SWNOVELS Hail Mary: Chapter 30
Before my alarm went off the next morning, I woke to the feel of a warm, lush body wrapping around me.
“You’re in my bed,” a groggy voice whispered in my ear.
I hadn’t realized how much tension I’d been holding until it all leaked out of me the second I heard her, the moment I felt her against me.
I smirked, rolling over until I could see Mary’s sleepy smile as she balanced her chin on my chest. She was careful to avoid my fresh tattoo, her eyes skating over it like she was making sure I was following her care instructions.
“Your bed?” I repeated.
She nodded, and I chuckled, not fighting her on it. Palico hopped up on the bed like she’d been waiting for Mary to show, and we both smiled as Mary ran her hand along Palico’s spine, the cat arching into her touch. She only stayed for a moment before hopping off the bed again — likely because she knew Kyle would be up any minute, and was always first in the kitchen.
Which also meant he was first to feed her.
I settled my gaze back on Mary. She looked tired and a little sad, her eyes a bit red, the skin a bit ashen. I wondered if her night had been as long as mine.
Yesterday had been chaotic. I felt alive during practice, energized from my night with Mary and flying high on just the thought of seeing her again at the end of the day. But when she didn’t answer any of my texts, that high turned into a desperate low, and it was all I could do to make it through my evening classes before speeding back to The Pit.
Only to find she wasn’t home.
There was a note on the bed, something about an impromptu bachelorette party for Julep. And while that alone wasn’t a reason to worry, the way she’d been that morning when I left, how she’d fought back tears, and how my texts had gone unanswered — the combination made me sick to my stomach.
I wanted to talk to her, to call repeatedly until she answered and told me what was wrong. But I knew Mary enough to know that if she was asking for space, that was what she actually wanted. So, I waited.
And here she was, back in bed with me.
I swallowed, brushing her hair from her face. “How was it?”
“Ridiculous,” she said with a smile. “We went to a pole studio.”
I arched a brow. “Got any video? My spank bank could use a refresh…”
“You’re disgusting,” she said on a laugh, pinching my ribs. I just chuckled and pulled her into me, kissing her forehead once she was resting in the crook of my arm. We were silent for a moment, my fingers running through her hair as hers curled into fists over my stomach.
“I missed you,” I admitted.
Her entire body softened in my arms at that, and she leaned up again, her eyes soft under bent brows. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For running.”
“Is that what that was?”
She sat all the way up, folding her legs under her and staring down at her hands in her lap. I pushed until my back was against the headboard, so I was sitting up with her, too.
“I’m fucking terrified, Leo.”
Her voice was a wavering whisper, and I felt her words like a hundred needles through my throat. “Of me?” I asked.
She nodded, and a piece of me died.
“I woke up yesterday, and the first thing I thought was that I’d been made a fool of.”
I moved to hold her. “Mary, I—”
“Let me finish,” she said, holding up a hand to stop my advance. “I was overcome with panic that I had been some kind of conquest for you, that you’d known who I was all along and I was just another game, another notch on your headboard.”
I shook my head harder with every word she said, fighting the urge to interrupt her and tell her she was wrong.
“But,” she continued on a sigh. “I know that’s just my own insecurity.”
She was quiet for a while, and I tentatively reached over to take her hand in mine, to soothe her and let her know I was there, that I was listening.
“You… you’re Leo fucking Hernandez,” she said on a laugh. I smiled a little, too, but it slipped quickly when I realized she was saying that as if it were a curse. “You could have any girl you want, any fit, hot girl in the world.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense that you’d ever want me.”
“Are you insane?” I couldn’t help myself this time. I grabbed her by the elbows and made her look at me. “You are the most beautiful, the most entrancing woman I have ever laid eyes on. And you’re witty, and smart, and talented, and creative, and brave.”
She snorted, shaking her head.
“You are,” I told her. “And fuck, Stig, you are so goddamn sexy. Without even trying. You’ve driven me out of my mind since the moment you moved across the street.”
“And now you’ve had me,” she said, her eyes meeting mine with a despair. “So, what more is there? What could I possibly have to offer you?”
I closed my eyes against the pain those words sent echoing through my chest. Without a word, I tugged her wrists until she had no choice but to go where I led her, which was right into my lap. I pulled her to straddle me, letting my hands trace every curve of her until I held her face in my palms, her focus on me.
“I hate myself because I know that I’m part of the reason you feel this way about yourself.”
She tried to look away from me, to shake her head, but I held her still.
“No, it’s true and we both know it. La cagué. I fucked up. And it doesn’t matter that I didn’t know it was you, that it was my girl I was hurting that day after practice in high school. Because it was you, the girl I didn’t know but should have wanted to, the girl who was brave enough to approach me when I had such asshole friends and every eye in school on me.”
“I don’t blame you for not giving me a second look. I was—”
“As beautiful then as you are now,” I said before she could finish. “It was me who was el idiota. Me. Okay? And I will spend every second of every day on my knees to make it up to you.”
Mary waggled her brows. “On your knees, hmm?”
