Winning Streak

by Alice Ward

  “Anytime, Kane. Go take care of Eliana.”

  The doors slid opened, and I jumped in.

  “Don’t worry, sir. I will.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Eliana

  After the door closed behind Kane, and after I was able to lift myself up off the floor, I stripped with the motions of a robot and stepped under the hot water, turning my face to the stream. Pouring shampoo in my hand, I washed my hair and scrubbed my scalp, wishing I could open up my head and scrub my brain too, washing the memories of the past few hours away.

  I stayed there until the water turned cold and I was shivering. Stepping out, I dried off and pulled on a robe, wrapping my hair in a towel. At the door, I hesitated, unsure what I should do next.

  Maybe I should just go.

  I didn’t have many possessions anymore so it would be easy to pack up what I had. I could take off Kane’s grandmother’s ring and walk away from this ridiculous agreement. What had we been thinking anyway? Marrying after only two weeks of knowing each other, to make someone else happy?

  But I’d been happy too.

  Absurdly happy.

  Like maybe-this-might-actually-work-forever-and-ever kind of happy.

  Then a virtual bomb dropped. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it.

  Why now?

  It had been well over a year since I’d seen Brett Southerland. No email. No Twitter message. No text.

  We hadn’t even parted in a horrible way. Sure, I’d been hurt when I learned he was screwing a cheerleader, but I hadn’t been in love with him, so it hadn’t been hard to walk away. There hadn’t been a fight. No big drama.

  Now this?

  Why?

  Why the fucking why?

  Feeling numb, not from the cold water, but from what I needed to do next, I stepped out of the bathroom and headed to the closet, pulling out a suitcase Kane’s mother purchased for me.

  With trembling fingers, I packed my things, including Kane’s Beasts t-shirt I loved to wear. It would be my reminder, something I could hold on to during the lonely nights I foresaw in my future.

  I jumped as the bedroom door knob turned and Kane stepped inside. He looked from me to the suitcase, then back at me. “What are you doing?”

  I mustered up a smile. “Getting out of your hair. I really appreciate you letting me stay with you after the fire. It was—”

  He stepped closer. “Why?”

  “Because it’s time. I’ve embarrassed you and your family enough.” I looked down at my hand, at his sweet grandmother’s ring. With a savage yank, I pulled it off, the skin of my knuckle singing as I did so. I held it out. “Here.”

  He didn’t move.

  Emotion pricked the back of my eyes. “Kane, please. Take it. This is for the best. Once I’m gone, you’ll be relieved.”

  He still didn’t move, so I turned and set the ring on his nightstand before zipping the suitcase shut.

  “You’re just leaving?” he asked. “Like that?”

  Picking up the suitcase and my purse, I stepped toward the door. He stepped to the side, blocking my path.

  “Kane, please.”

  The corners of his lips twitched. “No, I can’t let you go this way.”

  I heaved out a sigh. “Why? I promise, it’s better to make it quick. You’ll see.”

  He took a step in my direction, then another until he was in front of me. He took the suitcase from my hand and set it down. Then he reached for my head and… crap. I’d completely forgotten that there was a towel still up there.

  Chuckling, he unwound it, tossing it to the floor, and pushed my hair back from my face. “See, I couldn’t let you go like that, or…” His fingers opened the tie of my robe. In a fluid movement, the sleeves were falling down my arms to land in a puddle on the floor. “Ever.”

  Naked, I stood before him. Raw and vulnerable, but full of trust. Hope. And surprisingly, desire. It was good to know that I wasn’t so broken that I couldn’t feel.

  He kissed my forehead, my cheek, my nose. I lifted my face, and he kissed my lips.

  “Are you sure?” I whispered, needing him to not only be doing this for me, but also for him. I didn’t want to be anyone’s pity fuck. “You don’t have to—”

  He kissed my protests away, plunging his tongue deep into my mouth, taking me, branding me to him.

  I gladly accepted and gave in return, wrapping myself around his body as he lifted me. When my back pressed into the mattress, I took his weight as he followed me down, our lips never parting.

