Page 39 of Pitcher Perfect (Big Shots #4)

Skylar woke up alone.

Her panic only had ten seconds to bloom, however, because Robbie came skidding back into her childhood bedroom in white boxer

briefs, red hair wild, grinning like he had a secret. It all kind of happened in slow motion, the realization that she had

fallen for him somewhere in the middle of this week’s mayhem. Even before he’d shown up with Boston University swag, saved

her from drowning, salvaged her father’s pride, suffered through karaoke, and...

Blown her actual mind in bed.

Like, blown it into the next decade.

Was it crazy that she half wished he wasn’t so good in bed? Because it was obvious he’d had a lot of practice. His hands and mouth and hips were confident in every movement. Knew exactly how to hold and touch and position

her. She’d decided years ago she simply wasn’t the kind of woman who could mentally relax enough to have an orgasm through

intercourse, but, holy shit, her uterus was physically sore from how intensely Robbie had twisted her insides up and strained

them with that blissful rush of release.

She was hungover from that orgasm.

Even more terrifying was the churned-up sensation in the dead center of her chest. How had the worst of it happened while

she slept? Had his protective arms around her all night allowed her guard to drop and her growing feelings to spread?

“Talent show,” Robbie stage-whispered, closing the bedroom door without a sound. “Your parents must have taken my rant yesterday to heart, because that’s the final challenge. Talent shows have very low mortality rates. What are we going to do?”

Skylar couldn’t answer right away because a wedge got stuck in her throat. Somehow on this giant planet, she’d collided with

someone who got excited about her family’s nonsense, too. This man was already very important to her. Did she have full confidence

he’d always want mornings like this? Want a long-term relationship?

Not quite.

Not one hundred percent.

But maybe she could try to trust him... for now? See how it felt?

“Oh wow,” she responded. “We haven’t had one for... at least five years.”

“I’m surprised they’ve ever planned anything that wasn’t physically harrowing. What are we going to do, Rocket?” He clapped his hands together and rubbed them vigorously. “I’m a

man of many talents, you know.”

She stretched her arms and legs out as far as possible in the mess of sheets, yawning and wiggling her toes. “Oh, believe

me, I know.”

Robbie raised an eyebrow. “Wow. We’re getting straight to the point this morning, are we?” He pressed one knee onto the bed,

followed by the other, and prowled closer, laughing when she flipped quickly onto her stomach and tried to hide herself under

the covers. Such behavior was ridiculous... and she didn’t care. In fact, she coveted this freedom to act however she wanted

in front of Robbie, knowing he’d respond in kind or simply be amused. Look at me. I can be playful and sexy.

The lessons had worked.

Skylar squeaked into a pillow when the covers were stripped off and she was covered, instead, by a thick blanket of hockey muscle, her butt fitting tightly into his lap like it had been carved specifically for that very spot and they both moaned over the way they locked together, her backside to his groin.

His warm, minty breath bathed her ear. “Since you brought it up, I’d love to talk about all the ways you find me talented.”

Skylar made a conscious decision not to think of his talent in terms of how it had been honed, but instead how it had been

focused on her. That mental trick wasn’t easy to perform. She did it, though. She did it because their bare skin aligned in

the morning haze was a heaven she’d never expected to visit and because she could still feel how tenderly he’d held her throughout

the night. “You make me feel sexy,” she murmured.

Robbie scoffed. “Because you are.”

Heat bloomed on her cheeks, but she kept going anyway. “You make my body feel like it’s the most desirable body in the world.”

“ It is ,” he growled into her neck. “I promised myself I wouldn’t give in to the male urge to say this, but I can usually go for

hours. I’m lucky I lasted eight seconds with you.” He let the weight of his lower body press down on hers, hips pinning hips,

his bulge wedged between the cheeks of her backside. Rocking. Rocking. “There’s no feeling like the one you give me. I don’t

know how I’ve been living without it.”

“Me either,” Skylar whispered, clutching at the bedding, wet warmth rushing to her center in a way she hoped/feared she would

always associate with Robbie. “I’m wet, but I’m sore, but I want you anyway...?”

“Thank you, Jesus. I’ll go easy, I swear,” he said hoarsely, reaching between them to tug down the waistband of his briefs, his breath growing more and more scattered, the force of it shifting her hair.

