Rage

  Addison began to moan and he slowed his fingers. “Not yet,” he whispered, pulling down her panties and laying her back onto the bed.

  He pushed her back a bit, bringing her legs over his shoulders, and just knowing what he was about to do nearly undid her.

  One thing she’d found out very early on when it came to AJ was that he was a merciless lover. He enjoyed torturing her, prolonging her climax until she was practically screaming. His tongue circled around, carefully avoiding the perfect spot that would have her panting in seconds. Still, it came just close enough to make her quiver and arch her back in anticipation.

  “Tastes so good,” he said as he licked her slit then fucked her with his tongue.

  Addison moaned, clutching the bedspread with one hand and his hair with the other; then he teased her, lapping her clit with his tongue ever so lightly. That alone was enough to send shockwaves of pleasures through her body, making her cry out again.

  As he’d done in the past and seemed to get so much pleasure from, he backed off, making her moan.

  “Don’t stop, please,” she begged breathlessly, her heart ready to plummet, her body ready to explode with just one more touch.

  He pulled away completely, yanking his shorts and underwear off, then took her by the hand, walked over to the lounging chair, and sat down fully erect. “Have a seat,” he said, sitting back. “We’ll do this together.”

  Her clit was still throbbing and ready to burst. Just the thought of sliding onto him and having his erection rub against the oh-so-tender spot made her entire body quiver. With her heart pounding even more now, she brought one knee to either side of him and sat over him slowly, but she was so wet he slid right in with a moan. He wrapped his big arms around her waist, pushing her down gently, and she took him deep inside.

  The moment she started lifting her hips to slide up and down him, she could feel the buildup that’d begun with his skillful tongue. “Oh.” She gasped, biting down on her lip and squeezing her eyes shut as her entire body began to tremble.

  He lifted his hips as she came down for maximum penetration, and she moaned even louder, moving faster as the incredible orgasm began to implode. She sat there squirming on his lap as he groaned just as loudly, and incredible bliss ran through every part of her spent body. Even then, she continued to grind into him, wanting it to last forever.

  “I love how hard you come,” he whispered in her ear when she finally collapsed against his shoulder.

  “I love how hard you make me come,” she said, feeling her face flush even as she still sat there swaying her hips with him inside her.

  “I think we have time for a few more rounds.”

  Addison giggled since her body was still riding high from that first climax she knew was just the beginning of her evening with her beautiful boyfriend.

  Chapter 12

  AJ

  Curious—not worried or concerned—was what AJ had been when it came to Addison’s past and her reason for having taken a job in Chicago to begin with. He was also curious about what made her decide to make such a life-changing move back to San Diego. She’d since explained about wanting more time with Clair. The position in San Diego allowed her to spend more time working at home. The perk was one AJ was very grateful for as well. Because of her job’s flexibility, she was able to fly out and meet with him at least a few days a week while he was on the road. So he now understood why she preferred this job over the one in Chicago. She’d also mentioned how she’d gotten living in Chicago out of her system.

  She told him that when she was a little girl and she’d travel there for some of her dad’s games, there was something about the city she really liked. She just hadn’t anticipated how tedious the snow would get once she was forced to live and commute in it day after day. Even if she didn’t have to report into work five days a week, she did have to take Clair to and from school five days a week.

  “It was always exciting in the beginning of winter,” she’d said with a bright smile. “That first snow was so thrilling. But after a few weeks and months of it, we were over it and we still had months of it to come.”

  Her explanation had snuffed the notion that had begun to fester. It was convincing enough. AJ had never been a fan of snow either. More than anything he knew if she were holding out on him, if her being out there had anything to do with her ex, it would mean their entire relationship was starting off with a lie. The thought was not one AJ was willing to entertain.

