by Alice Ward
“Strike.”
Stepping out of the box, I gave the bat another few hard swings and glanced at Coach Griffin, who was standing next to our new batting coach, “Spaceman” Delaney. No signal from either man. Alright, I’d take what looked good then.
Back in the box, I waited. Outside and high.
“Ball.”
I ignored two more outside and highs then fouled one off into the stands. I stepped back into the box with two strikes and three balls on the board as the pitcher wound up again.
This pitch was beautiful. If I’d had time to smile, I would have.
Crack!
It felt right coming off the bat, and my hands vibrated with the impact. The crowd was going wild as I threw the wood down. I didn’t watch, just dug my cleats in, heading for first, my eyes on the base coach. His arm was spinning — no homer, but he thought I could make a double — so I bore down and made my turn, my cleat hitting the edge of first just right, throwing up dirt to get to second.
I was fast for a big man, but this was going to be close. I went down, dust flying up all around me as I slid. My cleat connected an instant before the ball cracked into the baseman’s glove. I was back on my feet, and looking for the blue shirt to make the final call, but the play wasn’t over. The second baseman turned and sent the ball whizzing to home.
“Safe!” my umpire yelled, his arms splayed out, but I barely heard him because I was on the run again, heading for third as I watched Todd digging hard for the score.
Todd went down outside the zone, his hand touching the plate as the ball smacked into the catcher’s glove.
“Safe!”
The catcher didn’t hesitate and threw to third while still on his knees. I had time, but went down anyway, coming back up and was dusting myself off as another, “Safe!” was called.
“Nice hit!” the third base coach said, and I shot him a grin.
Glancing up at the stands, Eliana was jumping up and down, clapping, the popcorn she had tucked under her arm spilling everywhere. Mom and Zoe were clapping too while Nana just beamed.
Turned out, my good luck charm was even more powerful in person. We beat the socks off the Sox, putting that beautiful W next to our name. I scored twice, and nothing got by me at first. I even signed the ball for the kid who’d stolen the out from me earlier.
The press jungle seemed to take forever as I answered questions and bragged on my team. I signed more balls and hats, and even one kid’s bicep before tramp stamping two giggling groupies who flirted outrageously with me.
Then Eliana was in my arms.
“I thought you two were heading back to California,” I said to Mom, my girl still tucked under my arm.
Mom was grinning. Like, really grinning. A cat who had not only eaten the canary but was using a feather as a toothpick kind of grin.
“Well, your nana and I decided to do some pre-wedding planning.”
I looked down at Eliana, whose eyes were huge in her face. She gave me an I know nothing about this shake of the head.
Mom went on. “We were thinking that,” she glanced over at Nana with a sad look, “since she…”
Nana hmphed and jumped in. “We were thinking that since I’m going to be kicking the bucket, and since you two are already engaged, you should get married sooner rather than later so I can be there.”
“Uh…”
My lips felt numb. My tongue did too. I was pretty sure my brain had dissolved into mush.
Mom was bouncing up and down. “Well? What do you think? A November wedding would be perfect! The World Series would be over that first week. You could get married that Saturday or Sunday.”
“Uh…” That sound came from Eliana. Her fingers were digging a hole in my ribs.
“You don’t have to do a thing except pick out your dress and colors and things. We’ve already contacted a wedding planner, and she can meet with you tomorrow morning.”
“Uh…”
“Kane Bartholomew!”
I snapped to attention at the name. “Yes, Nana?”
“Are you going to grant your grandmother her dying wish, or are you going to break her heart?”
Very slowly, I looked down into wide blue eyes. An enormous fake smile was frozen on her face, her freckles aglow on her nose. “Well, dear, what do you think?”
She blinked. That was good. Movement was good, I supposed.
“Dying wish,” Nana grumbled.
Eliana exhaled. “Sounds like fun.”
***
“You okay?” I asked Eliana after she plopped down on the bed, looking like a starfish against the pale duvet.
