Hail Mary: An Enemies-to-Lovers Roommate Sports Romance(102)

The game had no sooner ended before the field was swarming with players, staff, and media alike. Leo had cameras and reporters all around him as he shook hands with some players from the other team, but he looked up and found me through the madness.

I smiled, standing in my chair again and holding up the sign I’d made.

He pulled off his helmet, and I saw the flash of his teeth before he was sprinting.

Leo shoved through the crowd, declining every microphone that was thrust in his face as he made a beeline for the section I was in. With a running start, he leapt over the concrete wall that separated the stands from the field, and then he was taking the bleacher steps two at a time.

My heart raced in my ears with every step.

I had only a second to laugh at the girl in front of me who about passed out thinking Leo was running to her before he barreled right past and into my row. He muttered excuse me to the people he had to shimmy past, all who were clapping him on the shoulder and congratulating him on the win.

After that, I was swept into his arms.

Leo crushed me to him, lifting me all the way off the ground as he did. I wrapped my arms fiercely around him, squeezing my eyes shut as we both exhaled in relief at finally being together again. I clung to him like he would disappear, and he held me tight enough to bruise. I faintly registered the fans cheering around us as Leo pulled back enough to capture my mouth with his own.

It was a kiss I felt all the way down to my toes. It stirred my desire as much as it soothed my aching heart. It was the feeling of coming home after a long trip. It was Christmas morning and a sunset on the beach. It was a night spent between the sheets and a day of perfect sunshine.

It was Leo, and it was me.

It was us.

I never knew how much power we held until that kiss showed it to me.

“I’m so sorry,” Leo yelled over the noise, his chest heaving. He still held me so close, like he was afraid I’d disappear. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too,” I yelled in return. “I’d just been assaulted, and I lost my job, and I…” My chest ached at how stupid I’d been. “I just took out all that fear on you, on top of already being scared of us. I took it out on you because I wanted to have control over something. I took it out on you because—”

“You never have to apologize to me,” he said, shaking his head and silencing me with a kiss. “You can take anything out on me because you know what? I can handle it. I can take it. I can go to war for you, or with you, if it’s what you need.”

I choked on something of a laugh at that. “I’m a mess,” I said. “And I hate to scare you off now that I have you again, but I’m afraid I’m like my mother.”

Leo frowned, confused.

“I’m stubborn,” I clarified. “And something tells me it’ll only get worse with age.”

Leo smiled at that, letting out a long exhale like he’d just remembered to breathe. He brushed my hair back, tilting my chin.

“No matter what life throws at us, what you throw at me — we will make it. Just stay,” he said, kissing me again. “That’s all I need. Stay, and I promise, no matter what happens, I’ll make it right.”

“You may regret those words one day,” I warned him, knowing the chaotic disaster I tended to be.

But Leo shook his head, his lips finding mine as he lifted me again.

“Never,” he promised.

And I believed him — with every messy inch of my heart.





Leo

“I think you might actually rub my skin raw if you keep kissing me like that,” Mary said, her sleepy smile the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen as I trailed soft, lazy kisses over her shoulder.

“I’m counting,” I said, planting another. “And until I get to a thousand, you’re stuck here.”

She chuckled, pulling me back down into the sheets with her so that my next kiss was on her mouth.

I hadn’t even had to say a word to Blake after the game for him to pack up his shit and leave the room we’d been assigned to at the hotel. He had cracked a joke or two to Mary on his way out, but I was thankful that he knew we’d want the night alone together, that he hadn’t made a big deal of it. We were teammates, brothers, and I knew he’d sleep on a pullout couch in another room if he had to.

As soon as we were alone, it’d been a blur of clothes being shed. We were both so starved for each other that we skipped over foreplay altogether, and I was fucking her into the mattress within five minutes. We both came fast, sweating and panting and clinging to each other like we’d had our first sip of water after walking in the desert for a week.

But we were still thirsty.

I felt it in every long, slow, intentional touch from her as we laid in bed after our shower. Neither of us bothered to put clothes on again, and I reveled in the feel of her body pressed against mine, in the bite of metal from her piercings, the softness of her thighs sandwiching mine between them.

“God, I was miserable without you,” I confessed into her neck.

She squeezed me tighter. “I was a mess, too.”

“I thought I’d lost you again. I thought…” I shook my head, and then I was pulling her in closer, like even a centimeter of space between us was too much. “Have I apologized enough yet? Because I really want to say I’m sorry another million times. Oh! I could start saying it in Spanish. Lo siento. Lo siento mucho.”