Baseball and Other Lessons (Devil's Ranch Book 2) (25 page)

“So what’s up?” she asked once her phone had shut down.

Matt shrugged, his hands tucked into the back pockets of his jeans, causing his faded Wranglers’ Championship tee to stretch across his chest. Her mouth watered.

“Nothing, really. The sex bunnies were going at it again this morning—loudly, I might add—so I decided to get out of there and stop torturing myself.”

“Sex bunnies?”

A corner of his mouth twitched upwards. “I figure they’re going at it like rabbits these days, might as well give them a cute nickname.”

Jenn shook her head. “Sex bunnies. Well, I have to say I’m glad they’re doing so well. They’ve been in love with each other since we were kids, so it’s about time.”

He rocked back on his heels. “I’m going to have to get that entire story at some point.”

“I would tell you, except it’s not my story to tell. Let’s just say we all do dumb things when we’re young and hurting.”

“Fair enough. I can’t say I haven’t done some stupid stuff, so I’m the last one to cast stones.”

“Like I said, we’ve all done something stupid at one point or another.”

He moved towards her, closing the gap between them. He removed his hands from his back pockets and brought one up so he could tuck an errant curl behind her ear. “I don’t know if I can say ‘I’m sorry’ enough.”

He cupped her cheek with his palm and Jenn closed her eyes. “You don’t have to keep apologizing, Matt. We both did dumb things.”

“Yeah, but you’re the one who bore the brunt of the hurt.”

Jenn opened her eyes and mimicked him, cupping his cheek with her hand. Despite the fact that it was ten in the morning stubble already scraped against the sensitive skin of her palm, causing heat to pool in her belly. “I’m strong, Matt. I got through it okay.”

“I know.” He closed his eyes and nodded his head once before opening them again. “I know that. I just wish I’d done things differently is all.”

“Woulda, coulda, shoulda. I wish I’d handled things differently, too. Friday night, though? I feel like I finally put the past behind me, Matt, so let’s not go there again, okay?”

He nodded and gave her a small, uncertain smile. “Okay. The past is in the past. Kind of. I have something I need to tell you first.”

“Is it about the YouTube video and Heather?”

He dropped his hand. “How’d you know?”

Jenn waved her phone in the air. “That was my friend Rene, the one who told me about the video in the first place. She’d called to let me in on the latest gossip, and I put two and two together and figured that’s what Darrin had called you about last night.”

“Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be okay? You’re the one who’s apparently still being stalked by Psycho Barbie.”

Matt threw back his head and laughed. “I think I’m going to have to share that one with Darrin.”

“Feel free. At any rate, she told me the video went viral yesterday, that Heather’s claiming she was the woman in the video and that as of this morning it had suddenly disappeared.”

“That’s the condensed version, yes. I needed to tell you about the statement Darrin’s sending to media outlets, though.”

Jenn grabbed his hand and led him to the couch, where they sat and she snuggled up to him. Matt slung an arm around her shoulders and she rested her head on his chest. It was everything she could do to not turn her head and breathe him in. The man smelled so freaking good.

She must have made some sort of sound, because Matt shifted slightly and said, “Okay, let’s talk about this statement before you completely distract me.”

She could feel herself blush, but couldn’t hide the pleased smile that curved her lips. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to distract you.”

“You always distract me,” he practically growled. Her ovaries quivered.

She looked up at him, and the look on his face was intent, like he’d zeroed in on her and had pushed everything else out of his brain. She’d somehow forgotten about his single-minded focus.

It had served him well on the mound and in bed. The thought made her nipples tighten and wetness to pool between her thighs.

A strangled sound escaped her throat and she pushed up onto her knees, swung around so she straddled him and claimed his mouth with hers. Matt’s arms tightened around her briefly before his hands began to roam over and claim her body.

Oh, God, she so wanted to be claimed by him.

She moaned and pressed against him, could feel the hard length of him behind the zipper of his jeans surging and pressing against her core, and she wiggled her hips. Delicious friction arched through her body, and she rotated her hips again and his fingers dug into her ass. Their tongues tangled and dueled, caressed and seduced as she ground against him, no longer in control of her body’s movements.

The lace of her panties scraped against her clit with every movement. Jenn wiggled closer, wanting nothing more than to climb inside of Matt. Anything to release this wanting, needing ache.

He tore his mouth away from hers and groaned. “Jenn. If you don’t stop…”

She rested her forehead against his. “Can’t. Stop.”

Jenn sought his mouth again, swallowed another groan from him as the pressure gathered, coiled tight and built higher, higher, higher. Matt’s fingers dug into her flesh, and the thought that she was going to have handprints on her ass tomorrow briefly flew through her mind until that thought spiraled down, low, low, low where it coiled and tightened before exploding.

She moaned against his mouth as her muscles continued to spasm, feeling satisfied but empty. The thought left her suddenly sad. As much as she wanted to crawl inside of Matt, she probably wanted him inside of her more.

As her movements stilled his grip on her ass loosened and their kiss turned more languorous and exploratory rather than explosive. Jenn’s hands drifted down his chest, and when they reached the button of his jeans she scooted back enough to work it free.

“Jenn…”

“Shh.” She placed a quick kiss on his lips. “I got mine. Fair’s fair.”

He kept his hands on her hips as she unbuttoned and then unzipped the denim. She looked down. His blue boxer briefs were wet and the fabric darkened against the head of his dick. She smiled and looked back up at him as she slid the cotton over and down until he sprang free, and smiled at his hard swallow when she grasped him in her hand.