“I still can’t believe that just happened.” She groaned and turned on her side to pull a pillow over her face. “Seriously. We’re really really really getting married now. As in ‘I do’ and ‘you may kiss your bride’ and ‘till Nana’s death do us part.’” She pulled the pillow off and looked at me. “I’m sorry, that was terrible. Sometimes the edit filter in my brain doesn’t work right.” With a long sigh, the pillow was on her face again.
Adorable.
I grinned, although she was too busy smothering herself to see it. Climbing on top of her until I was straddling her waist, I pulled the pillow off and tossed it aside, then held down her wrists to keep her still. “Come on, is the idea of being hitched to me all that bad?”
She bucked up, tossing me forward until we were nose to nose. She swallowed hard, her breathing increasing as she looked up with those glorious blues. “I don’t even know Nana’s name. I was told to call her ‘nana’ from the very beginning. I don’t know your sisters’ names. What they do for a living. How your relationship is with them. I wish…” She trailed off with a little shake of her head.
I let go of one of her wrists to push her hair back from her face. “Nana was born Evelyn Niswonger — don’t call her Evelyn, it will break her heart — and married Charles Steele sixty-six or so years ago. Grandpa died three Easters ago of a heart attack. They had five children. My dad is the eldest. I have two aunts and two uncles. They all work at Steele Global although Dad is the CEO now. I also have nine cousins. Three of them have kids now, so family reunions are getting more and more interesting.”
“Your sisters?”
I couldn’t stop the smile as I thought of the two brats. “I’m the oldest at almost twenty-six. Kristen is three years younger and is in the process of becoming a lawyer at Berkeley. She’s a smart-ass know-it-all, so the profession is perfect for her.”
Eliana smiled up at me. “You love her.”
“Yeah. I haven’t always loved her. Mom swears that I tried to convince them to flush her down the toilet when she was a baby.” I chuckled. “I probably did. And when she got older, she’d steal my toys. Hit me, then when I hit her back, she’d go running off to tell, and I’d get into trouble. Typical sibling stuff, right?”
Eliana’s smile dimmed. “Only child, remember? Sounds like fun.”
I kissed her nose. “It was fun. Then Kaitlyn came along three years after that. She’s twenty and the artist of the family. Photography. She’s at Berkeley too — she and Kristen share an apartment — but she’s already a primary photographer for Steele Global. She’s super cool. Very laid back. The exact opposite of Kris.”
“Will they be at the wedding?”
“I’m sure they will be. Pointing and laughing most likely. Of the three of us, I’ve been the one most adamant about not getting married. They’ll have great fun rubbing my nose in it.”
“I can’t wait to meet them.”
Letting go of her other wrist, I rested myself on my elbows and kissed her temple. “You’ll love them. And they’ll love you. They’re both crazy about animals, so you’ll have a lot to talk about.”
Eliana nuzzled her face against mine. “Maybe marrying you won’t be so bad. I’ll gain two sisters… for a while.” She laughed then, although it sounded forced and a haunted look crept into her eyes. “You’re very lucky, you know.”
I
thought of her horrible mother. The loss of her father and grandparents. Step-dads coming in and out of her life. “Yeah, I know how lucky I am. I won the lottery at birth. Not just financially but in every sense of the word.”
Eliana’s nose turned pink. “You deserve it. And they deserve you. It’s good that you all have each other.”
I thumbed away a lone tear that fell. “You deserve it too, Eliana. Just because you haven’t gotten it yet, doesn’t mean you’re any less deserving. It just means it will come to you in a different way is all.”
Eliana sniffed and blinked rapidly before taking a deep breath. “Can you believe Nana already has a Pinterest page set up with wedding ideas? That woman is a force of nature.”
I let her change the subject. “Yes, I believe it. She’s probably had this planned in her mind since the day I was born. Remember, those are just ‘suggestions’ as she called it. This is your wedding, Eliana. Even though our circumstances are unusual, I don’t want you to spare any expense. Make it your dream. I’ll buy you anything you want.”
