Shutout: Rules of the Game Book 2
Shutout: Chapter 24

TYLER

Is it possible to be fuckdrunk prior to having fucked? Neither of us had more than one drink, yet we’re both acting completely inebriated. Just driving home was a challenge for me.

Tugging open the front door, I hold it for Seraphina to enter first. My cock stiffens at the scent of her perfume in the air as she brushes by. I’m so hard I can’t see straight, and she’s barely even touched me.

I turn to hang up our coats, and she trips on a stray shoe sitting on the entry mat.

My free arm shoots out to keep her upright. “You okay, Tink?”

For once, she looks legitimately bashful. “You’ve got me too worked up to balance. I need to sit down and take these off before I break an ankle.” She points to her glossy black heels. They’re fuck-me shoes, and she knew exactly what she was doing when she wore them tonight.

Before she can lower herself onto the hallway bench, I slowly walk her backward until she’s pressed against the wall. Taking her wrists in my hands, I pin them above her head as my lips capture hers. A soft, breathy laugh of surprise escapes before she angles her head, kissing me back. Her soft tongue sweeps against mine, the taste of her mixing with traces of chocolate from dessert, and an involuntary growl rumbles in my chest. I meant what I said about kissing her. It’s one of my favorite things.

Dipping my head, I trail my nose along the side of her throat, inhaling her scent. Fuck. There are countless things I want to do, but I know exactly where I’m going to start.

“I’ll get your shoes.”

Seraphina giggles. “You don’t have to.”

I gently bite the flesh where her neck meets her shoulder. “I want to.”

My palms drag down the sides of her body, shaping to the dip of her waist and the swell of her hips, moving lower until I come to kneel before her. She leans against the wall and shifts her weight to one foot, offering the other to me. It’s familiar in some ways, yet dramatically different in others.

Lowering my mouth to her calf, I place a soft kiss along her skin before I unfasten each buckle and set aside both heels. Then I push up the fabric of her black dress to expose her bare lower half. A groan echoes in my throat at the sight of her pretty pussy on display for me.

“Because last time…” I nudge her legs wider, kissing and nibbling my way up her inner thigh. Her breath hitches, her body tensing with anticipation when I stop short of where she wants me most. “…I couldn’t do this.”

My mouth closes over her center, and I lick her in one long, languid stroke. Seraphina cries out, sinking her fingers into my hair.

“Oh, fuck.” Her head rolls back, and her purse falls from her other hand.

She trembles as I swirl her clit with my tongue, slipping two fingers inside her tight, wet heat. I stroke her walls, working in perfect rhythm with my mouth until she’s a begging, shaking mess above me.

As she gets close to coming, she gets even wetter, dripping with sweet, heady arousal. My dick hardens until it verges on painful, and I’m torn between the need to sink inside of her and never wanting this moment to end.

Hips swaying, she grinds against my face, tugging harder on my hair. I read her cues, keeping pace with the way she’s moving against me, and with a few more lashes of my tongue, she utters a mix of breathy pleas and needy whimpers as she goes over the edge.

I ease her down gradually, giving her one soft, final lick before I rise to stand. Seraphina sags against the wall, pliant in my arms. Supporting her weight, I bring my mouth to hers and wedge my knee between her legs. A desperate moan escapes her lips as my thigh rubs against her sensitive, swollen clit.

“Ty.” Her pelvis tips forward, instinctively seeking more. “I’m going to make a mess all over your pants.”

“Good.” I press harder because that’s an incentive if I’ve ever heard one.

“Let’s go to my room,” she begs. “Please.”

Smoothing my palms down her bare backside, I hoist her up and wrap her legs around me, carrying her down the hall. I turn on her bedside lamp, then lower her onto the mattress. She blinks up at me, her heart-shaped lips slightly parted. It’s the most gorgeous fucking sight.

Her slender fingers trail down my chest and travel past my belt, gripping me over my pants. I grunt, the muscles in my abdomen tensing. The effect she has on me is unreal.

“See how fucking hard I am? You did that to me.”

“What else should I do to you?” She looks up at me from beneath her long, dark lashes as she slowly unbuttons my shirt.

Shrugging out of it, I help her slide it off. “Get down on your knees and take out my cock.”

I push to stand as Seraphina slides off the bed and kneels on the carpet in her little black dress. My breaths grow shallow as she unbuckles my belt and unfastens my pants, tugging everything down.

Her small hand wraps around my length, pumping. “Now what?”

“Give me that pretty mouth of yours.”

She hums as if considering. “You want my mouth?” Her lips hover over the head of my dick, her breath warm against my skin, but she doesn’t do as I said.

“Yes.” I groan, tipping my head back as she strokes me up and down, teasing me. “Fuck, yes.”

“Say please.”

“Please suck my cock, Ser.” There’s zero hesitation in my response. Right now, I would do anything to have those plump, kiss-bruised lips wrapped around my shaft.