He was bigger than she remembered. Hard, thick and hot as she caressed his cock. He flexed his hips. “I don’t know how long I’m going to last.”

“That’s okay.”

She continued to pump her fist up and down his length as he flexed his hips. Their harsh breaths were the only sounds in the house. Her muscles clenched again at the thought.

This man is going to be the death of me.

His fingers tightened on her hips as his dick stiffened and surged in her hand. She watched his face as he came all over her hand, the sensation weirdly erotic.

After long moments Matt’s body relaxed beneath hers, and he opened his eyes. Their gazes met, and she detected a brief glint of embarrassment in his before he covered it up. She looked down at her hand, his cock still hard and slowly pulsing, and back up at him. “Don’t you dare be embarrassed about this.”

Pink tinged his cheeks. “It’s been a long time since I came from a hand job.”

“Well, then, that just means I’m awesome.”

He smiled and shook his head. “I don’t know what to do with you sometimes.”

She looked down and back up again. “I think you’ve got some of it down.” She then swung around so that she was no longer straddling him, got up and walked to the bathroom where she washed off her hand and grabbed a washcloth to help Matt clean up.

She looked up. He was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, his pants still unbuttoned and his boxer briefs pulled down. She handed him the washcloth, which he took, dampened and cleaned up with.

Even though watching him felt uncomfortably intimate she couldn’t look away.

He finished, tossed the washcloth into the hamper in the corner and pulled up his boxer briefs before zipping and buttoning his jeans. He looked up and met her gaze with his own. She blushed, knowing she’d been caught watching him.

Instead of saying anything, though, he simply leaned in and softly kissed her before pulling away, looking more like a shy, unsure man than the most intimidating pitcher in baseball.

Something in her chest tightened then loosened, spiraled down down down and settled deep and unmovable.

She didn’t have long to consider the sensation, though, because Matt grabbed her hand and led her back into the living room.

Later,
she told herself,
I’ll think about that later.

#

“So about this statement,” Matt said once they’d settled back onto the couch.

Jenn tucked her legs underneath her as she snuggled back under his arm. “Yes, about this statement.”

“Darrin’s sending it to media outlets and telling them it’s an older video that was just recently uploaded to YouTube for some reason. He’s also releasing the terms of the restraining order I have against Heather to prove it’s not her.”

“That makes sense.”

He wound a curl around his index finger. “You’re not upset?”

She looked up at him. “Why would I be mad?”

“One, that Heather’s trying to claim I was dancing with her rather than you and two, that I’m trying to disassociate myself from being in Del Rio and in April’s that night.”

“I’m not going to be mad about you trying to disassociate yourself from being in Del Rio. You’ve gotten lucky so far that the media hasn’t tracked you down. As for Heather? That bitch doesn’t even deserve a thought much less my anger.”

He kissed her on the top of her head, grateful she’d been so understanding. “So what do you have planned for today?”

Her stomach rumbled and she laughed. “Apparently my stomach wants me to feed it. After that I figured I would work on finalizing some lesson plans since this is my last free week before my summer break is over.”

“Sounds exciting.”

She picked at her thumb nail. “Actually, I was going to ask you something I’ve been thinking about for a couple of weeks, but haven’t known how.”

He stilled briefly before continuing to wrap her hair around his finger.
Kind of like how she has you wrapped around hers.
“Shoot.”

“So there’s this book I’m teaching this year to my students, called
Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip
. It’s a young adult novel about an all-star pitcher who injures his arm just before his freshman year of high school and he finds himself trying to figure out who he is without baseball. I was wondering—if you’re still around when I have the kids read the book—if you would be willing to come in and talk to one or two of my classes about baseball and other lessons and stuff,” she said in a rush.

Matt shook his head. “What makes you think I would be a good person to talk to a bunch of seventh graders?”

She shot him a look that clearly said
please
. “Because you’re a great speaker. You’re engaging, you don’t lay on the bullshit and it would be great for my kids to hear from someone they look up to as a role model.”

“I’m nobody’s role model.”

Jenn sat up and turned so she was facing him. “Like it or not, Matt, you are. Kids look up to you. Boys want to be you when they grow up. You’re our hometown boy done good, and you’ve mostly done it the right way.”

“Mostly?”

Her mouth quirked up. “Well, there was that one-night stand in San Antonio.”

He laced his fingers through hers. “You know you were more than that, right?”

“I know.” She squeezed his hand. “But that’s not the subject at hand. I understand if you don’t want to do it, and I understand if you can’t. It was just an idea I had that I thought would be a really cool bonus for one or two of my classes.”

“Can I think about it?”

She nodded. “Absolutely. And I mean it, Matt, no pressure. Don’t feel like you have to out of some misguided sense of honor or because of whatever this is going on between us right now.”

Apparently now that they’d addressed the elephant in the past Jenn wasn’t holding back on addressing the elephants in the present. “Fair enough. I’ll think about it. As to the rest of your statement…”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s okay, too, Matt. I’m good with just going with the flow right now. To be honest, I’m enjoying this truce and not feeling any pressure. Besides, with so much in the air what good does it do us to try to define anything?”

Her statement left him feeling slightly unsettled because, in a weird sort of twist, he did want to define whatever this was between them. If Jenn was okay with going with the flow, though, he could try to do the same for her sake.

Definitions could always come later.

Jenn’s stomach growled again, and Matt pushed aside his unease and uncertainty and smiled at her. “Come on, pretty lady, let’s go get some lunch.”

She smiled back at him. “Sounds good to me. Let me throw on some clothes first, though.”