Tackled (Alpha Ballers #1) (12 page)

And it was a real doozy, too.

Drake was work. He was the guy I had to focus on for the next couple months. Short and unimpressive as it was, I was already fighting for my career, here, and I couldn’t afford to get personally attached and wrapped up in the player I was following around.

There was just too much at stake.

All of these things flashed through my mind as Drake Rollins kissed me like that outside the restaurant, when I should have been thinking about other, more enjoyable things. Like how Drake’s body would feel against me once we got all these clothes off.

Down, girl, keep it together. Yeah, this was just a little kissing back and forth, no harm, no foul, but I couldn’t let it get any further than this.

What was I thinking? Of course there was harm, of course there was foul. This was Drake Rollins kissing me! I couldn’t let this keep going!

But how could I stop? No one had ever kissed me like this, and I clung to him like the first touch of rain on the parched ground after a long drought. There was nothing else in the world in that moment but this kiss and his lips and my lips and his arms around me. Nothing else in the world.

Like all good things, the kiss had to come to an end, if only so we could breathe again and catch our collective breath.

We separated again, each looking the other in the eye as if to ask the other how this was possible, but neither of us spoke.

Drake took the first move and held my hand as we separated further, and I looked down, greatly admiring how my small hand disappeared, enveloped by his, full of muscle and callouses.

They fit well together. If our hands and our lips together were any indication, the rest of our bodies would do the same.

Ugh, Lily Pearson, stop this line of thinking immediately! I smoothed my dress down with my free hand as we walked, trying to think unsexy thoughts and failing miserably. All I could think about was getting his lips on mine one more time.

And then another time after that. Rinse and repeat. Like it should be. No one should ever just kiss once, I liked to think. Or even twice.

“We should talk about what just happened.” The words just came out of my mouth, I couldn’t control them.

“Should we?” Drake looked at me all skeptical. I softened, immediately losing it.

“No, not yet. But we will eventually.”

“Yeah.”

We kept on walking.

“Drake, stop a second.” I paused, holding my step back, and gently pulling Drake to a stop. He turned to me after stopping and cocked his head to the side, a question on his face. “Back there, in the restaurant…”

“Yeah?”

“I didn’t mean to come off like I was attacking you. Like I was attacking your drive or your motivation.”

Drake looked for a moment like he was irritated that I was bringing it back up, like it was already deep in the past to him, but he quickly composed himself. “It’s OK, Lily. I understand where you’re coming from.”

“You do?” My spirits soared - Drake understood and wasn’t mad at me? I did sound kinda hurtful in there, like I was badgering him.

“Yeah. It took me a little while but I just realized you’re looking out for yourself.”

“Huh?”

He smiled. “I may be a football player, Lily, but I’m no idiot, despite the stereotype.”

“Go on.”

“I know you’re in a bind - you need to make this job work if you want to keep covering sports, and I remember from back in school that was your thing. I know you didn’t really want to be covering a has-been,” he smiled, “like me as I try and make your favorite team.”

It was like he knew everything I was thinking. Except the really naughty stuff. I felt myself go read. Did he know the naughty stuff too? Oh shit oh shit oh shit.

“And I know you would refuse the assignment if you could. Since you didn’t, you’re doing this to keep your career alive.” He smiled again, a cheshire grin, and pulled me close to him. I thought he was going to kiss me again, and I got myself good and ready. “So, I realize what you were doing in the restaurant.”

“What was I doing in the restaurant?” I whispered, barely breathing, this close to Drake’s perfect face.

“You were testing me. To see if I had what it took to make it. Did I pass?”

“Y-Yes,” I whispered back, relieved that everything was out in the open.

Drake kissed me again, quick this time, before he moved his head back. “We’re in the same boat, you and I. We both need the other to get what they want in order to get what we want.”

That was a coldhearted way of looking at the situation, even if I couldn’t deny his logic. I didn’t have anything else to say.

“Drake, I have a question,” I asked, out of nowhere. Don’t do this, Lily, let it go.

“Yeah?”

