start flipping through the pages as well. We sit there with him trying to explain what the different plays are, but to me it’s a whole bunch of mumbo-jumbo. Instead, I sit there listening to him, just so I can hear his voice.
I learn that when he’s in deep concentration his voice becomes husky without him trying, and it has a way of taking me to another world. I love the way his eyebrows move up and down when he changes his facial expressions with the different explanations. I wonder what his voice would sound like against my skin as he’s kissing me.
As soon as the thought comes to my head I easily shake it off. I have to stop doing this to myself. I don’t know why I’m even doing it. I know he’s totally off limits, but then that’s when I realize the old saying. You want what you can’t have.
Willpower Abigail Adams, willpower.
“Matt, do you still talk to your ex-girlfriend, the one from Berkley?” I suddenly want to know.
He looks puzzled why I would ask. “I talk to her every now and then. Mostly when I’m drunk, and same with her. You know, the whole drunk dial call,” he says.
I shake my head because I don’t know what he’s talking about. I can’t imagine myself trying to call someone when I’m drunk. If I have in the past, it makes me feel better that I don’t know.
Matt quickly chuckles and says, “Well, one of these days I’ll show you how to do it.”
“I really doubt I’ll want to call your ex-girlfriend when I’m drunk,” I tell him. This makes him throw his head back while he laughs. He laughs so hard he has to wipe his eyes. His laugh is contagious and I’m soon doing the same.
When he laughs like this, it makes me feel so good. It brings back the small memory of his sister, when she told me that he needed me in his life to make him laugh again. At this moment I understand exactly what she meant, I haven’t seen him laugh much since I’ve met him.
He’s finally able to calm himself. “I really doubt she would want you calling her on my behalf anyways. That would be a very awkward call.”
Yes, it would, I think to myself.
Matt reaches over and grabs my hand, then brings it to his lips, giving me a kiss on the back of my hand. Then he stands up and heads to the kitchen. I close the playbook, place it on the coffee table in front of me and follow him.
As I reach him, he’s taking things out of the cabinets and fridge, while placing them on the island in front of me. “I’m planning on making lasagna for dinner. Want to help me?”
I shrug my shoulder. “Why not, I have to learn to start cooking anyways. There is no way I’m going to be able to beat you in the marathon.”
He looks up from the counter and gives me a wide smile. “I hope not, because I don’t know if I could trust you driving my car again.”
“Hey, we made it home in one piece. As for your car, it’s not my fault that it has so much horsepower that I’m not used to,” I retort.
The problem I had with his car was that the gas pedal was very sensitive, and every time I would press on it, I ended up almost peeling out. I thought Matt was going to have a heart attack on the twenty-five minute drive home. I had him gripping the seat and dashboard more times than he wanted to, but he was a good sport about it. He never once yelled at me. He did give me some ugly looks, but never raised his voice. If looks could kill, I would have been dead upon arrival.
He had the biggest scowl on his face when he got home and all I wanted to do was kiss him to make him smile. Ever since that day I was obsessed with thoughts of kissing him. There wasn’t a day that went by I didn’t think about it. I just wanted to take those plump, juicy pink lips in between my teeth.
My lusty thoughts are instantly broken when I hear Matt say, “That’s not the only thing that has a lot of power in it,” waggling his eyebrows.
I’m already used to his perverted comebacks, so I merely throw my head back and laugh at his response. “Does everything always have to come back to sex with you? Don’t you get enough from all the girls swimming around you all the time?” I ask.
He stops, stares at me, and then says, “Since you’ve moved in, I’ve calmed down quite a bit.”
If you call often, leaving for a couple of hours during the day calming down a bit. I don’t want to know how crazy his sex life was before.
“I haven’t seen a girl come over since Lizzy, not that I could keep you from bringing girls to your house,” I say, raising my hands in surrender. “But you must make it really quick since you only leave for a couple of hours. So you must be going to them?”
