RUNNING GAME (A SECOND CHANCE SPORTS ROMANCE) (4 page)

I
fucking hated being injured
. In fact, outside of my dick not working, I couldn’t think of anything worse that my knee being fucked up. It took me five minutes just to get out of bed and take a piss, and even then it was damned near impossible to balance the crutches and keep from pissing all over my toilet at the same time.

It didn’t help that I’d been hard almost all day. I’d gone home from the clinic with a raging case of
I-need-to-fuck
, and even after tossing one off before bed, I’d woken up in the middle of the night still pitching a tent. Who the fuck do you call if your
natural
erection lasts more than four hours?

And it was all because of the elusive Maisey Jayne.

I couldn’t believe it was really her after all this time.

I couldn’t believe she wouldn’t answer my questions earlier. She was so jittery and nervous and fucking
clinical
around me, it was as if our past together had never happened.

There was no fucking way she didn’t remember. Of that, I was certain. She remembered those long nights helping me in the library, and she damn sure remembered the night she came back to my bedroom.

“
I
think you’ll pass
. You seem like you’ve got the material down pretty well at this point,” she said, her black curls bouncing around her face as she closed her notebook. She had a little upturned button nose, and those big green eyes, and I’d found it difficult to stop looking at her.

“Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are, Maisey?” I’d asked.

“What? Oh, come on. Me? No. Barbara Simmons, though? That’s beautiful.”

“I don’t know about that. Barbara has the brains and the body of a barbie doll. You’re unique, Maisey. Smart… Shy… Innocent… That’s what makes you beautiful.”

She looked at me with those big green eyes and I couldn’t help but kiss her. Her lips were warm, soft, so soft. She melted into me, and we lay on the bed kissing for what seemed like hours in the still of the night.

And when the heat between us escalated, our clothes melted away and then we were moving together, sliding against each other, our lips caressing and our hands groping each other in the dark, her thighs falling apart as I slipped inside of her, rising and falling above her as she moaned and whimpered, her cries like music to my ears.

T
hat night had remained
one of my favorite memories for years. Once I’d asked her to the prom, it took a few days to get her to believe I was serious, but once she did, she’d seemed so excited about going.

That’s why it had been so confusing when she just up and disappeared. For years I’d wondered about that night, tried to figure out what had happened, if I had said something stupid that had pushed her away, I could never put my finger on it. After a while, I stopped wondering and just accepted it. My life went on, and Maisey became one of those distant memories that sneak up on you every now and then.

Until now…

Because now that she had reappeared, she was front and center in my brain and I couldn’t think of anyone or anything else.

In fact, I’d spent the better part of two hours tossing and turning in my bed and re-living that one night I’d spent with Maisey, over and over.

I didn’t know what her story was, but I was very curious.

And besides, I’d only had her once before. There was still room in my rulebook for one more night with her.

I groaned into my pillow as my cock raged just thinking about it. She’d grown into a beautiful, confident woman and I could only imagine how amazing it would feel to be with her again. If only she wasn’t so uptight now. But maybe that was just an act, in fact, I was sure of it. The Maisey I knew before was full of laughter, good-natured and easy-going. She was probably still there, hiding under the surface.

My cock twitched as I thought about how much fun it would be to penetrate that surface, to pull the old Maisey from her hiding space.

Yes… I’ll do whatever it takes…

“
M
ama
, are you okay?” Maddy asked.

“What? Oh, yes, I’m sorry, honey,” I said. I’d drifted off, stopping in mid-sentence as I read a bed time story to Maddy. We were snuggled up in her bed, surrounded by her entire collection of stuffed animals.

“Are you tired?” she asked, staring up at me.

“Yes, I suppose I am, baby.”

“You can go ahead and go to bed. I’m tired too.”

“You are? Okay, honey. Get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.” I kissed her and tucked her in before turning off her light.

“Sweet dreams, Mama,” she said.

“Sweet dreams, honey.” I smiled at her, beaming at my beautiful daughter as she turned over and closed her eyes, snuggling her favorite bunny close to her chest.

She was such a blessing. I don’t know where I’d be without her by my side, without her to come home to, without her to give me a purpose.

I walked to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of red wine and then turned off all the lights, locked the doors and went to my bedroom, closing the door behind me. I loved my time with Maddy so much, but I also valued my time alone immensely. Tonight, I felt that gratitude more than ever. I’d been waiting all day to get home and be alone with my thoughts.

I was past the point of freaking out and panicking and trying to change things. Now, I was just tired and exhausted and way too tired to fight against a reality I couldn’t change.