“Back at school, when I tutored you, you never really seemed to notice me. Yeah, you flirted with me, but it was like you were holding back. What was that all about?”

Drake looked a little uncomfortable, then he softened. “Oh that. Yeah, I uh, thought you were different. And it scared me.”

“Different? How?”

“You know, not like most other college girls. You seemed to be more interested in just sleeping with an athlete.”

“And that scared you?”

“Yeah. I felt like I wasn’t…ready for anything like that.”

“Oh.” I let the unspoken question stay unspoken, and momentarily chastised myself for letting this bother me even before anything had really started between us.

We started walking again and got to the car. Drake drove us back to the facility and we parked in the visitor’s lot before walking toward my room. I glanced up at Drake, walking next to me, wondering if it was OK for him to be seen around campus with me after hours, but Drake didn’t give any indication that anything was wrong, so I went with it.

We got to my door and I fumbled around in my purse for a moment before I found my keys and opened it. I stood in the doorway and turned around to face Drake.

“You know, the way you said that just now…”

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” He stepped forward, right outside the frame of the door, and I had to look way up at his huge frame.

I so wanted to invite him in. I so wanted him to come in and do disastrously naughty things to me. But that was just what it would definitely become - a disaster.

They say you should never bring your work home with you if you could avoid it, but what did they say about inviting your work into your home and your bed, all in the same night?

Probably not such a great idea, yet here I was, the second day of potentially the last stretch of my short career as a sports reporter for the Boston Globe, covering my favorite childhood team, and I was about to invite one of the players whom the term “on the hot seat” was coined for into my room.

What was I doing?!

“I shouldn’t do that.”

“I know. But you could.”

“You are factually correct, Drake, I could invite you in.”

Drake smiled. “Factually correct is the best kind of correct, Lily.”

I melted, batting my eyes at him. “You really know how to proposition a girl, don’t you?”

He leaned against the doorframe, and I smelled his manly scent wafting toward me. The man could dissolve clothing with a look, and now he was looking at me. Was there a draft in here? “I dunno what you’re talking about. I’ve never propositioned a girl in my life.”

“Oh yeah?” Now it was my turn to cock my head. “How come? Because they just throw themselves at you?”

“Maybe.” Ugh, that smile, so smarmy, so self-indulgent, so cocky and self-assured. It made me delirious and I hated myself for it. “Are you gonna invite me in?”

“If I do, what’ll happen?”
 

“I’ll come inside.”

“And then? It’s late.” I was just trying to buy some time now, before I did exactly what we both knew I wanted to do.

“We’ll see how much sleep we get.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then we can each spend the night awake thinking about what we could be doing together instead of alone.”

The man had a way with words, I couldn’t deny it. Really everything he’d done so far with those lips - speak, kiss, whatever, it was all good and I was totally on board with it.

“Fine. Come in.” I opened the door wide and stepped back, expecting Drake to turn sideways and slide next to me into my small cramped studio apartment, but instead he picked me up and carried me inside. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on as Drake paused to close the door with his foot and then kept on going.

My apartment at the Patriots complex was spartan to put it mildly, and I hadn’t really gotten a chance to unpack the few things I had brought with me besides my laptop computer, phone charger, and kindle. Just about the only real unpacking I had done was hanging up some clothing in the small closet.
 

Everything in the room was a muted shade of grey, which is weird, because it’s tough to describe any shade of grey as “muted,” but that was the first word that came to mind when describing the prevailing color of my room.

Right now I had more important things on my mind, things like physics and geometry and how to land on the bed in a sexy way when Drake threw me onto it, momentarily severing our touch connection before he jumped on top of me, pinning me down while we kissed with a ferocity that came from each of us knowing that we were finally alone. As I landed, I heard a soft shearing sound as my dress ripped. Oh well, I had more important things on my mind.

Let me tell you, it was an amazing kiss, and it didn’t really stop so much as turn into more and more kisses, up and down each other’s faces and necks. Drake knew how just how to make me moan with his mouth, and without any regard to how thin the walls at this place were, I let loose and made sure he know how good he was making me feel.

