End Game (New York Stars Book 1)

MORNING WOOD HAS NEVER FELT SO good.

Knowing she’s there, that it’s Gracie, that her ass is the one cushioning my dick makes waking up a thousand times better.

Until I remember the nightmare.

“Tabarnak,” I grumble.

“Good morning to you too.”

“You’re awake?”

“Yup.” She yawns. “Have been for about forty minutes.”

“Did you sleep okay? You weren’t in any pain?”

“My knee’s stiff but it’s fine,” she says as she wiggles it. “My headache’s gone, too, and my wrist doesn’t hurt either. That fucker’s probably suffering more than I am.”

Hoping that’s true, I ask, “Your wrist? You never said—”

“It was just a little stiff from smacking that ass.”

I snort. “Why didn’t you try to get out of bed?”

“Because you’re my boss so if you’re still sleeping then I can get away with dozing.”

She stretches and, Cibole, that feels good. When her butt wiggles against my morning wood, she doesn’t comment on it, just settles into me again.

“You have classes today,” I point out, which has her turning so she can see me better.

“And? You have a meeting with Kara Kingsley and Andrews. We both have burdens to bear,” she mocks before her expression turns serious. “She doesn’t come onto you, does she?”

“Kara? Nah. She’s a nightmare though.”

“Good publicists are,” is her pious retort, but she relaxes at my words. “You tell me if she does?”

“You going to get into a catfight?”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

I hitch a shoulder. “Anything to see that right hook of yours in action.”

Though she snickers, her hand comes up to cup my chin. “Bad night, hmm?”

“Good night,” I counter.

“Didn’t sound like it.” She shivers, and just when I’m about to be more embarrassed than I was, she mutters, “I’m glad I was here. I hate hearing the aftermath and not being able to do anything to help ease what you’re going through.”

“Did I hurt you?” I ask, concern oozing through the words as I try to avoid the abject humiliation of waking her up that way.

Having never actually shared a bed with someone when I’ve had a nightmare, though, that I might have hurt her is a legitimate concern.

“Nah. You almost squeezed me to death but I can deal with that. Comes with the territory of being pocket-sized.” Her fingers trail over my jaw. “You want to talk about it?”

My lips twist. “I’d prefer to talk about Kow and chlamydia.”

“Gross.”

“Exactly.”

Though she sighs, I can see acceptance in her gaze, but I feel it too, which is so much better, when she presses her lips to mine.

The kiss is soft. Gentle. Close-mouthed. But it’s also the fourth-best kiss I’ve ever had, with Amelia’s wedding coming in first, yesterday in the elevator coming in second, and Christmas in third.

Although, yesterday in the kitchen needs to fit into that ranking somewhere too…

Her tongue rubs over the seam of my lips and I immediately part them to let her in.

One hand drifts to her ass as I tuck her tighter into me, but she’s a step ahead—she scissors her leg to the side so that I can slide mine between hers.

“Fuck,” I groan as that brings her thigh into contact with my dick.

Her guttural moan sends jolts of pleasure down my nerve endings as she starts to rock her hips. The seam at her crotch scrapes my skin as she grinds into me. My hands dig into her ass, holding her firm, drawing her deeper into my embrace. I love how she isn’t afraid to take what she wants and how perfectly she fits me.

“God, Liam,” she mewls as she pushes her forehead onto mine. “You know when I-I came back that night—”

It’s a long shot but…

“The night you cut your knee? After we beat Pittsburgh?” I mumble as I nuzzle into her throat, sucking on the sinew there, letting my tongue palpate the sensitive skin until she’s shuddering in my arms.

“You were jacking off in the shower—”

“I never did find out what you’d forgotten. Your vibrator…?”

“I left it charging,” she keens as I slide my hand beneath her shorts to cup her butt.

“The thought of you using a vibrator when you could have used my dick instead makes me want to spank you,” I growl.

She mewls in response but asks, “You were, weren’t you? Jacking off, I-I mean.”

As my fingers dig into the soft flesh there, I rasp, “You’d drunk that maple chaser for me, and small drops of creamer gathered at the corner of your mouth.” Because I can, I stroke my tongue exactly where they’d been. “It looked like cum. All I could think about after that was picturing you swallowing mine.” I rub my nose against hers. “Are you a good girl, Gracie?”

A soft snort escapes her even as it turns into a moan when I slide my hand over her butt cheeks and find her slit from behind. At first, I press the seam of her cutoffs inward, then I burrow beneath it, needing to touch her slick.

“Y-Yes,” she cries as I thrust the tip of one finger into her. “Oh, Liam, that feels so good. So much better than when I do it. Deeper, please. Deeper—”

Cibole, I love how vocal she is.

Before I can tell her that, though, she reaches between us and starts to shape me through my sweatpants.

It’s been goddamn years since anyone—

“Oh, fuck, Liam. I need you in me,” she cries as she fumbles with the waistband. It’s hard going because we’re pressed tightly together, but we make it work. “Now. I’m going to—” She releases a satisfying hiss when she draws me out. “—Jesus, Liam. Where the hell do you put this? How do you walk?”

My amusement fades the second my cock is in her fist, it’s my turn to hiss.

And to think of Bradley and plays and how much I want to beat the fuck out of Greco—anything but being a two-pump chump in her hand.

Pre-cum leaks from the tip as she starts to jack me off while I tease her slit and she grinds into me, putting pressure on the top of her sex, where she needs it most.

“I’d have taken it one step further that night. I wanted you to stay,” I admit before I thrust my tongue between her lips.

As I fuck her there, she groans as she cedes to my ferocity. I feast on her like the starving man that I am all while she jacks me off, hard and fast, stroking me how I need to be stroked, her thumb rubbing over the sensitive glans until I’m bucking in her hold.

I freeze as I start to come, seed pelting her stomach and thighs as I finally get off after years in the goddamn cold in the hand of the woman I’ve been waiting for.

“There. There. Oh, my God. Liam, you… Yes. Right. I’m going to— Yeah. Oh, fuck—”

When she lets loose a cry of her own, jerking against me in response, it feels too perfect as we slump together, tumbling into a deeper embrace as she presses her forehead into my shoulder and I prop my chin on the crown of her head.

For endless moments, we’re silent as our hearts stop racing, as our lungs return to normal, as the pleasure abates, leaving shadowy trails behind that are a promise for more. For later. For the next occasion when we can do this.

“We wasted so much time.”

I smile, knowing she can’t see me because we’re ahead of schedule…

Rubbing my hand over her back, I appease, “We have a lot to make up for.”

“We really do,” she mumbles around a yawn, which is when her alarm starts blaring.

I nearly get kneed in the balls as she shrieks and scrambles off the bed, leaving me watching her as she races around like a mad woman in her haste to get ready for class.

Still, I grin as I watch the chaos, loving that I get to see her like this while my cum dries on her skin.

Today, I have to deal with my publicist and agent, she has to go to school, some heads are going to roll with my security firm, and Gracie’s about to find herself with a shadow—whether she likes it or not.

For all that, as I watch her wreak havoc on my bedroom, shit finally feels like it’s working out.

Thank fuck.