I cherished that smile, that lightening in her mood, but I wouldn’t let this go until I knew I’d made myself clear. I slid my fingers back into her hair, my thumbs lining her jaw as I met her gaze.
“You want to know what you have to offer me?” I asked. “Todo. Everything. A chance to start over. A chance to be myself. A chance to have what I’ve always wanted. You offer laughter and adventure, spontaneity and challenge, life,” I said. “You infuriate me,” I added with a smile. “In the best possible way. You make me want to be better, and you make me mad with the need to touch every inch of you until I can map your body out with my eyes closed.”
Chills broke on her skin, and I pulled her closer, resting my forehead against hers.
“I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m so, so fucking sorry. But I’m here. And I want you, Mary, you. All of you. Exclusive. No bullshit, no wondering what’s next, no games.” I looked at her again. “I’ve never felt anything for anyone else but you — even when I didn’t know it was you all along. You’re fucking it for me.”
She choked on a sob, nodding and leaning into my palm.
“This is the real thing, Stig. You and me, right here, right now. I want it. I want us.”
“I want us, too.”
She barely got the words out before I was swallowing them, savoring them, devouring every syllable before my mouth crashed down on hers. I wrapped her in my embrace as her own arms threaded around my neck and held me to her, deepening the kiss. She held me there like I’d disappear if she opened her eyes, like this kiss was our last.
“I’m yours,” I promised her. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She nodded against my kiss, but still clung to me as if I were a dream.
My alarm went off on my phone, and I blindly felt for it and shut it off before tossing it across the room.
“You need to go,” Mary tried to tell me, breaking our kiss. “You can’t be late to practice.”
“I have just enough time.”
“To what — get dressed?”
“To make you come,” I said, grinding my hips against where she was straddling me. She whimpered a bit as I nipped at her bottom lip. “And then get dressed.”
I didn’t give her the chance to argue before I was slapping her ass and helping her off my lap. When I had her standing, I stripped her between kisses, shedding a layer for her and then me, back and forth until we were both bare.
“Goddamn, Mary,” I said appreciatively when she was naked, scanning her with my eyes and hands both. I took in every curve, every inch of softness, every piercing and stretch of ink across her skin.
And now, it was mine.
She was mine.
I pulled her into me with possession humming through every vein, and she hissed when I ran a hand roughly between her thighs.
“Fuck,” she cursed, lurching away. “Damn pole kisses.”
I blanched. “What?”
“I’m… I’m bruised, from the stupid pole,” she explained, gesturing to her thighs. I glanced down, and with the soft light of dawn starting to break through, I could see a shadow of the bruise she was referencing. I could also see it wasn’t the only one she had.
“Damn, baby,” I said, frowning as I traced a circle around it. I was careful not to touch it as I guided her back to the bed, laying her in the sheets and propping myself between her legs. Then, I kissed my way down, stopping when I started noting the bruises again.
I pressed my lips lightly to the first one, and Mary moaned.
“Does it hurt?”
“A little,” she confessed, but the way she writhed under me told me it was the good kind of pain.
I smirked, running my palm flat and warm over her stomach, her hip, skating my fingers through the maze of bruises until they slid up and ran the length of her wet center.
She arched into the touch, and when just the tip of my finger dipped inside her, I kissed that bruise again, a little harder this time.
I was rewarded with another, louder moan, her fists twisting in the sheets.
“My little masochist,” I teased, and then I slid my finger all the way inside her, biting down around her bruise at the same time.
“Yes,” she breathed, shuddering under my touch.
It was maddening, how sexy she was, how much she turned me on when she spread her thighs wider for me and peered down at me over the swells of her heaving breasts. I hated how much I was under her spell just as much as I loved surrendering to it, like a dying man taking his last breath before letting the earth take him back.
“You’ve got two minutes to fuck my hand and come for me,” I told her, curling a second finger inside her. “Can you do that for me?”
“No,” she said, panting.
“No?” I repeated with a challenge, working my fingers inside her as I lowered my mouth to her clit. She bucked her hips when I sucked her into my mouth, and the moan she let out told me she was lying.
“I mean, I can,” she amended, panting. “But I want you.”
Her hands reached blindly for my hips, and the way she was tugging at me, I understood what she meant. My cock twitched at the invitation.
But I wanted this morning to be about her.
“You want me?” I teased her, slowly crawling my way up her body as I kissed and sucked and licked. “What do you mean?”
“I want you,” she said again, and this time she wrapped her hand around my shaft, pumping me once, slow and long and torturous.
I fought back my groan, smiling down at her. “Be specific.”
She paused, narrowing her gaze. “You’re such a pompous prick.”
“And yet, you still want me to fuck you into this mattress, don’t you?”
I loved how she reacted in a mixture of anger and desire, pushing me away with her hands even as she chased me with her mouth. Her kiss was hard and impatient, and then she wrapped her legs around me and dug her heels into my ass.
“I want your cock inside me,” she said against my lips, and I finally let my groan free, reveling in the filthy words as they rumbled out of her throat. I wrapped my hand around that neck of hers just so I could feel the vibration the next time she spoke. “I want you buried so deep I feel you in my gut.”
