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  Keeping Seven

  Copyright © 2020 T.A. Richards Neville

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and locations are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, scenes or events, are purely coincidental.

  The author recognizes the use of trademarked brands, sportspersons, and products including NFL & NHL teams, which have been used without permission and are in no way associated with the trademark owners. All opinions, characters and scenes are entirely fictional and are in no way to be affiliated with real sportspersons, teams or events.

  CONTENTS

  Chapter ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  EPILOGUE

  “W ill you marry me?”

  Rebecca eyed the ten carat rose-shaped diamond nestled between vintage platinum leaves. The carat could be greater, the shiny rock bigger, but it wouldn’t mean more. A diamond was a diamond, didn’t matter the commas in the price tag. But this ring was personal. I could afford to fix the mistake, if that’s what I’d made, but my gut hadn’t been messing around on me.

  I hoped.

  My self-confidence wobbled as Rebecca stood in front of me and said nothing.

  Not a damn word.

  Not even an eye twitch.

  Doubt snook in through my iron barriers, and then Rebecca dropped to the floor where I was currently down on one knee with the open black velvet box in my hand.

  “Yes! Yes! Yes! I love it. It’s the most beautiful damn ring I’ve ever seen.” She slugged me in my biceps with her bony fist and then flung her arms around my neck, almost knocking us both to the floor. As it was, I caught her in my arms, mid-execution, and saved the ring from taking flight across my living room.

  Dog tackled the floor as he raced toward us, his low growl breaking Rebecca and I apart so I could quickly reassure him this was a good thing happening. He barked at my raised hand and I talked him down from the hype, my hand gradually lowering to his nose as he began to calm, registering for himself no one was in danger. Especially not him.

  “It’s okay, boy.” I pulled him onto my lap and let him sniff the open ring box and see what all the fuss was about. “What do you think, huh? This good enough for the girl of our dreams?” He sniffed the ring, disinterested, then hastily moved on to raking his tongue over my hand.

  “I can’t believe you’re actually doing this.” Rebecca sat on her knees, eyes on the ring box. “You crafted the perfect reason to say yes. No girl could turn that down.”

  “The idea’s for her to say yes to me, not the ring. The diamond, the wedding, the dress… that’s all for appearances. Ring or no ring, I wouldn’t love Angel any less. Signing papers, saying I do, it won’t increase or validate my feelings. I’m in love with her regardless of all that shit.”

  “Save something for the vows, jeez. And you say that now, but—” Rebecca reached for the ring, taking it and admiring it up close. “You designed this yourself. Every fascinating detail. I think you do care about all that shit. Or at least, for her you do. But keep your hair on, jackass. I won’t tell that to Angel.”

  I distracted myself in Dog’s fur, rubbing that spot he liked behind his ears. “You really think she’ll say yes? A proposal could be too soon for her. She spooks easy.”

  Rebecca snapped shut the ring box and handed it back to me. “I think that she loves you, and that’s all I’m sure of. Even if that love doesn’t transcend into wanting to be Mrs. Julian Lawson, that’s what the ring’s for, right?”

  “Not a waste of time at all asking your opinion. And here I was thinking I’d regret that decision.” Pocketing the ring, I pushed up on the balls of my feet and stood up. “Anyway, she doesn’t like the ring? I’ll buy a different one.”

  Rebecca followed me into the kitchen and boosted herself up onto the counter. I opened the fridge door and took out the OJ, drinking from the carton.

  “She wouldn’t ask you to buy another one. And eww, Julian. Gross. Like spreading germs much? I literally just poured a glass from there at breakfast. Do you always do that?”

  I screwed on the lid and put the juice back on the shelf. “Yup. Just as well we’re family, huh? and we share the same germs. No, wait… you’re no relation at all.”

  Rebecca scoffed fake laughter, kicking me as I walked by her to the living room. “Bet you weren’t always a dick.”

  “That’s sweet. Thanks.” I kicked back on the sectional and opened a shitty game on my phone, killing some time before I left for the airport. Dog jumped up onto my feet and settled in beside me, nuzzling his nose under my armpit like there was sufficient oxygen under there.

  He was a different dog now; miles on from when I first brought him home. He still suffered anxious episodes around loud, unpredictable strangers, and I couldn’t throw a party in here even if I wanted to, but he’d chilled out massively.

  “So, here’s a question.” Rebecca leaned over the back of the sectional where I was lying. Dog licked the ends of her blonde hair, stuffing his face under my arm after a few chomps on the tasteless strands. “Angel or football?”

  My eyes never left my phone’s screen as I lost the first round of the game. “Excuse me?”

  “Angel or football? You can only choose one to have from now until you die.”

  “Then I choose for you to go out and get a life.”

  “I’m gauging the sincerity of your love. Whether it’s real or mere superficial infatuation.”

  “You’ve been reading too many single woman magazines.”

  “Okay, no such magazine exists, and just answer the question. Angel or football?”

  I tapped the screen with my thumb and exploded the last bomb, clearing the level. “Angel.”

  Rebecca flattened my phone to my chest with one hand, crucifying me with a severe look. “Leave the phone where it is. Why Angel?”

