Keeping Score

by Sara Rider

  He reached into his pocket and set off the alarm again. The recorder slipped out of her hand as she jumped and shrieked. He brushed past her and climbed into his truck, locking the door so she didn’t pull any kind of crazy stunt, and peeled out of the lot.

  He knew she was fishing. But how long until someone grabbed on to the right thread? If Daniels couldn’t hold himself together under the pressure of the Major Leagues, someone would notice. And they’d figure out that Alex was the one who covered up that mess the last time.

  There was less scrutiny on the female athletes. Most of the time, Frank was begging reporters to run any kind of story about the Falcons. But Alex would still be out on his ass if anyone found out he was sleeping with Jaime. Not that it mattered, he reminded himself. One more week and he was leaving the Falcons for good.

  He pulled up to a red light and dropped his weary head against the steering wheel. It’d be so much easier if this thing with Jaime was only about sex. But it wasn’t. She’d knocked him on his ass the first time he’d met her, and he’d never recovered. He was in love with her. Ready to throw his career away for her.

  It was liberating to realize that something in this world mattered more to him than his job. Like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He’d been killing himself to excel as the head physiotherapist for the Falcons while dealing with a hostile administration and pathetically small budget that even a high school soccer team would scoff at. The moment he decided he’d hand in his resignation meant he didn’t have to worry about keeping Carson Chester or anyone else happy anymore. He didn’t have to wonder when or even if his contract would be renewed. All he had to do was focus on keeping these athletes at their physical peak so they could take home the ASWL trophy next week.

  Jaime was the one who’d inspired him to live more in the moment and stop worrying about the things out of his control. He just hoped that when he broke the news, she wouldn’t consider him out of sight, out of mind, because as much as it sucked, it was the only way they could be together.

  When he pulled up to his modest two-story house at the north end of the city, all the weariness and frustration faded. Her little blue Kia was already in the driveway. He grabbed his gear and bounded to the porch, where she was sitting in the Adirondack chair his mother insisted he buy. A pizza box and six-pack of Pyramid lager sat on the ground next to her.

  “If you lost the T-shirt and shorts, this would be the fulfillment of my ultimate fantasy.” He couldn’t take his eyes off her legs. Powerfully built, with gracefully curving hamstring muscles that demanded to be noticed and bright red toenails. Even the overly darkened skin on her knees made his cock twitch. The soccer tan lines, leaving her upper thighs and shins pale, were the embodiment of endless dedication to her sport. There was nothing sexier.

  “I can fix that.” She sat up and reached for the hem of her shirt, lifting it past the curve of her waist until he got the faintest glimpse of her lacy black bra.

  He dropped his bag and closed the distance between them quickly. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her against him. “Let’s wait until we’re inside. I don’t feel like sharing this with the neighbors.”

  He fisted his hand in her loose hair, and kissed her the way he’d been dying to all day. His tongue pushed past her softly parted lips, obliterating every thought in his brain. His body was acting on pure instinct, dick growing hard and demanding against her belly. He needed her. Needed to be buried inside her.

  She covered his hand on her side, stopping it from trailing farther up to her breast, and pulled back from the kiss, panting. “Maybe we should take this inside. Your neighbor really is watching. From the shadows in the window. I’m pretty sure he has a set of binoculars, too.”

  He laughed and let her go, then doubled back for his duffel bag, while she took care of the pizza and beer. “How did you find my place anyway?”

  She waggled her eyebrows. “I have my ways. We ended up at a pizza joint not far from here, so I figured I’d just come straight to your place after the party ended. I hope you don’t mind.”

  He fished out his keys and unlocked the door. “Not at all. Come in.” His home was cozy but a little on the empty side. The only decorations he had were some pictures of his family and a collection of crayon scribbles from his youngest niece that his sister-in-law had framed for him as a Christmas gift one year. He loved his house, but being on the road all the time meant he’d never gotten around to putting any effort into the decor. When he bought it, he imagined that one day the bedrooms would be filled with his own kids.

  It occurred to him in that moment that if he couldn’t find a new job in Seattle, he’d have to put it on the market soon. The thought of selling it didn’t sit right, especially seeing Jaime relaxing on his couch and cracking open a beer like she belonged here.

  He accepted the lager and sat next to her, stomach rumbling as the aroma of gooey cheese and tomato sauce hit him. Torn between the need to touch her and the growing hunger, he pulled her feet onto his lap and devoured two slices in record time.

  “You’re a goddess,” he said after washing the pizza down with a long swig of beer. He ran his hand along her leg, rubbing his thumb against her tight calf.

  “If pizza and beer is all it takes, then you have very low standards for reaching deity status,” she said, stretching her arms above her head. “Please tell me I won’t find any shrines to your local delivery guys in your bedroom closet.”

  “I make no promises.” Her sweet, throaty laugh made him grin like a fool. He couldn’t help it. It was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard, full of innocence and vivacity. “I’m proud of you.”

  She looked at him curiously, eyebrows drawn together. “For what?”

  “It takes a lot of guts to deal with what you’ve been through these last few weeks.”

