Romance Rivals Page 5
I had many more locations left on my list, and several more barrels in my car to set up around town. If I could convince people to let me do it. I hopped into my car and pulled out of the church parking lot, making my way downtown. I parked in front of the grocery store and walked in, which led to another one of my barrels being set out.
But when I headed down the street to my favorite restaurant, I saw a bright purple barrel already on display.
Full of cans.
The next few places I drove to had those same damn barrels. Bright, ugly purple with cans stacked high in them. I ground my teeth together as I continued to check off places on my list I’d never be able to touch. Someone was beating me at my own game, and I had to figure out who it was.
So, the next purple barrel I drove by, I got out and inspected it.
I looked at the sign. It was plainly written. Not colorful at all. It simply said “Donate Cans For The Food Pantry, The Community Thanks You!”
And it was signed “Coach S.”
“That little shit,” I hissed.
I hopped into my car and sped back toward the house. I pulled into the driveway and marched over to his house, knocking furiously on his door. I needed to find out the truth. I needed to figure out how the hell he had gotten a hold of my plans.
But instead of him opening his door, the garage door opened.
I walked around as it opened up, and I found him loading one of those gaudy purple barrels into the back of his damn Land Rover. I stood there, gawking, with anger rushing through my veins. He hadn’t changed one damn bit. Except now, instead of getting creative, he was a thief. Stealing my own plans since he didn’t have the brainpower to come up with his own.
Pathetic.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked.
I marched up to him as he closed the trunk of his Land Rover.
“Keith, I’m talking to you,” I said.
He looked at me with a grin on his face.
“I’m collecting cans for the campus drive. Duh,” he said.
“Duh. Duh? Keith, we all know the only reason you’re doing this is because I am. Because you need so desperately to one-up me that you’ll do anything—anything!—to do it!”
He shrugged. “We don’t really know who won the game last weekend. We could use the drive to settle the score. Or, are you afraid of the competition?”
I laughed. “Afraid? You’re ridiculous. I’ve always loved a good challenge.”
“Then, accept my challenge.”
“I’ll beat the pants off you, Keith Sheppards.”
A slow smile crossed his face, and it dawned on me what I said. I blushed furiously underneath his gaze, my body betraying my state of mind. I turned around quickly in my heels and made my way back to my car, hopping in without giving him a second look.
I refused to accept defeat from some idiotic, sex-crazed copycat.
CHAPTER 13
KEITH
The hallways of the college campus were littered with purple and green barrels, and I could barely keep up with the influx of cans. My garage was lined with them, entire barrels overflowing with canned goods. I was a dozen or so deep in the damn barrels, but I didn’t know if it would be enough to beat Alison.
Competing with her had been exhilarating, and I knew she felt it as well. She was smiling more and playfully bantering with me. Plus, her efforts were making her many friends on campus—none of whom were that asshole professor I saw her having lunch with on her first day. But her hostility toward me in private wasn’t minimizing itself. She still hated my guts.
Not to worry, though. I had a plan.
Today began the weekend-long Street Faire on campus. I stood watching as the college band marched into the quad, playing our fight song. Students flooded the area in the school’s colors, green and purple. They cheered and waved their flags around in the air, showing their school spirit. The baseball team came out and tossed balls into my purple buckets, demonstrating how to get their canned goods in before time ran out.
My eyes searched for Alison so I could enact my final ace up my sleeve. But she was nowhere in sight.
Until she tugged on my arm.
“What the—Alison?”
“We need to talk,” she spat.
Uh-oh. Great. Another fun mood of hers.
I let her lead me into the nearest building. She shoved me into an empty classroom before closing and locking the door. She whipped around on me, her eyes shooting fiery daggers straight into my soul.
Then, she stalked toward me.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked.
I furrowed my brow. “Raising money for charity.”
“You can’t use the university position. You’re using the baseball team for your benefit. It’s an unfair advantage.”
I chuckled. “And how do you figure that? All I’m doing is raising canned goods for the food pantry.”
She closed the distance, shoving her finger in my face.
“You’re cheating. First, you steal my idea. Then, you leverage your position here as a sports coach to get teams to do your bidding. I’ve never cheated to beat you. Not once. Is this really all you’ve been reduced to?”
I smacked her hand away from my face and wrapped my arm around her. My palm fell into the crook of her waist, and I pulled her into me. I tossed her flying arm over my neck before I fisted her hair, controlling her tumbling body.
Then, our lips collided.
At first, she pushed against my chest. But one lick of my lips against hers and she began fisting my shirt. She pulled me closer, my feet stumbling back until my ass fell against the table at the front of the room. Our tongue did a fiery, familiar dance as I pulled her close to me, spreading my legs and feeling her excess fall into my slats.
She sucked on my lower lip as a moan left her own.