She laughed, a more genuine sound this time. “Oh really? So, if I want a gold-plated, horse-drawn carriage with diamond-encrusted reins to deliver me at the altar, you’re okay with that?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Um, yeah. If that’s what you want.”
Her eyes brightened. “Awesome. Then gold-plated everything it is. The twelve flower girls will toss out rubies instead of rose petals. I’ll wear a diamond tiara and Christian Lacroix dress. The ceremony will be in a castle in Rome, and we’ll fly all the guests in, and of course, pay for their accommodations for the eight-day celebration.”
I laughed. “For eight days, we’ll need a thousand bottles of wine and twenty-four five-course meals, plus receptions with a sixteen-tier white chocolate cake at each.”
“Yes!” Eliana exclaimed, lifting her hips to buck me up again. She really was stronger than she looked. “And speaking of flowers. I’ve heard rumors that William and Kate spent eight hundred thousand on flowers alone for their wedding.”
I fake gasped. “I’m very competitive, you know. No royal will out-do a Steele shindig. We’ll blow a cool million on those.”
The sadness was completely gone from Eliana’s eyes now, and I realized that I would do just about anything to keep it from coming back. “Does that sound like your dream wedding?”
She wrinkled her nose. “It sounds terrible.” She sighed. “I’ve pictured my wedding dress in my head for forever. I guess most little girls have. Simple white silk and lace, nothing fancy. No big poofs or extra-long train. My bouquet would feature blush pink and white roses, dahlias, and peonies. Peonies were my grandmother’s favorite flower.”
“It sounds really pretty.”
She ran a finger down the scruff on my face. “In my mind, it is, but I’ve really never given it serious thought. There was vet school, then building a practice. Maybe traveling and seeing the world a bit first before settling down. I thought I would probably be in my thirties. My clock would be ticking, but I’d still have a few years with my husband before starting a family.”
My gut twisted at the thought of Eliana marrying someone else. Having someone else’s baby.
As if Mother Nature agreed with my discomfort of Eliana being with anyone else, lightning flashed outside the window. It caught my attention, and not leaving my position on top of Eliana, I reached for the remote to fully open the curtains.
It had started raining on our way home, but it was pouring now. Another bolt of lightning flashed, lighting up the city.
“Wow,” Eliana breathed, her head turned to watch it too, “the storm is scary and amazing from way up here.”
Crawling off the bed, I pulled her up after me, leading her to the floor to ceiling window. Water snaked down the glass, and Eliana traced one of the trails with her finger, then jerked her hand away as a streak of lightning zigzagged across the sky.
Standing behind her, I lifted both of her hands until her palms were against the glass. Pulling her hair to one side, I kissed her neck, feeling her pulse jumping under my lips. She shivered when I grazed my teeth against the nape.
“Cold?” I asked against her ear before sucking on a lobe.
She met my gaze in the reflection of the glass. Her face was dim and distorted by the water outside, but there was no hiding the desire that had flared at my touch. “No.”
“Do you trust me?”
The answer was immediate. “Yes.”
Slipping my fingers under the hem of her Beasts t-shirt, I pulled it over her head. The bra was next. In seconds, it was on the floor. “Hands back on the window.”
This time, her response wasn’t so immediate. Her hands were crossed over her chest. “Can people see?”
I nipped her shoulder. “No, baby. I promise. Nobody gets to see you but me.”
She jumped when another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, a bit closer this time, but resumed her position at the glass as the thunder rumbled. I moved my tongue from freckle to freckle, tracing them across her shoulder blade and down her spine until the top of her jeans kept me from going any farther. I reached around her and released the button, then listened to the hiss of the zipper. Hooking my fingers in the waistband, I slid them and her panties down her legs, tossing them away when she stepped out of them.
From this position, I took advantage of her sweet ass and kissed one side, then the other before retracing my path back up her spine.
“Kane.” It was a breath. A sigh. A moan. It was almost my undoing.
Burying my hand in her hair, I turned her head until she was looking at me. “I don’t plan on being gentle.”
