The Game by Vi Keeland by Vi Keeland

My head lolled back, my neck no longer able to support the weight as I lost my last ounce of control. I groaned her name as I bucked one last time and stilled, filling her throat with what seemed like a never-ending stream.

After, I barely had enough strength to open my eyes, and I panted as if I’d just run down the entire field, even though Bella had done all the work.

“Holy shit.” I shook my head. “That was…”

Bella wiped her mouth and filled in the blank. “Good?”

“No, babe. Good doesn’t come close to what that was. That was running the winning touchdown in with two seconds left in the game—spectacular. Screw the grass and the ice cream. That hot little mouth of yours is my new happy place.”

She smiled. “I’m glad. But we should probably keep ten feet away from each other for the next twenty or so minutes. Otherwise we might miss our food again.”

I ran my finger along her collarbone. “Not sure that’s possible.”

She giggled. “I think we need to put on some clothes. Do you have a T-shirt or something I can borrow? I don’t want to put back on the clothes I wore all day.”

“Sure.”

I walked into my closet with the intention of getting her a tee, but then I saw the stack of my jerseys. I pulled one of those out and tossed it to her instead.

“A jersey?” She unfolded it and looked at the back, where my name was emblazoned. “Is this your signature move? Giving the ladies your jersey after? Do they get to take it home as a parting gift?”

I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “Your grandfather, Coach, always told me it was bad luck to let a girl wear a jersey with your name on the back, unless you were sure she was going to be your wife and take that name.”

Bella chuckled. “Athletes and their superstitions. I’m surprised you didn’t buy into that one.”

I winked as she pulled the jersey on. “Who says I didn’t?”



***



The next day, we went to Bella’s apartment before the flight so she could get ready. It was pretty unbelievable that I’d picked her up only twenty-four hours ago to go bike riding. It felt more like a year had passed, at least in terms of our relationship. Maybe that’s the way it was when you were friends with a woman before becoming more. I wouldn’t know, since that wasn’t how it had worked for me in the past. But I liked it. It was like we were already close, so adding the sex part only brought us closer.

Bella opened the door to her bathroom and exited wearing a skimpy robe, her hair wet and slicked back from the shower. She had on a different pair of glasses than normal—tortoise shell, rather than matte black. She looked like a walking wet dream.

“Those new?”

She looked down at her robe. “This?”

I pointed to her face. “The glasses. I like ’em.”

“No, they’re not new. But my regular ones were extra crooked today. I didn’t want to get teased, so I changed them.”

I stood. “I really want to fuck you with those on.”

Bella held out her hand. “Stay right where you are, Knox. You’ve already only left me forty-five minutes to get ready, and I had to spend fifteen of those scrubbing sticky maple syrup from my body after this morning.”

We’d made pancakes together for breakfast, but she looked so damn sexy wearing my jersey in the kitchen that I wound up lifting her onto the island and pouring the syrup all over her so I could lick it off. I smiled and licked my lips. “If there’s any left between your legs, I can take care of that for you.”

“I think I’m good.”

“Shame.”

Bella went about getting things out of her drawers in her bedroom. But since her apartment was a studio, her bedroom was also her living room and kitchen. It was just one big area. I sat down on the couch and watched her.

She pulled a pair of shoes from a closet and looked over. “Are you going to watch me get ready?”

I shrugged. “Nothing else to do.”

“Well, you’re making me nervous. So you need to find something else.”

“Okay.” I looked around. “Where’s your TV?”

“I don’t have one.”

My face wrinkled. “You don’t have a television?”

“I don’t watch much, and clearly I don’t have much room. So when my last one broke two years ago, I never bothered replacing it.”

“So you’ve watched no television for two years?”

“Miller and I watch movies at his place sometimes. And we watched all the Bruins’ games there during the two years of the inheritance appeal, before I officially became the owner. Other than that, if there’s something I want to see, I watch it on my laptop.”

I glanced around again. “So what exactly would you like me to do?”

She pointed. “There are books on the shelf.”

I smiled. “Think I’ll play with my phone.”

A few minutes later, Bella was in the bathroom blow-drying her hair. I got bored with my phone, so I went to check out her books. I wasn’t much of a reader, except for playbooks and the occasional biography, but I figured I’d see what she was into. There was a full shelf dedicated to what I thought was computer programming languages, but I couldn’t even be sure. Then she had a few shelves of legal thrillers and various other novels. On the bottom was more of the same, except for one book on the end that stuck out. It had a gold-ringed binding, and I thought it might be a photo album, so I slipped it out. Sure enough, it was. The front cover had a small, square cutout window with a picture inside of it. I lifted the book closer to get a good look at the little girl in pigtails and crooked glasses. Yep. That was definitely Bella.