Full Court Press (44 page)

Beck smiled more than Carmondy had ever seen him smile. He was genuinely happy because his sister was happy, and it was nice to see.

They sat with her for at least an hour, talking off and on, and Lily fell in love with the book right away. She even made Beck time her breaks so she didn’t miss out on any reading time.

Lily started to get tired and a nurse came in and informed her that it was time for her nap. Beck figured it was a good time to head back.

Lily reluctantly complied with the nurse’s wishes but insisted on putting the book under her pillow so no one would take it.

“Bye, Lily,” Beck said, picking up his chair.

The girl pulled the covers around her. “You’ll be back next week,” she stated.

“Yes.”

“Two visitors?”

“Is that all right?” Beck asked.

Lily nodded. “As long as it’s on the schedule.”

“We’ll see you next week then.”

“Don’t forget,” Lily warned.

“I would never forget.”

The girl smiled and closed her eyes. “I’m going to sleep now.”

“Bye.”

“Bye, Lily,” Carmondy said.

They left the room quickly and Car heard the lock slide into place behind them. When she peeked through the door, the lights had dimmed and Lily was still in bed.

A nurse put their chairs away for them and Beck thanked her before heading downstairs and out of the building. He was quiet the whole way, which she found a little odd, but when they reached her Jeep, he turned and looked at her as if he wanted to say something.

“What?”

Suddenly he threw both arms around her back and hugged her tightly to his chest.

“Oh...okay.” She slid her arms around his neck, and he hugged her tighter, his face pushed against the side of her head.

She was confused at first but then she decided to go with it, relaxing in his arms and pressing her face to his neck. A good hug never hurt anybody. She just hadn’t expected Beck to initiate one.

“Thanks,” he murmured, brushing a kiss to the top of her head. “Thanks for that.”

T
hey made the drive back to Carmondy’s apartment in near total silence. This was a comfortable silence, and Carmondy thought that for once, Beck looked relaxed. Things had gone very well with Lily today, and she was happy to have been a part of it.

“Are practices getting more grueling than normal?” Carmondy asked as she dropped her bag just inside her apartment.

“Your coach is like that. He’ll get better once the games really start up.” Beck dropped his bag with hers and closed the door behind them.

“God, I hope so.” She leaned against the countertop. “My legs are so dead right now.”

“You should get off your feet then.”

She laughed and looked him. “Oh yeah? Maybe on my back, instead?”

He shrugged. “That’d work.”

“I thought we were going to talk.”

“We are. But it doesn’t have to be first on our to-do list.”

He reached for her but she leapt out of the way with a surprised squeak. He narrowed his eyes at her but couldn’t completely hide the smile. She took a couple steps backwards, a teasing look on her face.

He jumped for her but she was quick enough to dodge him again. This time he didn’t stop chasing her. She jumped over the back of the couch and ran around the armchair. He pursued her with an amused look.

He chased her around the apartment for a little while, obviously not really trying or he would have caught her in a few seconds. Eventually he cornered her in the spare bedroom.

She looked for an escape but he leapt at her again. When his arms latched around her waist, she couldn’t help but let out a high-pitched squeal.

“Beck!”

He threw her over his shoulder. “Quiet.”

She squirmed and kicked until his arm locked around her knees like a vice and his other hand came up and smacked her on the ass. “Quit that.”

She laughed. “Put me down.”

“Just a moment.” He walked out, heading for her bedroom.

He flopped her onto her bed and dropped down on top her. She flinched as his muscled body came toward her but he used his arms to absorb most of the impact so his body landed lightly on top of hers.

She wriggled under him. “You caught me.”

“Yes, I did.” He caught her wrists and pinned them above her head.

“Could we talk first?”
Way to kill the mood.

He sighed and pulled back a little. “You want to?”

“Yeah, crap, sorry. I didn’t mean to...interrupt. It would make me feel better though. I mean, it’s just that we haven’t really talked about Lily’s visit yet. Do you not want to talk about it?”

He sighed. “Okay, where to start?”

“Well, I think it went pretty well.”

“Yes. It did. It was actually...amazing.” He rolled onto his back and looked up the ceiling. “She did so well. I mean, I’ve never visited her without some kind of small freak out. She did fine. She got a little irritated but they didn’t have to medicate her or anything.”

“She cried.”

“Yeah, but she got over it pretty fast. That’s just kind of how she is. You have to understand, that was really good for her. She was drawing, and your books seemed to really excite her, and you got it so that her walls aren’t totally blank anymore, which is awesome. She seemed to like you. I mean, she wasn’t totally into having you around but it took me at least four or five visits to earn that kind of trust.”

“I’m glad it went so well.” She rolled onto her side and propped up onto her elbow. “Do you think they would let me cut her hair?”

“What?”

“Her hair. It’s all choppy and stuff, like someone cut it with a really dull pair of scissors.”

Beck frowned. “She didn’t like the nurse touching her hair. We tried to calm her down but...yeah. That’s what came out of it. They haven’t tried since. It was a few weeks ago.”

“Oh, sorry. And they can’t do it while she’s asleep?”

“That would make it worse. Change—especially without her knowledge—is very bad.”

“Oh, right.”

“But I don’t see why we couldn’t give it another try. I mean, like I said, she seemed to like you, or at least tolerate you. Can you cut hair?”

She half-shrugged. “I’m not a professional or anything but with a pair of hair-cutting scissors I could definitely clean it up a bit, even it out. I have a feeling she could use a shorter hairstyle. It’ll be harder to make it so messy. I could make it cute.”

Beck assessed her for a moment. “I still don’t understand. You seem to really care about her.”

