Page 31 of Run the Play (Nashville Rampage #2)

Chapter Seventeen

L andry

Turns out there is more to life than football. The more is my Rowan. For the first time in my life, football is taking a back burner. I still train hard, work hard, and give my team and my teammates one-hundred-and-ten-percent of me on and off the field, but when I’m home, it’s her.

Take this week, for example. She’s been riding to work with me every single day.

We make dinner together, we’ve swam, taken walks around the neighborhood, and every night she falls asleep in my arms. I’ve never wanted that, and now, I know that I can’t let it go.

It’s not just having someone in my bed, it’s all Rowan—I’m sure of that.

Thunder cracks overhead, and Rowan screeches, jumps, then immediately starts laughing at herself. “Did that not startle you?” she asks, her palm on her chest as if she’s trying to calm her racing heart.

I pop another chip into my mouth. “A little, I guess.”

“You’re not supposed to be eating junk,” she reminds me.

“These are my favorites.” I hold up the red bag of chips.

“You’re going to spoil dinner,” she tells me.

“Babe, come on now, we both know I’m gonna eat all my dinner, and then my dessert,” I say, moving around the island to where she’s standing. I discard my bag of chips and wrap my arms around her.

Apparently, there is more to life than food as well.

“You’re going to make me slice my finger,” she tells me.

I kiss her one more time, just under her ear, and step away. “While I enjoy all of you, I don’t want a finger in my tacos.”

“Eww.” She scrunches up her nose, and fuck me, it’s cute as hell.

“What can I do?” I ask.

“Nothing. It’s not a hard dinner, and I like cooking for you.”

“You could have saved yourself the trouble, and just let yourself be my dinner and my dessert.” I smack her ass lightly. I’m standing right next to her, so I see the beautiful pink hue that coats her cheeks.

“We need real food.”

“If you insist.” I sigh as if eating dinner is a hardship. Who am I? What has this woman done to me?

“There,” she says, as she finishes dicing the tomatoes. “Time to eat.”

We make our plates and settle at the island, just as we have every other night this week. Leaning over, I press my lips to her cheek. I can’t stop touching her. “I’m glad you’re here,” I tell her.

She smiles at me, and it lights a fire in my veins to see her happy. “I’m glad I’m here too. Not just here with you, but in Tennessee.”

“What made you decide on Tennessee?” I ask, taking a huge bite of my soft taco before groaning. So. Damn. Good.

“I grew up about thirty minutes from Nashville, in and out of foster homes, as you know. None of them felt like home to me, but I guess the state did. I’m not sure, to be honest. Something just told me that Tennessee is where I need to be. That I need to return to where I grew up.”

“Best decision ever.” I wink at her, and I’m once again rewarded with a smile.

“It was,” she agrees, wiping her mouth. “When I applied to work for the Rampage, it was on a whim. I went to a game once when I was younger. My social worker took me and a couple of others. It was some kind of outreach program, and it stuck with me. When they called me for an interview, I was so excited that I think I almost passed out. I was already living in Nashville, in a rundown studio apartment, and I was waiting tables, barely getting by.” She shrugs, and my heart squeezes.

“My gut was right. It led me to the Rampage.” She pauses and leans her head on my shoulder. “It brought me to you.”

I kiss the top of her head because it’s there, and I have this “I can’t stop touching her” condition, which is ridiculous, but I think it’s a thing because Knox has it too.

I guess when you’re falling for someone, that’s what you do?

Kiss them, touch them, and just sit next to them.

Doing mundane things like eating dinner is more fun than anything else I can think of.

I’m convinced it’s just her.

My Rowan.

“So you’re a lifelong Rampage fan. It really is true love.” I bat my eyelashes, and she giggles.

“Well, I didn’t know much about the game, but that day was the best. We were allowed to purchase food from the concession stand, which was a first for me, and we sat next to a nice family with kids too.

We all cheered and celebrated together. It’s one of my fondest, if not the fondest moment that I can remember from my childhood. ”

This beautiful, sexy woman of mine has lived a hard life. Losing my dad so young was tough, but I had my mom and my sister. My girl had strangers, and that twists my heart into knots thinking about a scared, lonely young Rowan.

“What happened to your parents?” I ask. I’ve never wanted to push her to talk, but she’s opening up more and more, and she knows she can trust me.

“They were young. My mom was fifteen. Living in foster care herself, and from what I hear, she wasn’t sure who my dad even was.