Matt shakes his head as he puts ground beef into the pan in front of him to cook. Keeping his eyes on the pan he responds, “I haven’t been going to any girls, Abigail. I go to the gym at school. I have to keep in shape, especially with the season about to start soon.”
His statement surprises me. Knowing that he isn’t out screwing any girls makes me feel so much better. I know it shouldn’t, but it does.
The rest of the night goes pretty smoothly, with me doing the easy parts of the lasagna. I learn that this is another dish that requires layering, but with Matt’s help it gets done quickly. I help make the salad, and, as if on cue, once it’s done Trey walks into the door.
Matt starts placing all the food on the dining table and Trey stares at him. “So we’re serious about this eating at the table shit?”
“Yeah, so get over it,” he says without even looking back at him.
I head over to the table to place the salad on it. “Families eat dinner at the table. Since we are now a happy family, according to you two, we eat our meals at the table.”
Trey shrugs his shoulders and says, “Whatever makes you happy, supermodel.
We’re almost done with dinner when we start discussing the recent nightmare that Matt has signed me up for, making Trey laugh from imagining how pissed I must have been when he told me.
I state that I was beyond pissed, but finish with, “If I need to, I’ll walk most of it. According to Matt I have seven hours to finish. I’m pretty sure I have this one in the bag.”
Matt quickly looks at me shocked, and then turns to Trey. “She’s running most of it, even if I have to slap her ass most of the way to keep her going.” Then he looks back at me, smiling. “Trust me, I would do it too.”
I gawk at him. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Matt lowers his lips to my ear to say, “Trust me, beautiful. I promise I will.” My eyes draw wide open at him as he stands, and begins to clean up the table.
Trey might not have heard what Matt said, but by the shock on my face I think he gets an idea. He’s sitting there laughing at me, while shaking his head before he also stands up, leaving me alone at the table. I better make sure to pace myself, because as much as it turns me on when he slaps my ass, I don’t want the whole public seeing him doing it.
I can already see the paparazzi catching the shot, headlining it, “Supermodel gets slapped on the ass.” Yeah, definitely not going to happen if I can help it.
SAYING THAT CRASH training for a marathon in less than two months is harder than it sounds, would have to be the understatement of the century.
It was torture.
My body would ache in places I didn’t know existed. One of the benefits from all this was that my legs were starting to tone out very well. Even I couldn’t help admiring them in the mirror sometimes.
Another plus was that I didn’t really have to watch what I ate. I didn’t eat junk food, Matt made sure of that, but I wasn’t living the life that most people assume for a supermodel. I was able to eat pieces of what I wanted, when I wanted it, and not have to stress about it.
Matt finally took me on his last long run before the marathon, and although twenty miles sounds long, it’s even longer when you’re running it. Matt never let me stop, and kept tugging me along. At around mile 16 I
tried walking, this is where he kept his promise by turning around, coming up behind me, and slapping me on the ass.
Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt though. Maybe it didn’t hurt as much because I was awake. After that I would slow down, but keep moving, knowing that he’d keep his word. I don’t know how in the world I was going to be able to keep up with Matt. He wasn’t Speed Racer, but I wasn’t as into it as he was, which caused me to slow my pace.
We finally finish the run and my body is already aching a bit on the walk back to the car. We climb in and I’m relieved that we are finally heading home. I just want to go home and fall asleep. My body feels exhausted, and a shower sounds so good right now.
I’m soon disappointed on the way home when instead of heading to the house he’s headed in a direction that is unknown to me. We pull into a street that begins to wind and curve to some buildings that look like they are part of the college. He finally pulls the car to a stop in front of the building that says, “Athletic Department.”
“Where are we?” I’m curious why he’d even bring me here.
He doesn’t say anything, but reaches for a duffel bag that he had brought with him this morning and placed in the backseat.
“Come on,” he says, opening his door and climbing out of the car. I have no choice but to follow him since he’s already walking towards the building.