  “Not answering that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Why should I?”

  “Because I want to hear from the horse’s mouth why you chose her. What makes her more important than your career. Why you would give up your life and share the rest of it with her.”

  Since moving to Miami to live with me, Rebecca hadn’t been able to hold on to a single love interest. The one guy that had seemed halfway decent, my teammate’s cousin and Dolphins’ water boy, Dre Carlion, had decided he wasn’t ready for a ball and chain. Rather than string Rebecca along, he told her straight that their relationship wasn’t going anywhere, and he’d like to still be friends. He was definitely getting regular pussy from any number of women, but at least he’d shut it down with Rebecca before she’d grown too attached.

  “Not playing football isn’t the end of the world,” I told her. “I can live without it.”

  Rebecca’s finger carved short swirls over the back of my phone, her eyes on my chest. “But you can’t live without Angel?” She sounded sad as fuck. Anyone who didn’t know her would assume that was jealousy in her voice, not that she’d been in steady contact with a plague of assholes.

  “I’d rather not find out.”

  “How do you go from
sleeping with someone for a bet, to asking that person to marry you? You don’t know how lucky you are, Julian.”

  I slipped my phone out from under Rebecca’s hand. “Neither do you. I’m going to start charging you rent if you don’t go find someone else to irritate.”

  “No, seriously. How did you turn manipulation into love?”

  Brutal.

  “I got to know her, that’s how. I can’t answer for Angel, but you’re right. I’m a lucky sonofabitch. Now get lost.”

  Rebecca pinched my nose between her thumb and forefinger, giving a hard squeeze as I deliberately blew through my nostrils. With a disgusted sound and a curled lip, she let go and moved away from the sectional.

  “Screw your rent, Julian. I’m going to start charging you for having me here!”

  Traffic in Miami wasn’t anything to brag about, but Los Angeles was a different beast altogether. I’d rented an Audi RS5 Coupe that I picked up at the airport, and after following the built-in GPS along a congested Lincoln Blvd, I pulled up outside Angel’s small house in Venice.

  The gates on her driveway were locked, so I left the car at the curb and swung out of the driver’s side with my duffel bag in hand, hidden from view behind the overgrown orange rose bushes bursting through the fence.

  I knocked three times on the door. Pale light filtered through the white wooden blinds in the living room window. The driveway was empty, but Angel’s car was probably in the garage. At least, I fucking hoped she was home. That’s where she’d said she was the last time we texted, around forty minutes ago.

  It was pushing ten p.m. on a Friday. Angel could be anywhere in Los Angeles. If I lived here, I knew I would be. This city was a socialite’s wet dream. But then again, Angel was more of an introvert. She’d rather read a book and sip tea than go out and pound the liquor.

  The porch roof was so low it almost touched the top of my head, and then the door was pulled open, Angel standing in the narrow foyer under a halo of stunned confusion. She was covered from the neck down in one of my Dolphins athletic hoodies, the too-long hem hanging around her thighs, her Californian tan legs bare. Her shiny hair was loose around her shoulders, the ends curling naturally over the dark teal nylon material.

  Dropping my bag in the doorway and giving it a small kick away from the threshold, I stepped inside and closed the door behind me, catching Angel around the waist with my other hand and pulling her in. Whatever she mumbled was swallowed with my mouth, and I picked her up off the floor, walking her backward through the living room and straight into her bedroom.

  She broke the kiss, arching her back and leaning away from me to search my face in the dark room. “Julian, you aren’t supposed to be here. I thought we were meeting in Boston on Sunday?”

  “Plan’s changed. We’ll fly to Boston together.”

  “You can’t just turn up at my house whenever you feel like it, at the drop of a hat.” A smile played around Angel’s eyes, and I lowered my mouth to her neck, the breathy sigh slipping past her lips hardening my dick. “I could have had another man in here.”

  “If I ever find another man in your bedroom, you best believe he isn’t walking out in one piece.” I backed her up to the bed, the backs of her knees hitting the soft edge of the mattress. Her hands wreathed my neck, fingers gliding from my nape to my scalp.

  “I love you, Julian.” The words mingled with her kisses, her scent coaxing out my inner animal.

  In a matter of seconds, I had her on the bed underneath me, pushing up the too-big hoodie to expose her sensible cotton panties and her smooth stomach. “Jesus, I’ve fucking missed you.”

  Angel’s body shuddered from laughter, her head tipped at an angle on her pillow as she smiled down at me, her fingers running through my hair. “You were just here for my graduation.”

  “That was two weeks ago. Might as well be two years for all the difference it makes to me.” I hooked a finger under the no-fuss trim of her underwear and lifted it from her skin, admiring her pretty pink flesh for a quick second before spreading her legs wider and showering her with hungry kisses. I glanced up. “Take the hoodie off.”

  She did as she was told without hesitation, clasping the hem and pulling the sweatshirt over her head, discarding it somewhere on the floor.

  Not even a fucking bra. Goddamn.

