Dolce (Love at Center Court #2) (27 page)

My thumb took a chance and rubbed against his.

“I’m a man.” He leaned in. “Yeah, I have needs, but I’m stumbling as much as you are with spending time with someone.”

I took a deep breath and licked my lips. “Okay.”

“Wow, so I’ve rendered Little Miss Big Mouth speechless.”

This time we were both laughing when the server arrived with our food.

Blane gestured that I should serve myself first.

“Looks incredible,” I said, scooping some salad full of beans and smoked meats onto my plate.

“I like any and all food. Not picky here,” Blane said as he pulled his elbows off the table. He might have grown up without much, as he liked to so frequently point out, but someone had obviously taught him table manners.

“Me too. Sadly. It makes my mom crazy,” I admitted. “But my dad would be gaga for this place. I have to call him tomorrow and tell him every detail.”

“And you’re liking all food makes me crazy in a good way. I’m having the most fun I ever had out to dinner.” Blane clinked his glass into mine. “Cheers again.”

I turned my head to the side in an effort to hide the blush creeping across my cheeks.

“Hey, look at me,” he said, and I turned back. “I meant it, this is fun. Don’t be bashful.”

“I’m not. It’s just I’ve really never been complimented like that.”

“Consider it just the beginning, short stack.”

“See? I knew you couldn’t go that long without insulting my vertical challenge.”

Blane plopped a hot pepper in his mouth, which he quickly regretted, and I burst out in more laughter.

After he chugged half of his water, he narrowed his eyes at me. “You could have warned me, Italian girl.”

“What fun would that have been?”

“I’ll show you.” He pressed his large palms into the table and leaned over to kiss me, swiping his tongue in my mouth.

He pulled away. “How’s that taste?”

“Incredibly hot, in a good way.” This time I didn’t even turn to hide my blush.

We kept eating, and by the time we’d finished the appetizers and wine, I couldn’t eat anything else. Blane ate the pizza by himself, and it felt so domestic while I sat with him and he ate. At one point, he pinched off a bite of his slice and fed it to me.

This was all so strange for me. I wasn’t playing on my home court, nowhere close.

The server was unobtrusive, the candle flickered prettily on the table, and the wine mellowed me. It was an idyllic evening. But with every second that passed, I grew more troubled.

I was stolen by the Stealer, and pretty sure I was unable to be rescued.

After dinner, Blane drove back toward campus. I was never more uncertain of what to do. I looked out the window as the familiar sights whizzed by, and didn’t want this night to end.

“Do you want to come back to my place? No pressure,” Blane asked. glancing at me.

“I think so.”

“Cool. I don’t want this night to end.”

Me either.

Blane

W
e parked outside my building and I had to adjust myself when I got out of the truck. I’d been in a perpetual state of arousal since I first picked Cate up. Her smell, her laugh, the way her tits bounced—all of it drove me wild.

But then she’d become secretive about her project, as if she didn’t trust me, or she’d make some ridiculous remark, getting all down on herself. It was like having the icy contents of a cooler tossed in my lap.

I knew I had to check my erection at the door because I didn’t know what she was down with . . . when we got back to my room. This was a definite first, but strangely erotic.

“Come on,” I said, and wrapped my arm around her on the way to the building.

We rushed through the outer door and I guided her to the staircase. When loud music filled our ears as we reached my floor, I stopped in my tracks.

“Shit,” I murmured. “Looks like my pad became party central while I was out.”

“That’s cool,” she said. “Do you still want me to come in?”

Christ.

I couldn’t help it, I backed her into the wall and leaned my large frame into hers, revealing just how much I wanted her to come in.

“It’s everyone else that I want to go,” I whispered into her ear, my breath lingering over her lobe. I also couldn’t control leaning in and sucking on that lobe.

Cate’s back arched and her pelvis reached for mine.

Whoa.

We ground into each other while I tasted her, plundering her mouth. I knew I should stop. She seemed to be into it, asking for more with her body, but what if she second-guessed herself like last time? My cock could only take so many blows, not to mention my ego.

I pulled back as if I’d been punched in the gut. “Is this okay?”

There I went again with the considerate me.
What the hell?

Apparently, I wore “gentleman” well, because she nodded.

“Say it, please,” I begged her. “I need to hear that you want my mouth on you, so I know you won’t worry there’s something wrong with what we’re doing.”

I leaned back a few inches, giving her room while she decided. A couple of seconds ticked by as she looked up at me, and I fought the urge to adjust myself again. My dick was at war with the zipper in my jeans, trying to fight its way out.

“Yes, I do. I want this.”

Cate kept her eyes on me, unashamed and full of desire, and I didn’t hesitate. I went back in for more of her luscious mouth and her firm tits pressing against my chest.

“Whoa, boy!” someone called out from down the hall. “Look who the cat dragged in . . . or should I say, the pussy?”

Reluctantly, I pulled away from Cate’s mouth. When I rested my forehead against hers, she mumbled, “Is that who I think it is?”

I nodded, and we both turned our heads to the side.

“Cute Catie!” Sonny bellowed in the hall, holding my apartment door open to let the hip-hop pour out of my place. “Are you ready to come back to me? Who knew that in a few short weeks, the audience would miss you.”

“Good to see you too, Sonny,” Cate said dryly.

“Guess you’re pretty fucking glad Mr. Boots here let your boyfriend out of his bargain so he could pursue you.” When I shook my head, he flicked his gaze to me. “Don’t be shaking your head, pretty boy. You owe me a championship and a replacement shock jock. This Johnny asshole is shit.”

