The Gamble: A Novel (20 page)

Words I never thought I'd ever fucking utter.

There's a loud pop sound as she releases my cock. In a weak tone questions, “Why? Does it hurt?”

I smirk. “No baby, it doesn't hurt, but I don't want you to throw up on my dick either.”

She gives me a sarcastic expression.

“You wanna take me that deep?”

“I do...I wanna be as good as the other chicks who have ever done this for you.”

The hint of jealousy in her tone causes me to soften my smile. I gently tilt her face up by the chin and sigh, “It's already better because it's you.”

A deep exhale is expelled before she says, “That was such a line...”

“But a true one.”

After another smile she gets the heated expression back in her eyes. “Can I at least try again? Please?”

Like any asshole in his right mind would say no to a naked chick trying to deep throat him.

“Yeah,” I whimper as she slides back onto my shaft. Alexxa gets into a rhythm again luring me back to the edge of coming where she toys with my orgasm until she's ready to take me deeper. As she inches me towards the back, I whisper, “Relax your throat, baby.” The moment she does my cock easily slides further. Quickly I remind her, “Breathe through your nose...” Once she does, she slips me to the point of no return and devours every piece of me she can reach. In a shaky tone, I warn, “Close....you should...pull back.....”  

Defiantly, Alexxa breaks me with one harsh pull of her sweet mouth.

I grip the back of her hair harshly and let my head fall forward on a scorching moan. “Si...Si...Coming...”

Cum surges down her throat and she swallows fervently. A beautiful, rhapsodic sound slips from her to accompany the one leaving me. Watching Alexxa lap up every drop with her bright brown eyes locked on mine rips a phantom orgasm out of me strong enough to bring me to my knees.

H...hol....holy....fuck.

The moment she frees my dick, I collapse onto the bed beside her, eyes shutting instantly. Completely spent, it barely registers when she lightly strokes my cheek.

Alexxa whispers, “Did I break you?”

“Yes,” I sigh and open one eye. “But I liked it.”

Her grin stretches wide. “So did I...Can I do it again?”

“Still hungry?”

My attempt at a dirty jokes comes back to bite me in the ass. “For your cock? Always.”

I groan, “Fuck...give me a minute.”

She giggles and leans down to nibble on my neck in hopes of accelerating the process.

Are constant blow jobs without complaints part of being in a relationship? What the fuck? Why didn't anyone tell me that shit? Not that it would've mattered. There's not a single chick I've ever come across that I've wanted to be with the way I am with Alexxa. Sometimes I think she is just fucking made for me. Who knows? Maybe she is.

Alexxa

I watch as the students file into the building on my final day.

Technically only my final day with them. The school is only open three days this week to allow the staff to train and organize our classrooms tomorrow and to allow a professional company to come in to deep clean the following day. That way when school officially starts Monday morning everything is perfect, or almost perfect. Between the training and cleaning there's supposed to be team building and classroom bonding exercises. However instead of letting me skip the day since I won't be a part of the school any more, I have to stick around with Luca because my replacement hasn't been hired yet. They've had three months to find one and nothing. I think Luca is being a baby about the whole thing. He gets a say in who he shares a classroom with. Wanna bet he's prolonging the progress so he doesn't have to cope with actually having to work without me? Can't hate on him for that...I'm gonna miss working with him too.

Luca joins my side as the kids begin to drag ass back towards the classroom. “Not bad for the final day of summer camp.”

“You're awfully chipper for someone whose water balloon team lost the war.”

He lets the front door shut behind us. “I didn't lose.”

“You so lost.”

He admires the wet shirt clinging to my chest and cockily smirks. “Did I?”

Playfully punching him in the arm, he chuckles proudly, and follows me into the room where whiny students are waiting to change.

“Mr. Luca, I wanna change first,” Marcus grumps.

Luca whispers in my ear as he moves by, “And I want you to change last.”

With a roll of my eyes, I shake my head, and sigh, “One boy and one girl may go change at a time. You know the drill.”

Mikey, one of the smaller second graders raises his hand. “May I go first?”

