Silver (19 page)

She groaned as he pushed her further down, so she could feel the length of him through his shorts. Then, he thrust upward, and her hands grasped his biceps to steady herself. It had been months since she had been with Marshall, and he didn’t even compare to Pace. The man was making it impossible to walk away from him.

“I…I have a test tomorrow,” she nearly moaned as his hands slipped to her ass, and he started making her ride him. “Fuck.”

“Then, won’t you be relaxed and well rested before it?”

“I…I…” she murmured, losing coherency.
Fuck, had it been long enough that riding his dick through our clothes could bring me to the brink?

His finger slipped under her shorts and stroked along the hot and wet material of her thong. She moaned out loud as he flicked against her clit. Everything in her wanted to let loose at that moment. To forget about all the hard work she had put in for her classes and for staying away from him, but her body would not listen.

“Let me get you off,” he begged. “It’s been killing me at night, listening to you get yourself off.”

“Wh-what?” she gasped.

“The sound of that vibrator buzzing at night nearly sends me barreling straight through that door to take you. Envisioning you pleasuring yourself is pure torture.”

Stacia’s cheeks heated. She hadn’t known he could hear that. It brought her a bit of satisfaction to know that he had been aching at the thought of her.

“Fuck, you’re so sexy when you blush like that.”

“Pace,” she murmured again.

One digit had slipped under her thong, and when it made contact with her clit, she buckled forward in pleasure.

“Were you always this sensitive, or did you just miss me touching you this much?” he asked.

She wrenched back from his touch with her entire body thrumming. Her lower half was pulsing with life. Her chest was heaving. “I can’t do this.”

His eyes rounded in confusion. “You obviously can. This isn’t a bad thing. This is me giving you pleasure.”

“And what do you want in return?”

“You, in my bed.”

“We’ll end up fucking.”

He smirked. Then, he grabbed her face in his hands and started kissing her. That same explosive kiss that he had given her on the sideline. The one that made her knees weak and her mind run away from her.

She found herself grinding against him, aching to get close, to get off. She couldn’t deny that she wanted an orgasm. She desperately did, but a beeping noise in her brain was telling her to slow down and think. But, with his lips on her and his hands on her and their bodies close together, desire overtook everything, and she ignored rational thought.

Pace pressed her down into the couch and yanked her shorts out of the way. Then, he dived back in for another kiss. His fingers trailed down her stomach before spreading her open and pressing into her pussy.

“Fuck,” she cried.

Then, he swirled his finger around her already aroused clit. She felt a buildup stir within her as he continued to bring her close to the edge. Then, at one more insistent thrust, she came apart. She threw her head back, and her body shuddered. No vibrator could ever give her that; that was for damn sure.

He kissed her once more on her swollen lips. “My bed.”

“You said we’d just sleep,” she accused.

“I lied.”

“That’s not playing fair.”

“I want you, Stacia. I don’t have to play fair.”

She sighed and shook her head. “This was a mistake.”

“What?” he asked as she stood on shaky legs and grabbed her shorts. “Which part? The orgasm or me?”

“Yes. I said that I would not fall for this, Pace. Nothing has changed, except for you being sneaky. I’m sorry. I just…I don’t trust you,” she whispered and then disappeared into her room.

She promptly turned on the shower, so he wouldn’t hear her tears through the door.

AS MUCH AS STACIA WANTED
to figure out what the hell had happened the night before, she was also terrified to acknowledge it. It was better to just admit that she had been weak after studying almost all night, and she had been so exhausted that release had come to her so easily. She couldn’t let it happen again.

It was relatively easy to let herself drown with all the work she needed to focus on. Plus, Pace really
did
need to focus on football. With Boomer gone, their first away game was nearly a disaster. They managed to win in overtime, which was a relief for Stacia, who had opted to stay home and watch it on TV. It was the first football game of her college career that she had not been on the sidelines. It was one hundred percent more nerve-racking.

But Boomer was back for the next three games, and they won them all. Everyone speculated on what rule he had violated, but the few who knew what had happened would never speak about it. Even Pace held his silence. But she didn’t know how long that would last with his temper.

“Come on,” Bryna pleaded the next week. “You cannot miss two away games in a row, S.”

“I have to. I have a paper due on Monday. I can’t leave,” Stacia told her. “You go with Trihn and let Maya take my spot. I’ll be fine.”

“No way. I can’t do that.” She sighed. “How are you doing in your classes anyway?”

Stacia cringed. “All right. I’ve been in tutoring all semester, so it’s going better. I got a B on my last test.”

“That’s excellent. I’m really proud of you for going through with this.”

“Yeah,” Stacia said with a smile. “I like it so far.”

“And I can’t change your mind?”

Stacia shook her head. “I’m sorry. You
know
I want to be there with you. Football is my life.”

“I know, I know. This just sucks. It’s our last football season here, and you won’t be at all the games.”

“Um…about that,” Stacia said. “I’m not graduating in the spring.”

“What? Why not?”

“I don’t have enough credits for the major, so I’ll be staying an extra year.”

“That’s ridiculous! They’re making you stay another year? Didn’t you have enough classes to transfer into the major?”

“No, actually, I didn’t,” Stacia told her. “I was kind of slacking off because I didn’t think that I would be coming back. But, now, I’m here.”

“Have you talked to your advisor to see if you can fix it?”