  Fighting his shirt, I pulled it up his back so I could touch his skin, feel his life under my fingers. He moved away but only long enough to remove his clothes, then he was back, and I was kissing him with all the passion and pain inside me.

  “Need you.”

  He lifted up, looking down at me, green eyes blazing. “I need you too.”

  When he moved off the bed, I groaned but was distracted by his gorgeous body walking to the dresser to retrieve a new box of condoms.

  When he was next to the bed again, I rolled up to a sitting position and scooted to the edge. Before he could roll a condom on, I reached for his cock, wrapping my fingers around his shaft.

  He groaned, and I slid closer, taking him into my mouth. His hands fisted into my hair as he controlled the speed and depth. I let him. I would let him do anything he wished, I realized, then froze… I was in this exact same position in the second video.

  A sob escaped, and I backed away, crab-walking across the mattress until my back was against the headboard.

  Kane followed, pulling me into his arms. “Eliana, what’s wrong?”

  “I’m sorry. I was… it’s just that I was doing that in the…”

  “Fuck. I understand. Do you want to talk about it?”

  I laughed softly. “A guy who actually wants to talk?”

  He nuzzled my neck. “I’d rather be fucking you…”

  “Hard,” we said together, and I felt myself relax.

  “Yeah, that. But if you want to talk, I’ll listen. It will be good practice for when I’m in a boardroom, trying to pay attention to a bunch of suited-up blowhards.”

  “Blowhards, huh? Do you think I should try to blow you hard? You know, push past my current mental limitations?”

  He kissed the top of my head. “Is that what you want?”

  I gave it some thought and realized I did. Too often in my life, I’d ignored or turned away from the things that hurt me or made me uncomfortable. Now, I wanted to face them.

  With him.

  “Yes, it’s exactly what I want.”

  He smiled and rolled onto his back. “Then take it.”

  Pushing thoughts of everything aside, I focused only on Kane and leaned over to kiss him, my hand moving to his cock. He pulsed and began to fill again, the blood coursing under my fingers.

  Kissing down his body, I paid attention to each crevice, tracing them with my tongue. I tasted the salt from his sweat, smelled the musk of his exertions from the day. It was sexy, and I wanted more.

  His cock twitched in anticipation when I reached it, but I bypassed it to tongue and stroke his balls. Kane cursed, so I did it again, taking one in my mouth then the other. When I was done, I traced the thick vein of his shaft to the tip.

  Feeling in complete control, I licked the pre-cum leaking there before taking him into my mouth. Wanting more, I engulfed him, felt him sliding into my throat. His hand moved into my hair, holding me there for a few seconds, not that I wanted to be released.

  Looking up, I met his eyes as I made love to him with my mouth. He pulled my hair harder, forcing my head back until he popped from my lips. Wrapping his hands around my arms, he pulled me up his body until our mouths connected, his hard cock trapped between us.

  “Fuck me, Eliana. Show me how much you want me.”

  Cupping both sides of his face in my hands, I kissed him again before reaching for a condom next to the bed. I rolled it on slowly, wishing we didn’t have t
his barrier between us. Wishing I could feel his skin inside me as I rode him, his cum fill me, one day make a baby.

  Sinking down on him slowly, I felt every inch invade. When I was fully seated, we linked fingers as I ground back and forth, leaning forward so that my clit pressed on his pubic bone. Perfect.

  “You like that?” he asked. “You like riding me? Like being in control?”

  Rocking on him, I answered honestly. “I like everything we do together.”

  “Touch yourself,” he ordered and let go of one of my hands. Leaning back, I did. My eyes rolled back as my fingers circled my clit. Within seconds, I was crying out in a powerful orgasm.

  Grinning, he flipped us until I was on my back, my knees over his shoulders as he sheathed his cock in a powerful thrust, reaching the end of me in one forceful lunge.

  I wailed, but he didn’t stop. “It’s my turn to ride. I’m going to fuck you so good, Eliana. Make you forget everything else but me.”

