57. Corey

“Where are we going?” Fallon asks, looking out the passenger window and then at me.

“To celebrate you making co-captain.”

She turns to face me, trying to hide a smile. She loves surprises. Even the minimalist of effort, like coffee in bed, makes her giddy.

I reach across the middle console to take her hand, and she weaves our fingers together.

“Have you heard anything more about your coach?” Few know how much we loathe Peters. We don’t even talk about it with other guys on the team, fearing it might get back to someone it shouldn’t, but Fallon knows all my secrets.

“He signed the contract. He’s gone.”

She claps a hand to her chest as though relieved on our behalf. “Corey, that’s the best news.” She shakes her head, growing serious. “Assuming it’s not where you’re hoping to play next year…”

Next year.Two words that have begun to feel like a life sentence. It’s not something I want to talk or even think about. “No. But we can’t say anything yet. It hasn’t been formally announced.”

“When will that happen?”

I shrug. “I don’t know if the delay is on their side or Camden’s.”

“Regardless, we need to celebrate. That and the fact that summer classes are finally over.”

A grumble passes my lips that has Fallon laughing. “You’re not glad that we’re finally done?”

“I like seeing you for ninety minutes in the middle of every day.”

“Me too.” Her voice is soft but reverent.

I park at the Italian restaurant Fallon mentioned loving, and turn to her. “Let’s get some dinner and that tiramisu you’ve never tried, and then I’ve got a couple of surprises for you back home.” The word slips out so damn easily. Home. While Oleander Springs has felt like home, my dorm never has, but the idea of having Fallon in my bed and shower, on my couch, at my table—make it feel like exactly that—home.

“You didn’t have to do all this.”

“I want to.”

Outside of my truck, Fallon slips her hand in mine. It’s miserably hot today, but I find myself thankful for the heat as my gaze skates down the white summer dress that gathers around her waist and flares at her hips.

“What are you thinking about?” Fallon asks, glancing at me with those soulful blue eyes that see entirely too much.

“The Heath Library,” I admit. “And how that dress might make fifteen minutes close to plausible.”

Her pupils expand, and heat rises to her cheeks, a sign of her desire. “We should eat and go find out.”

I raise a brow, shocked at her reply, but quickly shake my head. “I’d rather take you back to my bed where I can have you to myself.”

She stares at me for a prolonged moment. “Afraid we’ll be caught?”

“I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to think rationally if someone ever sees you in that position.”

“That library’s barren, and it’s the middle of summer. Besides, you’re the one who planted this seed.”

I pull open the restaurant’s door, hating myself for wanting to water and let that damn seed grow.

The scents of tomatoes and garlic have my stomach rumbling as we’re greeted by the hostess. I give her my name for the reservation, and we’re taken to a table near the back, as I’d requested. Rather than sit across from me, Fallon slides in beside me.

The hostess is barely out of sight when Fallon places her hand on my thigh, running it too close to my swelling cock.

I glance at her, but she’s intently staring at her menu like she didn’t just run her fingers over the bulge in my pants. I move forward so the tablecloth covers my lap and lean closer to her. “We won’t make it to the library if you keep this up.”

She doesn’t react except to brazenly run her hand over me again, squeezing me this time.

I swallow a groan. It takes everything inside of me to resist flexing against her palm.

Our waiter greets us with a smile that I can’t reciprocate. I want to forget about dinner and speed straight to that damned library. Instead, we order and wait too long for our food to come. Once it arrives, we eat while stealing glances and touches that grow with intimacy and impatience. When the check finally arrives with the dessert we ordered to go, I don’t bother waiting with a credit card, sliding cash in the folder so I can get us out of here.

Need ushers me forward, but as we pull up into the Heath Library parking lot, I try to ignore thoughts of taking Fallon against those stacks and find some semblance of clear thought. “We have the dessert. We can go to my dorm. It’s?—”

Fallon slips out of my truck and doesn’t look back as she strides up the sidewalk. I barely catch up with her before she reaches the entrance.

Lust steals every damn lucid thought as I follow her past the ugly shelves and balding carpet.

We pass the empty librarian”s desk and jog up the stairs, where the acrid scent reminds me of how badly I wanted her weeks ago.

Fallon twines her hand with mine and leads me through the maze of stacks before stopping to face me. I feel like I’m about to lose my mind when she finally kisses me. She moans, encircling my neck with both hands, and then her breasts are flush against my chest, and I’m not entirely sure which of us closed the distance, only that she’s still not close enough. I glide my hand down her waist over the cotton fabric that ends just before my fingertips. Her skin is so damn warm and soft against my palm as I slide my hand over the back of her thigh, following the line of her underwear along the globe of her ass.

Fallon shifts to her toes, kissing me harder as lust runs hot through my veins. I trace a line between her legs, feeling her wetness. I groan, lost in how much I want her.

If we were in my dorm, I’d be teasing her nipples and tracing over her body until she was panting as promised during phone sex, but the fear of someone catching us hurries me and keeps a fraction of my brain lucid.

“I’m going to need you to be quiet,” I rasp against her ear before taking it between my teeth and running my fingers through her wetness again before pushing two inside of her.

Her breath catches, and her shoulders bow. “So good,” she whispers.

The sound of my fingers pumping inside her, coated in her arousal, makes me hum with satisfaction as I take another glance around the empty library and the stacks that will hopefully block us long enough if someone dares to wander up here.

“Turn around and hold on,” I tell her.

Fallon doesn’t hesitate, settling her hands on a shelf and arching her back as I lift the dress to reveal her underwear. I slip them down her thighs, then pull my shorts and underwear down far enough to free myself. My cock is so hard it fucking aches as I free a condom from my wallet and roll it on.

Fallon makes a breathy and desperate sound that I swear I could get drunk on as I press against her entrance. I sink into her slowly, loving the way her breath hitches with every inch I push into her.

From this angle she’s so tight, and I’m so damn crazed it takes everything inside of me to not thrust into her.

I lean forward, kissing her bare shoulder, and her muscles pulse around me. I groan through a swear. This was a terrible idea.

“It was a great idea,” she whispers, making me realize I said the words aloud. “Fuck me, Corey.” She arches her back, pushing her ass toward me, and it’s my last coherent thought before I rock my hips against hers, rejoicing in the sound of our skin slapping and the sight of her knuckles turning white as she grips the shelves and meets my rhythm, like she’s just as starved for me as I am her.

Soft moans tell me she’s about to come, and I damn myself again for coming here because I want to drag this out, but instead, I move my fingers to her clit and press down. Her orgasm has her convulsing around my cock as she pants and shudders, and my own pleasure tears through me. I throw my head back, swallowing her name as I empty myself in her.

I kiss her shoulder again and then her neck as I remain inside of her for several long seconds, smelling her arousal rather than the aged and untouched books. I drop a final kiss against her skin before pulling out of her heat and sliding off the condom. I tie it off as Fallon rights her clothing.

“We should have timed it,” she says, her cheeks still flushed and pupils still blown out. “Next time.”

Apparently, she’s trying to kill me.