Page 76 of The Fake
Wrapping a hand around the base, she takes me into her mouth. The tight suction and the warmth of her has me hissing out a shaky breath. She feels so damn good. I let her work me over until I can’t take it anymore. I flip her onto her back and untie one side of her panties and then the other.
“Damn,” I say after I’ve unwrapped her like a present.
I reach for my jeans and grab a condom out of my wallet. She takes it from me and covers me while I watch on, fascinated with how careful she is and how good her touch feels even over the latex.
We both groan with pleasure and need when I push into her tight pussy. Her hands roam over my arms and chest. She feels me up as I fill her up and it’s so fucking good.
* * *
“How’s Chinese?”
I glance at the clock. “I have practice in an hour, I don’t think we have time. Someone kept me busy for too long.” I drop a kiss on the tip of her nose and sit up. “Wanna grab food from University Hall?”
Chloe nods, and we get dressed. Linking our fingers, I pull her hand to my lips and kiss it before dropping our still joined hands and leading her out of the dorm.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Chloe says excitedly, swinging our arms. “I met a guy at the football party. Frank, I think his name was. He said he knew you and you used to hang out or work together or something.”
I stiffen at the name but force my feet and arms to keep moving. “I know lots of people, babe.”
“Tall, dark hair and beard, he said to tell you hello and to call him if you changed your mind?” She looks at me quizzically.
“Oh, yeah. Frank. We have Econ together. Wants me to join his study group.” The words physically hurt as they leave my mouth. How do you tell the girl you’re dating that she just met your former boss, and oh, by the way, he’s a drug dealer and so was I up until the day you met me?
Bri and Mallory are coming out of University Hall as we approach. Bri waves and we walk toward them.
“We’re going over to the courts early to work on passing drills. You wanna come?”
Chloe motions with her head toward me. “We were gonna get lunch.”
“Go,” I say, trying to sound like an understanding boyfriend instead of a shitty one who just lied and needs to flee to think through what I’ve done. I drop her hand and take a step away before she can try and change my mind. “I’ve gotta couple errands to run before weightlifting. I’ll call ya later.”
“Oh. Okay. You’re sure? You still need to tell me all about the new job.”
“Positive, princess.” I kiss her cheek and then wave to her teammates.
I head to the gym early and go straight into warmups. It’s an hour before anyone else gets here but I need to burn off some of the worry and guilt I’m holding.
I jog up and down the court with the ball, crossing over every third dribble. I try and think through the situation logically. I should go straight after practice and tell her the truth. All of it. My friends have stuck by my side even after they found out. Then again, I didn’t lie to them, at least not outright. It was more of an omission.
I know I have to tell her. And I want to. I don’t want to keep anything from her, but damn, I can’t help but want to hold on to the way things are right now. She looks at me like I’m her knight in shining armor, swooping in to save my princess, when in reality, she’s the one who saved me. Every day since the day I met her, she’s made me want to be better, but I can’t hide from the shitty things I’ve done, and I have to believe it won’t be the end of us.
* * *
Tuesday morning, Coach gives me the good news that I’ve got sign-off to take the job and I call Lincoln as soon as I get back to the house.
“That’s great news, Nathan.” He pauses. “Do you go by Nathan?”
“Yes, sir.”
He chuckles. “Don’t call me sir, makes me feel old as shit. Lincoln or Linc is fine.”
“Got it.”
“The site is still in progress, but I’ll get you an account so you can see what it looks like from the back end. Pretty simple really. Once a client signs up, they have access to view tutorials, read blog posts, and submit questions or videos, depending on their membership. The most basic level is free, and clients can submit questions that are sorted based on sport. That will be your job, answering the questions that come in through the basic package. So far, it’s been a lot of questions on how they can get more advanced help. We’ve got some canned responses for that, but a few sports-related questions have come in too. It might be slow to start, but I’m confident it’ll pick up as the full site goes live.”
“It sounds great. I’m really excited. Thank you for the opportunity.”
“Glad to have you. I saw you play in the Florida Gulf game last year. You’re a hell of a player.”