“Bri, no,” Stacia said. “It’s just a fact. I’m not graduating with you and Trihn.”

Bryna deflated. “That’s seriously depressing.”

Stacia chewed on her lip and then pushed forward with something that she had been thinking about since being admitted. “You didn’t…talk to the journalism program about me to help me get in, did you?”

“Did I do what?” Bryna asked. “You think I had something to do with you getting in?”

“It’s crazy, I know,” Stacia said straightaway. “I just feel…a bit out of place. And Whitney said that everyone got into the major in the spring and that the wait list was long. I just…wanted to make sure. You didn’t…right?”

“No!” Bryna cried. “I was in Europe!”

“That’s not outside of your bounds.”

Bryna grabbed Stacia’s shoulders and stared her down. “You did this
all
on your own, S. This is on you. You worked for it. Just own it.”

Stacia nodded. “Okay. I’m sorry I accused you. It’s just…something you would do.”

Bryna laughed. “Well, it is. But I didn’t this time! I have full faith in you.”

“That makes one of us.”

With everyone gone at the game for the weekend, Stacia invited Simon and Whitney over to study at her place. She was determined to play matchmaker with them even if both seemed oblivious to how any of this worked. And, by the end of the weekend, she was even more frustrated that she hadn’t had any success.
How hard could it be to get two sort-of-awkward journalism nerds together?

“Well, I, um…actually have a violin lesson in thirty minutes, so I should get going,” Whitney said on Sunday afternoon.

“You’re leaving?” Stacia asked, wide-eyed. She looked between Simon and Whitney, like,
Come on, work with me!

“Yeah. Every Sunday. Sorry.”

“Do you want to come back over afterward?” Stacia prompted. “Simon, you’d like Whitney to come back, right?”

“Honestly, I feel like we’re about set here,” Simon said without looking up. He took off his geeky, yet hot black-rimmed glasses and then smiled at Stacia. “I’ll just give your paper one more read-through. Whitney’s is already great.”

Whitney beamed. “Thanks, Simon.”

“All right,” Stacia said, feeling like throwing her hands up. “I guess I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” she said with a shy smile. “Bye, Simon.”

“See ya.”

Stacia dropped her head onto the table when Whitney left. “I’m starving,” she muttered. “I’m going to order a pizza. Want anything?”

“No mushrooms. Otherwise, I’m good.”

“Cool. I’m no olives.”

“I love olives.”

Stacia crinkled her nose. “This partnership is never going to work.”

His eyes widened, and then he smiled and started laughing, as if just realizing that she was joking. “You’re funny, Stacia.”

Stacia arched an eyebrow and strode away. She could be mildly sarcastic. She didn’t think that warranted full-bodied humor.

She ordered pizza from her phone, and to her relief, it showed up thirty minutes later. She scooped out slices onto plates and passed one to Simon. Digging another water bottle out of the fridge, she leaned back against the breakfast bar in the kitchen and dug into her pizza.

“This was just what I needed,” she said.

“Brain food.”

She laughed. “Something like that. You know—” She cut off midsentence when the doorknob turned, and then the door opened.

Fuck.

Her eyes darted to the clock.

No, no, no.

This was too early. Pace shouldn’t be back already. She had planned it out so that everyone would be gone, and she would be perfectly cloistered in her room before he returned.

But there Pace was, his giant frame taking up the entire doorway.

His eyes found her across the room, and then they moved to Simon sitting at the table, casually eating pizza with her.

“What’s this?” Pace asked, slamming the door shut behind him.

“Pace, this is…Simon,” Stacia said. She gestured to Simon, who surreptitiously glanced between them.

“You’re Pace Larson,” Simon blurted out.

“Yes, I am.”

“You’re the quarterback, right?”

Pace arched an eyebrow. “Yes.”

Stacia tried to interject, “He’s my—”

“Boyfriend,” Simon finished for her. “You were the one he was with on TV.”

“Uh, no,” Stacia said at the same time Pace said, “Yes.”

Stacia shot Pace a look. “He’s my roommate.”

“Your roommate is the starting quarterback?” Simon asked, as if trying to decipher the problem in front of him.

“Um…yes.”

Simon blinked at her and then blinked again. He frowned and nodded. “I see.”

“Yeah, so you should go,” Pace said with a menacing glare. “Seriously, you stand no chance.”

“Pace!” Stacia snapped.

“It’s fine. I’m leaving.” Simon stuffed his papers into his bag.

“Simon, you don’t have to go,” Stacia told him.

He just handed Stacia her paper. “This looks much better.”

Then, he left without saying good-bye, more or less fleeing the apartment. As he calmly shut the door behind himself, Stacia was cursing herself for letting this happen.

As soon as the door clicked, she rounded on Pace. “What the fuck was that?”

“I’m gone for the weekend, and you bring another guy here?” he demanded, fury in every word.

“He’s my
tutor
!” she nearly screamed in his face.

“I’ve seen that porn,” Pace said dismissively. “I know what happens next.”

“Ugh! I am
not
into Simon! I cannot believe you just ran him out of the apartment while we were in the middle of working on my paper. How fucking dare you do that!” she yelled. “You said you were fine with me having people over!”

“Yeah, well, I’m not fucking fine. And you weren’t fucking fine with Lindsay being here.”

“That’s not the same, and you know it,” she said. “Simon is my fucking tutor. He is not some skank, ready to hook up in the middle of a party. He is a nice, normal guy.”