Hail Mary: An Enemies-to-Lovers Roommate Sports Romance(74)

“You’re disgusting,” she said on a laugh, pinching my ribs. I just chuckled and pulled her into me, kissing her forehead once she was resting in the crook of my arm. We were silent for a moment, my fingers running through her hair as hers curled into fists over my stomach.

“I missed you,” I admitted.

Her entire body softened in my arms at that, and she leaned up again, her eyes soft under bent brows. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For running.”

“Is that what that was?”

She sat all the way up, folding her legs under her and staring down at her hands in her lap. I pushed until my back was against the headboard, so I was sitting up with her, too.

“I’m fucking terrified, Leo.”

Her voice was a wavering whisper, and I felt her words like a hundred needles through my throat. “Of me?” I asked.

She nodded, and a piece of me died.

“I woke up yesterday, and the first thing I thought was that I’d been made a fool of.”

I moved to hold her. “Mary, I—”

“Let me finish,” she said, holding up a hand to stop my advance. “I was overcome with panic that I had been some kind of conquest for you, that you’d known who I was all along and I was just another game, another notch on your headboard.”

I shook my head harder with every word she said, fighting the urge to interrupt her and tell her she was wrong.

“But,” she continued on a sigh. “I know that’s just my own insecurity.”

She was quiet for a while, and I tentatively reached over to take her hand in mine, to soothe her and let her know I was there, that I was listening.

“You… you’re Leo fucking Hernandez,” she said on a laugh. I smiled a little, too, but it slipped quickly when I realized she was saying that as if it were a curse. “You could have any girl you want, any fit, hot girl in the world.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense that you’d ever want me.”

“Are you insane?” I couldn’t help myself this time. I grabbed her by the elbows and made her look at me. “You are the most beautiful, the most entrancing woman I have ever laid eyes on. And you’re witty, and smart, and talented, and creative, and brave.”

She snorted, shaking her head.

“You are,” I told her. “And fuck, Stig, you are so goddamn sexy. Without even trying. You’ve driven me out of my mind since the moment you moved across the street.”

“And now you’ve had me,” she said, her eyes meeting mine with a despair. “So, what more is there? What could I possibly have to offer you?”

I closed my eyes against the pain those words sent echoing through my chest. Without a word, I tugged her wrists until she had no choice but to go where I led her, which was right into my lap. I pulled her to straddle me, letting my hands trace every curve of her until I held her face in my palms, her focus on me.

“I hate myself because I know that I’m part of the reason you feel this way about yourself.”

She tried to look away from me, to shake her head, but I held her still.

“No, it’s true and we both know it. La cagué. I fucked up. And it doesn’t matter that I didn’t know it was you, that it was my girl I was hurting that day after practice in high school. Because it was you, the girl I didn’t know but should have wanted to, the girl who was brave enough to approach me when I had such asshole friends and every eye in school on me.”

“I don’t blame you for not giving me a second look. I was—”

“As beautiful then as you are now,” I said before she could finish. “It was me who was el idiota. Me. Okay? And I will spend every second of every day on my knees to make it up to you.”

Mary waggled her brows. “On your knees, hmm?”

I cherished that smile, that lightening in her mood, but I wouldn’t let this go until I knew I’d made myself clear. I slid my fingers back into her hair, my thumbs lining her jaw as I met her gaze.

“You want to know what you have to offer me?” I asked. “Todo. Everything. A chance to start over. A chance to be myself. A chance to have what I’ve always wanted. You offer laughter and adventure, spontaneity and challenge, life,” I said. “You infuriate me,” I added with a smile. “In the best possible way. You make me want to be better, and you make me mad with the need to touch every inch of you until I can map your body out with my eyes closed.”

Chills broke on her skin, and I pulled her closer, resting my forehead against hers.

“I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m so, so fucking sorry. But I’m here. And I want you, Mary, you. All of you. Exclusive. No bullshit, no wondering what’s next, no games.” I looked at her again. “I’ve never felt anything for anyone else but you — even when I didn’t know it was you all along. You’re fucking it for me.”

She choked on a sob, nodding and leaning into my palm.

“This is the real thing, Stig. You and me, right here, right now. I want it. I want us.”

“I want us, too.”

She barely got the words out before I was swallowing them, savoring them, devouring every syllable before my mouth crashed down on hers. I wrapped her in my embrace as her own arms threaded around my neck and held me to her, deepening the kiss. She held me there like I’d disappear if she opened her eyes, like this kiss was our last.