Hit Hard: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (Athletic Affairs) Read online

  He stepped forward, and placed his hands on the refrigerator behind me, either side of my shoulders. My breathing quickened, and my heart hammered in my chest as his gaze moved down to my lips. I flicked my tongue out across them, placing my drink carefully back up on the side to make sure I kept my hands free. And then, finally, it happened.

  It was a surprisingly gentle kiss- his mouth was soft at first, his stubble rough against my skin as our lips met for the first time. But soon enough, all the tension that had been building between us since we first made eye contact at his match the week before seemed to come to a head, and there was no holding us back.

  He wrapped one arm around my waist and pulled me flat against his chest; I stumbled against him, grabbing him for support, and he pushed his tongue into my mouth to kiss me deeper. At once, the encounter moved from romantic to passionate, our hands traveling up and down each other’s bodies, our breath coming faster, the small noises that he let out at every motion becoming less sweet and far darker.

  His skin was warm against mine and I found myself craving more of him, even as we kissed. I’d never felt anything like it before. I wanted him so badly there was an ache in my chest, and even making out as furiously as we were, wasn’t filling the void.

  “Bedroom?” I panted, and he nodded. He grabbed my hand and we wove through the crowd, which was still thankfully big enough for people not to look twice at where we were going and what we were doing.

  Darius pulled me into a room just off the hallway that led from the front door of the apartment. I hadn’t noticed it on the way in, but at that moment, I was grateful for the privacy it provided for us. He closed the door behind us, and pounced on me once again, knocking us both back on to the bed. He ran his hands down my waist and my thigh, grabbing and groping at my flesh through my clothes.

  “Fuck, you feel good,” he murmured against my ear. I bucked my hips up to meet his, and found that he was already hard beneath his slacks. He moved down my body, unbuttoning my shirt and kissing from my neck down to my breasts. I stared up at the ceiling, mouth slightly agape and eyes half-closed, as he undressed me.

  The way his hands moved across my skin -- he was so in-control, so goddamn good at what he was doing. I lifted my head to watch him as he kissed across my stomach, letting his tongue trace the lines next to my hips that led down to my pussy.

  My back arched up off the bed as if of its own accord, and a groan escaped my lips. I was glad that the party was still loud enough outside that I didn’t have to worry about making too much noise. I ran my hands through my hair and tried to pull myself back to reality as he began to slide my pants down over my hips, but it was difficult to keep my head in the game. I was so turned-on that my head was spinning, my body reacting to every single little touch.

  He kissed the outside of my panties, and his hot breath sent pulses of pleasure through my pussy. He pulled my underwear aside and kissed me, once, right on the clit; I let out a cry that sounded almost more like pain than enjoyment.

  “You okay?” He looked up at me, running his hands around my thighs so he could grip my ass. I nodded, my chest heaving as I looked down at him. I knew I couldn’t wait any longer- I had to have him right then and there.

  “Fuck me,” I breathed, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him back on top of me. “Now. Please.”

  “Anything you say,” he replied, kissing my lips again and quickly stripping himself down as he searched his bedside table for a condom. I watched as he cast aside his clothes, propping myself up on my elbow so I could take him in. He turned to me once he’d found the foil packet, and raised an eyebrow.

  “Like what you see?” He teased, and I shrugged.

  “Not bad,” I shot back nonchalantly, but internally I was committing every inch of his body to memory; the strength of his chest, the muscles that stuck out in his shoulders and arms, his toned stomach and legs. He was physically perfect and, as he clamored back on top of me, I had to remind myself that this gorgeous specimen of manhood wanted me. Me.

  He rolled on the condom and grabbed my leg, positioning it so that it was draped over his shoulder. He kissed my calf lightly, and I praised all things good and pure that I’d thought to shave that morning before I came out to work. He slid his other hand behind my head, and leaned down to kiss me as he eased himself inside of me for the first time.

  Our lips met as he thrust his full length within me, and I gripped his back, nails digging into his skin just to have something to hang on to. I gasped as he began to move, his cock thick and stout inside me. I had always loved to fuck, as long as I could remember, but this was something else entirely. I was completely soaked just from the promise of this, and the pleasure was almost too much as he started out with shallow thrusts and worked himself the full way into my cunt.

  “Jesus,” he groaned. “You feel amazing.”

  I was surprised he could manage anything as complex as words; I could only come up with a series of soft sounds, my mouth opening and closing as he moved inside of me. I wrapped my other leg around his waist and arched myself up to allow him even deeper, matching the roll of my hips with the pace of his thrusts. I had no idea how long we stayed like that, clinging to each other for dear life- I imagined days flying off the calendar and the sun and moon rising and falling outside time and time again, and giggled to myself. I could have stayed here for weeks, losing myself to how good he felt inside me.

  But soon enough, I felt my pussy beginning to clench around him; I was almost ready to come. I was stunned -- I usually took forever to get there, but only about a half-hour after our lips met, I was on the brink.