  “Yeah, the splinters from those polished wood benches are pretty treacherous.”

  He squeezed her knee. “I’m serious. The team couldn’t have won without you there. They needed you to be a leader today, and that’s what you were.”

  A ghost of a smile flashed across her face. “Yeah, well, I didn’t feel brave. All I wanted to do was cry and pull my hair out, but that wouldn’t have done me much good.”

  “Probably not.”

  “I did some reading about rheumatoid arthritis last night.” She picked at a hangnail on her ring finger. “The medications work really well sometimes, but sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they just stop working altogether. Who knows how many good years I have left in me? Maybe ten? Maybe one?” Her voice cracked, letting some of the pain and fear slip through.

  “Jaime,” he said softly, reaching for her hand.

  She shook her head but didn’t let go of his hand. She cleared her throat before continuing. “It’s okay. I know it’s going to suck sometimes, but I’m not a quitter. Right now my goal is to play in the final in Portland next week. After that, I’ll set a new goal. I’m going to make the most of whatever time I get playing the sport I love, even if I have to be the most disciplined, self-restrained, authority-loving player ever. That’s what Chelsea would want me to do.”

  Her determined brown eyes softened with the sheen of tears. Fueled by the urge to hold her, he pulled her onto his lap so that she was straddling him. She dropped her head to his shoulder while he ran his hands along her back.

  A tingle crept down his neck, jolting all the way down to his dick. Her lips brushed warm kisses against his throat, then blew against the wet trail left on his skin. She arched her pelvis toward him, moaning as she rubbed against his newly sprung erection. He gripped her butt with both hands while she licked his Adam’s apple, pulling her closer and spearing her core with his cock.

  She worked her way to his stubble-coated jaw, then the outer corner of his lip. He wrapped her long hair around his hand and tugged, exposing her delicate neck to him.

  H
is phone rang from his back pocket. He reached for it, awkwardly jostling Jaime on his lap and making her gasp when he lifted his hips. He meant to dismiss the call, but when he saw the name on the call display flash across the screen, he sighed.

  This was one person he couldn’t ignore.

  22

  “HOLA, MAMA.” HE COVERED the receiver and mouthed the word “sorry.” Jaime rolled off him and packed up the pizza, taking it and the rest of the beer to his kitchen.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you’re moving back to Spokane? It’s so wonderful.”

  “Nothing’s official yet,” he answered in Spanish, grateful that Jaime wouldn’t understand the conversation. He’d have to speak to Ricky at some point about getting his mom’s hopes up prematurely. Then again, with the way things were looking, his brother might not be so off base. He’d sent out his résumé to a few places, but none of those jobs felt right. None of them excited him the way the Falcons did.

  “Everyone will be so excited to finally have you home. Ricky won’t admit it, but he needs the help. Ever since that car accident, he’s had such a hard time managing his work and my sweet grandchildren with his arm hurting like that.”

  “What are you talking about?” It had been four months since a young driver sped through a red light and T-boned his brother. And although he hadn’t been back to see him in that time, Ricky swore that everything was fine.

  “Oh, mijo. Your brother has been talking so much about how great it will be to be partners with you. Now tell me, are you coming to Mateo’s birthday party next week?”

  “Yeah, of course. What day is it?” Alex ran his hand through his hair. It was almost impossible to know if his mother was exaggerating. She did it a lot, but Ricky had a tendency to downplay his problems. Maybe that’s why he was pressuring him so much. Or maybe it was because Ricky needed an answer by next week about the money.

  He padded toward the kitchen, feeling Jaime’s absence keenly. She was looking at the photographs of his family posted to his fridge, a sweet smile on her lips.

  “The following Wednesday.”

  “I’ll be there. Te amo, Mamá. Buenas noches.” He tucked his phone back in his pocket and wrapped his arms around Jaime’s waist.

  “This is your family?” she asked, leaning into his embrace.

  “Yeah. They’re in Spokane.”

  “All three brothers?”

  “My folks and all my nieces and nephews, too.”

  She traced her finger along the edge of the photo of his niece Sophia putting on her best three-year-old dinosaur face. “Do you see them much?”

  “Not as much I’d like, but I drive out when I can. I still miss them.”

  She nodded, fixated on the pictures.

  He buried his face in her neck, taking in her sweet scent. “Have you talked to your parents yet about what’s going on?”

  A small laugh bubbled from her throat. “I don’t want to disappointment them.”

  He raised his eyebrows, silently urging her to explain.

  “Even though they don’t show it, I think the fact that I’ve always been so healthy and independent has helped them keep going. Like they knew they’d done one thing right, and they could spend their lives trying to atone for the other.” Her chest rose and fell heavily against his arms. “It would destroy them if they knew.”

  A dozen emotions mixed into her words, but sorrow came through the loudest. His own body stiffened, overcome with anger for her. He couldn’t imagine his parents emotionally checking out like that when he needed them most. “I know you’re strong, but you need support. Everyone does.”

  “I’ve got my teammates.”

