First and Ten Page 8

  “Orange soda?” Esme questioned as they left Dr. Kent’s class four hours later. Thankfully it had been a Ted talk and not her espousing on theories.

  “You’re still on that?” Dani let out a nervous giggle. Esme may give up on majors, but gossip, that she couldn’t drop.

  “Have you responded to him?”

  “Why would I?”

  “To let him know when you’ll be there and find out why he’s a weirdo that doesn’t know it’s called pop. You know only serial killers call it soda?”

  “Fun fact.” Dani unlocked her car doors and tossed her bag into the back seat.

  “I’m only looking out for your safety.”

  “Trying to get me to avoid freaks from southern Illinois?”

  “Among others.” Esme crossed her arms. “What’s the deal? I’ve been racking my brain all day to try to figure out what orange soda could mean.”

  Dani rested her arms on the top of her sedan as she took in her friend. Her glasses were serving as a headband today while she rubbed the light red marks on the bridge of her nose. With the fading sunlight reflecting in her hazel eyes, part of Dani wanted to share with her friend. She wanted to tell her about the feelings rushing through her at the thought of being held by Jerome and that maybe, just maybe, he felt the same about her.

  “I guess I drank his last bottle of orange pop,” she said, still afraid if she said more the budding flirtation would never bloom into a real relationship.

  Removing her glasses, Esme’s blond locks fell around her face and with the glasses pointing directly at Danika, she questioned, “Where did you find it?”

  “In the fridge,” she replied and realized she said too much.

  “Who’s fridge?”

  “Oh, you know,” Dani replied as she pulled back and got ready to jump in her car and take off. “The fridge of the world.”

  “You were at his place,” Esme blurted then opened the passenger door to get it.

  “Can I help you?”

  “Can I?” she questioned back. “Spill it, you were in his house. Don’t hold back. Is it true what they say?”

  “About what?”

  “Did Speed really kill that pussy?”

  “You just said pussy?” Dani blanched.

  “I’m over the age of consent, it’s okay.” Esme snatched Dani’s keys away before she could start the car.

  “Give me my keys,” Dani ordered.

  “Give me details,” Esme swooned. “Just one little nugget. A real one, not some shit you pulled up on ESPN.”

  Dani sucked in a hard breath as she tried to calm herself enough to talk. Emotions swirled through her from embarrassment to fear then back to humiliation. Esme was the one who dated famous people. She’s the one who’d hit Ibiza, Dubai and Hvar on random weekends just because. Dani was a homebody, using her job, her school, and her family for the lack of time in her schedule. Fear was the bigger factor. She could have gone to any college, yet she chose to stay home. It was an anchor that let her be bold, but Jerome was a step into the unknown. As long as no one knew about him then a failure would be for her eyes only.

  “When he kisses me my toes curl,” Dani admitted softly as the vise tightening around her bellybutton found it’s last setting.

  “Was that so hard?” Esme teased. “Seriously, girl, you need to chill out. Go get an orange pop and make him lick it off your chest.”

  “Rome,” Joe, the trainer for the Grizzlies, barked from across the weight room. At five-nine and a solid two-fifty he walked like the brick wall he was. At first glance you wouldn’t think he was fifty-three, but the hard ass drill sergeant kept the Grizzlies toned and disciplined. At least in his weight room.

  “Yes,” Rome struggled and drew out the word as he pressed up with his legs. Five hundred pounds seemed like a good idea at the time.

  “Drop them and get out of my weight room.”

  Rome lowered the leg press slowly as fire burned up his thighs until the bar took the weight of the machine and he dropped his legs. “Someone piss in your granola?”

  “There’s a limit when you go from building to destroying. You’re teetering on that point.”

  “Fine, I’ll go hit the treadmill.”

  “Didn’t you do cardio when you got here?” he questioned.

  “Your point is?”

  “Go home. Rest your body for the next three days. If you want to work out do it where I’m not liable.”

  “Seriously? You’re kicking me out?”

  “Who did we draft that’s scaring you?”

  “Have I ever been scared?” Rome challenged.

  “Your first two years you weren’t exactly King Kong.”

  “King Kong ain’t got nothing on me,” Rome quoted Training Day with a bit less enthusiasm than Denzel. Joe extended his hand to Rome who gripped it and yanked him up so they would be eye to eye or eye to chest since Rome had a good five inches on Joe.

  Joe sat on a bench and pointed to one across from him for Rome. “I’ve known you for what, a decade?”

  “Or six years,” Rome noted.

  “Feels longer,” Joe replied as he rested his thick forearms on his knees. “Now tell me something, you and I have battled in here before, but I never had to kick your ass out.”

  “Why start now?”

  “I have a wife who expects to see me in the few months between sessions. We have OTAs next week.” The organized team activities were optional for veterans with the optional in quotes by Coach Marshall. Sure Rome’s spot wasn’t in jeopardy, but every move was watched since the new coach took over three years ago.