She tried to keep me, and even fought to get me back once she turned eighteen, but she couldn’t seem to get her life together.

They kept me in and out of foster care until one day, the day before my eighth birthday, the social worker came to visit to tell me that my mom had passed away.

Later, I found out it was an overdose. By then, I was too old for adoption.

No one wants a kid who’s almost grown. Most want babies or toddlers.

So, I bounced from home to home. Some were bad, others were worse, and there were a few that were good.

There was one. I lived there for almost a year, but the dad, Mr. Long, his job transferred to a new location, and they had to move, so I had to pack my bags and move to another house. Another new family.”

“Fuck, Roe,” I rasp. My chest aches for her.

“It wasn’t so bad. There are so many in my position who have it much worse.

I kept my head down, worked my ass off in school.

My guidance counselor helped me apply for scholarships, and I went to the school that offered me the most. That’s how I ended up in Michigan, and where I met Chaz. ” She shrugs. “You know the rest.”

I don’t know what to say. Words fail me, so I rely on touch. I slide my arm around her waist, and that’s how we finish our meal. I'm one-handed because I can’t let her go. I won’t let her go. Not now, not tomorrow, not ten years from now. Not ever.

“Please don’t be different,” she says, turning to face me in her chair.

“I’m not, at least I don’t mean to be.” Reaching out, I cradle her cheek in my palm.

She leans into my touch, which soothes me, and that’s fucked up because I should be doing my darndest to soothe her.

“I want to give you everything,” I tell her.

It’s the truth. Everything she missed out on, I want her to have it.

She smiles softly. “Landry, you can’t make up for my past, but I’d really like to live for and look toward the future with you.”

“Oh, baby, that’s happening,” I tell her, leaning in for a kiss. “Go find us a movie, and I’ll clean up.”

“I can help.”

“You cooked.”

“But it will be faster with the two of us.”

“Nope. Go.” I stand, taking both of our plates and placing them in the dishwasher. When I turn around, she’s still sitting there. Her elbows on the island, her chin propped up in her hands.

“What are you doing?”

“You know, just enjoying the view.”

“Yeah?” Loving the fact that her eyes are on me, I reach behind my neck and peel off my T-shirt, tossing it at her. It hits her in the face, and she laughs, grabbing it and sniffing.

She. Sniffed. My. Shirt.

New kink unlocked. “You better stay over there,” I tell her.

“What? Why?” she asks, laughing, bringing my shirt back to her nose for another smell.

Reaching into my gym shorts, I adjust my cock, not hiding what she does to me. “Because I’m hard as fuck from that.” I point to her.

“I didn’t do anything but smell your shirt.” She giggles.

“My shirt, Roe. Mine. You smelled me, and I want to make you smell like me,” I tell her.

“Then what are you waiting for?” she asks.

I stand frozen, my cock harder than the granite counter that separates us. She stands and sniffs my shirt for a third time. However, this time, she makes a show of it. She closes her eyes and slowly inhales, before those baby blues blink open and land on me.

“Coming?” she asks, before turning and walking out of the room.

I glance at the counter that still has the remnants of our dinner spread out, and then back to her as she retreats to the living room.

Fuck it. The mess can wait. My girl is more important.

I take off running to catch up with her and lift her into my arms from behind.

I carry her to the couch and plop down with her in my lap, her back to my chest.

Her head falls back to my shoulder, and I kiss her neck. “Now I got you,” I croon, my hand dipping beneath the waistband of her shorts and her panties. My fingers slide over her clit, and she gasps, wiggling on my lap. “Too much?” I ask, my lips next to her ear.

“More.”

“Like this?” I murmur as I explore her pussy. She’s wet for me, and I’m about to ask her if this is okay, but she widens her legs, making room for me. I don’t need to ask her. I’ve got my answer.

“Landry.”

“What’s up, beautiful?”

She huffs out a breath. “You’re teasing me.”

“Would I do that?” I ask, sliding one single digit inside her as I trail kisses down her neck.

“Please?”

“Tell me what you want, Roe. Whatever it is, I’ll give it to you.”

“You. I just want you.”

“You have me, baby. What else?” I ask, lazily pumping my finger inside her.

She’s hot and wet. My cock throbs, desperate to replace my finger, but this is her show.

She’ll tell me when she’s ready. She’s going to have to.

I refuse to be someone else in her life who takes from her.

I’ll give her everything. She just has to tell me what it is that she wants.