  Reaching up, I took his face in my hands, feeling the stubble of his beard under my palms. “Only you,” I promised. “It’s only you.”

  He growled and pulled out until only his tip held me open. I braced myself for the impact I knew was coming.

  “Tell me you want this.”

  His eyes were greener than I’d seen them yet. “I want this,” I told him, whimpering the words. “I want you.”

  Our bodies rocked together, my breath leaving me from the force of his invasion. I gulped in air just before his mouth claimed mine with an urgency matching the fierce joining of our sex.

  My body coiled tighter as each thrust pushed me toward the edge, but I didn’t let go of his precious face. I watched him watching me. The sweat building on his brow. The tightness of his jaw as he grew closer to his own release. It was all beautiful, and sexy, and… mine. For now.

  “I’m crazy about you,” he grunted, each word in time with a stroke. The words were urgent, broken, as the music of our skin connecting filled the room around us.

  I wanted to say the same, wanted to tell him more, tell him how I felt. That I loved him. But the words refused to leave my throat.

  Instead, I pulled his head back down, trying to show him with my lips what my mouth wasn’t able to say. He kissed me back hard, his teeth scraping down my tongue, tugging my lower lip before he pulled away.

  “I want to see your face when you come.”

  It was as if his words triggered the reaction, and I screamed, my body shuddering, my fingers digging into the only thing I could hold onto. Him. He growled again, plunging harder and faster as my body quaked and shuddered.

  “More,” he said as he fucked me with all the power inside him.

  Yes. More.

  I didn’t want this to stop, even as I shuddered through another mind-altering orgasm that rocked me to my very soul. His mouth was on mine again, devouring as he ripped me apart.

  I cried out his name when he roared, and the pounding stopped, his face contorting into a mask of pleasure-filled agony.

  His arms buckled, and I took his weight as he collapsed onto me, kissing his temples, tasting the sweat of his skin. When he tried to lift up, I wouldn’t let him go. Instead, I curled my arms and legs even tighter around him.

  He didn’t protest but shifted until more of his weight was on his elbows, our lips softer against each other as the urgency was replaced by a tenderness that brought tears to my eyes.

  “Thank you,” I said and felt him smile against my lips.

  “The pleasure was all mine.”

  “I mean it. Thank you.”

  The smile faded as he looked down at me, all seriousness this time. “It was a shock, being confronted by that reporter, seeing that video, watching Mom and Nana’s reaction. But once the shock settled, I remembered who that girl in that video is. It’s you. Kind, sweet, gentle, funny, corny Eliana. The woman who agreed to be my girlfriend, then my fiancée because she has a caring and considerate heart. That woman is you. And I care about you, deeply.”

  A tear slid down my temple, and he lowered his head to kiss it away.

  “I care about you too,” I admitted. “And I also know that this will serve as yet another distraction for you. An embarrassment for you and the team. If you need me to go, I’ll understand, I promise.”

  “I don’t want you to go.”

  “But what if there are other videos?”

  “Then we deal with them. I need to know who the man in the video is. Name. Address. Any information you can provide. He needs his ass kicked, criminally, civilly, or by my hand, for recording you without your knowledge to begin with, then releasing the tapes.”

  I nodded. It was so sad to be having this conversation when his cock was still connecting us.

  We continued to kiss for so long that he swelled inside me again. He rolled away, but only long enough to change condoms and pick up something else.

  Taking my left hand, he slid his grandmother’s ring on the fourth finger. “I don’t want you to take it off again.”

  “I won’t.”

  And with that promise, he made love to me — softly.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Kane

  It felt like bags of cement were strapped to my feet as I trudged into the locker room the next day. Now that the shock had worn off, I knew the guys were going to give me hell.

  But when I pushed through the doors, the men were standing there talking quietly to each other, then silence reigned as they realized it was me who had entered. My team turned as one. No one joked. No one laughed. No one smiled.