Whether I liked it or not, I was going to have to spend the next weeks, if not months, with Jesse. I was going to have to put my hands on him, massage him, stretch him, and work with him to restore full range of motion to that knee. The bruises would heal. The goddamned groin sprain would heal, but it sure had tripped me up when I saw that listed in his medical records.

My goal was to remain professional, and having to massage his groin area wasn’t going to help me accomplish that. Sure, I was a professional, but I was also fucking human.

And Jesse? Jesse was fucking gorgeous. Jesse was beyond sexy, he was literally dripping in sexuality. Masculinity practically oozed from his pores. And he was as cocky as ever. Sure of himself, beyond confident, almost to the point of being an asshole with how full of himself he was. But then, as soon as he realized he’d gone too far, he’d flash that damned crooked smile at me, and all was supposed to be forgiven?

He was going to test me, that was obvious. More than I’d ever been tested before with a patient.

But who was I kidding? I’d never had a patient like him before. Not because of his fame. Not because of his good looks. Not even because of his self-centered cocky bullshit. That came with the territory with these famous athletes.

He was different because of our
history
together…

If I could get through this time with him, then everything would be okay. I just had to keep reminding myself of that fact. I just had to remain calm, keep my mouth shut, and do my job.

That’s all.

And then he would be gone.

Back to his life.

And mine would go back to normal, and I wouldn’t have to live every day with this huge ache in the pit of my stomach.

There was just one problem with my plan. My body was reacting to him like it was a teenager all over again. Standing in that room with him, my palms started sweating and my knees started quivering, my nipples hardened and I swear if I hadn’t been wearing panties, he would have easily seen how he effected me, because I was so wet I had to change out of them as soon as he left the clinic.

If I could somehow get a grip on that, I’d be golden.

In the meantime, I finished my wine, locked my bedroom door, turned off the lights and climbed into bed. My fingers slipped between my legs, and I let my head fall back as I allowed the memories that had haunted me for ten years flood back.

H
is kiss was gentle
. More than I’d imagined it would be. I’d sat next to him for months, staring at those lips, watching his fingers as he wrote in his notebook, mesmerized by the way his muscles twitched under his skin, the way he squinted his eyes when he was concentrating really hard. I’d imagined what it might feel like to kiss him a thousand times, and when he finally did kiss me, I was completely shocked.

I never imagined he would ever kiss a girl like me. He could have anyone he wanted in school. He could have all the Barbara’s of Highland High, if he desired. I would never have turned down a kiss from him, though. So I didn’t. I welcomed it, I opened my mouth, my arms and my thighs, letting him gently guide me backwards on the bed, his mouth working against mine for what seemed like hours, his hands roaming over my breasts and feeling like nothing I’d ever known. His palms were hot, the scarlet heat burning through the cardigan and my bra like I was naked.

And then I was. He’d kept kissing me as he pushed my clothes away, and then I thought, well, why not? When would I ever have an opportunity like this again? I’d almost made it all the way through high school a virgin, why not give my virginity away to a boy like Jesse? He was a little too sure of himself, but he was still kind and gentle, and oh my god, did it feel good. The pain was quick and over so fast, a week later I couldn’t even recall what the pain had felt like. I could only remember the pleasure.

And there had been so much pleasure. He moved inside of me expertly, his body fitting against mine like they’d been made for each other, like our very existence depended on this togetherness.

He was a part of me. I was a part of him. Nothing in my life would ever be the same now, now that Jesse had held me, had kissed me, had made love to me.

Suddenly, everything was right in my world.

U
ntil it wasn’t
.

It had all happened so fast. It was like sand running through my fingers. First I had it, then I didn’t. Poof! As if it was just a dream.

But it hadn’t been a dream. It was more real than anything I’d ever known.

And now that it was back, I had no fucking clue how to deal with it.

“
J
esse
, you have to try to move it a little more,” Maisey said. She was wearing blue scrubs today, her hair pulled back again, and secured with a silver pin. I kept looking at the pin as she stretched my leg, and I was finding myself obsessively distracted by it. I wanted to reach out and slide it out of her hair slowly, just to witness her curls cascading down around her shoulders. Her face was drawn and serious, her lips pursed tightly when she wasn’t speaking. She’d hardly looked at me since I’d walked in this morning.

She was already in the treatment room when I’d hobbled in, her back rigid, her mouth set firmly with professional seriousness. She’d taken a few minutes to go over my treatment plan and schedule in detail and then went right into the treatments.