At this point my legs are killing me, and I don’t want to walk anymore.
“Aren’t we going to get in trouble for being here?”
He takes my hand and says, “Nobody’s here right now, and I have a key. This is where I come to work out and recover after my really long runs.”
I really don’t feel like working out any more than I’ve already done this morning, and I’m pretty sure I can recover at home in the comfort of my own bed. Apparently, Matt has a different idea though. He uses a key attached to his car keys to open the door to the building, and then holds the door for me, and I walk in.
I notice right away it’s a locker room, as he walks ahead of me. I follow him, and we end up in front of what looks like giant bathtubs that have plastic covers on them. He takes the cover off the one we are standing in front of, and pushes a button a couple of times. I see the numbers on the dial begin to drop, lowering the temperature.
“Take off your jacket, shoes, and socks,” he tells me, while he starts to do it himself.
“Why?”
“We’re getting in.”
Does he mean in the tub? Is he crazy? I saw the low number on that dial. I’m not getting in there, so I stand there, refusing to do anything. Noticing that I haven’t done my part, he bends down instead, and starts to untie my shoes removing them along with my socks. He stands up when he’s done and removes the jacket I’m wearing. Which leaves me in only the sports bra I had underneath the jacket and my tight running shorts.
He places his hand in the tub, checking for the temperature. Satisfied, he grabs my hand as he walks over to the steps, and begins to climb them. With his hand stretched out, still holding mine he swings his legs over into the tub, and I notice he immediately sucks in his breath as he sinks in. His reaction scares the shit out of me and I stick the hand that he isn’t holding into the water, yanking it back just as fast.
“Are you crazy? That water is freezing cold,” I squeal at him.
Matt stays sitting in it, ignoring my complaint. “It’s good for your body to take an ice bath after a long run. It helps your body recover faster, and prevents injuries.”
I shake my head and try to pull my hand from his, but he has a firm grip on it and holds on. “Come on beautiful, I’ll keep you warm,” he says with a sexy smile.
He doesn’t give me a chance to protest as he stands up, grabbing me by the waist. Lifting me up off the ground, over the tub, dunking me completely, including my head into the water.
The shock of the freezing cold water hits me, and I stand up, gasping for air. My entire body feels like it’s being pierced all over with needles, and I immediately start shivering from the cold.
I’m standing there, trying to focus on my breathing, wanting the coldness to go away. Matt pulls me closer to him, pushing his knees in between mine, forcing me to straddle him.
As I sit there, straddling his hips, he wraps his arms around my waist, placing his face into my neck to breathe his warm breath next to my skin. I wrap my arms around his neck in reaction, trying to pull him closer to me, and sit there against him. I lay my head against his neck as well, as my teeth and lips are rattling from the cold.
Since I can feel the warmth of his face against my neck, I start to relax a little, trying to ignore that we are in freezing water. After a minute, my body starts to forcefully adjust to the temperature, and it actually does start to take away the ache that was coursing through my body earlier.
My body starts to warm up, obviously not from the water, but because I know that my body is pressed so closely against Matt’s. He slowly starts moving his hands up and down my back, heating the blood in my body with his fingertips gently gliding as they touch my naked skin. I try pulling him closer, even if I know it’s not physically possible, since we’re already practically glued to each other, but I want him closer. I want his body linked with mine. I feel him gently bite my neck and my body reacts with an explosion of shivers that run up and down my body.
I feel him come alive between my thighs, and I get excited, grinding myself against his groin in reaction. I hear a small groan come from his neck. I pull my head back to look into his eyes, wanting to see what they look right now, but they are closed. His face is strained, slightly thrown back, with his jaw drawn tight. His breathing is heavy and almost restrained, as if he’s using all his willpower to control himself. I love the way he looks right now, and it satisfies me knowing that I’m making him feel this way.