  My eyes locked with hers as I parted her lips and sucked her clit into my mouth. I pressed a hand to her stomach, stopping her from pushing me away, her thighs quivering either side of my face from the savage attack. Sliding my hands under her ass, I brought her hips up off the bed to get more of her in my mouth, a husky moan escaping through her sharp, short breaths.

  She clenched under my tongue, her breathing stopping altogether and her hips thrusting upward as I wrapped my arms around her tensed thighs. She was close, the pulse from her ripe center reverberating on my tongue like my own thumping heartbeat. I carried on eating her, Angel’s moans faster and louder as she grasped the quilt in both fists.

  “Julian...”

  I nuzzled into her with a low, carnal growl. The orgasm ripped through her, a silky groan of pleasure shooting straight to my throbbing dick as her breasts rose and fell to a frantic, breathless beat.

  Dropping the quilt, Angel slid her fingers through my hair, squeezing her thigh muscles as I kept them securely held apart. Glistening, tight, beautiful. Mine.

  I wasn’t finished with her.

  Far from it.

  I tugged my t-shirt over my back and tossed it out of sight. Using one hand, I pushed down my sweatpants and boxers. That was always how the first round went down after time apart: desperate to sink inside as quickly as possible before my balls exploded and I ruthlessly took what I wanted.

  I spread pre-cum around the tip and stroked down the shaft, fisting the base as I leveled up with Angel, my eyes meeting hers.

  “You’re fucking perfect, and all I want to do is destroy you.” I pushed into her, just a bit, her walls still gently pulsing from her orgasm. Her eyes closed as I pulled out of her, a soft frown scurrying across her brows.

  I took her pained silence for consent.

  Dragging the head of my cock over her puffy clit a few times, I nudged at her entrance. Teased her clit some more as her body started to wake up and respond to me.

  Without warning, I grabbed her hip and shoved her onto her side, the heel of my palm kneading her plump cheek hard enough to feel bone underneath flesh, and I drove into her, on my knees while she cried out and grabbed the white lip of the nightstand, bracing too late for my barbaric intrusion. I pumped in and out of her, so fucking sweet and wet. From this angle, it was easy to bury deeper, feel all of her tightening around me. I slid inside, my hand clamped down on her ass for leverage and to hold her in the exact position I wanted. There was no slapping of flesh because I didn’t get that close, holding back to appreciate the unrestricted view of her taking me in inch by inch, over and over, harder and deeper.

  When the early threat of shooting my load tingled in my balls and knotted my muscles, I looped my arm around Angel’s waist, lifting her sweaty body and easing her onto my iron cock until every inch filled her and she was seated fully on my lap, her back to my chest.

  “Ride me,” I told her, on the cusp of a growl, adjusting inside her to this new position. I snaked a hand down her belly, between her thighs. Her hips rolled back and forth, and I pumped my own hips, reaching up and kneading one of her breasts while I rubbed her with the pad of my thumb, switching to the heel of my hand to add pressure.

  Moaning softly, Angel leaned into me, her head falling onto my collarbone and her back arching. “Julian, I’m coming.” She could hardly get the words out.

  I nipped the skin at her neck with my teeth, barely catching my breath. “Me, too, baby.” With one hand in the middle of her back, I pushed her forward, onto her knees, holding her by her hips while I abandoned the last of any human restraint I had and mounted her like an animal, thrusting once, twice; slamming into her from behind as my
balls pulled up into my body. I hissed through my teeth, the sheer force and power as I spilled into Angel, my fingers biting into her skin, making me dizzy.

  “Whose idea was this again?” Angel tucked her feet underneath her, twisted in the passenger seat of the rental we’d picked up at Bangor Airport, and faced me.

  Training camp kicked off in July, and this impromptu family vacation had stemmed from me, Angel, and Taj, to all of our immediate relatives, my dad and his extended family included.

  I was fucking dreading it.

  But I masked my true feelings over playing happy families for Angel’s sake.

  I scratched the corner of my eye. “Mostly yours.”

  “You should have told me to shut my mouth and never open it again.” Angel frowned, and I smiled, sensing her teetering over to the dark side I was currently occupying.

  Taj flew with us from Boston, freeing up Mom and Gary to spend some time alone and drive up to Bar Harbor together. They’d make it to the house tonight, Angel’s dad, his wife, Elena, and their nine-month-old son, Bear O’Hara, driving in from the local airport tomorrow.

  Tonight, we had the pleasure of keeping company with my dad and his family. Stuffing Dog into a crate was risky as fuck, and I’d arranged for him to fly in the cabin with Rebecca to Boston. From there, he’d be hitting the road with my mom and Gary, free to go for as many toilet and water breaks as his heart desired.

  I side-eyed Angel when I felt her gaze on my face strengthening. She tipped her head a couple degrees to her left, motioning to Taj in the back. He’d been quiet for long enough that I’d forgotten he was even still here.

  Reaching for the rearview mirror, I tilted it downward, capturing my younger brother in the frame, too busy with his phone to notice me. “Who’s the girl?” I asked him, repositioning the rearview back into place.

  “No one,” he mumbled.

  “Okay. Who’s the guy, then?”

  “Julian!” Angel scolded. “Don’t listen to him, Taj. You don’t gotta tell him who that it.”