He approached and flicked my sweatband at the end of his rant, and then turned his focus back to Cate. “So, what do you say, Catie?”

I hadn’t even spoken one word, and the fuck-face was taking over my date.

Cate snorted. “I say don’t refer to yourself in the third person, and I’ll think about it.”

“Really?” Shocked, I turned to Cate.

“Yeah,” she mumbled.

I grinned like a fool. “Great! Now that’s all settled, Sonny, you can run along and go wherever you were going.” Giving him a pointed glare, I added, “And leave Cate all to me.”

“Talk soon.” Sonny gave me a mock salute and walked off, yelling over his shoulder, “And, Catie, make sure he has enough energy left to win the trophy.”

His laughter trailed behind him until he slammed my apartment door. The hallway was quiet other than Jay Z’s rapping.

“Come on.” I took Cate’s hand and led her to my place, a little nervous about what we might discover behind the door. But we’d already survived Sonny, so it couldn’t be that bad, right?

“Ho! Look who it is!” Ashton yelled from the couch, game controller in one hand and a beer in the other.

“And look who else.” Alex strode over to us, grabbing Cate’s hip and pretending to grind up on her.

“Cool it, White.”

I shoved him off my date and took her hand. We walked into the common area, which was crawling with ball babies and players. Mo sat in the corner with his lady on his lap, D had some girl cornered in the back of the room, and everyone else was jamming and drinking as Ashton played his video game.

“Want something to drink?”

“Water?” Cate asked me with a wary look in her eyes.

“I’ll be right back.” I squeezed her hand and made my way to the kitchen for some bottled water.

When I got back, Alex was cozied up next to Cate and they were laughing. Fury burned through me, but I tamped it down. This was all new for her, and he was probably just being welcoming. Of course, he also probably wanted to get in her pants.

Fat fucking chance
.

“Thanks for keeping Cate occupied, White, but I’ll take it from here.” I slapped him on the shoulder and passed Cate a bottle of water after cracking the cap for her.

Alex looked back at me. “Oh, I was just hearing about life in Jersey, near NYC and all that.”

“God, you are dead set on going to New York. You already know Mo is going to Brooklyn, and they’re not going to take two guys from Hafton again. That was a one-time deal with Tiberius and Jamel.”

“Bro, there are two teams in NYC. I’m thinking about my boys, the Knickerbockers.”

“I’ve seen them play once,” Cate offered.

“Yeah? Who knew?” Alex said.

When he wrapped his arm around Cate, pulling her tiny body next to his, I glared up at him and his big head of dreads.

“With my dad,” she added. “A guy who was a regular at his restaurant gave him tickets once. Dad is a sports fan with three daughters, but I’m the only one who was into it too.”

As Cate lifted her face toward Alex and explained her childhood, I clenched my free fist at my side.

“That’s what got you into sports?” I said, interrupting their walk down memory lane.

“Yep. My other sisters were easily poisoned against my dad, but not me. I loved how easy he was, and nurturing. I guess it’s weird how I found comfort at a sporting event. I loved the hot dogs and the action, and my dad explaining it all to me.”

Suddenly she waved her hand in front of her face, clearing any expression. “Ugh, this is getting too deep for now.”

Alex grinned down at her. “Well, take a good look at me, girl, because I’m going to be playing at the Garden one day.”

“Yeah, for the championship,” I reminded him. “Got to win that first, my man.”

“You already know, Steele. We got that in the fucking bag.”

A tall beauty who looked like an African princess slinked up next to White and purred his name.

“Gotta go, lovers.” He gave me a chin bump and blew a kiss at Cate before sauntering off with the ball baby.

“Who’s the little girl?” she purred at him as they walked away. “She’s not your type, babe.”

A frown spread across Cate’s face, and I gave her a squeeze.

“Slough it off, beautiful. She’s a hanger-on and you’re a keeper.”

At my words, she looked at me with starry eyes. “For years I thought when women said in romantic comedies their knees went weak, I thought they were bullshitting. But now I know what they were talking about.”

For some reason, this excited me. Cate’s eyes weren’t starry you’re-going-pro eyes. They were more what-you-said-meant-the-world-to-me eyes. The kind of shit my mom wrote about, but I also thought only happened in people’s imaginations. Now it was directed at me.

And it made me feel like Michael Jordan.

Enough was enough; I had to get Cate alone.

“Want to go back to my room where it’s quiet?”

She nodded and I led the way, my hand on her lower back, my fingers itching to run over her bare skin.

Inside my room, I asked, “Are you okay with me locking the door?”

Another nod.

“It’s not that I want to go all hot and heavy on you, but I don’t want any nosy people poking in,” I lied.

“You don’t?”

“No, I don’t want anyone coming in, and yes, I do want to go hot and heavy, but only when you’re ready.”

“I think I am.”

You think or you know, Cate?”

We stood facing each other, our bodies barely an inch apart, not touching but sparking off each other. I reached out to take one of her curls between two fingers, sliding down its length as I focused on its silkiness rather than her eyes.

“I don’t want you running off again, saying what happens between us is wrong or forbidden. It’s not. When a man likes a woman and the woman likes him back, it’s okay. When there’s respect and shit—” Frustrated with myself, I ripped off my sweatband and ran my fingers through my hair. “God, I sound like a freaking psychologist. But I like you, Cate. You excite me, and not just sexually. In a lot of ways.”