She’d done some cold laser therapy first, running a wand over my knee that was supposed to shoot lasers below the skin, allowing the healing light to penetrate deeply into the ligaments. I didn’t feel a thing when she’d done that. I just silently watched and listened as she launched into a long drawn out speech about the benefits of cold lasers for the six minutes she was bent over my leg.

But now, she’d turned into some sort of Nurse Ratched. She was pulling on my leg, forcing it to move in ways that it wasn’t ready to move.

“It fucking hurts,” I grumbled.

“Have you been taking your pain meds?”

“No. Fuck that stuff. I don’t like drugs. I gotta stay sharp,” I replied.

“You just had surgery. Are you insane? If you don’t take the meds, we’ll never get anywhere.”

“And if I do, where will we get?” I asked, flashing her a smile that had worked magic on dozens of women before. She didn’t flinch. She didn’t blink. Hell, I might as well have been a big, steaming pile of dog shit, as much as she seemed to be opposed to my presence.

“We’re both here to do a job, Jesse. I’m here to help you get better. But I can’t do it on my own. You have to take your meds. You have to do your exercises. You aren’t invincible, despite what your adoring fans probably tell you. Now - lift!” she demanded, pulling my leg up and bending my knee. I was laying on my back, staring up at her as she kept moving and stretching my leg.

“Where’d you go?” I asked, changing the subject. Of course I would do my part. That much was a given. I had millions of dollars on the line here, and I wouldn’t jeopardize my career by not taking this recovery seriously. I’d take the fucking pain killers, sure, but probably only half the prescribed dose because I wasn’t a total pussy. Besides, I didn’t want to lie to Maisey, or piss her off by not taking the damn things.

Which was insane, because really, what did I care how she felt? But for some reason, I did. Shit, I should be the one that’s mad at her for standing me up all those years ago, but she was acting like I was the one that’d done something wrong. That was pissing me off…

And making me even more curious…

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“When you took off from Ault. Where’d you go?” I asked. I’d asked around back then a little, tried talking to her few friends, once I’d even seen Clyde at the corner store buying beer and I’d asked him where she’d gone, but nobody ever had any answers. She’d just disappeared. As if she’d never been there at all.

“I moved to Denver,” she replied, then clamped her mouth shut. “Let’s do your other leg.”

She walked around me and her hips swayed with each step. She’d turned into such a beauty. She was feminine yet strong. Her attitude towards me was hard, yet there was a lingering softness just underneath the surface. Or, maybe I was just projecting the past onto the present, I don’t know. Something about her made me want to get to know her better, made me want to get to the bottom of the What-Happened-to-Maisey-Jayne mystery.

Maybe it was the fact that she was the only woman who’d ever left me hanging.

Or, maybe it was because she represented something I’d lost a long time ago.

Those years in Ault were magical. An innocent time before my life changed so drastically. I’d been so close to my family. My parents were kind and supportive, letting me and my little sister, Nina, experience the kind of love that every child needs to become a happy adult. Nina and I were the best of friends, even though she was so much younger than me.

I’d graduated and gone off to college full of naive dreams that my life would always be perfect, that nothing bad could ever touch me.

But then, everything changed. Nina died suddenly one night during my sophomore year in college and our world turned upside down.

Maisey was there in the middle of the calm before the storm. She was someone who’s memory was bathed in that era of my life when everything was just as it should be right before everything fell apart.

And I desperately wanted to hold onto that memory…

Yeah, my life is amazing now, but I’d give anything to go back and have those days with Nina again. She was such a spunky kid, full of life, in love with everything under the sun. Nobody could make me laugh like she could.

And nobody was ready for her passing. A healthy girl isn’t supposed to just… Go…

It turned out Nina had a genetic heart condition so rare that nobody at the hospital had seen it in person. One tiny little gene out of place put a ticking time bomb in her chest. If we had known our family had a history of this sort of thing maybe the doctors could have done something to help, but my father was adopted… We couldn’t have seen this coming.

My parents were devastated. I was devastated.

Everything was ripped away from me. The innocence I’d believed in. That belief that everything would always turn out all right became a joke. I’d been jaded and broken hearted ever since.

I’d been yearning for those feelings of pure joy ever since… Those feelings of such immeasurable happiness I’d experienced when I didn’t know there was anything else to feel. I missed all that. I wanted it back. Part of me didn’t believe it was possible, though. So, I stumbled through life just looking for a few moments of superficial pleasure and left my heart out of it.

The past, though? Those good times? Maisey was a part of that. Even if it was briefly, she was still etched into my mind - her laughter, her sweetness, that connection we’d felt that one night together. To hell with the pain shooting up from my leg… Being here with Maisey made me feel better than I had in years.