  “Fuck!” I gasped against his lips as it happened. The feeling blossomed out from my pussy, sending waves of pleasure across my entire body. A few seconds later, I felt him finish inside my still-clenching pussy, and he thrust himself deep inside me one last time, holding himself there as though savoring the sensation. He slowly withdrew, and we rolled apart on the bed, both staring at the ceiling for a moment. Well, he was looking at the ceiling, but I was sneaking a few looks at his body once more. Just to remind myself how good he looked.

  He propped himself up on his elbow and turned to me; I had no idea what we were meant to do or say next, but I was happy to let him take the lead with that one.

  “So…” he let the word hang in the air between us. “That was fun.”

  “It was,” I agreed, finally managing to make eye contact. I felt as though I might explode on the spot, there on his bed, in his slightly messy bedroom. Just being this close to him felt absurd, let alone knowing that we had just fucked the shit out of each other. I took a deep breath and let it out; he was just a guy. A hot guy, sure, and a guy who was good in bed- but a guy nonetheless. The last thing I needed was to be losing my mind over just some guy when I had other things I should have been focusing on.

  “You want to do it again sometime?” He raised his eyebrows.

  “What, like fuck-buddies?”

  “Sure,” he shrugged. I eyed him for a second; I mean, I didn’t want anything serious with him. Yes, he was hot, but he was involved with stuff I didn’t want to go anywhere near. It was best that I keep him at arm’s length, but if we were working together, well, then that was hardly an option anymore. So, the best compromise seemed to be the one that he was offering. Hook up on the regular to get it out of our systems, but keep it casual.

  “Sounds good,” I grinned. “As long as we keep it from everyone at work, right?”

  “Obviously,” he nodded, and reached over to run a hand from just beneath my arm all the way down to my hip. I shivered at his touch, and he smiled back at me.

  “I think we’re going to have a whole lot of fun,” he murmured softly, and, before I knew it, his mouth met mine once again. I closed my eyes, put everything else from my head, and lost myself to him once more.

  Chapter Three

  A few weeks later, I woke up in a familiar bed, but one that was not my own.

  I s
tretched out and reached for my clothes where we had abandoned them in a small pile the night before. Darius was still sprawled out on the bed next to me, fast asleep. He was naked too, and I took a second to look at him as he lay flat-out on his stomach. The muscles in his back were visible through his skin, and I fought the urge to reach out and run my hands along them. I didn’t want to wake him up yet, before I’d had a chance to shower and get a coffee in me.

  He was out late most nights, so would normally sleep longer than me when it came to mornings like this. Last night, he’d been out at a fight while I’d been working a shift and he’d picked me up at Dino’s (I snuck around the back to make sure that no-one saw who I was leaving with) and we came back here and fucked ourselves stupid.

  He had balanced me on the kitchen counter, strong arms wrapped tight around my body. Just the thought of it was making me all…mmm. A shiver ran down my spine as I got myself dressed. I could very happily have spent an unthinkable amount of time screwing with Darius.

  It had been just under a month since we’d first agreed on our fuck-buddies relationship and, so far, things were pretty much perfect. I’d never had a prolonged fuck-buddy before; I was either a one-night-stand or a full-blown relationship kind of girl. This was entirely new territory for me, and I had to admit that I was having a whole lot of fun exploring it.

  Darius was incredible in bed, or hell, maybe the two of us just had that kind of chemistry that didn’t come along very often and bounced off each other. Things had only gotten better since the first night we hooked up, and I found myself regularly crashing over at his place after we spent the night in bed.

  I had mentioned this to Nina, and she had given me a look over her coffee cup while we were at the café close to where she worked. I hadn’t seen much of her since she and that coach had started hooking up, but we were both happy to take the opportunity to actually talk about how our respective love lives were going.

  “What’s that look for?” I demanded as I tucked into my brownie. I had skipped breakfast that morning as Darius had insisted on taking me back to bed instead, and who was I to refuse his advances?

  “So, you’re keeping it casual, but you’re staying over there most nights of the week?” She confirmed. I shrugged.

  “Yeah, that’s right,” I agreed. “I don’t see what’s wrong with that.”

  “And are either of you seeing other people?” She pressed, leaning forward in her seat.

  “No, but-“

  “Honey, you’re dating this guy,” She remarked. “No shame in it, but you guys are in the early days of boyfriend/girlfriend stuff.”

  “Trust me, that’s the last thing I want with Darius,” I rolled my eyes. “He’s an amateur boxer, for God’s sake. And the people he hangs around with aren’t always the…well, the most legal of people.”

  She was still giving me the look.

  “What?”

  “You guys said you were going to keep it casual, right?” She confirmed. I nodded.

  “Well, I hate to break it to you, but you’re totally not,” she shrugged.

  “And you and your guy are?” I teased. “You seem pretty smitten with him.”

  “With his dick, maybe,” she replied, loud enough that a couple of people turned around and gave us dirty looks. I glanced at them apologetically but had trouble keeping the smile off my face. Nina had no filter, and it was by far one of the best parts about being friends with her.

  “But seriously, if you’re not looking for something serious, you need to nip this in the bud,” she suggested. “Keep it strictly about sex.”

  “But I like spending time with him…” I admitted, and Nina pounced at once.