We lay like that on the bed, Drake above me, each of us moving slightly till we got comfortable, our lips never leaving the other’s body except to kiss again. It was magical. I couldn’t believe I finally had the Drake Rollins in my bed.

It was everything I had fantasized about all this time, and this was even with all of our clothing still on!

As soon as that thought flashed in my mind, Drake started unbuttoning his collared shirt. I helped up, starting from the bottom, and not just because I wanted to get my hands closer to his thick, hard, cock, pressing into my leg from behind his pants. I licked my lips with anticipation in between kisses.

Drake Rollins had been legendary at Cal not only for his ability to catch touchdowns on Saturday, not only for his ability to get girls to sleep with him, but his skill in bed was reported by many the lucky customer to be beyond amazing.

And now he was on top of me. Me! Lily Pearson!

As his shirt came off I let out a moan as I checked him out. He’d been in amazing shape in college, as my friends pointed out as often as they possibly could. Whatever he’d been doing in California the offseason had been the right thing.

Drake’s muscles rippled all over his body as he took his shirt off. His tattoos stretched across the vast expanse of his muscles, and I wanted to trace each and every one of them with a stencil. I stared and stared, like I wanted to take a picture to save it for later. If my purse wasn’t on the other side of the room, I might have asked him to hold that pose so I could.

Drake unhooked his belt but left his pants on just before he joined me in bed. I felt the mattress shift under me as it balanced both of us. I lay on my back looking up at him. He loomed over me, not quite smiling, more appraising me. I felt a little self conscious in that moment, wondering what he saw in me, if it was just the dress.

“Let’s get you out of that dress, Lily.” I wanted nothing more. I started to sit up to pull the dress off of me without tearing it any further, but Drake had other ideas. “It’s already torn, no need to treat it so nicely.” He reached over to me, grabbed the tear at my side, and pulled, ripping the entire dress apart. I couldn’t help but squeal in shock.

The squeal quickly turned to a moan as what Drake had done settled in. He was so aggressive, so eager to get what he wanted. And what he wanted was me. It was such a turn on, I could feel how wet I was getting. Something popped into my head, and I giggled. “What?”
 

“You’ve ruined my dress, I might have to go shopping again.” I tried to sound mock mad at him.

Drake smiled. “I guess so. That sounds horrible.”

“It will be.” Drake moved the pieces of my dress to the sides. I slid the straps off my shoulders and off my arms. I lay back in the pieces of my dress, only my bra and thong covering me.
 

Drake’s eyes glazed over as he looked me up and down. “Wow…” The reverence on his face made me blush, and I wanted to turn away, but I couldn’t.

I gathered my courage. “See anything you like?” It came out way more shy than sultry. The way Drake looked at me made my heart flutter in all the right ways. I longed for more of his touch, more of his kiss.

“I have never seen beauty like yours, Lily. I’m mad that it took me so long to kiss you again, but glad that I’m doing it now.” With that, he leaned over and kissed me long and heard. I closed my eyes and pushed into the kiss as much as I could, wanting it never to end.

“You say such wonderful things, Drake…”
 

“I can’t help it.” His touch caused goosebumps on my skin. His fingers brushed across my stomach, just touching the edges of my lacy bra, all the way down to the top of my panties. “You make me so hot.”

I closed my eyes and felt the tendrils of pleasure shoot through my body as Drake touched me. “Oooh, Drake, I think you can tell you do the same to me.” I arched my back, trying to lift myself off the bed and closer to him. I longed to feel his mouth on me, but he held back, teasing me.

The only thing I could do in response was reach up to him, feeling his tight muscles under my fingertips. Drake leaned closer, making it easier for me. I ran my hands up and down his body like a blind person trying to understand the shape of something with just their sense of touch.
 

After a minute, my hands wandered down to his waist and I traced the line of Drake’s hip bone down into his nice pants. Bothered that his belt and pants were getting in the way of me seeing more of him, I quickly unbuttoned them.