“That’s better.” Her pink tongue darts out and swirls around the tip, leisurely licking me like an ice cream cone. Every pass is sweet torture. I gently gather her hair out of the way, urging her on. Finally, her lips wrap around the head, taking me fully into her warm, wet mouth. A moan escapes my throat, and I clamp down on the urge to thrust forward. With my piercings, I need to take it easy for her sake.

“Suck it,” I tell her. “Take it all the way. Good girl.”

She looks up at me through watery eyes, tempting every last shred of my self-restraint. The sight of Seraphina on her knees with her mouth full of my dick is enough to make me lose it on the spot. I don’t know what it is about her, but it’s like getting a blowjob for the first time.

When she takes me even deeper, I hit the back of her throat. A familiar tingling forms at the base of my spine.

“Tink.” I tighten my grip at her roots as a warning. “I’d love to come in your mouth another time, but tonight I need your pussy.”

Instead of stopping, she slowly, torturously slides her lips all the way to the head and lingers there, working with her tongue. Oh, fuck. I won’t last much longer if she keeps doing that.

She releases me with a smirk, and I haul her to stand.

Fighting a grin, I kiss her. “Brat.”

“Oh yeah?” Seraphina slips out of her dress and lets it drop to the floor, leaving herself totally naked before me. Every single thought vacates my brain as I take it all in. Full, perky breasts; luscious hips; smooth, creamy skin.

That’s it. I’m done. I can’t wait anymore.

I shove her down onto the bed, and my lips cover hers as we frantically tug off all my clothing. It’s a scramble of lips and hands, kissing and groaning. The effect she has on me is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. It’s better than any drug ever could be.

Once there’s nothing left between us, she arches her back, rubbing her wet pussy along the length of my dick. With every roll of her hips, the additional lubrication brings me a little closer to slipping inside. It takes superhuman self-control not to let my hips snap forward.

She moves beneath me again, and the tip of my cock nudges her soaking entrance.

“Easy,” I rasp, fighting to hold myself still above her. My skin is fevered, muscles tense, body begging me to move.

Seraphina kisses the edge of my jaw. “Fuck me.”

The urge to do exactly as she says is nearly impossible to resist. It would be all too easy to erase the distance between us with a single thrust, giving in to what we both desperately want. And believe me, I want it a lot.

Before I do something reckless, I sit back on my knees. “Condom, Tink.”

She directs me to her nightstand, and I’m back between her legs in record time. When I sink into her, she lets out the prettiest gasp I’ve ever heard, tightening around me. My hips jerk forward, my body claiming hers completely.

Her mouth felt amazing, but her pussy? It’s fucking heaven.

“Fuck, Ser.” I thrust again, reveling in the way her tits bounce. “You’re going to make me come so hard.”

She claws at my arms as my hips rock against her, nudging the spot that makes her eyes roll back in her head. Going into tonight, I had told myself I’d take my time fucking her. Now that I’m finally inside her hot, wet cunt, I’m wild with lust.

Channeling my self-control, I force myself to hold back, watching her every reaction. The changes in her breathing pattern; her little sighs and sounds; the way her eyes squeeze shut when it hits just right. I lose myself in her completely, fucking her exactly the way she begs me to.

Seraphina squirms beneath me, her skin taking on a rosy flush, and I know she’s almost there. I tilt my hips, changing the angle slightly. Her mouth falls open as her back arches off the bed.

“Oh, god.” She whimpers, tightening her legs around my waist. “I’m coming. Come with me. Please. I need you to.”

The moment she says that, it’s game fucking over.

My mouth crashes down on hers, and my hands fly to her waist, pinning her to the mattress. When I slam into her again, she falls apart with a cry. My abs tense, my body stiffens, and I fall right behind her, my cock throbbing with long-awaited release. It feels so good, I’m pretty sure my brain might actually be melting.

Hanging my head, I try to catch my breath. My heart hammers against my ribcage, aftershocks wracking my body. I’m far more tired than I should be as an athlete, and I’m going to chalk that up to all the anticipation leading up to the main event.

When I glance back up, our eyes lock, and her mouth tugs into a smile. She looks part-sated, part-smug—probably because by now, she knows exactly what she does to me.

“For the record,” I say, still breathing heavily, “don’t tell me to come unless you want it to happen immediately.”

She giggles. “I’m definitely going to abuse that knowledge.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” I pinch her ass, and she laughs even harder.

Later that night, Seraphina falls asleep first. I lay in bed with her naked body wrapped around mine, listening to her slow, even breaths in the quiet room.

That’s when it hits me: I haven’t thought about hockey all night.

My toxic trait is that I like to know everything—even when it doesn’t serve me. Keeping tabs on my own stats is only logical, but monitoring the competition is a great way to fuck up my mental health.

Case in point: Caleb Brown is up a spot in the standings, putting us squarely neck and neck. I’m still first, but the gap dividing us is rapidly shrinking.

Fuck.

I stare at the tiny numbers on my screen until they turn into a blur. The rational part of me knows it’s more than a little ridiculous to stress over first versus second place in the entire league. The rest of me doesn’t care—especially not when my longer-term career is potentially in jeopardy.