  It was the first game of a three-game series he had in St. Louis. Like AJ did when he was home, Bigsby had come over to the Padres’ side of the field to bust some balls. AJ was feeling anxious and not really paying attention to all the guy was saying because it was the first game Addison would be at this week. She’d had to fly home from Pittsburgh early last week. Some big shot was going to be visiting her office that week and she needed to be present. It was one of the few times she said she was ever forced to be in the office almost the whole week: whenever one of these out-of-town big wigs showed up for days at a time.

  AJ couldn’t even remember the last time he’d been this anxious. It’d been just over a week since he’d last seen her—touched her—and it was already wreaking havoc on his impatient heart and body.

  “So Coke is calling?” Bigsby said with a grin. “I love it.”

  “Yeah, I knew you would,” AJ said, rolling his eyes as he swung his bat, warming up.

  Pepsi had been a longtime sponsor of Bigsby’s. Now that Coke was courting a deal with AJ, he and Bigsby would have opposing commercials and billboards to compare—just another thing Bigsby could playfully take as a competition and likely milk during these warm-ups.

  “Make sure you make it worth your—”

  Bigsby stopped talking, and AJ looked at him, wondering why. He was staring at something behind AJ. AJ turned curiously to see what it was. Clair stood a few yards away, watching them a bit apprehensively. Immediately, AJ smiled and glanced around for Addison, but she was nowhere around. The disappointment was just as instant. Had something delayed her being here today?

  When he looked back at Clair, he noticed her strange expression. It was troubled—or something—and it made AJ uneasy. He motioned for her to come over, but she shook her head then walked away toward Coach Lara.

  “Cute kid.” AJ had forgotten all about Bigsby until that comment, and he turned back to him. “Coach’s grandkid, right?”

  “Yeah,” AJ said, a bit absentminded; then he had an alarming thought.

  What if something was wrong? Is that why Addison hadn’t made it out?

  “I gotta go,” AJ said, rushing toward Clair and the coach.

  Clair stood behind her grandfather, still staring in the direction where he’d been standing with Bigsby. Had she not seen AJ walk away from the opposing team’s players?

  “Clair,” he called out, and she turned to him then back to Bigsby and a few of the other Cardinals who’d come with him. They were now heading back to the Cardinals’ side of the field.

  “Where’s your mom?”

  She glanced back at him then behind her. “Around here somewhere.”

  Relieved that Addison was there, AJ searched the crowd for her too. His heart thudded the moment he saw her beautiful smiling face through the crowd. But it flattened slowly when he saw who she was smiling and giggling with: a couple of the umps. One of the umps, Caan, was an older veteran AJ knew was married, but the other one was a younger one and still a rookie to the big leagues. AJ didn’t know anything about him. All he knew at the moment was he hated the way the rookie ump was making eyes at and smiling at his Addison.

  “There she is,” Clair said, pointing at what AJ had already spotted.

  AJ straightened out, mindful that Clair was watching him and was far more perceptive than most seven-year-olds. He brought the bat he was holding over his head and rested it on his shoulders, holding it at either end. With a deep breath, he tore his eyes away from Addison and the younger ump, even as Caan walked
away, leaving them alone to chat now.

  “Did you two just get here?” he asked as calmly and indifferently as he could.

  “A few minutes ago,” she said, pulling her notebook from the small satchel she carried everywhere and started talking stats but not about St. Louis.

  Clair was convinced the Dodgers were the only team they really had to worry about this year. Los Angeles was their next stop on the road before heading home again. AJ half listened, glancing back at Addison and the ump who had his phone out now and was tapping the screen.

  With another deep breath, he gripped the bat a little tighter. He’d raged about many things in his life, mostly on the field, but off it as well, if it ever came down to protecting his loved ones.

  Never over a girl.

  He already knew what his reaction would be to hear anyone disrespecting Addison. That was different. He’d been looking out for Clair’s mom, the coach’s daughter. As far as he was concerned, the coach and his wife were like family to him—loved ones. That made Addison and Clair two people whose backs he’d have by default as well.