My hands slid down to the swell of her ass. I massaged her, pulled her deeper into me as my clothed cock ground into her spicy lusciousness. Her warmth sent a surge of electricity through my brain. I shivered and shook, my hands roaming her body as she quickly whipped my belt from around my waist. My head fell off to the side before I kissed down her cheek and her neck. Her head fell back as my teeth slid over her pulse point, and suddenly the room filled with her whispers.
“Sweet heaven, Keith. Yes.”
I fisted the fabric of her skirt and pulled it up. I grabbed her lacy panties with both my hands and tore them from her body. She gasped and squealed with delight, her growls of anger turning to giggles of passion and elation. I smiled against her breasts and nibbled at the hint of cleavage she had showing in that blouse of hers. I tossed the tattered ruins off to the side before I lay down onto the table, bringing her with me.
The way she blanketed me in her soft excess drove me wild. It felt like coming home, and I wanted to fill her up and feel her around me again.
“You’re perfect in every way,” I groaned.
And as she undid the button of my pants, her eyes met mine. She pulled my leaking cock out before she straddled my hips. I saw her thick pussy lips come into view, wet and pulsing. Ready for the taking.
But if she thought she was going to have the upper hand in this, she was sorely mistaken.
Because the bedroom was one place where I always emerged victorious.
CHAPTER 14
ALISON
Had I heard him correctly? Had he called me… perfect? I’d never been called something like that before. Usually, the names were a lot harsher from butthurt men who were pissed they couldn’t overwhelm me. But the pause was a little too long. Before I knew it, Keith had his arms around me, and he shot up from the table. He had me on my feet before he whipped me around, bending me over the edge of the table. My cheek pressed into the cold, hard surface. His hands tangled in my hair. I felt his cock nestled between my plump ass cheeks as it leaked against my skin, painting faceless pictures.
“So beautiful for me,” Keith murmured.
But the second my body relaxed, he began his assault.
“Oh, shit. Fuck, Keith.”
“Better quiet those sounds. Someone might hear you fucking your nemesis,” he hissed.
His words ripped fire through my veins. His balls smacked against my swollen clit. I planted my hands into the table and bucked back into him, flushed with want and embarrassment. The table raked against the floor, overpowering our sounds. Keith growled and I moaned. I gasped for more and he pounded furiously against my pussy. It felt so good. So right. So incredible. My toes curled in my heels as we scooted the table all the way across the room, all the way to the wall.
I felt my juices leaking down his cock and balls, marking him as his cock throbbed against my walls.
“That’s it. Milk that cock. Come on, Alison. Let me feel you.”
“Oh, my fuck,” I moaned into the table.
I lifted my hips for him, and he slid against spots that made me tremble. My legs gave way from underneath me, but all he did was hold me up. His hands curled so tightly into my skin, I felt the imprint of his fingertips being left behind. My body caved to him as his cock filled me and emptied me. Filled me and emptied me again.
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” I moaned.
It was all I could say. All I could get out. All I could manage, with the pleasure he crashed over my body. My jaw unhinged as his balls smacked my clit for the last time before my pussy swallowed him whole. My entire world went black. My brain sizzled with ecstasy as my walls clamped down around him. My body locked up as his cock spilled into me, his hand slowly releasing my hair.
“That’s it. Oh, sweet Alison. Just for me. Yes. Fuck me, oh.”
I collapsed against the table and felt his cock fall away from my body. His arms gathered me up, pulling me upright against him. My back against his chest, as he kissed the top of my head. He held me close to him in his strong arms as my skirt stayed gathered around my hips.
But when I opened my eyes, I saw my ripped lacy panties on the floor.
“Shit,” I murmured.
I broke free of his grasp and stumbled around. I lunged for my panties, desperate to clean up the mess leaking between my legs. Fucking hell, it happened again. And I felt more embarrassed than anything. I lost my head with him, again. I let him get the best of me, again.
“Alison, get your feet under you. You’re going t—”
I held up my hand to get him to stop talking. I quickly rolled my skirt down and shoved my panties between my legs to soak up the rest of the evidence. I straightened myself up and ran my fingers through my hair, getting out all the knots his fist made.
“So reckless,” I whispered.
“Alison, are you—?”
“Shut up,” I hissed.
I felt the hurt radiating off me. The embarrassment. The confusion. I walked out of the room with my panties tucked into the crooks of my thighs, catching whatever chanced to leak out. I didn’t stop moving until I was out of the building. Through the crowd of students. Back into the mathematics building where I could shut and lock myself in my own office.
Alone.
Without Keith.
I hate him, don’t I?
I mean, he even said it. I was fucking my nemesis.
But why? Why was I doing that?
Why couldn’t I help myself whenever I was around him?
CHAPTER 15
KEITH
The day to turn in our cans had come around. I hadn’t seen or spoken to Alison in days, not since our last encounter. A truck from the food pantry backed into my driveway after work, and I helped the volunteers load the massive barrels from my garage. All in all, I had filled eighteen of them to the brim. Some of them, over the tops. I had more cans than could fit into their one truck, so the guy driving it called to get another one headed our way.
