“So, tell me something that I won’t find on the internet.”
I let my fingers run through her hair idly, her head on my chest as we lay in the quiet bedroom, the smell of sex lingering in the air. I felt fucking amazing, like Superman who’d just saved the world, and it was all due to the woman in my arms. I’d always prided myself on having the stamina of a stallion when it came to the bedroom, but one look at her, listening to her sigh and watching her come undone under my touch had left me fighting for control. She was a complete surprise in bed, giving and taking everything I had, a wildcat that I had no chance to tame, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try. Round two couldn’t come soon enough. “Well, darling, everything is on the internet nowadays.”
Her hand rubbed tiny circles on my lower abdomen as she huffed against my skin, making me grin. “Not everything. Tell me something that you know, no one else knows. Your darkest secrets or your wildest dreams. I shared my pathetic excuse for a love life with you. The least you could do is return the favor.”
“Okay, okay,” I laughed, stroking her back. “Well you already know, my parents are divorced. Most don’t know that they hate each other to this day. I couldn’t even have them at my pro signing day because I was scared they would tear each other apart.”
“Why do they hate each other so much?” she asked softly. I sighed, my mind thinking back to my younger days. “My dad always wanted me to go to football camps and hone my talent. My mom wanted the same, of course, but she also wanted me to excel in school as well, you know, to have a back-up plan. They used to fight constantly about it but my dad would always get his way. Spending money we didn’t really have on some expensive-ass camp in the middle of nowhere, which would make mom blow her top. You know, I don’t think there was a summer that I actually got to spend at home with them, doing family stuff, well at least not after I was nine or ten.”
“You poor thing,” April replied, kissing the area right above my bellybutton lightly. My cock twitched, but I forced it to lie down for now. There would be plenty of time for rounds two, three, and four tonight, but for now it made a change from getting what I could then making my excuses to leave. Listening to her and sharing our stories was refreshing; something I never thought I needed. But of course, I fully planned on enjoying the hell out of the amazing woman who had literally dropped in my lap, saving me.
“Yeah, well, we definitely weren’t that poor,” I joked. “All the money they wasted on me…”
“What do you mean? Look where you are, what you achieved.”
I sighed, and she propped herself up to study me.
“But you just wanted them, didn’t you?”
“Am I that easy to read?”
“No… in fact, I think you hide it too well. And I know how it is wanting more time with your parents.”
I stroked her cheek. “I didn’t mean to bring up anything painful.”
She shook her head and smiled. “I’m okay, this is not about me. I want to hear more about you.”
“Well, after the divorce, I guess you could say I got anything I wanted… they tried to outdo each other, and I know I didn’t help. Probably encouraged it. But then my mom ended up getting remarried and popping out a few kids with my stepdad. And I don’t know if it was guilt or something else but she felt the need to outdo my dad at every Christmas and birthday present. My dad, well, he couldn’t compete, fell on hard times after the divorce, a string of failed marriages and some bad investments nearly taking all he had. Recently he’s tried to get me to back him in what sounded like a scam and then got pissed once he realized I wasn’t going to bite. We haven’t talked in four months. But I can’t help thinking that if I hadn’t loved football so much, begged for all the right equipment, the trips, the camps, then maybe they would still be together.”
April turned her head and looked at me, her expression softening. “Must’ve been rough. But you were a kid, it wasn’t your fault, you know.”
“Yeah, I want to believe that, I do. I just can’t. Makes me think that love is just a hollowed out word. Because how can two people who claimed they loved each other throw it all away like that?”
“You’re totally wrong,” she said with such fierceness it was hard not to believe her, then she snuggled into me. “Love does exist. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, my parents had it and I…” April trailed off.
I swallowed, my mind leaping to finish that sentence. She wanted the fairytale ending and I wanted… hell, what did I want exactly? I did not want what had happened to my parents, which was why, I guessed, I tended to fall at the last hurdle that was commitment. It was final and it was painful. But listening to the opposite end of the spectrum, the happy marriage that April’s parents had made me wonder if it could really work.
“I almost had it, though now that I think about it. It couldn’t have been love because I never felt the way I did with him as I do with…”
I tensed slightly hoping in equal measure that she would or wouldn’t finish the sentence. I couldn’t even believe I was thinking along these lines, but I knew exactly what she meant. Something had changed within me, like blinding lights upon the field being switched on and finally illuminating in stark contrast what I’d been missing all this time. “Your ex is an asshole,” I finally said, breaking the silence. “He doesn’t deserve your thoughts.”
She looked up and I took the opportunity to kiss her forehead, a soft kiss that didn’t mean to lead to anything else. “I know,” she sighed, touching my jaw. “And he doesn’t cross my mind anywhere near as much as he used to, trust me. He’s in the past and well, I’m very happy in the here and now.”
She didn’t say future and I didn’t ask. I didn’t even know what to say about the future; our future. Could I make a real go of it with April? Inching along, carrying our relationship to the next down, then the next until we were an old married couple in our nineties rocking on our front porch?
“I’m happy here too, with you.”
The past few days had been some of the best days of my entire life and around her, I felt like I could be myself, not some macho football star that has to be constantly on, being the complete dick that everyone expected me to be. But just as April made me feel more like I was discovering who I truly was, she was also a weakness that I would have to protect, to hide from the harsh realities that was my dirty but glamorous life. I knew she was strong, but was she strong enough? Being in the limelight was a constant wear and tear, which was one reason I’d gotten along with Crystal so well in the beginning. She knew how to handle herself in those situations, always coming out like a diamond no matter what she was thrown into.
And as my girlfriend—or perhaps more—April would have to do the same. But I couldn’t lose her either. Just the thought made my muscles tighten with rage.
“What’s wrong?” April asked dreamily.
“Nothing,” I replied, not wanting to worry her. It was in that blissful moment I realized I’d completely forgotten to tell her about the bet. Did she really need to know? If I told her now, it would spoil everything and I didn’t want to go down the path of her not being around, not yet, not ever if I was being honest with myself. So instead I reached down and kissed her deeply, letting all of my worries, frustration and fears echo through the kiss.