  The type of rage he already knew he could feel over Addison possibly exchanging numbers with his guy was one he was certain he’d have very little control over.

  Nathan came to mind suddenly as AJ’s eyes locked on Addison and the still-grinning-goofily ump. Since AJ had gone on the road, he’d checked in with his siblings several times as he always did, but the last time he’d made sure to ask Isaiah how things were going with Nathan and Kelli. The night of Nathan and Kelli’s hasty exit from the gathering at their house he hadn’t come home. So AJ hadn’t had a chance to say good-bye to him before he left. The next morning he and Sabian were up early and in a cab to the airport before Nathan got home.

  According to Isaiah, it seemed everything was good, but AJ had wondered even then how much Isaiah had left out for the sake of not worrying him. Nathan tended to drink a little too much sometimes when he was pissed. He’d been stupid enough to drive a couple of those times he’d been drinking. He’d since assured all his worrying siblings he wouldn’t be doing it again, but AJ wasn’t so sure. Normally, Isaiah would elaborate more. This time he’d been pretty close-lipped about the whole thing, even changed the subject a little too quickly.

  Now more than ever AJ understood why Nathan might be so agitated by Kelli’s odd behavior that day and the fact that some other dude his brother apparently didn’t know was calling her.

  AJ had been dying to see Addison today, looked forward to it anxiously all day. Now she was standing there laughing with the ump, who’d since decided to lean against the dugout’s railing. If AJ gripped the bat any harder, he was afraid he might snap it in half. The guy had made himself comfortable since, clearly, Addison wasn’t the least bit in a hurry to go anywhere, and it had AJ seeing fucking red now.

  “Andrés!”

  Clair saying his name so loudly with that perfect roll of her “r” had his attention suddenly. She laughed, showing off the gap in her top row of her teeth. “I called you by your initials twice and you didn’t budge. Maybe subconsciously you prefer Andrés?”

  He shook his head, still feeling the enormous agitation about Addison’s fixation with the ump. “I guess my mind’s on the game already.”

  “Good,” she said, putting her notebook back in her satchel. “I predict you hit one out of the park today. This pitcher’s a lefty. You’re batting over five hundred against lefties.”

  Something occurred to AJ about Addison, even as he took off to do so more warming up, not bothering to wait around for her anymore. He still didn’t know her, know her. They’d gotten all the basics out of the way. So he knew plenty about her: facts and shit. But as far as knowing her—the type of person she really was—that would take time.

  He’d like to assume that based on what a good guy her dad was and what an amazing little girl she was raising it meant Addison was a good person too. So far, he loved everything about her. There was no way she was one of those girls. Still, his first impression of her assaulted him: that first day when she seemed to revel in all the attention she got from his teammates. But she was spoken for now—his girl, damn it. She didn’t need attention from anyone else but him.

  He’d be damned if he was going to put up with shit like his brother seemed to be doing with Kelli. Like Lorenzo had with his ex. The blazing ire he was suddenly feeling just thinking that Addison might assume it was okay to be flirting with that guy and even exchange contact info, was one he’d never felt before. Could she possibly think AJ would be okay with her keeping in touch with the guy?

  As much as he’d anticipated today, after witnessing her so jovially waste time hanging out with some other dude when she knew how much her boyfriend had been looking forward to seeing her, he’d made it a point to not talk to her before the game. He’d been afraid he might snap right there on the field, making their secret relationship not so secret.

  Still, it was infuriating to think his girl had been too caught up with a guy, who’d been smiling from ear to ear the entire time he talked with her, for her to come talk to AJ. That guy was no doubt thinking the very same thing several of the guys on his team had already voiced: that she was hot. Hell no. He was not going to be okay with that.

  AJ told her, texted her, fucking filmed himself like an idiot saying he was dying to see her, and sent it to her just before he headed out of his hotel room today. If this was how easily he could get worked up over something like this, he cringed to think how much worse he’d get as his feelings for her grew.