He slowly opens his eyes to a slit, looking directly into mine, and his lips go into a slow sexy smile as he sees me. I start to lower my head to kiss him, closing my eyes, and the minute our lips touch my body feels like it explodes.
He pushes his tongue into my mouth, forcing me to meet his with mine, tangling them together as they move back and forth against each other. Tilting my head so I can have better access to his mouth, I grab his hair with my hands, practically digging my nails into his scalp.
I grind my body against his, feeling his erection grow harder beneath my core and his hands tighten, digging into my hips. Right now I’m cursing the fact that we both have a barrier between us. Why didn’t he make us remove all our clothes before we got into this tub?
I love feeling him hard against me, as our bodies rub fiercely back and forth. Our mouths practically fusing together as our tongues duel with each other, I moan loudly, not caring what he thinks.
I feel his hands begin to creep up my body. His palms slowly tease their way up my back.
We hear the door of the locker room opening and the shock of knowing that we might be caught causes me to instantly jump off Matt. I push myself off him, pushing myself against the other side of the tub, putting distance between us. I hear footsteps behind us. I turn to look back at the person entering the locker room and see an older gentleman walk over towards us.
“Hey there Matt, I didn’t know I would be seeing you with company today,” he says, looking down at me in the tub.
I must be beet red from the embarrassment of being caught. I sure feel like I am. “Hey Coach, this is my roommate, Abigail. We’re training for the marathon next week, and I brought her in for an ice bath,” he says casually.
The older man laughs, saying, “You actually managed to recruit someone to run it with you after all.”
“I didn’t have much choice,” I mumble while holding my arms around my waist to try to find some warmth, since Matt’s heated body isn’t underneath mine to warm it any longer. I can feel the piercing feeling coursing through my veins all over again, and I don’t like it.
This makes them both laugh, as the coach shakes his head, and he
walks away. He waves his hand in the air yelling, “Don’t forget to cover it up and turn it off when you’re done, boy.”
I hear the shutting of another door and once I’m sure the older gentleman isn’t in the same room, I stand up and climb out of the tub. I don’t even bother with the stairs, I need out as soon as possible.
Matt takes the hint and climbs out using the steps. I’m standing there wrapping my arms around my freezing cold body. Matt walks over to a stand with towels on it and brings several over, handing one to me. I automatically wrap one around my shoulders, wishing it would take the cold away. Matt takes one in his hand, and starts rubbing down my legs.
Once he’s done with them, he takes the towel, and starts drying himself. After a few minutes of making sure we are both completely dry, he reaches for my jacket, helping me put it back on. He takes the wet towel I have and throws it with the others into a bin. He grabs another dry towel and wraps it around my waist.
He reaches down and unzips his duffel bag, taking out our sandals, placing them at my feet for me to put them on. Then he picks up our shoes and socks, placing them in the bag. He goes over to the tub, turns it off, and places the plastic cover back on it.
As I’m about to take off the towel he shakes his head. “Don’t worry about the towel, I’ll bring it back during my next workout. Let’s get you home and fed. I know you must be tired too and wanting your nap,” he says as he grabs for my hand, pulling me to the exit.
I take one last glance at the cold tub, wondering how far it would have gone. Even if I was freezing my ass off, I’m pretty sure it would have gone far enough if we hadn’t been interrupted.
ONE WEEK LATER, I am once again standing at the start line of a race with Matt. As we are adjusting our phones into their armbands, he says. “Okay, fastest person has to do the other person’s chores along with their own for a week.”
I knew exactly what he meant. We had come up with a little system in the house between the three of us. Trey was in charge of cleaning and maintaining the outside of the house, including the garage. Matt was in charge of grocery shopping and cooking. Since I couldn’t handle clutter, I was now in charge of the cleaning, something that the guys hated doing. I’m not going to lie and say I deep cleaned the house the first time I cleaned it.
Unspoken Memories (Unspoken Series) Page 15
