Scoring With Him by Lauren Blakely

Declan

I literally have to pry myself away from Grant.

He’s too sexy.

“I need some space, or I will throw you on the bed and fuck you right now,” I say, grabbing my shorts and yanking them back on.

“That doesn’t really make me want to give you space. Just saying.” Grant’s all deadpan as he sasses me.

I toss him a look and head to the chair a few feet from the bed. I half want to sit next to him because I want my hands all over him, but I also think a buffer is a good idea while we lay down the law.

He goes to the mattress. Sits on the edge. Gestures to it. “This help? Got enough distance from the virgin you want to fuck?”

A wave of lust crashes through my body. This man and his mouth will be the death of me. He knows how to play me so well. Knows what words turn me on.

I lift a brow. “Aren’t you funny when you get a little taste of my cock?”

He shrugs with a smirk. “I wouldn’t say it was little.”

I laugh then shake my head and shove a hand through my hair, try to reset for a few minutes. “Baseball has rules,” I say, focusing on the important matters. This is like the safe-sex talk. Gotta have it first. “We need them too. We’re teammates, and we’ll still be teammates after we screw,” I say, as matter-of-fact as I can.

He nods in agreement. “We will.”

“So, we need to agree. No clinging, no asking for more—none of that shit.” Grant might be one hell of a guy, but that doesn’t change my position on dating.

Grant scoffs. “Dude, I don’t want a relationship.”

“Good. I don’t either. Second.” I lift a finger. “No one can know. No one can ever know. This stays between us.” I gesture from him to me.

He flubs his lips. “Obviously. I’m not about to go into the locker room and boast about us banging. Also, pretty sure no one wants to hear.”

“Agreed.”

Grant lifts his chin, humming thoughtfully. “I’ve got one though.”

“Lay it on me.”

His blue eyes lock with mine, the intensity in them searing. “When this ends, it ends. We move on. We don’t talk about it. We don’t reference it. We don’t flirt on the diamond, off the diamond, on the bus, on the plane.”

He draws a line in the sand, one I didn’t expect from a twenty-two-year-old. I admit, a part of me was worried he’d grow attached. It’s good to know we’re cut from the same cloth.

This line makes all the sense in the world. I need to adhere to it as well, no matter how endearing the man is.

I’d do well to remember that. To remember I need to resist his big heart, his clever mouth, his wide-open attitude.

Best to focus on the expiration date, and on the physical. “So, how about this for the rules of engagement? You tell me what’s on your list of things you’d like to try, and when we check them all off, we’re officially done, and we move on?”

He lists the things he wants to try, and even though my chest heats and my skin sizzles, I keep my cool.

“You good with those?” he asks.

“I’m very good with all that,” I say in the understatement of my lifetime.

I am not only good with his list, I am infinitely aroused by it. By the specificity. By the details. And most of all by the fact that we’re going to work our way, one by one, through his filthy wishes.

“Just so I’m clear—you’ve done hand jobs and blow jobs. Anything more?”

His face is stoic at first. He swallows. Shakes his head. “No. At least not with another person. I’ve played with butt plugs on myself.”

“And you liked that?”

“I did.”

“Mmm,” I say, wildly turned on as I picture his dirty list. “So, everything on your list is new to you?”

“It’s all new,” he says, chin up, eyes glimmering with lust. “And when we reach the end, we’re done.”

“When the lessons are over, they’re over,” I reiterate, though at the moment I’m not thinking about endings. I’m thinking about beginnings, and coming together, and coming on each other, and in each other, and holy hell, it’s time to turn the oven off.

I am roasted.

Grant breathes a sigh of relief, clearly glad I’m onboard.

I am, all the way, but there’s one last thing. “I’ve got one more request, but it’s not quite a ground rule. More like a wish.”

“Hit me.”

I run my hands along my thighs, drawing a deep breath.

This next one matters a lot. I can’t entirely explain why. I’m not sure myself. But I don’t want to dive into sex tonight. I want the exploration, the discovery—for him, but also so I can experience it through his eyes, through his touch. “We take our time over the next few nights. Work our way up to sex. Get to know each other’s bodies. Do the things you’re dying to do.”

A wicked grin curves his lips. “I get it. You want to drive me crazy.”

I laugh. “Pretty sure you do that to me too, rookie.”

“So, we’ve got a deal?”

“We’ve got a sex deal,” I say, and that’s enough space and talk. I rise, cross to the bed, park my hands on the mattress, and dip my face to his, running my nose along his neck, inhaling that barbershop smell.

Grant shudders as the tip of my nose slides over his skin. “I want to get to know your body now,” I murmur. “To touch you. Please you. And I want you to do the same to me.”

“Oh fuck,” he groans, his hands flying to my hips.

I grin like a cocky bastard. He’s so damn frisky and his eagerness is the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. I sweep my lips along his neck. “All day long, I’ve thought about you. I can’t stop thinking about what you told me.”

Grant’s fingers curl nice and tight around my hips, digging in. “That I’m a virgin?” He seems to enjoy saying the word, knowing what it does to me, how it rolls down my spine like Christmas lights flickering on, foot by foot, row by row, till I am all lit up.

“It’s driving me wild,” I murmur, running my lips down his neck. I brush them up to his ear, nip on the lobe. Then I pull back, meeting his hooded gaze. He sits straighter, his chest close to mine, heat simmering between our bodies. His eyes shine with lust.

“I want it to be so fucking good for you. I want you to have the first time I never did,” I tell Grant.

“So, you’re a gay sex revisionist?”

I laugh. “Maybe I am. But mostly I want to watch your face as you experience the greatest pleasure ever,” I say, dragging my hand down his chest. He trembles as I go. “You’re going to love it so much. Sex is fucking spectacular.”

“How good?” he asks in a heady whisper.

“Nothing on heaven or earth is better. And I want to be the first man to fuck you, and I need to be the first man you fuck.”

Grant lets out a long, staggered breath. “I can barely keep up with you. I’m having an out-of-body experience from the way you talk to me.”

“Then you’re really going to like what we do next.”