I gave one particularly hard suck on her clit and she shuddered in my hold. I kept sucking as she orgasmed, fingers spasming on my shoulders, and I knew I’d have marks on me later.
When her body slumped into the couch, I gave one last lick before kissing my way back up her stomach, to her lips. She groaned, tasting herself on my tongue, hands grabbing at me weakly.
“What about you?” She asked after catching her breath.
I chuckled. “I’m fine.”
She pressed a hand to my crotch, and I bit back a curse at the pressure to my cock.
“You’re hard, Howard.”
I carefully pulled her hand away and kissed her palm. “You’re right, I am hard, but even if you’re not sleeping here, it’ll be hours before you leave. I can take my time this once.”
Wrapping my arms around her, I shifted us around until Zoe was the one on top. I fixed her skirt, then tossed off my shirt and laid back, with Zoe half lying on top of me on the inside of the couch. I sighed at the feel of her bare breasts pressed up against my chest and tangled our legs together as I ran one hand slowly up and down her back.
After a while, Zoe’s body practically melted into mine as she hummed. “Maybe I should spend the night, after all.”
“No one will worry if you don’t go home?”
She shrugged her shoulders, and I felt more than saw the movement, looking into her content face.
“I could always lie and say I slept over at a friend’s place. I’m an adult, anyway, I don’t need to explain myself to anyone.”
I held her tighter. “I’m not going to say no to that offer.”
The moment would have been perfect, if not for Zoe’s expression. Was it just my imagination, or did Zoe look a little sad?
“I love you,” I blurted out, then winced. Zoe turned wide eyes to me, and I smiled. “Really, Zoe. I love you. I have for a while now, I just couldn’t find the time to tell you, with everything.”
I was anxious. I hadn’t meant to just blurt it out like that. All my carefully laid plans were crumbling one by one, and I wanted to smack myself. I’d wanted us to sit down and have a proper talk, not say it right after sex, when I was still hard in my pants, because that was always a bad move.
We’d never even been on a real date yet, though I supposed that didn’t matter as much, since we had been together for a few months now, just not officially as a couple.
She blinked, and her lips curved into a smile. “I love you, too.”
I searched her eyes, my anxiety ratcheting up. Her words should have made me happy. It was what I’d hoped to hear when I confessed my feelings for her, but I couldn’t help worrying. For one thing, the reply came too fast, and there was no surprise or anything on her end. I was almost disappointed that she didn’t show more of a reaction.
That wasn’t the biggest problem, though. She tried and failed to hide it. Zoe still looked sad, and I wondered what the reason for it was.
She says she loves me too, but does she actually mean that?
I wondered, but didn’t dare ask, because what would I do if she actually told me no?
Chapter Twelve
Zoe
I left home early in the morning, long before Dad and Katie woke up, because it would be too awkward to see them. The two of them didn’t need me around for anything, and they both seemed happy with the current situation, which just made it worse for me. They were very much in love and had no problem showing it even with me in the room, and there was no way I was going to be comfortable with that.
I really need to move out. Should I look into other teams to apply to?
This was something I needed to put more thought into. I was sure I could get used to it, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Still, it wasn’t like I was needed in the house anymore.
Money was a problem, but not that big a problem. When Mom passed away, she’d left some money in my name, and I’d never touched it. It wasn’t enough to live on, but I could get an apartment and settle in for a few months, but no more. Still, I could have made the decision to leave the house and look for work ages ago, but the real reason I didn’t move out after I graduated college was because I’d felt guilty about leaving Dad alone. He could function by himself, but I worried.
The entire time I was away from home, he’d eat out and called for take out a few times. He had a cleaning service that came a few times each week to clean the house, do the dishes and laundry. When I came back, the house looked fine, it just didn’t seem like anyone lived in there. In the fridge, all I could find was beer. Dad left early in the morning and got back close to midnight to sleep. I’d seen guys live pretty much the same way in college, but Dad never brought anyone home. He had his work, and friends, and of course he focused a lot on the team.
Essentially, though, he was alone.
Now, he wasn’t. Before, I used to be the one to cook, or Dad would just go and eat out, but now Katie had taken over the kitchen. I wasn’t even allowed to try and cook anything anymore and if I tried, she’d carefully nudge me away. Breakfast, lunch, dinner... her cooking was good, too, as good as Howard’s.
When I thought of it like that, I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy her cooking much, though. I was the one to tell him we should keep things a secret, but it felt so wrong, like I was doing something bad, and I didn’t know how to face either of our parents. That we were living in the same house only made it worse.
Maybe I should take Howard up on his offer to move in with him.
That would have to be a last resort.
“What am I supposed to do now, though?” I groaned to myself.
Even though I left the house early, I didn’t actually have anything to do or anywhere to go, so I decided to go check out how the guys were doing. They shouldn’t have practice today, but I knew some of them would have gone to use the gym or something. They were all pretty dedicated to the sport, to the point I wondered if most of them had social lives outside of football.
I stepped into the building and hadn’t had the chance to look for anyone when someone called to me. I looked up to see Lily, one of the staff that worked in the team’s management. Since I was the coach’s daughter, and I was always here anyway, I knew most of the staff about as much as I knew the team.