Lightning lit up the sky, and she gasped as my hand came down on her ass in time to the crash of thunder on the other side of the glass. My palm stung while my cock grew impossibly hard. Fingers still in her hair, I forced her to continue to look at me as I brought my hand down again. The sound she made was half-pain, half-pleasure, but the look in her eyes said she wanted more.
Her nails clawed at the glass as I spanked her until her ass was the most amazing shade of pink. I smoothed my hand over her skin, and she gasped when I moved it lower, pushing my fingers between her soaking slit until I found her clitoris.
“So wet for me,” I murmured close to her ear. “Ready for more?”
“Yes. Please, yes.”
Her body jerked as I pinched the sensitive bundle of nerves, and she keened as I pushed two fingers inside. Twisting her head until our mouths met, we were both breathing hard as I captured her soft lips. When her tongue came forward to welcome mine, it was my turn to moan. Her mouth was pure sin, her lips the richest of silk as I tasted her. Delicious.
“Turn around. On your knees.”
Lightning flashed as she faced me and sank down to the carpet, watching me as I slowly removed my clothes. I hissed as her fingers wrapped around me, gripping me tight, her thumb tracing over the tip, spreading the moisture there. She lifted her thumb to her mouth, tasting me, and I cursed.
“Damn, you’re going to be the death of me.”
She smiled some secret feline grin before dipping her tongue into the tip. Then her lips closed around me, her teeth scraping the shaft as my cock disappeared into her throat. Her mouth stretched wide as she tried to take all of me, her fist wrapping around the length she couldn’t take.
It was incredible. She sucked, and with the wet heat, came pressure. The trifecta of pleasure that nearly caused me to blow my load embarrassingly fast.
I grabbed her hair, pulsing in and out, fucking her mouth until I could no longer stand it. When she looked up at me with those innocent blues, I nearly came and forced myself to pull out.
Twisting my fingers in her hair, I forced her to her feet, then pulled her head back until our mouths connected again. “I’m going to eat your sweet pussy now,” I whispered, and she whimpered against my lips. “And I won’t be stopping until you come in my mouth.”
Moving her until her back was again
st the glass, I fell to my knees, lifting a leg until it was on my shoulder. Thunder crashed as I forced her apart with my thumbs. She opened for me, like the dewy pink petals of a flower.
“God, you’re so beautiful.”
Her hands dove into my hair as I breathed in her scent before tasting the unique flavor I’d come to crave. Dragging my tongue through her honey-slick folds, I spread her swollen flesh and proceeded to feast.
Flattening my tongue, I licked her hard before taking the little bundle between my teeth. Her breath came in rough pants that caused her breasts to heave, rocking on her chest. Reaching up, I took one in my hand, teasing the nipple, twisting it until she gasped.
“Please,” she begged, whimpering the word over and over.
“Please what, baby?”
Instead of words, she pressed down, grinding harder against my face. In one quick movement, I ran my tongue up her slit before capturing her clit between my teeth, then plunging two fingers inside of her, deep.
Finding the spot that would send her over the edge, I rubbed and pressed it as I stroked her clit hard with my tongue. She screamed, her fingers pulling my hair from the roots. I didn’t care. I ate her harder, faster, loving how crazy I made her. She twisted, her hips bucking violently as I invaded, pumping my fingers in and out of her wet flesh with increasing speed and intensity.
Her body tightened around my fingers, and I knew she was close.
“Kane!”
Another crash exploded outside, and she came violently against my mouth, her breath ragged as the air ripped in and out of her lungs. Licking her softly, I gave her time to recover before standing again, kissing her stomach, her breasts, and her neck on the trip up.
“Taste yourself on me,” I ordered, and she complied, her tongue tracing the outline of my mouth.
“Turn around. Hands on the glass.” She was still trembling, but she did as she was told, and I reached for a condom on the nightstand beside us, tearing open the foil and rolling the fucker on. “Without moving your hands, take a step back.” She shifted her stance until she was slightly bent at the waist, her ass out just like I wanted. “Legs wider… wider… perfect.”