“I’m sorry you’re sore, baby,” he mumbled into her neck as he pushed his stiff length inside of her, seating himself fully while she parted her legs a little, just inches apart, enough to allow him another sunken inch, his abs rolling up and over the curve of her backside, back down, up and over again, his flexed forearms coming to rest on either side of her face.

Every thrust was a slow, deep journey of him pushing, pushing, pushing , bottoming out with a groan.

“I’m sorry I made this soft little pussy hurt after everything it did for me. ” He licked a path

up the side of her neck, punched his hips with some added strength. “It was hard to be polite after you rode my cock so rough.”

“You loved it,” Skylar said on a shaking exhale, finding she meant it. Was confident in that statement. Confident in herself.

“Loved it? My fucking life flashed in front of my eyes.” Robbie wedged a hand beneath Skylar, sliding it between her sex and

the mattress, her mouth falling open at the shiny new available option for friction there. There. There. She flexed her hips

and bore down on his fingertips, gasping when he crooked the middle one just a little. Just enough. “Go on, baby. Help yourself

come with my fingers. Please. Goddammit. You’re already making my balls hurt. I’d be embarrassed if I could feel anything but you.”

Her sensitivity from last night was almost too much, so much she wanted to shy away from it, but she was too turned on by

the bold, hungry man on top of her to deny herself a chance to feel the pleasure he offered her with his rubbing fingers and

grinding hips. Those digits rubbed and rubbed until her vision started to double, her teeth catching the meat of the pillow

and biting down, her thighs scooting a hint wider of their own accord, the grateful, resounding rumble that went through Robbie

serving as her reward.

“Bite down harder, baby. I need a few nasty pumps,” he slurred, his hand flying up to her throat, holding it securely. “Oh

my... God. Couple more. Okay?”

She nodded, moaned, lifted her butt slightly, her climax reaching its end, but not her need for him. For his touch. His union with her body. That would never run out.

Muscle smacked flesh, breath caught.

“Oh. Shit. I’m sorry.” His hand slid up from her throat to her jaw, framing it, squeezing, pushing two of his fingers into her mouth.

“I’m sorry, you’re just so fucking good at taking my cock. I’m done. I’m done. ”

She did something she never expected to do in her lifetime, then. She smiled like a smug feline as he jerked and shuddered

behind her, his unintelligible words fumbling in her ear. His fingers were still in her mouth, so she knew he could feel the

smile and she liked that, too. Liked who she was with Robbie.

They collapsed like two toys who’d run out of battery power, Robbie landing beside her in the pillows, looking nothing short

of dumbstruck, his big back heaving up and down.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, winded, squinting up at her through one eye. “But we can’t do this for the talent

show.”

They finally succeeded in waking up the whole house.

Thankfully, their laughter was the culprit.

“The talent show won’t be until tonight,” she said when their laughter died down, indulging her urge to reach over and twist

a lock of red hair around her finger. “What do you want to do all day?”

“Anything, as long as it’s with you.”

Skylar hadn’t held hands with anyone since a group movie date in seventh grade.

She tried not to be obvious now about stealing glances at her hand joined with Robbie’s as they walked through town.

After a quick breakfast with her family where she found herself unable to look any of them in the eye longer than half a second, Skylar dressed herself in a white tennis dress her mother had bought her for Christmas one year that had remained in her closet ever since.

The form-fitting nylon and the attached short, pleated skirt had always seemed destined for someone flirtier and more feminine, but today, all the once-negative qualities of the dress were positive ones.

She’d left her hair in a barely brushed tumble, and that felt nice, too, not having her mane restricted to a ponytail for

once.

Better than nice. It felt freeing.

And if Robbie’s constantly pulling her into doorways and in between parked cars to kiss her was any indication, he liked the

dress, too.

“Is it too late to buy this in nine hundred colors?”

“Probably. It’s a gift from a prepandemic Christmas.”

“Damn.” They were in line at a deli now and he was using their joined hands to gather her in close, his lips grazing her forehead.

“Does it have those attached panties? It looks like it does.”

“Shh. No, I supplied my own.”

He made an appreciative sound in his throat. “That’s probably for the best.”

“Why?”

“So I don’t have to peel the whole thing off,” he said, as if she was nuts for asking. He snarled into her neck playfully,

nipping at her. “You think I’m going to last the whole day with you looking this hot? Nah, Rocket. Not happening.”

Had she ever felt this light before?