To say I wanted answers was putting it lightly. If I had to drag them out then so be it. I had at least three months to get her talking. I shook my head and let the bad memories fade.

“Why? Why’d you move?” I asked. That was what I wanted to know the most.

She hesitated before answering. A good, long pause, that left me wondering if she even heard me. She kept stretching my leg up, her hands massaging my thigh.

“I turned eighteen. That was always my plan,” she finally answered.

“That’s all you’re going to give me?” I asked.

“What more do you want?” she snapped.

“An explanation, for starters. Why did you stand me up?” I asked. “And don’t say we didn’t have a date. You left your prom dress hanging in your closet.”

The look on her face was priceless.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“I went to your house that night looking for you. You were gone. You left your dress behind.”

“I see,” she said, her voice steely and tight. “Does it really matter, Jesse? After all these years? It’s been so long, it’s all water under the bridge.”

“Of course it doesn’t matter now,” I replied. “I’ve just always wondered, that’s all. It was important at the time, though.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I just needed to leave.”

“That night, huh?”

“Yeah, that night.”

“Okay, Maisey, whatever you say. If you don’t want to explain, you don’t have to.”

“Thank you,” she nodded. I wasn’t finished, though, not by a long shot. I’d let her off the hook right now because she looked like she was going to explode from tension all of a sudden and there was no need to rush things. I’d get my answers eventually.

“That really fucking hurts,” I said, as she dug into my thigh muscle painfully.

“You should have taken the pain meds,” she shrugged, digging in harder.

“Turn over,” she demanded. “Lie on your stomach.”

“I like it when you tell me what to do,” I winked, before turning over slowly and laying on my stomach like an obedient dog. Her hands began massaging the back of my thigh, and if it wasn’t so fucking painful, I’d have been completely turned on.

“That’s good,” she snapped. “Because I’ll be telling you what to do for several weeks. Get used to it.”

“That’s not what I meant,” I joked.

“I know what you meant. You know what I meant.”

“Oh, Maisey,” I sighed. “Why are you so tough now? You used to be soft and funny.”

“I’m still funny,” she replied, “just not at work.”

I laughed.

“Okay, then - fuck! What are you doing? That hurts so bad.”

“Of course it hurts, the bruise is incredibly deep in this spot.”

“Can’t you be more gentle?” I asked.

“Can’t you be more of a man?” she replied, her voice laced with sarcasm.

“Wow, okay,” I replied, ignoring the pang of hurt that shot through my heart. She didn’t have to attack my manhood, for fuck’s sake. If I wasn’t practically an invalid, I’d show her right now how much of a man I really was.

“Sorry,” she muttered under her breath. “That was unprofessional of me.”

“Whatever, it’s fine,” I said.

“Turn back over,” she said. I did so, and we both saw my huge shaft poking out of my loose athletic shorts at the same time. I guess I wasn’t in
too much
pain after all.

Her mouth opened in shock, but her eyes were glued to it. I reached down slowly, adjusted it to the side and shrugged.

“You’ve always had that effect on me,” I said.

“It’s not me. It’s perfectly natural. Not a sexual thing at all,” she snapped, turning away quickly, giving me a sweet view of her luscious backside again.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” I replied, gripping my cock through my shorts and squeezing.

“What?” she asked, turning back around, catching me staring at her ass.

“Trust me, it’s definitely sexual,” I replied, my cock throbbing in my hand.

“Look, Jesse, you’ve got to stop this,” she said, her eyes flashing with anger. “I can’t work like this. We barely knew each other. It was a long time ago. It didn’t mean anything. It’s best we just keep things professional.”

“That’s true, it was a long time ago,” I replied slowly. “And it was just one night. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t
mean
anything.”

“I meant - I - well - you - goddammit, Jesse, I really don’t even remember. Can we please stop talking about it?”

“Don’t remember!” I roared. “I find that hard to believe.”

“Do you?” she asked, her voice dripping with irritation.

“Yes. It was amazing,” I replied. She’d returned to my side and was roughly rubbing some kind of minty smelling lotion on my leg now, her face turned away slightly. I reached up and wrangled a loose curl, tucking it behind her ear. She shuddered, her eyes locking with mine as she looked at me in shock. “I didn’t forget, Maisey. I’d never forget. It was the best night of my fucking life… Tell me you didn’t forget either. It was your first time. I know damn well you didn’t forget that.”

She shook her head, slammed the bottle of lotion on the table and walked out, leaving me with a silent answer to my question.

She hadn’t forgotten a goddamned thing.