  It turned out Clair had been dead wrong about her prediction of how he’d do against the lefty. He grounded out once and struck out twice. He even picked up two errors in the one game, something he hadn’t done in weeks of play. One of those errors had been the cause of something else that hadn’t happened since the beginning of the season.

  He snapped on the field.

  Though, in his own defense, he hadn’t started it. It was the bottom of the ninth. They were up by two and were down to their last out, but the Cardinals had two men in scoring position. Smitty, the Padres’ closing pitcher, had come in at the beginning of the inning when their starting pitcher began throwing watermelons that got the two men on base.

  So far Smitty had pitched perfectly. This should’ve been an easy out. Then AJ lost a pitch in the dirt. Knowing the runner was just twenty yards from scoring, AJ flipped his mask off, jumped up, and scrambled to where the ball had bounced. By the time he got it and spun around, the runner on third was hurdling toward home, but Smitty was there covering for AJ.

  AJ threw a rocket that would’ve gotten the runner out if he hadn’t slid into home, taking Smitty down like a bowling pin and making him lose the ball. Smitty was the one who jumped up and tackled the runner, clearing both benches in an instant. All AJ did was what he was supposed to do. Protect his pitcher by pushing the runner away from Smitty before he could swing at him.

  Typically, someone from your own team tried to hold you back and talk you down once the adrenaline started pumping during one of these brawls. In this case, AJ got fired up when the runner came back at him but was held back. AJ wasn’t even that pissed. The brawling was already dying down.

  Sabian was the one talking AJ down, telling him to be cool, and AJ wasn’t really arguing anymore. But hearing the guy he’d pushed still talking shit made it tempting to try and get by Sabian to push the asshole again. Admittedly, AJ’s agitated mood about Addison had a lot to do with the desire to slam his fist into someone. So his body language likely said he wasn’t anywhere near composed yet.

  Then out of nowhere, Bigsby grabbed the front of AJ’s chest protector. “Calm down, lover boy,” he said with his smartass smirk and that did it.

  “Get the fuck off me!”

  Clearly, Bigsby hadn’t expected that reaction, nor that AJ would push him off him as hard as he did. Of course, seeing him and Bigsby have to be held back from one another got the entire place chanting, “Fuck Rage! Fuck
Rage!” louder than anything else as if he’d been the one that started the damn brawl.

  “Not in my house, asshole!” Bigsby yelled as several of his teammates held him back.

  AJ didn’t try getting by the guys holding him back now, but he did hope Bigsby broke free and came at him. Just glancing up at the stands and seeing Addison looking so damn sexy, even with the troubled expression she wore, reminded him of the ump’s goofy smile. It made the urge to want to pummel someone that much more intense.

  The only satisfying thing was seeing Bigby’s incensed face as he tried in vain to get to him. AJ was sure he felt like a dumb ass because AJ’s reaction had completely taken him by surprise. He’d probably expected AJ to let his egotistical ass storm over and look like the enforcer by talking AJ down, bringing order to his house. He would’ve come across as the big hero in front of all his chanting fans.

  Since it wasn’t AJ’s beef to begin with and he hadn’t been nearly as enraged as he’d been in past brawls, he might’ve gone along with the asshole and just let Bigsby’s stupid attempt to be Mr. Big Man go.

  Not today.

  It took a while for things to calm and the field to clear. Smitty was ejected and AJ was warned that he would be too if there was any more retaliation. In the end, they won the game, but even afterward, when he was in the locker room, he still felt tense.

  Talking to Addison would be tricky since he’d have to wait until he had her alone to ask her about her conversation with the ump. With the way he was feeling, he didn’t think he’d be able to hold back. Ironically, even pushing Bigsby off him as hard as he had, only worked to further fire him up. Not having been able to land his fist into someone’s face had upped the tension he’d begun to feel, knowing he’d be seeing and talking to Addison soon.