  “Teammates who are in the dark about everything you’re dealing with, and who won’t all be around in the off-season.” He knew he shouldn’t be pressing so hard, but his mom’s phone call seemed to shed some light. Jaime didn’t have anyone to lean on but him, and in a few weeks, he’d be gone, too.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “What’s going to happen on the bad days? When you’re too tired to get groceries? Or you need help getting out of bed?”

  Her shoulders tensed. “Why are you so fixated on this?”

  “I care about you. I like knowing you have people you can rely on.”

  She turned in his arms to face him. “Of course I’ll be fine. I’ve got you, right? I know we haven’t talked about this, but I’m keeping my apartment here during the off-season. The Canadian team trains mostly in Vancouver, so it’s not hard to go back and forth, and this way I won’t need to find a new rheumatologist.”

  “You don’t have to do that for me. If we need to do long-distance, I understand,” he said, testing the waters like a coward.

  She shook her head. “Long-distance sucks. You mean a lot to me, and I want to be with you. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have you looking out for me these last few weeks. Heck, you’ve been looking out for me for months, but I was too stubborn to realize it.”

  “Yeah, you’ve got me.” He kissed her forehead, feeling like the world’s biggest asshole. He wanted to be the man she saw. Her hero. He needed to tell her soon that he wasn’t staying in Seattle. Just not with the championship game seven days away. And certainly not when her dainty hands were making quick work of his fly.

  She sucked on the spot on his neck that always made him groan, and reached past his boxers to circle his rock-hard shaft. “Have I told you how much I really, really appreciate you, Alex?”

  She ran her fingernails along the underside of his cock, making him hiss with anticipation and nearly drop to his knees when she traced the crown with the pad of her thumb. He wanted to drag her to his bedroom, but there was no way he could bring himself to stop her right now.

  “Remember to breathe,” she whispered, running her other hand along his tight abdomen. He exhaled sharply, fighting the compulsion to throw her back against the fridge, rip off those little cotton shorts, and drive himself into her. She tightened the pressure, twisting her wrist over the tip of his cock, and drove her fist down to the base.

  “You drive me crazy, querida.”

  “Do you want me to stop?” She bit her lip and quickened the pace of her strokes, bringing him closer to the edge.

  He braced his arms against the fridge, not sure his legs would hold him much longer if she kept this up. “Don’t you dare.”

  Her hand stilled, making him growl with need. She removed her hand from his boxers, letting the elastic snap against his waist. Her expression sobered. “Maybe we should stop. Coach has strictly forbidden all the players from having sex until the championship is over.”

  He sucked in a breath and gritted his teeth to not let her know how badly his balls ached for relief.

  “I hope you aren’t mad.”

  He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. “Of course not, babe. All that matters is getting you ready for next week.”

  JAIME BIT THE INSIDES of her cheeks to keep from grinning. She was teasing the hell out of him, and his internal struggle played across his face, but he didn’t let a drop of frustration show. He might be gruff on the surface, but inside he was the sweetest, kindest, most honorable man she had ever met. And for now, he was her man.

  A smarter woman would have stopped teasing him right then and there.

  She twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “I know there could be loopholes in Coach’s instructions, but I’ve always been the kind of girl who believed that hand jobs count as sex. Oral sex, too, of course. And definitely fingering, although I prefer the real thing over fingers.” She dropped her gaze briefly to his crotch.

  Tiny beads of sweat pooled on his forehead. His eyes darkened to midnight blackness. She ducked under his arm and walked casually to the far side of the kitchen, needing a chance to stifle the laugh rolling through her chest. “If you think about it, anytime the
re’s an orgasm that involves another person, it pretty much qualifies as sex.”

  His hands clenched into white-knuckle fists at his sides. She licked her lips and tugged her T-shirt over her head, letting the soft blue fabric fall to the ground beside her. “I’ve always been such a good girl, following all the rules. Don’t you think?” She winked, then pivoted on her heel and raced toward the staircase.

  It must have taken a few moments for his shock to wear off because she made it all the way to the stairs before the heavy footsteps pounded down the long hallway after her. She unclasped her bra as she ran, dropping it on the first set of steps, and dashed up to the bend in the stairs where she struggled to pull her shorts past her ankles.

  He closed the gap and reached for her arm, hunger burning on his face like he was a wild animal. She yelped and jumped out of his reach but tripped on the shorts tangled around her ankles, landing butt-first on the stairs.

  He dove down next to her, reaching his hand behind her neck and back to cradle her head and keep the stairs from jamming into her back. “Are you okay?”

  “Better than okay.” She finally managed to get her shorts past her ankles, feeling giddy with desire. His eyes narrowed, tracking down to her naked breasts. He tightened his grip, sending a gushing wave of need to her core.

  With a single finger, he traced a line down the center of her chest, barely grazing the underside of her breast as he circled around it. “You didn’t mention anything about my mouth on your tits being against the rules.”

  She gasped, nipples puckering as his warm breath caressed her skin.

  “Is that what you want, querida?”

  She nodded, throat too dry to form words. The dirty talk coming from his mouth was unbearably erotic.

  “Say it, babe. Tell me you want me to suck your gorgeous tits until you scream.”