Page 42 of False Start
I wrap my arms around his neck and press my lips to his. I’m on the precipice of falling apart, unable to move my mouth, but still breathing in his air. My mind goes blank, my eyes close, and my back arches as I come undone around him. “Bryant,” I murmur like a quiet prayer.
“I’m here, baby. I’ve got you.”
I’m gone. Lost to ecstasy. No longer in this world. And when I descend from that higher plane, Bryant is close to finding his own release. I can feel it in the slight tremor of his muscles, the quickening of his breath, and the stiffness of his legs.
“Zhanna,” he says, and then he pulses inside of me. He wraps himself around my body and lets go. He whispers things I can’t decipher but anxiously want to know.
When we’ve both come back together, he searches my face once more. I’m not sure what he’s looking for or what he finds, but he next leans back against the couch and takes me with him to lie on his chest. I listen to his heartbeat and breath sounds beneath my ear. The sound is calming and eventually, it lulls me to sleep with him still connected to me.
When I wake, I’m floating in the air, weightless and free, in Bryant’s arms. I wince from the soreness in my legs and hips.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“My hips hurt.”
“Shit. I should’ve moved you from that position, but you were sleeping so well.”
“You can put me down.”
“I know, but I’m not going to.” I’m far too exhausted to argue with him. He carries me to the master bath and sets me on the white marble counter. “Where are your towels?”
“Beneath me.”
He stoops below and quickly grabs a small cloth before he wets it with warm water and cleans me up like a gentleman. He cleans himself up as I slide off the counter and head for my bed. And when I get there, I do something I haven’t done in a long time. I pull the sheet and comforter down on the other side of the bed.
— 15 —
Then
JUNIOR YEAR FLIES BY, and before I know it we’re in our last year of undergraduate. So many things will change for us in the spring when Bryant and I graduate. He’ll be drafted into the league, and I’ll attend grad school wherever he ends up playing. He told me from the beginning of our relationship that nothing will change between us when he’s playing in the league, and he wants me with him.
We’re attached at the hip most days, even though we’re both busy with school and his football schedule. But he always makes time for me. We often steal moments alone at the cabin, camping, hiking, fishing, and just hanging around a fire. We rarely spend a night apart, except for the night before a game when he has to stay in a hotel.
I’m still terrified I’ll receive a phone call one day about him being injured on the field, but I try not to focus on it and worry myself to death over something that may never happen. When he comes over to mine and Zina’s apartment black and blue from practice, I aim my attention at making him comfortable and sated. Because even after a hard day at football, we very rarely go without making love. And I’d rather focus on feeling great than being a nervous Nancy.
As I walk the sideline, practice unfolds on the football field in front of me. “Hudson! What the fuck was that?” Coach Tombs shouts at him, and then he sees me. “Shouldn’t you be over the honeymoon phase by now?”
“What?” Bryant shouts across the field for his coach to hear. “She’s hot!” He jogs off the field and meets me near the goalpost. “Hey, baby. I’m so fucking glad to see you. Coach is killing us.”
“I heard that!” Tombs says.
The quarterback pats the top of his thighs for me to jump up and lock my legs around him. There are cameras all over a college football practice, especially with a Heisman contender QB slated to be a first-round pick in the spring, so I’m hesitant to put our relationship on national television. Plus, he’s filthy.
“Come on, baby.”
“Stop.”
He smirks at me, holds his arms out wide, leans his head back, and shouts at the top of his lungs. “I’m in love with Zhanna Hale!” The team hoots and hollers to support their leading man as I laugh at them. He picks me up and spins me around as I giggle harder. Then he lowers me and kisses me for the entire world to see.
“You’re insane,” I tell him through my continued laughter.
“You love me anyway.”
“To the moon and back, Quarterback.”
“I have to go before Coach makes me run laps like a rookie.”
“I’ll be the girl watching from the bench and having the dirtiest thoughts about what I want to do to you tonight.”