  “Is it really that late?” Rome looked over his shoulder to the digital clock with the countdown clock to preseason ticking away underneath it. Almost five with no response from Dani. The working out hadn’t helped with his frustration. Usually exhausting his body, hitting things, and pushing himself physically could push aside everything in the world. God knows Candace hadn’t been on his mind since he started his workout.

  “Go home, for the love of all that is holy, shower…better yet soak in an Epsom salt bath because there’s no way you’re not going to smell like ass and be sore as one.”

  “Your motivational speeches keep me going.”

  “I’m not here to be your shrink,” he replied. “Whatever is fucking with your head is your shit. I’m all for getting it out through lifting, but now is the time for alcohol, cheap whores or a combination of the two.”

  Joe grabbed his keys and started flipping off lights. Rome got the message and headed to his locker. Getting his own stuff, he decided to shower at home. Not that he had much of a choice since Joe flipped off the lights in the locker room as the final notice he’d overstayed his welcome. The soreness hit after five minutes in his SUV. Stretching his neck from side to side, he tried in vain to avoid the lactic acid building up in his system.

  The drive home took almost two hours because of rush hour traffic. Going into the city shouldn’t be as bad as it was, but then again this was Chicago. When Rome pulled onto his street he saw an interesting sight. Pulling up to his driveway, Dani was stretched out on the trunk of her car with a six-pack of orange soda resting beside her. She looked beautiful with her hair pulled up into a ponytail as she took in the last rays of sunshine on the warm spring day. Today was a semi-casual day with red dress shorts, stilettos, and a tight button down shirt accentuating her breasts a bit more than she probably knew.

  Rome let his passenger window down and called out to wake her from her slumber. “Any chance I could get you to move your car so I could get into my garage?”

  Without lifting a finger or opening her eyes, he heard her reply, “Tell me something.”

  “Okay,” Rome said, trying not to smile too broadly as he looked at her thighs being hugged tightly by her shorts.

  “Who sends a text in the morning for orange soda?”

  “A man who was denied days before.”

  “Then isn’t at home when I bring said soda,”
she continued as if he’d never mentioned the first issue.

  Rome got out of his running car, but didn’t close the door. Keeping his footsteps silent, he walked up to her and leaned over for a kiss. She jumped when their lips met, but soon fell into the embrace. His hand rested on her belly and his pinky brushed against the small bit of exposed skin between her satin shirt and shorts. When her lips separated just enough that he could enter, he held back. He had left his SUV idling on the street.

  “Will you please move your car for me?’ he asked, letting his lips brush against hers.

  “You should have led with that,” she said before putting her hands on either side of his face and capturing his lips for one more kiss.

  After the shifting of vehicles, she waited on his porch as he bounded up the steps only to feel the hours lifting in his knees. Pain shot from his shins through the top of his kneecap as he let out a little yelp.

  “You okay there?” she giggled. “Claiming an old football injury isn’t quite as dramatic on you.”

  “Why not?” he questioned.

  “You don’t seem like the type to be reliving his high school glory days.”

  “That would be moot at this point,” he replied before snatching the six-pack of soda from her hands. “These seem a bit warm.”

  “You have any idea how long I’ve been waiting?”

  “If you would have replied to my text you wouldn’t have had to wait.”

  “You’re not really bringing logic and common decency into this conversation, are you?” She followed him into his brownstone and to his kitchen where he tossed his keys since his bowl was now broken. She copied with her purse. “Were you really craving a pop that much?”

  “Not really.” He put the drinks in the fridge then took out a few sports drinks.

  “Then why,” Dani began, but stopped to wave off his offer of a drink as she rested against the island, “couldn’t you wait until Tuesday?”

  Rome smiled before downing one bottle in one long swallow.

  “Impressive. Trying to show me how fast you can go?”

  “I’m sorry,” he practically purred while leaning across the island to come nose to nose with Dani. “You want me to take my time with this one.”

  Dani glanced at the bottle of blue liquid before challenging him and moving closer. “I don’t know,” she said in a hushed whisper that brushed against his lips. “Long and lingering can tease out the situation. Letting it dribbled down your throat leaving its flavor on your tongue.”

  Of all the swelling going on in Jerome’s body, his groin was jumping by leaps and bounds. His cock hardened uncomfortably against the wood of his kitchen island. He shifted his hips and stretched enough that he could release the pressure but not be able to feel Dani’s lips.

  “You know I’m going to fuck you until neither of us can walk.”

  Dani pulled her lips in and ran her tongue over the top one. “I’d be nervous, but you were already limping.”

  Rome shook his drink and Dani cut her eyes at the bottle. “This is a recovery drink.”

  “Prove it,” she challenged. “If you can catch me, my body is yours and yours alone for the rest of the night.”

  Like a flash she took off and rounded the island before he could even turn to catch her. Following down the hallway, he found her in the living room with the couch as a barrier. He juked left, but she didn’t fall for it and took off to his right. Soon he was the only one in the room as she stood by the hallway.

  “Don’t you get paid to catch people?” she teased before bolting up his staircase.