  “Do you like him? Like, like him like him?” She tapped her fingers against her coffee cup.

  “What are we, in high school?” I rolled my eyes, but only so I could deflect her question for a moment longer.

  “Okay, so you’re basically in love with him,” she replied. matter-of-factly.

  “Look, yes, I guess I don’t hate him,” I conceded. “But I’ve got my head over my heart here. I know what’s good for me.”

  “Whatever you say,” she eyed me suspiciously, and I could tell that she didn’t believe a word of what was coming out of my mouth. “Hey, how’d that audition go?”

  “Not bad,” I replied, stirring my coffee to try and distract myself from the little uptick of excitement that came when she mentioned the audition. I had gotten a call from a friend of a friend of Darius’ – his band was looking for a new bassist to come play a few gigs around the city, with a view to taking on the position permanently. I had gone out to play for them, and they seemed to really like me, though I hadn’t heard anything from them since then, so I wasn’t getting too excited.

  “I’m sure you’ll get it,” Nina beamed across the table at me. She had always been my biggest cheerleader when it came to stuff like this, and I couldn’t help but smile back at her enthusiasm.

  “Thanks,” I bowed my head gratefully, and turned the subject back to the crazy shit she’d been getting up to in bed with her new beau. I was happy to get the attention off me for a while because, frankly, she had given me a lot to think about.

  So, there I was that morning, at Darius’, slipping into his shower to get myself ready for another shift at work. It had taken me a while to learn how to use the damn thing, but now I had it figured out -- I just had to let it run for an age until the water got hot.

  Darius liked cold showers anyway, especially when he got home from a fight, so he didn’t even realize that there was something up with his shower until I pointed it out to him. I smiled as I climbed under the warm rush of water, thinking back to the stunned expression on his face when I had let out a yelp of displeasure when he’d pulled me under the freezing water with him.

  I washed my hair with the shower gel I’d dumped there a few days earlier, dried off, and got myself dressed. I made my way through to the kitchen, and found, to my surprise, that Darius was already up and out of bed and had made us both a cup of coffee. He handed one to me, and I took a sip.

  “Mmm,” I sighed, satisfied. “Thanks, I needed that.”

  “You’re going to work, right?” He furrowed his brow at me, as though desperately trying to remember what I had or hadn’t told him the night before. I couldn’t really recall much past the two of us getting in the door, myself.

  “Yeah, that’s right,” I nodded.

  “I’ll walk you there,” he suggested. “It’s a beautiful day out.”

  “Are you sure?” I frowned. “It’s a long way, and if you’ve got stuff to be getting on with I don’t mind.”

  “I want to,” he assured me, catching my face between his hands. “Trust me.”

  “Okay then,” I gave him a look out of the corner of my eye as he sipped his coffee and wandered through to the bathroom to get his shower ready. I couldn’t help but think about what Nina had said to me when the two of us were at that coffee shop -- that we were actually dating and just playing at keeping things casual. And I wasn’t sure that she was wrong. Whenever I saw him, I felt that little buzz of excitement in my chest, and it was getting harder and harder to ignore. I thought what we had was just attraction, but the more time I spent with him, the less likely that seemed to be.

  I drank my coffee and reached for my phone, planning on scrolling through the news as I caffeinated myself up to the gills. Instead, I saw a message waiting for me. Who was texting me at this hour? I glanced at the time- I wasn’t late for work, so it couldn’t have been a supervisor demanding to know where I was, already. I didn’t recognize the number as I tapped the message open, but as soon as I saw what appeared on my screen, I wanted to punch the air with glee.

  Darius came out of the shower, wrapped in nothing but a towel, and found me beaming down at my phone.

  “What is it?” He came and wrapped his arm around my waist, the smell of his shampoo filling my senses. I turned to him and held out the phone.

 
“Look!” I exclaimed, louder than I meant to, but damn, I was just so excited. He squinted at the message, and then his face lit up.

  “You got the gigs!” he replied, matching my level of joy at last. “That’s amazing, well done!”

  “Thanks,” I sighed, already giddy. “I haven’t played in so long. I can’t wait.”

  “When’s the first one?” He asked as he went through to the bedroom to get himself dressed.

  “A week tomorrow. I’ll need to start practicing, like, yesterday.”

  “Shit, I have a fight that evening,” he frowned. “I really wanted to come along and see you play.”

  “Don’t worry about it!” I waved my hand. “No big deal.”

  “I’ll be at the second one,” he promised as he pulled on a shirt.

  “You really don’t have to,” I assured him, but he shook his head.

  “You’ve seen me fight, it’s only fair that I get to see you play,” he flashed me a smile. “Come on, we should probably think about leaving. You ready?”

  “When you are,” I agreed, and we made our way out the apartment and down in the direction of Dino’s. I found myself babbling away in excitement about the upcoming gig, the nerves already setting in as I imagined playing in front of an audience again. Darius reassured me at every turn, and before I knew it, the two of us were standing at the back entrance to the bar.

  “I’ll catch you later?” Darius ran his hand over his hair, and I nodded.

  “Give me a text when you’re next free,” I suggested, and, before I could think about what I was doing, I leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips.