Page 21 of The Catcher

Tanner had one hand tightened in my hair and the other on his cigarette, his hips pressed forward, digging into my flesh,and when I screamed he threw down his cigarette with a curse and put his hand over my mouth.

But it was too late. The bar security had begun to shoo patrons out at the end of the night and they had heard me scream. I tried to scream again, but this time Tanner’s hand was covering my mouth.

However, the security guards were already moving over. “Hey, there!” one called. “Let her go or we’ll call the cops.”

Tanner only let me go at the threat of the cops, reluctantly peeling himself off from me.

“You’re a bad girl for screaming,” he said as I started to walk away, back to my car.

“Whywouldn’tI scream?” I yelped back.

“Because there’s no fucking point, Emrys Finnegan. I’m getting you either way. But I’m going to make it so you come to me nice and easy,” he said.

10

The next morning, I hoped some early-morning exercise would clear my head. There weren’t very many people at the players’ gym, since it was a late game today and they were traveling out of town. I tried to force my brain to focus on my to-do list. The problem was that everything on my to-do revolved around Tanner, and I did not want to think about him. In particular, I did not want to think about how I had gone back to my hotel room last night with my knees and thighs trembling, but a throb and ache in my cunt.

I ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill, then lifted a few weights, greeting some of the players and training staff. I had just decided I was going back for a shower when I saw Tanner. There was a frown on his face, and I hastily wiped down my equipment and started scooting out of the room, hoping I could get out without him seeing me. But by the time I dared to look at him, he was already heading over to me.

“Where are you going?” he asked, pushing me back behind the towel rack.

“To get a shower,” I said, hating how I wasn’t strong enough to bulldoze past him.

He flicked his eyes up and down my body, as if he was debating whether to allow me to take a shower, and I felt anger growing in my belly.

“Have a good trip,” I added.

His eyes flashed. “You’re coming with me.”

Me. Not “the team.” Or “us.”

Dangerous.

“It’s only a t-two-day trip,” I stuttered, trying to look around to see who I could call to come extricate me.

Tanner noticed what I was doing, and his eyes darkened. He stepped closer to me so that he was right in front of me, his chest and shoulders so wide that he blocked out the rest of the gym.

“Emrys, if you were fantasizing about finding another man on this team, you can fucking forget it. You are mine and no one else’s. Don’t bother looking for help. I’ve warned everyone not to fucking get between us.” He reached for me, his big fingers tightening on my T-shirt, pulling me closer to him. The tips of his fingers brushed my sweaty sports bra.

“I’m notyours,” I said.

“Yes, you are,” he said. “Whether you realize it or not.”

“I don’t want you,” I shot at him, trying to untangle my T-shirt from his fingers.

“I don’t give a shit what you want or don’t want,” Tanner growled, putting his other hand on my chin, his thumb pulling down my bottom lip. “This pretty little mouth is going onmycock only.” He moved his fingers slowly down my body, ending on the waistband of my shorts. “And this wet little cunt is mine to use, if you do a good job sucking my cock.”

The breath caught in my chest and I felt heat rush to where his fingers pulled at my waistband. I dropped my eyes so he wouldn’t see the expression in them.

He stepped closer and I felt the brush of his sweats on my bare legs, as he leaned into me, bending down so he was allI could smell—sharp, smoky, wild. Then I felt his mouth open over my throat, and my body prickled with a combination of fear and something else I didn’t want to identify. His hot, wet tongue licked up a drop of sweat that had rolled into the hollow at the base of my neck. It was so strange and unexpectedly erotic that I gasped.

He made an unhinged noise deep in his throat. “Fuck, you taste good,” he said in a different voice than I’d heard him use before.

I struggled to get away, shove him off me.

“Let me go, you weirdo.”

But he curved his fingers around my waist, his other hand grabbing my ponytail, trapping me in place. His tongue moved out again and he licked another drop of sweat on my neck, tracing its path all the way from my shoulder up behind my ear.

---