  The way they looked at me, you might have thought there had been a death in my family. Maybe there had been. A death of dignity. Privacy. I guessed there were all kinds of death.

  Ace led the charge of men who surged toward me. “You okay? How’s Eliana? I fucking want to kill somebody for what happened.”

  The knot in my shoulders loosened as, to a man, they murmured their support.

  They were tossing out questions, so I decided to tell them everything I knew at this point. Once I was finished, Luke said, “You’ll find the pussy behind this.”

  “Damn internet,” Calvin added. “Anybody can hide behind a keyboard.”

  I told the guys of Rhett’s idea for a public service announcement, and they all agreed to chip in to have one produced if Rhett backed out of it.

  “I’m not backing out of shit.”

  Heads snapped around. Yep, our boss was standing there. On one side of him was Coach Griffin, and the other side, Coach Delaney.

  “I’ve actually given this a lot of thought in the past twelve hours or so,” Rhett continued. “We’re going to move forward with it immediately.”

  A few of the guys cheered, then Blake Osbourne, one of the veteran players who was usually pretty quiet stepped up. “You have my full support, and I want to contribute to the cause. At the end, if you can add an “in memory” screen, I want to pay to have my sister’s name, Brenda, added. This was before the day of social media and internet, but something similar happened to her. Not video. But pictures. She ended up taking her own life over it.”

  There was a long stretch of silence before another player stepped up. “I want to add Melanie to that list. Suicide too.”

  Calvin spoke up. “Maybe add an “in honor” page? If so, add Renee.”

  I looked around, and a fucking tear was dripping down every one of our faces as man after man named off someone they’d known who’d gone through a similar experience, although maybe not as public as ours had been. I couldn’t wait to tell Eliana about it when we got home.

  Home.

  It was so natural saying that in reference to her.

  When it was quiet again, Coach Delaney stepped up. Last year, Bobby “Spaceman” Delaney found his name plastered over tabloids for many weeks. One of the best baseball players who ever lived, Spaceman found himself humbled by an enormous gambling debt that nearly destroyed his family. Nearly destroyed Katrina, his daughter. Our PR queen.


  “As you all know,” Space began, “I dragged my family through hell and back because of the mistakes I made. Rhett and each of you welcomed me here, even after all I’d done. I didn’t have a nickel to my name, but that didn’t matter. You men allowed me into the pack. Listened to me as if I still mattered. Today, we’re going to do the same for Kane and his fiancée.”

  Hoots and cheers followed as many clapped me on my back.

  Alright then. It looked like I was about to play a game with the full support of my team.

  I blew out a breath.

  Now, I just needed to see how much support I got from the fans.

  ***

  “Batting fourth, first baseman, number six, Kane Steeeeele.”

  My name was still ringing around the stadium as I ran out of the dugout to the field. I was relieved that the cheers were louder than the boos.

  As the announcer continued to introduce our players, I looked for, and found, Eliana. She was sitting in the middle of a sea of women. Zoe, Mom, and Nana, of course. But then there were Whitney and Holly, her little boy sitting on her lap. More wives and girlfriends surrounded them all.

  I grinned, and Eliana gave me a thumbs-up. So far, so good.

  Let’s play ball.

  We did, and it was an exciting game this time, with us leading and falling as one inning led to the next. By the ninth, we were down by one — ten to eleven — when I popped a zinger over the fence. Todd scored with me, giving us a one-run lead going into the bottom of the inning.

  Seth was on the mound, having taken over for Calvin in the eighth. He was looking good as he struck out the first batter.

  One down, two to go and our winning streak would be extended.

  Just the thought of winning streaks made me automatically think of Eliana. Glancing up at the stands, I was glad to see her looking so happy. Three rows above her, Katrina Delaney was looking less so. She was staring at her phone, her forehead furrowed.

  Focus.

  There was a strong batter at the plate — player named Walker, who I hated — so I got into position a bit farther away from my base, hoping it would come my way. I watched the wind-up and then our catcher’s hand moved to where the ball was supposed to land.