Only, there was already one headed this way.
I saw the truck come down the road but slowed before it got to my driveway. It backed into Alison’s mother’s driveway, and then she emerged. The garage door opened, and I saw that it was bulging. I mean, the damn garage struggled to get open because of the barrels pressed against it. I had no idea which one of us had the most cans. I didn’t even bother counting.
I was too focused on seeing Alison for the first time in almost five damn days.
She didn’t look like herself. She looked vacant. Empty. Somber. Side by side, we each spent the next three hours of our night loading up our trucks. It was hard work, and I eventually had to ride with the volunteers back to the pantry to help empty the truck. Then, we had to make another trip. Back and forth we went, time and time again to get all of our donations we had collected successfully to the food pantry.
And when my driver and I came back for the last time, I saw Alison and her crew still loading up her last few barrels.
“Pull over,” I said.
The driver pulled over to the curb and I hopped out. Without a word exchanged, I walked up Alison’s driveway and began helping her with the last of her haul. Silently, we worked alongside one another, and I took in how disheveled she looked. Her hair was piled up in a messy bun. She was in a robe instead of her work clothes. She was in slippers instead of nice shoes. She didn’t even have her makeup on.
She looked exhausted. And it hurt me to see her like that.
I loaded the last barrel onto the truck, then closed it up. I beat my fist on the side of it and watched them pull away, and finally, I heard her voice behind me. It was small. Dainty. Not like her at all.
But at least she acknowledged me.
“Found a place to move into this weekend,” she said.
I nodded slowly. “That’s good.”
“It’s only a few blocks away from campus. Walking distance, practically,” she said.
“In those heels you always wear? Not a chance,” I said, chuckling.
But she didn’t return the laughter.
“I’ll officially be out of your hair, and that’s all that matters,” Alison said.
I had no idea how to respond to that. All I knew was I felt disappointed. Hurt that she even felt like she had to be out of my hair.
“I’m sorry for ever assuming you were stuck-up. Or mean,” I said.
“We don't need to rehash everything that’s happened. Some things never change, and what’s done is done,” she said.
“No, Alison. Things do change. I just—”
I turned toward her to speak, but all I saw was her walking toward the door that led into her house. She walked inside without even looking back at me, and I felt my heart break. My plan had backfired. The competition to bring us closer did nothing but push us further apart.
Leaving me alone. Without her.
CHAPTER 16
ALISON
I left campus right at noon, the second my last class for Fridays let out. That was the only relieving thing about my schedule: no afternoon classes on Fridays. I slipped into my car and headed over to the rental office to pick up the keys to my new place, just four blocks away from campus. It was the right size for me, and I was ready to start my new life.
Sort of.
I mean, the apartment was nice. One bedroom, one bathroom. Massive living space. The kitchen had been recently updated, and it was the only apartment I’d ever seen with a walk-in closet. I went and found my building, familiarizing myself with the layout of the complex. I walked by the set of stairs to my first-level apartment at the back of the building, where my porch faced some woods the complex hadn’t bulldozed down to build the damn thing in the first place.
But when I pushed through the front door, it seemed a lot smal
ler than I remembered.
It seemed colder. Darker. More lonely-feeling than I expected. I kept running into corners and grew tired with every step I took. I walked into the bedroom and leaned against the doorway, taking in the space.
It seemed smaller than I remembered.
I felt deflated. I had for an entire week. I struggled to get through my days, and all I wanted to do was curl up and sleep. I should have been eager to get out of my high school bedroom. Eager to get out of my mother’s house. But the apartment didn’t seem to suit me anymore.
“Better get used to it,” I said, sighing.
I walked into the bathroom and flicked on the light. I needed to splash some water in my face. One of the great things about this place was that water and power were included in the rent, up to seventy for power and forty for water. Much more than I’d ever need in a small space like this. I turned on the water so I could take a drink and wipe my face down. But nothing came out.
I walked over to the shower to see if that worked. But it didn’t.
“What the hell?” I murmured.
A quick call to the front office garnered me information I needed. The maintenance men couldn’t get in there to fix anything until Monday. Well, great. Fucking grand! Thanks for telling me that now. I’d told them I was moving in this weekend! What, did they think I was going to wait until Monday morning to shower after hauling all my shit here?
Then, an idea struck me.
I texted Heather, asking her if she had Hutch’s number. And after sending it over, I gave him a call. It didn’t take him but a few seconds to discern what I was calling about, and less than a minute later I was feeding him my new address. I went and stood by the front door to wait for him, and he appeared with his tools and a smile on his face.
“Someone order a plumber?” he asked, grinning.
“You’re a lifesaver. Thank you so much,” I said.
I let him into my apartment and started turning on lights. He started in my kitchen before he diagnosed the problem, then started fiddling with switches and levers underneath the sinks.