Page 27 of Reverse Pass

“Who doesn’t go for football players?”

I stop myself from making the obvious accusation.

“You gonna read or you gonna talk about my future girlfriend?”

She clears her throat, and pulls the page up closer to her face, using the light from the TV to read.

“Lucas was arrogant, beautiful and entirely too fuckable for his own good. What was worse was that he knew it. Which was why my panties were off, my bare ass sitting on a library table I’m sure someone was going to unknowingly study at tomorrow, and his mouth was inches from mine asking me to admit the obvious truth. That I hated and wanted him in equal measure.”

My mind immediately wanders to images of Violet sitting on a library table in front of me, bare underneath a short skirt, and I only need to imagine it for a second before all my blood starts to pool south. I roll my lip between my teeth as I listen to the sound of her breathing, the way she enunciates the words, and watch the way her lips form the letters.

“’Just admit you want my mouth on you Haley. Admit you think about it all the time. I bet you go home after we study, lay down in your bed and let your hands explore your body wishing they were mine.’”

Her breath catches and she stops reading, and I want to beg her to keep going. I’m so hard now, imagining us in this scenario, remembering what she looked like last night. I’m a hairsbreadth away from grinding my palm over my cock for some semblance of relief.

There’s a deep inhale of breath and she closes her eyes and dips her head down.

“What are we doing?” Her voice is so quiet.

“You’re reading to me.”

“And last night?”

“I read to you.”

There’s a little click of her tongue and I can tell she’s not amused with my smart-ass answers.

“I think—“ she starts but I cut her off.

“Do you remember that summer you and Nora were already in college, but you came home? You stayed with us for like two or three weeks because you guys were moving to a new house?”

“Yeah.”

“I was like 16 or so I think. You were probably 20 or 21.”

“Ok…” she trails off like she’s not sure where I’m headed with this.

And frankly, I’m not sure I should be headed this way, but I feel like I need to give her the same vulnerability she gave me last night.

“You guys were in the pool like every day, all day, when you weren’t driving around town. And you were just perpetually in a bathing suit. The top was this bikini with a galaxy pattern on it, and it was almost too small for you because it always seemed like if you moved just the right way, I was finally going to get my wish.”

“It was not too small,” she protests.

“It definitely was, and you knew it.” I grin at her.

“Was not.”

“Trust me, I spent a lot of time looking at it. I know what I’m talking about.”

“Whatever.” She crosses her arms, letting the book fall off to one side of her knees. “Is there a point to the criticism of my fashion choices?”

“I wasn’t criticizing. Just mentioning. It’s pertinent to the story.”

“Get on with it then.”

“I tried so fucking hard to get you to notice me that summer. That’s when I really got into football, and I thought I was bulking out. Eating protein bars and drinking shakes and hitting the gym with the other guys.”

“You were getting so tall though. You were already taller than me by then. I remember your mom going on about how tall you were. Hard to bulk out that way.”