“No squirrel, I said I was going to,” Marcus snaps.

I shoot him a finger. “And let that be the reason you'll go last.”

“That's not fair,” Marcus bites. “You can't do that.”

With a lift of my eyebrows, I dare him to challenge me again. “Pretty sure I just did.”  

He folds his arms across his chest and slumps further into his seat, mumbling to himself.

“Lacey and Mikey, you can change first.”

Luca drops his towel around his neck. “The rest of you know how this goes. We're going outside. Grab your backpacks.”

We usher them outside while they begin to change in shifts. I make my way around the playground area while Luca does what he always does, run around with them.

I supervise. He playvises. His made up word of course. Don't smile about it. The last thing he needs is encouragement.

During my rounds, our eyes continuously connect, similar emotions twirling around them.

Lately, every time he looks at me it becomes harder and harder to deny I've messed up somewhere and managed to fall in love with him. Between the little thoughtful things he's started doing, like turning down ESPN while I read in bed beside him, to taking me to the carnival with some friends on a group date, he's morphed into more than just my bro best friend who I happened to fool around with. He's grown into a full fledge boyfriend with all the bells and whistles. Even Warren is in fucking shock. Constantly reminds me how he's not used to seeing Luca act this way. He's still the same pain in the ass I adore. He hasn't stopped treating me like I'm his favorite beer bong teammate, he's just added to it. There are days he still dutch ovens me like an asshole, but after he's finished laughing, he wraps me in his arms tightly. Lovingly kisses my forehead and just smiles. If he were any other guy I would've given it up a long time ago. What's even fucking more unbelievable is how he hasn't tried to convince me to move things faster or even complained that we've been together for over a month and he's still not tapping this. Patience isn't something Luca exudes when it comes to women. Persuade. Seduce. Convince. Those are his strong points. The fact he's holding out turns me on even more.

“So,” Leanne, one of the preschool teachers says to me from her side of the fence, snapping me out of own head. “Gonna miss Luca?”

I fold my arms across my chest. “Not really. We'll still see each other every day.”

“Wait. That's not a rumor?” She questions as she shoos away one of the children. “You actually see each other
every
day?”

“Well, yeah. We're...” I pause to finish the sentence.

While the rest of the world is aware we're together, we've managed to keep it to ourselves at work. I didn't want rumors spreading or to deal with even bitchier looks than the ones I'm already receiving. Luca didn't seem to give a fuck either way.

“Best friends.”

“Best friends?” She lifts a skeptical eyebrow. “That's it? So you're not rolling around together?”

Before I have time to even consider answering the question, Lori, swoops around from the other side of me. “Hey you! How's your last official day with the students going?”

Leanne scurries away to pretend to do her job while I turn my attention to the woman who will only be my boss one more day. “It's been fun. Pizza in the park. Splash Pad.”

“Did Luca mention the party yet?”

“The what?”

She smiles and excitedly bobs her blonde head around. “Luca organized a going away party at The Drunken Hound on Saturday! For all you've done for the school we covered the cost to rent a private room and appetizers. People have to pay for their own drinks.”

My face lights up. “He did that for me?”

“Yeah! The whole thing was his idea. We were just going to do a cake, but he reminded us you deserved better than that. So... I let him dominate over this little secret project.”

Pretty sure she just wanted to use dominate in a sentence with him as the subject. And before you ask, yeah, it weirds me out to know my boss mouth banged my boyfriend.

Lori giggles, “I just came to confirm everything with you before I sign the final form.”

“What um...what time Saturday?”

“Six. You don't have other plans do you? Luca said he would make sure you didn't.”

See what I mean about being thoughtful? How he managed to stay the same pain in the ass I love hanging out with
and
kick into gear everything I've ever wanted in a boyfriend is a mind fuck. It's not enough he's got a professional play book for making my panties wet but now he's got one for tugging at my heart too? Ugh. I hate him. And by hate I do mean love, but the tag line, is hate. Got it?

I fight the urge to smile too wide. “Nope. No other plans. Six is good.”

