“Must be haunting Leo, then, because I definitely heard it screaming his name,” Blake added.
I finally succumbed to my laugh, bopping Kyle on the head before I threw a pillow at Blake and elbowed Braden in the ribs since he was closest. They all laughed, too, just as Leo joined us and plopped down next to us.
“What’d I miss?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Blake said. “Just debating whether The Pit is haunted or not.”
I rolled my eyes, but my heart was light as a bird, the wings of it fluttering in my chest and making it impossible not to smile.
I’d never felt more at home.
Mary
It surprised me how easy time slipped away after that.
Leo and the guys were busier than ever with the season starting up, and I was working at the shop almost every night. Now that I had some experience, Nero had me taking on the walkins.
In two weeks, I’d tattooed everything from the inside of bottom lips and fingers to the tops of feet and knees. I had a printout of my designs that some people stumbled in and chose from, signing legal paperwork that swore they weren’t drunk, and I also had very specific design requests that were mostly script and images printed off Pinterest. Those were my least favorite.
My most favorite were the clients who found me on Instagram and booked an appointment with me, giving me vague instructions but allowing me to have creative freedom.
There’d only been two so far, but one had been a five-hour upper back piece where a girl around my age let me draw up a tree with striking roots and branches, along with leaves that tested my shading skills. The other was a man in his fifties who wanted his first tattoo — a thigh piece — and it was an ode to his brothers in the military, a sloth in a bar eating nachos. It was apparently an inside joke with them, but I didn’t care either way. It was hilarious and challenging and made me so happy as I created it, both the sketch before he got there and the actual piece on his skin.
The Rebels took on their first home opponent on a warm Saturday afternoon. I had sweat running down my back along with the rest of the student body, and for once, I was upset that my friends were so successful. I would have given anything to have Giana or Riley in the stands with me instead of on the field, or for Julep to give up her job hunt and wedding planning to get on a flight and come sit with me. But as soon as the coin toss was over and the game began, I didn’t care who was in the stands.
All I could do was focus on Leo.
It was one thing to see him in his practice gear, the mesh jersey with the padding underneath. It was another completely to see him all suited up, wearing the white home uniforms with crimson letters and numbers blazing against it in contrast. HERNANDEZ stretched across his upper back in all caps, the number thirteen underneath it, and that jersey was tucked into pants that should have been illegal for how they hugged his ass. I assumed he was wearing some sort of protection around his manhood, because otherwise, those pants would leave nothing to the imagination. Even with whatever he had on underneath, it was impossible not to notice the giant bulge.
It made me and every other girl in the stands salivate when he jogged by.
But as much as I loved checking him out, it wasn’t his looks that held me enraptured once the first whistle blew. It was his talent. I hadn’t seen him play since high school — had avoided it at all costs, actually — but to see how fast he was now, how massive he was as a running back when most were smaller, how he could plow through defenders and give them stiff arms like they were nothing more than little kids trying to block him… it was breathtaking. It felt like the equivalent of seeing a leopard in the wild, the muscles and speed a phenomenon you couldn’t tear your eyes away from.
They won the game by twenty-four points, and I got the pleasure of celebrating with Leo later that night.
When I wasn’t at the shop and Leo wasn’t at the stadium, that was how we spent our time — tangled in the sheets. There was still so much to talk about, so many things I wanted to know about him and that I wanted him to know about me. But with the limited time we had together, we were both starved whenever we had the chance to be alone. We’d barely make it through pleasantries before we were stripping each other, exploring new ways to make the other come unraveled.
For the first time in longer than I could remember, my life felt… balanced. Peaceful. Blissful, even. I didn’t even care that Miss Margie had called and regretfully told me she didn’t have an update on when I could move back home. It was the last thing on my mind, actually. Not even sassy comments from my mom when I called home could wipe the smile off my face.
Early one afternoon, I was parked in Leo’s chair in front of my PlayStation I’d set up with his monitor and mine together. It’d been a hectic week at the shop, so I was treating myself to some R&R time by playing Cyberpunk 2077. I’d also treated myself to a ten-milligram blueberry gummy, so I was deeply entranced in the game when Leo’s door swung open and scared me half to death.
“Fuck!” I cursed, and I spun in my chair, wielding the controller over my head as if that could protect me against whoever the intruder was.
Fortunately, it was just Leo, smirking at me like the devil himself.
“Did I catch you masturbating?”
I blew out a breath, my heartbeat steadying out. “No, but you nearly gave me a heart attack. What are you doing here?”
I knew the schedule pretty well now that we were into the season, and no one was due home until after five today. Leo had his Rehabilitation Science Techniques class tonight and shouldn’t be home until after nine.
“My first class got canceled,” he answered, leaning a hip against the doorway. “And I don’t have to report to the weight room until four.
I nodded, running a hand back through my hair and pressing one hand to my chest. My heartbeat was settling, until I looked back at Leo and found his gaze dark and hungry crawling over me. He’d once again hooked one of his chains in his mouth, his tongue and teeth toying with it as he fucked me with his eyes.
I looked down at where I was sitting with my legs open in a very unladylike stance, wearing nothing but boy shorts and one of Leo’s t-shirts.
“I like when you wear my clothes,” he said, dropping his chain from his mouth and crossing the room to me. I saw evidence of exactly how much he liked it pressing against his shorts as he ran the back of his fingers over my shoulder.
“You’re not worried about me stretching them out?” I asked.
He almost growled, hands clapping down on the arms of the chair and caging me in as he dropped his mouth to mine.
“Woman, if you don’t stop with that shit,” he warned. “Besides, even if you did, it only seems fair, since stretching you out is my favorite pastime.”
The words vibrated through me before his mouth descended, and I inhaled the kiss, dropping my controller on the desk and wrapping my arms around his neck to pull him closer.
But Leo broke the kiss, even as I whined, and grabbed the controller again. He slid it into my hands and spun the chair to face the screen.
“Play,” he demanded. “And do your best not to die.”
With that, his lips curled up, and he sank onto his knees between my legs.
When I didn’t do anything other than stare at him, Leo grabbed the hem of my boy shorts and yanked them down my thighs. I lifted to help him, but once they were off, he smacked the side of my ass that he could reach and pointed at the screen.