“I thought you said to quit your job when you sent that text?”
“I did…and now I have to move.”
I took a while to gather my thoughts. Chris just sat and waited. After a few minutes, I started at the beginning and told him everything. His disposition went from patient listening to flat out fury.
“Where is he?” he demanded, already opening his door to get out. “I’ll kick his ass and teach the fucker a few things.”
“He’s upstairs, but don’t. I just want to get my things and leave.”
“Hell no. He can’t get off that easy.”
“No, Chris. He’s Rose’s problem, not mine. He’s probably passed out already. I’ll just go up and take my stuff.”
“Fine,” he barked, hopping out of the car. “But you’re not going in there alone… and I swear to God if he so much as looks at you, I’ll beat his ass into next week.”
“Thanks, but please don’t do that. He’s not worth it.”
He locked up his car and followed me inside. “Did you find a place to stay?”
I hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Not yet. It’s not a big deal. You can drop me off at one of the motels nearby. I’ll get my bearings for a few days and then figure out what I’ll do next.”
“Like hell you will.”
“I’m not staying here another night.”
“Of course you’re not.”
“Then I’m staying at a motel.”
“No. You’re staying with me,” he blurted out.
I looked back at him as I made it to the top of the stairs. “What?”
“You can crash at my place.”
“I can’t do that. You live over an hour away.”
“So what? You don’t have any reason to stay here right now. You left your job, remember? You can be anywhere for a few days. Look, I live alone and I’m off-campus. I’ve got enough room.”
“You’re not thinking straight, Chris.”
“No, I know what I just said and I meant it…You’re going to do what I say.”
I glowered at him for barking orders at me. He softened his approach, but only slightly. “Come on, Jo. You’ve been through enough. Listen to me, all right? We’re going in there, and you’re packing up your stuff, and then you’re coming with me. End of discussion. We can figure out the rest in a few days.”
I could have objected some more. Really, I could have. I just didn’t possess another ounce of resistance left in me. Turning the key in the door, I took a breath and went inside. Mike was snoring hard enough for the sound to echo on bedroom walls. Chris and I went into my room, and I looked around, planning the best and fastest way to get everything out. I ended up organizing everything exactly the way I had packed it up for the move out here, sending Chris down with each suitcase, storage container or wrapped framed painting, and I finished with each one.
We had everything in his car in less than an hour. Rose made it home five minutes before we ever finished.
“What’s going on?” she asked as I walked out with the last storage container.
“Chris, would you give my sister and me a minute alone?”
Chris nodded and went to wait in the car. When he was out of earshot I went to town on Rose.
“Christ, Rose. Haven’t you checked your phone?” I shouted. “Mike is drunk upstairs. He put his hands on me and tried to sleep with me, and I don’t give a fuck if he was drunk. I’m not living like this.”
“He did what?”
“Don’t act all surprised when you know he’s a cheating, lecherous pig.”
“You can’t talk about Mike like that, Jo.”
“Are you listening to yourself right now? I’m your sister and you’re gonna tell me I’m wrong? You’ve got to be out of your fucking mind, Rose! The man cheats on you and gambles every penny he makes. I’m telling you he groped me in his drunken state—and under your roof—and you want to tell me I’m wrong? I didn’t come all this way and uproot my life to be with my only sister only to have someone like him treat me like that.”
“Calm down. You’re overreacting as usual.”
“I’m overreacting?” I screeched, which caused Chris to open his car door and stand halfway out to look over at us.
“Jo, you don’t need to convince her of anything. She may be your sister, but if she can’t stand by you, she ain’t worth it. Let’s go.”
I turned to him. He was right too. Still, I needed to get some of this off my chest. “Let me just finish what I have to say and we can leave, Chris.” That intervention helped me to get my high-pitched voiced under control. “Look, Rose. Mike is your man and you know what he’s about. I am not going to have this conversation with you.”
“And what conversation is that?”