“That’s my girl,” I praised, and then I reached down to fist my cock and drive it inside her.
I wanted so badly to plow all the way in, but even as wet as she was, I still knew better. I didn’t want to hurt her. With restraint, I sheathed myself a quarter of the way before pulling out and flexing in again, just a little deeper.
“Oh, fuck, yes, Leo,” Mary cried out, digging her nails into the flesh of my back as I found a rhythm, inching myself inside her. It was pure fucking ecstasy, the way she wrapped around me warm and wet and tight.
That’s when I realized I’d forgotten a condom.
“Shit,” I cursed, but as if she read my mind, Mary dug her heels in deeper.
“Don’t you dare stop,” she threatened, and then she wrapped her arms around my neck and tucked her pelvis to take me deeper, fucking me as best she could on her back.
Her eagerness sent all the blood in my body rushing straight to my balls, and before I could come, I pulled out of her, pressing my forehead to hers.
“Fuck, this was not my plan.”
“To fuck me before breakfast?”
“To come after three pumps inside you,” I said, smacking the side of her ass. “Now, turn around and grab the headboard so I can rail you properly.”
Mary obeyed, looking back at me so sweetly when she was braced that my chest ached. I sidled up behind her, fisting my cock again until I lined it up with her entrance and pushed inside. This time, she was wet and stretched, and so I slammed all the way in, knocking her against the headboard and it against the wall.
“More,” she begged.
“You love taking this cock, don’t you?” I asked, licking behind her ear as I flexed deeper. “Touch yourself while I fuck you. Play with those sweet tits.”
Again, she obeyed, and she let out a feral moan when one hand twisted her nipple while the other slid between her legs to rub her clit. Her legs started trembling where they held her upright, and I took her weight with my hands on her hips.
Someone called my name from downstairs.
“We’re running out of time,” I told her. “Come now or you won’t come at all.”
She mewled, as if I’d actually leave without getting her off now. Coach could make me run laps all fucking day and I’d do so happily if I had the sounds of Mary’s climax as a soundtrack replaying in my head.
“Need more,” she panted. It was sexy as hell, how she unabashedly spread her legs and plucked at her nipple while she circled her clit. Her cheek against the headboard and my hands at her hips were all that kept her steady while she chased her orgasm.
I was deep inside her, and she was touching herself in every place that worked her to the edge. There was only one place empty, and I took a real fucking risk when I went for it without so much as a casual conversation about whether it was okay or not.
Sliding one hand from her hip, I ran a palm over her ass, smacking it softly before I settled my thumb at the tight opening above the one I was balls-deep in now.
“Yes,” she begged. “Yes.”
With that permission, I slicked my thumb in the wetness between us before gently pressing into her.
I didn’t push all the way in, just slipped the very tip of my thumb into that tight entrance, but it was enough. Mary cried out and shook like a fucking earthquake as she rode out every last second of her climax. The sight of her trembling and breaking apart for me was all I needed to find my own release, and as soon as Mary collapsed, I pulled out of her, spraying the swells of her ass and filling the dip of her spine with my cum. Black invaded my vision as I pumped myself dry, and Mary arched her ass up like she wanted to make sure every drop landed on her skin, like it was wasted if she couldn’t feel it.
“Leo! We’re going to leave your ass!”
It was Kyle who screamed this time, and I laughed or groaned or some combination of the two as I carefully maneuvered off the bed and into the bathroom. I ran the shower hot, then peeled my girl out of the sheets where she was still lying limp with my seed slowly dripping down her skin.
I pulled her into the shower, washing myself off her before I planted a long, deep kiss to her lips.
“No shower for you?” she asked, trying to pull me inside.
“I’ll shower at the stadium. Coach will have my ass if I’m late.”
“I tried to tell you.”
“And I told you,” I said, slapping her ass and reveling in the little yelp she gave me. “I wasn’t leaving until you came.”
“You win.”
“Damn fucking straight, I win.”
I growled the words against her mouth, and then she wrapped me up and held me to her, my cock coming to life again at the thought of taking her in this shower.
But the front door shut downstairs, and I cursed.
“You need to clean your tattoo,” Mary said.
“I promise I will.”
“I mean it. If you fuck up my work, I’ll—”
“You’ll what, exactly?”
She tried to pull me into the shower with her, but I heard the car fire up outside, and I really was about to get left if I didn’t get a move on.
“Let me go, you insatiable woman,” I teased, kissing Mary one last time. “I promise I’ll clean it and be as careful as I can at practice.”
She begrudgingly let me go, and I let myself take in the sight of her in that shower with the steam rising around her before I hurriedly cleaned myself up and pulled on my joggers and hoodie before running down the stairs. The guys were already backing out of the driveway when I caught up to them and yanked open the back door, sliding in like I was a robber and they were the getaway car.
They all pinned me with annoyed glares, but then Kyle let out a fizz of a laugh that set the rest of them laughing, too.
And I didn’t care that they cracked jokes the whole ride in, or that by the time I showered and made it on the field, I was a little late and had to run laps to make up for it.
I smiled the entire time.
I couldn’t wait to get back home.