Page 111 of Under Pressure

He’d let me wallow in this piss-poor mood and maybe even offer a grunt of understanding. We’re not as close as I am with the other guys, but I’ve never felt like that was for any reason other than him wanting to keep his distance from having friendships in general. He likes us all in his own way, and we’ve grown to accept that there’s no pushing him to offer any more of himself than he already has.

Right now, that would come in handy.

I drop to a crouch beside my bucket of balls and trace the red seam of one. Every stitch is familiar to me. More recognizable than I find myself sometimes.

“Kellan said you’d be here.”

I pull my hand back from the ball, turning my head. A fist pushes between my ribs.

“How did you . . .?”

“Get in here?” Quinn blows out a breath and uses her thumb to point over her shoulder. “Brielle helped me break in.”

It’s a joke, but it misses its target.

“Right.”

She pauses, biting roughly on her bottom lip. My heart stutters at the thought of her hurting herself. Only the pain I see in her eyes doesn’t seem to be coming from her lip, and that’s way fucking worse.

“Did I upset you? Because if I did, I want to know. I don’t like being left in the dark to sit in my guilt and worry about what I said or if I behaved in a bad way.”

Ah, fuck.Rising from my crouch, I stifle a groan of pain when I pull my shoulders back. She watches me intently, tracking my every move. Her eyes latch onto my face when I hold my hips and wince at the tug of muscles.

“You didn’t do anything, Quinn,” I say, hoping to distract her.

She narrows her eyes. “Really? So this is just you needing to walk the dog? Who isn’t even here, mind you.”

“I did walk him.”

“Cut the shit, Beck. Tell me what I did so I can apologize, and we can go back to normal.”

“And what exactlyisour normal?” I snap.

Her throat bulges with a thick swallow. “We’re having a good time together.”

“That’s it?”

The silence is deafening. I consider running again before she can answer and take the tiny tear in my chest and rip it all the way down the middle. Fear ripples beneath my skin like tiny venomous snakes.

She touches my chest with her palms, letting them rest there as I suck in breaths. The muscles spasm beneath her warmth, and then I’m reaching for her. I wait for her to tell me that I’m wrong and that we’re far more than that, but she doesn’t. No words escape her. She runs her hands up to hold my shoulders,and her touch sears me, sucking the pain away as if it were never there to begin with.

I shut my eyes, unable to hold them open. Every inch of me craves the clarity she could offer by finally letting me in, but I’m also too weak to walk away when she doesn’t. I remind myself that she will. That it’s only been a couple of months since she started even giving me the time of day. What’s a few more minutes?

Before I can bend to kiss her, she’s pushing up on her toes and rubbing her nose up the edge of mine and doing it herself. My brain goes blank until only one thought remains.

Mine.

Quinn is mine, and I’m confident she always was.

We’re alone in a stadium fit for fifty thousand people, yet it wouldn’t matter if it were the ninth inning of a sold-out World Series game; I’d still feel the same. Still only see her.

Her lips move in sync with mine, and I know that if I lifted my fingers to feel her pulse, it would be moving in time with mine. We’re not just having fun. I don’t think we ever were. My intentions have always been to get to this point and keep her with me forever. I’ve just been waiting for her to catch up.

She doesn’t allow our mouths to separate, even when I reach for her thighs and tug for her to jump. Her small hop is more than enough, and I waste no time sweeping her off the turf. Somehow, I maneuver us to a bench against the wall and sit on my ass. Our hands are fast and wild as we work her jeans down to her ankles, and I lift my hips so she can free my cock from my shorts.

I bury my face in her throat and suck, my tongue gliding across her burning skin. She smells so good, like coffee and freshly baked croissants, yet somehow tastes even better. The soft ghost of a moan that falls from her knots my stomach, pleasure overfilling me.

“No one is going to find us like this?” she whispers, grippingmy still-unshaven jaw and forcing my head back. I choke on a whimper when she takes her turn and mouths my throat.