“Take responsibility for accepting a douchebag in your life.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You and I were doing really well when it was just us and Aunt Alice, then you picked up with Mike and left me back in El Paso. This ain’t much different, I guess. I refuse to tolerate Mike. You’re my sister, and I’ll always care for you like family. I’m sorry Rose, but I’m gonna have to cut this family reunion short. Take care of yourself.”
I turned and jumped in the car, leaving a confused Rose standing on the front steps. Chris didn’t want to wait around. He was tired from practice, and mad as hell about how my evening had gone down. As he drove off, I tried to organize my purse so I could get my mind off my sister. My hands were shaking so much it took me what seemed like forever.
I’m not saying my life was horrible, but since when did it turn into such a shit show?
15
Chris
“I think moving to Louisiana was a mistake,” Jo choked out when we were ten minutes from my place.
“Come on now. Why would you say that?”
“Just look at the stuff I’m going through. I lost a crappy job because that filthy piece of shit who’s probably on the damned NOLA sex offenders registry walked into the corner store thinking he owned me and copped a feel of my lady parts. And that was a shitty job to begin with. My sister’s drunkard boyfriend groped me and tried to sleep with me. I have no place to live, and where I was staying with Rose was already expensive as hell. I got nothing here and no reason to stay.”
I would have told her she had me, but it felt forced and empty when I thought about it. “Stop talking like you lost your mind.”
“I haven’t lost my mind. I had nothing in El Paso, but I have even less than nothing here… I’m gonna ship my things out, take the bus, find a whole apartment for less than what I was paying for that tiny section of Rose and Mike’s living room, and maybe if I beg real nice, I’ll get my waitressing job back at the Ribeye Family Restaurant. Yes, that’s what I’ll do. I’m just gonna move back, plain and simple. “
“Why the hell for?”
“What’s the point of staying here?”
“Listen. Don’t go making any rash decisions, okay?”
“How do you know my decision to come out here wasn’t a rash decision?”
“Okay. Then don’t go making another one. Maybe you need a break for a while.”
“I can’t afford a break.”
“How about this, then? If you really want to go back home, at least wait a few weeks. I’m driving home for Thanksgiving. You can save a bunch of money if you wait and take the ride back with me. It won’t be a problem. Everything will fit in my car like the last time.” That got me thinking. “Hey, you know what? I think we should be talking about upsides.”
“Where do you see any of those in my sorry-ass life?”
“Let’s start with an obvious one. You didn’t go all shopaholic since you’ve been here.” I pointed to the back seat with my thumb. “Take a look back there. You have all the same stuff that you came with, except for two extra framed portraits.”
“Yeah, I did a bit of painting these last couple of months. And I didn’t go all shopaholic because I can’t af
ford to.”
I quickly looked over at her for a second. “Come on, Jo. Try it. Think of one good thing.”
She rolled her eyes and leaned her head onto the headrest behind her. After a minute or so, she said, “Well, I didn’t get shot.”
I smiled. “There you go. What else?”
“I didn’t get mugged or arrested. I didn’t kill or maim anyone.”
“Good. Anything more? Tell me one thing that’s good about having some time off.”
“Oh, there’s nothing good about that.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because it means I’m going to have to dig into my savings again. And it ain’t much.”
“Why do you think you need to do that? You’re staying with me. You won’t have any extra costs.”
“Oh no, no, no. I’m paying my way.”
“That ain’t necessary. This place is paid for. There’s plenty of food in the fridge. Hold on to your cash, okay?”
“I ain’t no charity case. I said I’m paying my way.”
Christ, this woman stubborn. “Forget that for a minute. Let’s get back to the upsides. What’s one good thing about having a few weeks where you don’t have to rush off to a full-time job?”
She closed her eyes for a while. “I know! I can paint.”
“There you go.”
“And I get to maybe see you play, if you’d like me to go…”
“For sure. I’d like that. I have three games before Thanksgiving. You’re more than welcome to come. You can hang out with Pat.”