“Perfect,” she prepares to turn away as one of the parents strolls out of the building our direction.

“Oh, Alexxa,” Clare's mother sighs and strolls towards me. “I can't believe this is your last day! I don't know what we're gonna do without you and Mr. Luca together.”

And so the teary goodbyes of the day begin...

While I was expecting a little bit of sadness from a few parents and myself, I don't think I was fully prepared. Clare's mother hugs me, explains how I've changed Clare's life, and how she could never thank me enough for all I've done and how there's a gift waiting for me in the classroom. I hug her daughter tightly and am barely given a moment to dry my tears before more parents are coming to pick up their students, repeating the process in waves until my voice is hoarse.

By the end of the day, I'm emotionally drained and relieved all our students have left earlier than expected.

Can you blame me? I've lost enough fluid to do a week’s worth of laundry.

Just as I'm reaching for my wallet out of the cabinet in our classroom, Luca leans against the counter space beside me and softly says, “You know....I'm gonna miss you too.”

“How is that possible?” I sniffle. “You see me every day. We spend so much time together sometimes when you sneeze I wonder if it's gonna come out of my mouth.”

Luca laughs, but doesn't back down from the moment. “It won't be the same taking care of all of them without you. In a bizarre, fucked up way we're like a family. A good hunk of the kids have been with us since you started. We've kinda raised ‘em together. Taught 'em some basic life and social skills. Given them somewhere safe and comforting to be themselves like good parents should. Like some actual parents never do. But now we're splitting...” Turmoil I don't recognize slips into his eyes. “I fucking hate that. I mean I
really
fucking hate that.”

There's a sharp twinge in my chest. “Luca-”

“No.” He holds up a hand to stop me. “I know it's for the best. I know this new career of yours is what you've wanted and worked so hard for. Hell, it's not like I plan to stay that much longer here either. I just....I hate that we won't be ending our season together, ya know?”

I swallow the expanding knot in my throat and nod.

“Regardless, I just wanna say, not from the boyfriend stand point, but the co-worker one, it's been an amazing three years. Every day was an adventure that made coming here even more worth it. No one will ever replace you Alexxa, not just because they'll never measure up to the bad ass you were for these kids, but because I won't let them. They may work in this room beside me, but I'll never have another teammate like you.”

Unable to restrain the lingering tears any longer, I start to sob. Quicker than expected, Luca's arms are around me, cradling me to his chest.

Somehow I say, “I'm gonna miss this place and you so much...”

He rests his head on top of mine. “We're damn sure gonna miss you.”

Once my crying is almost back under control, I whisper, “I know about the party.”

“Damn it,” he grumbles. “Lori, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Biggest fucking mouth...”

I pull back to look up at him.

He wipes away the tears from my cheek. “I wanted it to be a huge surprise.”

As I stare into his eyes, I try to smile.

He
is the huge surprise. These past couple of months have been nothing but one cosmic fuck you Alexxa, he's not the guy you swore he was. The real surprise isn't the stupid party he planned with people I couldn’t care less about saying goodbye too, but the fact he did it for
me.
He wanted
me
to feel special. And I don't just mean because I'm getting a party when most people get a cake. I know at the party, Luca won't hesitate to treat me like his girl. The minute we're out of the school parking lot, it's his instinct. He's never had a girlfriend. He's never even brought a date to the Christmas parties, usually because he ends up taking one home after it. I'll be the first woman he introduces as his significant other. The ultimate way to feel special. See what I mean. It's like he's reading a how to book called 'Boyfriend's Guide to the Girlfriend Galaxy'. If dating me were a professional sport, there's no way he wouldn't leave with the MVP, the ring, and a place in the Hall of Fame. Just hearing myself admit that out loud is awful. Please don't tell him. He'll never let me live it down.

“Flag football tonight, but what do you say I pick you up early before work tomorrow and we can go grab breakfast tacos?”

“You wanna ride into work together?”

He tilts his head to the side. “Is that a problem?”

I shake my head slowly. “No...”

“Good,” Luca whispers back. “Cause you're buying...”

The playful change gets him a nudge away from me.