  Rome took the stairs two at a time and had her pinned against the wall before she could react. “My goal is to not get caught,” he growled against her ear before nibbling on the soft flesh of her lobe. His body pressed into hers finding a soft cushion that made him want to hold on tighter.

  Licking her neck, he peppered kisses up and along her jawline until he landed a chaste kiss on the corner of her lips. Her breath hitched and he knew she wasn’t lying in the kitchen. She was his and he wanted to claim her in ways he never explored before. Brushing her hair back from her flushed cheeks she turned her lips into his palm, returning his soft kiss. She wasn’t asking what they had together, where this would lead or if they’d even talk after this day. Instead, her eyes drooped from the weight of the lust building between them.

  “Tell me what you did when you got home?” he asked as his hand traveled down her shoulder and cupped her breast. They were already perked and straining against the soft satin of her blouse.

  “I don’t…” she let out a hard gasp as he brushed his thumb against the hardened nipple before claiming her lips again. His knee separated her legs to press hard against her core. When he released her lips, her head lolled to the side. “What…you are…” He continued to tease her to enjoy watching her squirm against the wall as his knee became damp from her excitement.

  “Are you telling me when you got home,” he began while using his lips to lightly graze the column of her neck, “you didn’t think about me. Tell me how you touched yourself, Dani.”

  She melted further and he slid his hand on her back to hold her up. “Don’t go away, baby, talk to me. Let me know what you did to yourself.”

  His cock throbbed next to her stomach and he saw her lips trembling.

  “You said your body was mine if I caught you, Danika. Right now I want your lips.” When she started to slide to the floor, he pulled her tighter and brought his forehead to hers. “I didn’t ask for that…yet. Right now, I want to hear you describe how you touched yourself.”

  “What makes you think—”

  “I know I wasn’t the only one.” Her eyes widened before her lips parted. “There’s no way my hand was as warm, wet, and tight as your pussy.”

  “It’s not,” she said under her breath.

  “You know that because you were deep inside?”

  “Not deep enough.”

  His head fell back with a growl of desire. Fuck, just the thought of her soft folds stopped his need to torment her. Now he needed to feel what she felt. With a flick of the button on the top of her shorts, he slid his hand down and inside to feel the few wisps of hair already damp as they covered her mound.

  “Was it like this?” he asked before inserting his middle finger and rotating inside.

  “More,” she mewed and bit at his shoulder. “I was thinking of you.”

  When he retreated this time, he reentered with three fingers and she pushed up on her tiptoes as her nails dug into his shoulder. His thumb circled her clit as he curved his fingers in to locate the sweet bundle of nerves that made her squeal and start her own rhythm against his hand.

  “Tell me more,” he ordered as his cock protested being restrained. “Tell me what you imagined. What sent you over the edge?”

  Sweat misted her forehead as she bucked against his digits. “This…only…you were inside me. We were one. You pounded against me…”

  “Did I now?” Her fantasy was matching him perfectly as he felt her tighten around his fingers as wetness overflowed to the point it was coating him. To match her imagination, he thrust harder and she screamed.

  “So hard…so hard…pictures fell.” Her body became rigid and her core tensed to the point he worried about injury. The sick fuck that he was, all he could think about was how she would feel around his dick as she came apart. With a hard shudder she did just that. The muscles he’d worked out all day screamed against the weight of her body as he held her up. They needed to move to the bed if he had any chance of survival. Danika Albright would kill him and he was ready to sacrifice himself at the temple that was her body.

  Chapter Seven

  Dani had her hands resting on Rome’s shoulders trying to brace herself as her legs trembled. If she took one step in any direction she would have the grace of a new born calf suffering from mad cow disease. Looking over his shoulder, she caught her reflection in a mirror across the hall from her. Her eyes were hooded an
d her face flushed as a smile teased the corners of her mouth. Closing her eyes, she placed her head on Rome’s chest and rode the wave as her skin burned where her clothes touched her body. Sex needed to be naked. The body could only handle so many sensations and Jerome Speed was more than most women could handle. Dani questioned her own ability. His manhood left an indent on her stomach. Maybe falling to the floor wouldn’t be so bad.

  Rome retracted his hand from her shorts. The removal made Dani’s head fall back and their eyes met. The light caught the glistening on his dark fingers from her release. He brought them to his lips and she held her breath when the bright red of his tongue licked at the liquid before using his index finger to trace her lips.

  “See how sweet you are?” he questioned and she swallowed hard. She’d never tasted herself. The men she’d been with barely went down on her let alone talked about flavors.

  A strength built in Dani as hormones rushed, causing her to wonder about his flavor. Her lips actually tingled at the thought of him between them. “I bet you’re just as delicious.” Rome’s eyebrows quirked up. “Did my lips satisfy you enough with my story?”

  “I bet you could do better.”

  “Are you challenging me, Jerome Speed?”

  “I am…and normally, I’d let you drop to your knees and swallow every last drop of me.”

  “I hear a but coming.” Dani tried to hide her disappointment. Why the hell was she disappointed?

  “I’ve been working out for hours,” he confessed. “Way more than I should have today.”