“She’s a nice girl. Honestly, I think some of her emotional issues could be stemming from the fact that she’s a thirteen-year-old, nothing to do with her injuries, or at least her injuries are just making them worse. She might grow out of some of it, you never know. I just...I guess I see some of her problems in me when I was younger, you know? Not as bad of course, but when I was her age, when a lot of girls were her age, we were overly-emotional, dramatic, short-tempered, and snappy at our brothers and sisters. Not all thirteen-year-olds are like that of course, but those of us with detached fathers and indifferent mothers might be. We liked to be in control and I can only imagine how it is to be in control of nothing in your life, like she is.”

“You really think so?”

“I’m not saying that you can blame it all on her age, or even the majority of it. But I think that with maturity it might not only get better, but she will be able to control it better, plus anything that her doctor comes up with.”

“So you’re saying...”

“There’s hope.” She rested her hand on his shoulder. “I just hate seeing you putting all this effort into making this bond with your sister even though you seem to have no hope of making her situation better. I think it’d be easier on you if you had some hope that your efforts would amount to something. Because I think they will.”

“So, you’re saying all of this to make it easier on me?”

“Yeah, I guess.” She took a deep breath, knowing this was probably a mistake, but needing to say it anyway. She wondered if anyone else ever had. “I care about you, Beck. Of course I want to make things easier for you.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, ‘why’?”

“Why do you care? I haven’t exactly treated you well. I won’t commit to a relationship. I don’t acknowledge you in public, at least not around our friends, which I know you hate.”

“You’ve never treated me badly, and it seems like you’re getting better. I mean, I don’t want a relationship. I’ve come to grips with the other one. You’re not the PDA type and I’m really not either.”

“Still... I don’t...” He sighed. “You know what? Whatever. You want to be around someone like me, not my problem.”

She slid her hand down to his waistband. “No? Well, I’d like to make it my problem,” she said suggestively, tugging on his sweats. It was the perfect way to change to subject.

He gave her an amused look. “No offense, but you don’t play the sexy seductress very well.”

She laughed. “I know.”

“Are we done talking then?”

“Well, I meant for more of a talk than that but I suppose that’ll do.”

He rolled over on top of her. “Good.”

Car smiled and after several minutes of heated kissing, licking and groping, they managed to get all of their clothes off and onto the floor. She crawled under the covers and Beck followed, sliding on top of her again.

He kissed her lips with a desperate fervor, like he was sex deprived again, even though it had only been two days.

She wrapped her arm around his neck and kissed him back while she positioned his hips over hers.

“Wait!” She pulled her lips away from his and he pulled back a little. His elbows were braced on the bed on either side of her chest so that one of his forearms was under her shoulder and holding the back of her head.

“What is it?” he asked, confused. “Something wrong?”

She shook her head and caught her breath so that she could speak a full sentence. “It’s just...we’re having normal sex.”

“What?”

“You know.” Her hands went down to grab his ass tightly. “Missionary, in a bed, no props.”

“That a problem?”

“No,” she laughed. “Definitely not, I just thought it was...funny.”

He just looked down at her with a small smile on his face. “So...we’re good to go then?”

She nodded and without warning, he pushed their hips together so that their bodies met. She gasped and dug her nails into the flesh she had in her hands.

Beck didn’t lose pace but he dropped his head to kiss her ear. “Watch the nails, sweetheart.”

She couldn’t help but giggle. “Sorry.” She moved her hands up to his shoulders where she knew he didn’t mind getting a few marks.

Beck stuck with a nice, slow, methodical pace.

Nothing was rushed, as if they had all the time in the world. He did take his time. He was a good multi-tasker though, and made sure to kiss her thoroughly.

His kisses were less demanding, his lips were softer and his tongue was stroking hers instead of taking control like normal. He was being gentle but it didn’t seem like it was on purpose. It felt natural.

The only word she could think of to describe him right now was passionate, but not a hormone-crazed passion. It was just simple, no-walls, raw emotion passion. It seemed so effortless that for a moment, she forgot about his thrusting hips and just got lost in his lips.

He pulled away for some air but his lips stayed near hers, as if he didn’t want to move away.

“Beck...” She was brought back to reality when his lips and tongue stopped hypnotizing her. Without his lips distracting her, the smooth bursts of pleasure made it hard to speak and she had to focus on her words. “What...was that?”

“What?” he asked, his hips still moved in the slow, sensual movements.

“That kiss was amazing. Different than—”

He kissed her again, and she moaned into his mouth. Both hands pushed into the silky-smooth expanse of his hair in case he decided to pull away again. She decided that she didn’t want the kiss to ever end.

Luckily for her, Beck seemed to have the same idea. She got lost in the kiss, in his movements, his scent, everything.

It was sensory overload, but in an incredibly gratifying way.

It seemed to last forever. Her heart was starting to race slightly and her lungs were begging for more air, but she still wasn’t willing to part lips.

Even as they both came close to finishing, the kiss didn’t stop or change intensity. Just like his pace, it remained constant and deep.

Carmondy moaned and arched her back off the bed just as Beck’s hips gave one final push and she felt his muscles harden against her body.

Finally, their lips parted but he didn’t move away. Instead, he stayed on top of her. His hips still pressed hers against the bed and their lips were still touching, but he kept most of his weight supported on his arms.

“Beck, that was amazing,” she said quietly, sliding her hands down his back, stroking his skin lightly.

“Yeah...I didn’t think that...vanilla could be so...”

“Fucking amazing?”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t intense...it was, but not...God, that felt good. Not the sex, but the...whole thing. I don’t...”