“Who’s Pat?”
“One of my buddy’s friends. He comes to every game. He is a little weird but he’s all right.”
“Okay. Oh and you can finally taste my cooking,” she added.
“What? You can cook?”
“Of course I do. It’s the least I can do while I’m here.”
I turned to her with my eyebrows raised and a suggestive smile on my face. “I don’t want you to think you have to earn your keep that way… but I gotta say, I can think of a few other things I’d like to taste.”
Jo bit down on her bottom lip and rested a hand on my knee, looking over at me with her eyes full of lust. “That ain’t ever gonna to be a problem between you and me, honey.”
This woman sure knew how to get my dick hard. I was close to home and starving, but the truth was I didn’t want to spend any time in the kitchen. I wanted Jo in my bed. Instead of turning onto my street, I continued on and picked up some dinner for us at the only place that served steaks to go. We were set. Returning to my street, I parked in the driveway in front of my row house apartment. “We’re here. Let’s get these things inside so you can settle in and relax a bit.”
Before I stepped out of the car, she said, “Chris, I just want to say…you didn’t have to do all this for me, but you did and…thank you.”
“Don’t worry about it. Come on, sweet thing. Let’s go.”
16
Josephine
I walked into Chris’s apartment and I think I fell in love with the place before I’d even stepped away from the front door. I’d never seen such a well-organized and trendy hallway. Artwork with dramatic colors lined each wall of the neutral hall which ended at a modern kitchen with stainless steel everything. There was nothing mundane or run-down. Even the coat rack and cushioned seat for getting shoes on and off were stylish and fit right in against the wall that led to a modern floating oak and metal staircase.
“Wow. This is nice. Who designed the place?”
“The landlord I guess. It was all like this when I moved in.”
“I like it,” I admitted, stepping further inside with two of my plastic storage containers. “Where should I put these?”
“Stack them near the bottom of the stairs. There’s extra space up in the spare room. I’ve been using as an office to study, but I can rearrange a few things to fit all your things in there.”
“Great.” I looked up the stairs, then to the left into the living area. “Does the spare room have a window? I’m not trying to be ungrateful or anything. It’s just that natural light is ideal for when I’m painting.”
“Oh yeah. There’s a window in each room, so wherever you want to set up your art, it’s fine. As for sleeping arrangements, it’s just a one-bedroom, but I’ve got a sofabed down here in the living room.’
“Cool.”
We brought everything else inside, and Chris showed me the rest of the apartment. It was a gorgeous space, full of light and with an open feel to it. And it was so clean. I kept a clean house, but Chris had to be a neat-freak or something. I’d never seen a guy’s place this tidy. Either that or he had a maid here once or twice a week.
As he was hungry, we ate first, then I headed over to my suitcase for a change of clothes before going to the upstairs bathroom for a long, relaxing shower. I desperately needed to wipe the slate clean and try to forget the chaos of this evening. Chris was moving things around in the spare room when I got out.
“How’s this for space?” He asked after pushing his mahogany study and laptop desk to one corner. There was more than enough room for all my things and more, so it would be a breeze to put my art supplies and easel near the large picture window.
“It’s more than enough.” I found the fold-up easel and placed it beside the window. “This faces south so it’ll have great lighting. It’s perfect. I’ll get my stuff sorted. I was about to turn around and grab my storage container with oil paints and acrylics when I felt his warm, strong hands on my shoulders.
He pressed his body into my back. “Hold on a minute,” he whispered into my ear. “Take care of that tomorrow or something.”
I rested my head back on his firm chest, letting myself soak up the wicked heat that radiated from his chest and groin, warming me up to the core and causing me to want more of his skin against mine. “Okay.”
“I waited way too long to get you next to me again.”
“Three months,” I hummed. I couldn’t bring myself to admit that I’d been craving him all this time, and hadn’t been with anyone else. I had no delusions about the fact that we were a casual thing and nothing more. Still, it felt good to fantasize that there was something special between us.