Seraphina walks up, studying my face with a frown. “You okay, Hades? You look like you want to kill someone.”

She’s not wrong. I have a bad mood brewing beneath the surface, but now that I’m looking at her, I’m trying hard to let it go. It’s already Saturday evening, and it feels like the weekend is slipping through my fingers like grains of sand. I don’t want to waste a single second.

“Yeah, just looking at—”

“Hockey,” she finishes, gently prying the phone from my hands. “You promised we’d watch a movie.”

“That I did.” I even promised she could pick a girly one. It helps that she asked me in the middle of the dirtiest shower I’ve ever taken. Every time I see that detachable showerhead, I’m going to picture it between Seraphina’s legs.

She lowers onto the couch next to me and drapes her legs across my lap. Her pink-and-white pajama set she just changed into makes me want to do anything but sleep. The ribbed crop top hits above her navel, exposing a tempting sliver of bare skin, and the shorts barely cover her ass cheeks.

Leaning forward, she fishes a pink Starburst out of the bag on the coffee table while I open the movie store app.

“By the way,” she says. “You didn’t tell me your birthday was coming up.”

I pause with the remote still aimed at the television. “Who told you that?”

It isn’t that it’s a secret; it’s that someone talking about my birthday automatically makes me suspicious.

Her head snaps up, and her eyes widen. “Er… no one.” She shoves a Starburst in her mouth.

Yep. Just like I thought. Not hard to guess what’s going on here.

“Is Dallas trying to throw me a surprise party?”

Seraphina chews the candy slowly like she’s trying to buy herself some time to think. “I don’t know if it was meant to be a surprise per se, but I may have been instructed not to tell you about it.” She grimaces. “I’m terrible at keeping secrets. Sorry.”

I’m not a big fan of surprises, and I’m even less fond of surprise parties. But with the dirt Dallas is holding over my head, it’s not like I can complain. Plus, it’s well-intentioned. As the extrovert of the house, sometimes he forgets not everyone is wired the same way.

“It’s fine,” I tell her. “I’d rather know. As long as we can sneak off for some birthday sex.”

Her mouth tips up at the corner. “We can definitely sneak off for some birthday sex.”

After a moment’s debate—though I suspect she secretly knew what she wanted all along—Seraphina chooses Legally Blonde because I haven’t seen it and she claims it’s the holy grail of movies. I hit play, then take her left foot in my hands and dig my thumb into the arch, massaging.

“Ooh, that’s good.” She leans back into the cushions, letting out a sigh that sounds borderline sexual. “I could get used to this.”

Halfway through the movie, she’s out cold on my chest. The frame stills as I hit pause to hold our place. Sundays are my only day off from all forms of training, and there’s a chance we’ll have time to finish tomorrow before Chase and Dallas get back. While I wouldn’t have watched this on my own, now I’m invested. Warner is a total douchecanoe, and I’m rooting for his downfall.

There’s something else about the movie that resonates with me, too. I think I can see why Seraphina relates to it, and that gives me a little more insight into her.

Switching the TV to ESPN, I dial down the volume until it’s neatly inaudible. Then I glance down at Sera, debating whether to move her into bed or let her sleep a little longer before I try. Her lips are parted slightly, her dark lashes resting against her upper cheeks. A sense of protectiveness washes over me, followed by massive confusion.

What the fuck am I doing?

Caleb is figuratively breathing down my neck, New York has a wandering eye when it comes to goalies, and the Falcons are fighting to secure a playoff spot this season. I can’t let anyone down, least of all myself, and I need to focus now more than ever. Yet I just spent the better part of the last twenty-four hours taking a vacation from reality, pretending none of those priorities exist.

Getting involved with someone like this is the last thing I should do. What’s worse is I don’t even know if I can help it. I’m weak when it comes to Seraphina—and it’s not because I like the sex.

This realization conjures up a deluge of feelings I don’t want to face and questions I don’t want to answer. Instead, I reach for my phone and pull up my email. There’s a new message from Mark titled, EnduraFuel Invitational Weekend. I read the body of the email, my body tensing as I do.

I know we’re still two weeks out, but just touching base to make sure you saw the flight confirmation emails. Your direct flight departs from here at 9:15 a.m. Friday, and your return flight departs from LAX at 7:10 a.m. Monday morning.

EnduraFuel is the official hydration partner of the league, and their annual invitational is a Big Fucking Deal. It’s exclusively for high-end prospects who’ve already been drafted or are likely to get picked up in the near future. Just being there is a flex. There’s a skills competition, a three-on-three mini-tournament, and a bunch of other events that people can buy tickets to come and watch. Essentially, it’s one big dick swinging contest, and the media is all over it—which means I need to be on my A-game.

For the next two weeks, I need to be sharp both mentally and physically. Extra sleep. Minimal stress. Extra tactical work…

Seraphina stirs, cracking open one eye sleepily. “Hi, Hades.”

“Hey, Tink.” Locking my phone, I set it aside. “Want to go to bed?”

I can’t afford the distraction, but what if it’s too late?