“Like I said, too damn long.”
“I missed you,” I heard myself admitting then bit my tongue.
He kissed the top of my head, turning me to look up into his face. I couldn’t help but notice his Don’t mess with Texas t-shirt straining against his muscled chest and biceps, or the lock of his dark hair that had fallen into his face over one eye. “We’ve got lots of catching up to do, little lady.”
Gripping the back of my head firmly, he ducked down. “You smell amazing,” he said in a low gravelly rumble that left me aching between my legs. “I’m curious whether you still taste as good as you smell.”
I groaned out a sigh. “You tell me, cornerback,” I breathed out.
My breath hitched as he placed the softest kiss against my neck, nibbling on the spot with teeth, delivering a sweet, hot breath on my skin that made my skin tingle and my toes curl.
“Better than I remember,” he whispered.
He pulled back and his mouth drifted up to make contact with my lips. My eyelids drifted closed, and my hands gripped the sides of his t-shirt, surrendering to him and melding into his touch. He buried his fingers into the hair at the back of my head, claiming my mouth and lighting me on fire in every spot where our bodies made contact, plus a few other places I was already wishing he’d get to.
His kiss was full of need and lust and longing. I have to confess that the way he parted my lips and tangled his tongue with mine had me wrapped up in the fantasy that this wasn’t just one of those kisses that led to wicked hot sex, but one that made his chest feel like it would burst, the way mine felt right now. Thank God he was kissing me, so I couldn’t say what my lips were dying to utter for some reason unknown to me. They had never desired such a thing before.
It appeared that my lips weren’t the only things with a mind of their own. One leg was already rubbing against his calf, rising high until I felt his hand grip my ass and pick me up off the ground. I wrapped both legs around his hips, loving how strong he was, how he made me feel so weightless. He broke from the kiss, turning toward the door with an arm on my back, pressing me into his tight abs and thick erection, protecting me as he carried me out of the spare room down the hall to his bedroom. If we hadn’t been so close to his bedroom, I was pretty sure I’d have tugged him down to the floor or pulled him over to his study desk so he could take me. With us in such salacious contact his heartbeat thrummed beneath my chest, kicking the throb between my legs up a notch to where I just didn’t want to wait a second longer.
Before he could get me fully into his room I feverishly nipped at his lower lip, pulling it between my teeth. Chris stopped short, pressing my back more tightly, groaning against my lips before he returned the favor. He tempered the sting of his bite with a slow movement of his tongue on the spot, then he pressed it back into my mouth.
Chris’s kiss was primal, wild, hungry. It took my breath away. I was anticipating how he would ravage me with unrelenting, persistent, mind-blowing strokes along every inch of my body the way he promised. I moaned into his mouth, greedy to have his erection inside of me instead of pressing against my opening through all our clothes. My hips ground down of their own accord, looking for its own way to relieve my aching center. His hand at my back tightened and he almost leaped forward, lowering me into his bed with his torso between my legs. We hurriedly pulled from the kiss and gripped at each other’s clothes, tugging them off piece by piece between savage kisses until all our clothes were thrown off the bed and onto the floor.
My hips rose up toward him, ready for that yearning to be satiated with his thick cock buried deep. His hands found my hips again, and his lips covered over my mouth hungrily as though he couldn’t get enough of our faces pressed together. I moaned as his fingers inched their way from my hips and up my sides to the soft flesh of my breasts. He lifted his body slightly, rubbing his thumbs in a circular motion, teasing my skin, causing me to squirm and moan and lock my legs around his hips again. His kiss morphed into a smile. Chris was enjoying this torture of making me wait. His lips strayed from mine and wandered over to my ear and down my neck, slowly nipping the skin as he went. My body was buzzing and on overdrive, hips cantering into his hardness, almost ready to grip his shaft and press it into my center all by myself.
Hook Up (A Bad Boy Sports Romance) Page 9
